the best people were there--Lord and Lady Cathcart, Lord and
Lady Hyde, Lord and Lady Dartmouth. Sir William Erskine, Sir Henry
Clinton, Sir James Baird, Sir Benjamin Hare and their ladies were also
present. Doctor Franklin said that the punch was calculated to promote
cheerfulness and high sentiment. As was the custom at like functions,
the ladies sat together at one end of the table. Franklin being seated
at the right of Lady Howe, who was most gracious and entertaining. The
first toast was to the venerable philosopher.

"My Ladies, Lords and gentlemen," said the host, "we must look to our
conduct in the presence of one who talked with Sir William Wyndham and
was a visitor in the house of Sir Hans Sloane before we were born;
whose tireless intellect has been a confidant of Nature, a playmate of
the Lightning and an inventor of ingenious and useful things; whose
wisdom has given to Philadelphia a public library, a work house, good
paving, excellent schools, a protection against fire as efficient as
any in the world and the best newspaper in the colonies. Good health
and long life to him and may his love of the old sod increase with his
years."

The toast was drunk with expressions of approval, and Franklin only
arose and bowed and briefly spoke his acknowledgments in a single
sentence, and then added:

"Lord Howe can assure you that public men receive more praise and more
blame than they really merit. I have heard much said for and against
Benjamin Franklin, but there could be no better testimony in his favor
than the good opinion of Lord Howe, for which I can never cease to be
grateful. For years I have been weighing the evidence, and my verdict
is that Franklin has meant well."

He said to Jack that he felt the need of being "as discreet as a
tombstone."

A member of that party has told in his memoirs how he kept the ladies
laughing with his merry jests.

"I see by _The Observer_ they are going to open cod and whale fisheries
in the great lakes of the Northwest," Lady Howe said to him.

He answered very gently: "Your Ladyship, has it never occurred to you
that it would be a sublime spectacle to stand at the foot of the great
falls of Niagara and see the whales leaping over them?"

"What do you regard as your most important discovery?" one of the
ladies inquired.

"Well, first, I naturally think of the hospitality of this house and
the beauty and charm of the Lady Howe and her friends," Franklin
a