like the rest. All
should pay together, or all should go to destruction together. The Penns
too stood obstinate, facing the not less resolute Assembly. It was
indeed a deadlock! Yet the times were such that neither party could
afford to maintain its ground indefinitely. So a temporary arrangement
was made, whereby of L60,000 sterling to be raised the proprietaries
agreed to contribute L5000, and the Assembly agreed to accept the same
in lieu or commutation for their tax. But neither side abandoned its
principle. Before long more money was needed, and the dispute was as
fierce as ever.

The burgesses now thought that it would be well to carry a statement of
their case before the king in council and the lords of trade. In
February, 1757, they named their speaker, Isaac Norris, and Franklin to
be their emissaries "to represent in England the unhappy situation of
the province," and to seek redress by an act of Parliament. Norris, an
aged man, begged to be excused; Franklin accepted. His son was given
leave of absence, in order to attend him as his secretary. During the
prolonged and bitter controversies Franklin had been the most prominent
member of the Assembly on the popular side. He had drawn many of the
addresses, arguments, and other papers; and his familiarity with the
business, therefore, no less than his good judgment, shrewdness, and
tact united to point him out as the man for the very unpleasant and
difficult errand.

A portion of his business also was to endeavor to induce the king to
resume the province of Pennsylvania as his own. A clause in the charter
had reserved this right, which could be exercised on payment of a
certain sum of money. The colonists now preferred to be an appanage of
the crown rather than a fief of the Penns. Oddly enough, some of the
provincial governors were suggesting the like measure concerning other
provinces; but from widely different motives. The colonists thought a
monarch better than private individuals, as a master; while the
governors thought that only the royal authority could enforce their
theory of colonial government. They angrily complained that the
colonies would do nothing voluntarily; a most unjust charge, as was soon
to be seen; for in the Seven Years' War the colonists did three quarters
of all that was done. What the governors really meant was that the
colonies would not raise money and turn it over to other persons to
spend for them.

It must be acknowledged that