ause that energetic minister said "that he never
heard from him, and could not know what was doing."

Escaping at last from a detention more tedious, if less romantic, than
any which ever befell Ulysses, Franklin steered for England. The vessel
was "several times chas'd" by French cruisers, and later was actually
within a few lengths of being wrecked on the Scilly rocks. Franklin
wrote to his wife that if he were a Roman Catholic he should probably
vow a chapel to some saint; but, as he was not, he should much like to
vow a lighthouse. At length, however, he came safely into Falmouth, and
on July 27, 1757, arrived in London.

Immediately he was taken to see Lord Granville, president of the
council; and his account of the interview is too striking not to be
given entire. His lordship, he says,

"received me with great civility; and after some questions
respecting the present state of affairs in America and discourse
thereupon, he said to me: 'You Americans have wrong ideas of the
nature of your constitution; you contend that the king's
instructions to his governors are not laws, and think yourselves at
liberty to regard or disregard them at your own discretion. But
these instructions are not like the pocket instructions given to a
minister going abroad, for regulating his conduct on some trifling
point of ceremony. They are first drawn up by judges learned in the
laws; they are then considered, debated, and perhaps amended, in
council, after which they are signed by the king. They are then, so
far as they relate to you, the _law of the land_, for the king is
the _legislator of the colonies_.' I told his lordship this was new
doctrine to me. I had always understood from our charters that our
laws were to be made by our assemblies, to be presented indeed to
the king for his royal assent; but that being once given, the king
could not repeal or alter them. And as the assemblies could not
make permanent laws without his assent, so neither could he make a
law for them without theirs. He assured me I was totally mistaken.
I did not think so, however; and his lordship's conversation having
somewhat alarmed me as to what might be the sentiments of the court
concerning us, I wrote it down as soon as I returned to my
lodgings."[8]

[Note 8: _Works_, i. 295, 296; see also an account, substantially
the same, in lette