delivery to Franklin of the letters of
introduction and credit. The governor was a very busy man. The day of
sailing came, but the documents had not come, only a message from the
governor that Franklin might feel easy at embarking, for that the papers
should be sent on board at Newcastle, down the stream. Accordingly, at
the last moment, a messenger came hurriedly on board and put the packet
into the captain's hands. Afterward, when during the leisure hours of
the voyage the letters were sorted, none was found for Franklin. His
patron had simply broken an inconvenient promise. It was indeed a
"pitiful trick" to "impose so grossly on a poor innocent boy." Yet
Franklin, in his broad tolerance of all that is bad as well as good in
human nature, spoke with good-tempered indifference, and with more of
charity than of justice, concerning the deceiver. "It was a habit he had
acquired. He wish'd to please everybody; and, having little to give, he
gave expectations. He was otherwise an ingenious, sensible man, a pretty
good writer, and a good governor for the people.... Several of our best
laws were of his planning, and passed during his administration."

None the less it turned out that this contemptible governor did Franklin
a good turn in sending him to London, though the benefit came in a
fashion not anticipated by either. For Franklin, not yet much wiser than
the generality of mankind, had to go through his period of youthful
folly, and it was good fortune for him that the worst portion of this
period fell within the eighteen months which he passed in England. Had
this part of his career been run in Philadelphia its unsavory aroma
might have kept him long in ill odor among his fellow townsmen, then
little tolerant of profligacy. But the "errata" of a journeyman printer
in London were quite beyond the ken of provincial gossips. He easily
gained employment in his trade, at wages which left him a little surplus
beyond his maintenance. This surplus, during most of the time, he and
his comrades squandered in the pleasures of the town. Yet in one matter
his good sense showed itself, for he kept clear of drink; indeed, his
real nature asserted itself even at this time, to such a degree that we
find him waging a temperance crusade in his printing-house, and actually
weaning some of his fellow compositors from their dearly loved "beer."
One of these, David Hall, afterward became his able partner in the
printing business in Philadelph