mmunicate
with the leading men in America and endeavor to effect some accommodation
of the difficulty. When Lord Howe arrived in this country he attempted to
open communications with the Americans through Franklin, but insuperable
difficulties were encountered at the outset. Lord Howe could only treat
with the American authorities as private persons in a state of rebellion,
and the offers he made were offers of _pardon_. The American government
indignantly rejected all such propositions. In a letter which he wrote in
reply to Lord Howe Franklin says, "Directing pardons to be offered to the
colonies, who are the very parties injured, expresses indeed that opinion
of our ignorance, baseness, and insensibility, which your uninformed and
proud nation has long been pleased to entertain of us: but it can have no
other effect than that of increasing our resentment." Of course all hope
of an accommodation was soon abandoned, and both parties began to give
their whole attention to the means for a vigorous prosecution of the war.

[Illustration.]

The American government soon turned their thoughts to the subject of
forming some foreign alliance to help them in the impending struggle; and
they presently proposed to send Franklin to France to attempt to open a
negotiation for this purpose with the government of that country. Franklin
was now very far advanced in life and his age and infirmities would
naturally have prompted him to desire repose--but he did not decline the
duty to which he was thus called; and all aged men should learn from his
example that they are not to consider the work of life as ended, so long
as any available health and strength remain.

Franklin arrived in Paris in the middle of winter in 1776. He traveled on
this expedition wholly as a private person, his appointment as
commissioner to the court of France having been kept a profound secret,
for obvious reasons. He however, immediately entered into private
negotiations with the French ministry, and though he found the French
government disposed to afford the Americans such indirect aid as could be
secretly rendered, they were not yet willing to form any alliance with
them, or to take any open ground in their favor. While this state of
things continued, Franklin, of course, and his brother commissioners could
not be admitted to the French court; but though they were all the time in
secret communication with the government, they a