equally ready; epigrammatic simplicity, which he employed when asserting disagreeable truths, gave irresistible force to his conclusions. The Stamp Act, which had occasioned the first outcry, was accordingly repealed, but unfortunately its principle was not abandoned: and new taxes were shortly afterwards imposed, which were only abolished by the defeat of England, and by the victory of America. During this great crisis, Franklin showed himself to be a zealous patriot, at the same time that he was a true friend of peace. He served the colonies by using his personal influence with many leading men, whose acquaintance he had made in England, and by giving his fellow-citizens most important advice and information on several occasions. He carried on a large correspondence with the principal English statesmen, and in every way laboured to avert the dreadful calamity which threatened both people. But the expostulations and the predictions of the philosopher were made in vain; and his activity in the service of the colonists drew upon him the enmity of those in power. He was removed from the office of postmaster-general of America, which had been honourably conferred upon him in 1753; and now, seeing that all his efforts to restore harmony between the two countries were unavailing, Franklin returned in the beginning of the year 1775 to America, where the war of Independence was already raging. The day after his arrival, he was chosen the delegate of Pennsylvania to the General Congress, and took a chief part in the firm and courageous proceedings of that assembly. 3. On the 2nd July 1776, the Congress published its celebrated declaration of Independence, to which Franklin contributed with all the weight of his character and of his talents. Towards the end of the same year, he was sent in the capacity of minister to France, when he succeeded in inducing the French Government to form an offensive and defensive alliance with the United States, Feb. 6, 1778. The personal celebrity of Franklin, as a French writer has well remarked, was the sole title which the Americans could find to supply the place of the honours and decorations with which the ambassadors of Europe are invested. And whereas, in ordinary cases, the embassy dignifies the ambassador, it was he who dignified the embassy. 4. His reputation had preceded him to Paris: his scientific discoveries, which we are about to mention, had created a deep sensation there; and he was already known in person to several of the scientific and literary men in France, by whom he was received with the profoundest respect. In the midst of all his avocations, both public and private, Franklin, who loved to understand everything that came in his way, found time to devote a portion of his industry to scientific subjects. In his day, electricity excited the newest interest; at the same time that science was quite in its infancy. His attention was turned to it in 1746, by the arrival at Philadelphia of an electrical apparatus, which was presented by Mr. Collinson, F.R.S., to the library company, of which Franklin was a member. Franklin In at once set about verifying old experiments and making new ones; and in 1747 he sent a series of letters to England, in which he noted the power of sharp points both to attract and to give out electric matter. 1749 he conjectured the identity of lightning and electricity, and suggested the idea of protecting houses by pointed conductors, but did not prove it till 1752. 5. These letters attracted great attention in Europe, especially at Paris; and an experiment which he suggested in them, for drawing lightning from the clouds, was successfully performed by Messrs. D'Alibard and De Lor. This was the famous experiment of the electrical kite. A kite pointed with iron was raised during a thunderstorm: a key was tied to the hempen string of the kite, and the whole apparatus was insulated by adding a piece of silk to the end next the hand. The experiment succeeded beautifully. Sparks were taken from the key, and a Leyden jar was charged, and the phenomena exhibited were identically the same as if an electrical machine had been used instead of the kite. Soon after the experiment was tried at Paris, it was made by Franklin himself in America, and he records the exquisite delight with which he observed its success. Franklin immediately turned his brilliant discovery to account by planning a method of defending houses from lightning by pointed conductors, which have since been universally adopted. His conjectures and theories were at first slighted, and, it is said, even derided by the scientific men of London; but, in 1755, the Royal Society voted him the gold medal; he was chosen a member of the society, and the usual fees payable on admission were honourably remitted. 6. Franklin remained several years in France as Minister Plenipotentiary; and in 1785 he was recalled by his own wish, and returned to America. He was greeted on his arrival with the acclamations of the people, and the blessings of his fellow-citizens. The whole population of Philadelphia and its neighbourhood came out to welcome his return. He was chosen member of the supreme executive council for the city of Philadelphia, and shortly after was elected president of the same. He was delegate for Pennsylvania in 1787, in the convention appointed to revise and amend the Articles of Union; and his last political act was an address to his colleagues, entreating them to sacrifice their own private ends for the sake of unanimity. But though his philanthropy and zeal were undiminished, his life was now drawing to a close, and he expired April 17th, 1790, at the advanced age of eighty-four. The news of his death was received throughout the United States with deep and universal regret. His death was felt to be a national loss. The Congress and his fellowcitizens paid the highest honours to his memory; and in France, the National Assembly ordered a public mourning. He published in his lifetime several works of a moral, political, and scientific description, which were many of them translated into more than one foreign language. 7. Whether we regard the eminent position which he gained, or the means which he employed in his rise, few men deserve more of our admiration than does Benjamin Franklin, and still fewer can be held up so unreservedly for our imitation. His life is a rare instance of legitimate success achieved by legitimate means. Franklin did not possess any brilliant qualities, nor was he, properly speaking, an ambitious man, and yet he enjoyed that consideration and renown which the brilliant and the ambitious often long for in vain. He was a bold inquirer, and a close reasoner; and his mind had a wonderfully practical turn. He was a first-rate man of business; and he carried the qualities, mental and moral, which chiefly contributed to his fortune as a printer, into the conduct of public business, and, as far as the nature of the case admitted, even into his scientific investigations. But, in the administration of public affairs, he was further actuated by a principle of philanthropy, which in him supplied the place of that personal ambition, which urges on men of a less noble cast of character. "I have always," he exclaims, 66 set a greater value on the character of a doer of good than on any other kind of reputation." To do good, one must have the ability to project; the skill, patience, and power to put in practice: and must, above all, be animated with the spirit of benevolence. In all these respects, Franklin was highly endowed and admirably educated; and, after a long and well-spent life, went down to the grave, having earned that reputation which he justly esteemed the most precious-that of benefactor of the human race.-JAMES S. WHITE. THE WORTH OF FAME. The young from slothful couch will start, O! who shall lightly say that Fame When, but for those, our mighty dead- O! who shall lightly say that Fame When memory of the mighty dead A twinkling speck, but fixed and bright, For is there one who, musing o'er the grave No! saith the generous heart, and proudly swells, "Though his cered corse lies here, with God his spirit dwells." JOANNA BAILLIE. Arts and Manufactures. BY GEORGE DODD. LESSON I. TYPES AND TYPE-FOUNDING. 1. THE types used for printing are, perhaps, the most important of the materials employed in the art; since the very invention of printing, as it is called, in the fifteenth century, was really nothing more than a rearrangement or improvement in the management of the type. Printing was known much earlier; but not by means of separate or moveable types. ment. Three inventors-Gutenberg of Mentz, Faust or Fust, and Schöffer-aided in bringing forward this improveThe first book ever produced with date, place, and printer's name indicated on the title-page, is believed to have been a psalter printed by Faust and Schöffer, at Mentz, in 1457. The first Bible was printed in 1460; and in a very few years the new art spread into most countries of Europe. William Caxton, whose name has become so celebrated, was not to any great extent an inventor; he was the first English printer, but he adopted |