which, in some degree, reveals his feelings.
He is recording a conversation with the French minister.

"All religions," said Marbois, "are tolerated in America.
The ambassadors have a right, in all the courts of Europe,
to a chapel in their own way. But Mr. Franklin never had
any."

"No," said I laughing, "because Mr. Franklin has no----"

I was going to say what I did not say, and will not say
here. I stopped short, and laughed.

"No," said M. Marbois. "Mr. Franklin adores only great
Nature; which has interested a great many people of both
sexes in his favor."

"Yes," said I laughing, "all the atheists, deists and
libertines, as well as the philosophers and ladies are in
his train."[29]

[Footnote 29: Works of John Adams, Vol. III, p. 220.]

The English lords were exasperated by the reception France had given
Franklin. They fully comprehended its significance. France was in
sympathy with the Americans, in their heroic endeavor to escape from
the despotism of the British crown. Thus the traffic which had
enriched England, would be transferred to France.

Even the Earl of Chatham said, in one of the most eloquent of his
speeches,

"France, my lords, has insulted you. She has encouraged and sustained
America. And whether America be wrong or right, the dignity of
this country ought to spurn at the officiousness of the French
interference. The ministers and ambassadors of those who are called
rebels, are in Paris. In Paris they transact the reciprocal business
of America and France. Can there be a more mortifying insult? Can even
our ministers sustain a more humiliating disgrace? Do they dare to
resent it?"

Franklin was assailed in England, in innumerable pamphlets of abuse.
The sin of his youth still pursued him. Many an envenomed arrow
pierced his heart.[30]

[Footnote 30: This is a delicate subject, but it must not be ignored.
Mr. Parton writes,--"One penny-a-liner informed the public that Dr.
Franklin had a son, who, though illegitimate, was a much more honest
man than his father. As to the mother of that son, nothing was known
of her, except that her seducer let her die in the streets."

There was no end to those attacks. They were attended by every
exaggeration of malignity which hatred could engender. It is certain
that Franklin would have been saved from these woes could he, as a
young man, have embraced the _faith_ of the religion of