To Benjamin Franklin from William Temple Franklin, 28 August 1784
From William Temple Franklin
ALS: American Philosophical Society
Dover, Saturday 28,7 Augt 1784
Dear & Hond: Sir.
After a very disagreable Passage, which lasted from 8 last Night to 8. this Morning, we arrived here safe. I was sick the whole Passage—& I think more so than in either going or returning from America.— Mais comme en toutes Choses, “il faut toujours regarder la Belle Jambe”.—8 I flatter myself with the Notion that it will prove a Crise salutaire, as Mesmers stiles it;—& which you Doctors have decided as fatale, or very near it.—9 I am now however pretty well recover’d, having been to Bed for a few Hours—& made a Hearty Dinner on Beef Steaks & Potatoes—with which I have with great Pleasure renew’d acquaintance.— I am just now starting for London—but as there is no occasion for hurrying or fatiguing myself, I shall sleep at Cantorberry to Night, & make an easy Day’s Journey of it tomorrow by getting to London.
I told you in a former Letter, that I had hopes of making some Arrangement, by which you would receive the English Papers cheaper than hitherto per Post:— I now think I have compleated it, & in a very advantageous manner, by means of Mr. Thompson here;—who will receive them from London free of any Charges of Postage or Carriage, & will put them first under Cover to you, & then under one to Dessein, who has promised me to forward them to you in the most expeditious & east expensive manner possible;—either by the Stage Coaches, the B. Minister’s Couriers, or private Travellers.— The Papers I have directed, (but which I can Change if you think proper) are Woodfall’s Morg. Chronicle—& the London Do.— You will probably begin to receive them in a fortnight;1 it will therefore be well to countermand your others: Write me your Intentions thereon.— I can pay Mr. Pott’s his Advances, which I fancy must be considerable, if you have not already reimbursed him in part.—2 I have also settled with Mr: Thompson concerg the Family Picture of the Marquis de la Fayette.3 He will immediately forward it to Mr. Johnson, with the Amount of his Expences thereon, to whom I shall reimburse the whole of the Charges in sending it to America. This I think was what you wished. By the Bye, this Mr. Thompson is a sensible & obliging Man, and very willing to render us any Service. He is in the Wine Way here,—& is Father to the Young Thompson you saw at Passy, in his Way to or from Mr Williams’s at Nantes.—4
The Horses are to— I must take my leave of you till I get settled in London.—
With the sincerest affection and Gratitude, I am ever, Hond Sir, Your dutiful Grandson
W. T. Franklin
P.S. My Love to Ben—& best Compts. where necessary.—
If you shew this Letter to Ben—it will convince him of the Advantage he has over me in Penmanship & perhaps in Style.— I hope you will excuse it, when you consider how I am situated,—my Hurry, & my Instruments.—
B. Franklin Esqr—
7. The numeral was inserted later, in pencil.
8. An allusion to BF’s “La Belle et la Mauvaise Jambe”: XXXIV, 41–6.
9. The determination of the royal commissioners investigating animal magnetism: XLII, 492.
1. Thomas Thompson would supply BF with the Morning Chron. and the London Chron. from this point until BF left France: Account XXVII (XXXII, 4), entry of July 2, 1785; Thompson to BF, April 27, 1785 (APS); Jefferson Papers, VIII, 366, 423.
2. Samuel Potts had been sending BF the Morning Chron. and Lloyd’s Evening Post since March, 1783: XXXIX, 580–1. Despite the arrangement with Thompson, Potts continued to send newspapers, which BF forwarded to Congress: Potts to BF, June 10, 1785 (APS); Account XXVII (XXXII, 4), entry of June 27, 1785.
3. Thompson had asked for instructions about this portrait on June 2: XLII, 304–5.
4. Thompson’s son Edward (“Ned”) stopped at Passy in the spring of 1782 on his way to Dover from Nantes, where he had been in the employ of JW: JW to Thomas Thompson, March 9, May 22, July 4, Sept. 21, Dec. 31, 1782; JW to Edward Thompson, July 4, 1782 (all at the Yale University Library); JW to WTF, and Gurdon S. Mumford to WTF, both of May 24, 1782 (APS).