de up of oppressors and bigots, who made religion only an engine of
destruction to the people. Their public officers were proclaimed to be
remarkable for their hypocrisy, raised up as 'a scourge in the hands of
the Almighty for the sins of the people.'

These attacks were undoubtedly written by the club in Boston and sent to
Philadelphia for publication. But neither the club nor James Franklin
would submit to the order of the Court; and for the purpose of evading
it, the name of James was taken out of the paper, and that of Benjamin
substituted. The latter was then a minor, and this was the first
introduction of his name into public life. But though a poor printer's
lad, the name thus first used as a shield for others who were behind the
curtains, has since challenged the world for illustrious deeds of his
own.

With this change of the name of the publisher, came a new prospectus,
probably the first effort of the kind, of the then youthful philosopher.
This prospectus was rather an odd one, as will be seen by the following
extract: 'The main design of this weekly will be to entertain the town
with the most comical and diverting incidents of human life; which in so
large a place as Boston will not fail of a universal exemplification.
Nor shall we be wanting to fill up these papers with a grateful
interspersion of more serious morals, which may be drawn from the most
ludicrous and odd parts of human life.'

The character of the paper, however, does not appear to have been
changed for the better by the change of names. It was continued in the
name of Benjamin Franklin some time after he had left it; but the
members of the club at length grew wearied with the labor, and the paper
expired in 1727. James Franklin then removed to Rhode Island, and
established the first newspaper in that State, at Newport.

It remains to notice but one more of the early Boston editors, who seems
to have been an odd fish--somewhat witty, but, to use a homely proverb,
'as rough as a rat-catcher's dog.' He first established the _Boston
Weekly Rehearsal_, in 1731, and afterward the _Boston Evening Post_. His
name was Thomas Fleet. Massachusetts was then a slaveholding country,
and Fleet owned several negroes, two of whom he instructed in the art of
printing. Their names were Pompey and Caesar--the only two _Romans_, I
believe, who ever belonged to the printing fraternity. These honest
fellows lived and printed until after the war of the Revoluti