subject of a king.
At the moment he was not altogether glad that matters worked thus. On
August 17, 1762, he wrote from Portsmouth to Lord Kames:--

"I am now waiting here only for a wind to waft me to America; but
cannot leave this happy island and my friends in it without extreme
regret, though I am going to a country and a people that I love. I
am going from the old world to the new; and I fancy I feel like
those who are leaving this world for the next: grief at the
parting; fear of the passage; hope of the future. These different
passions all affect their minds at once; and these have _tendered_
me down exceedingly."

And six days later, from the same place, he wrote to Strahan: "I cannot,
I assure you, quit even this disagreeable place, without regret, as it
carries me still farther from those I love, and from the opportunities
of hearing of their welfare. The attraction of reason is at present for
the other side of the water, but that of inclination will be for this
side. You know which usually prevails. I shall probably make but this
one vibration and settle here forever. Nothing will prevent it, if I
can, as I hope I can, prevail with Mrs. F. to accompany me, especially
if we have a peace." Apparently the Americans owe a great debt of
gratitude to Mrs. Franklin's fearfulness of the untrustworthy Atlantic.

Before dismissing this stay of Franklin in England a word should be said
concerning his efforts for the retention of Canada by the British, as
spoils of war. The fall of Quebec, in the autumn of 1759, practically
concluded the struggle in America. The French were utterly spent; they
had no food, no money; they had fought with desperate courage and heroic
self-devotion; they could honestly say that they had stood grimly in the
last trench, and had been slaughtered there until the starved and
shattered remnant could not find it in their exhausted human nature
longer to conduct a contest so thoroughly finished. In Europe, France
was hardly less completely beaten. At the same time the singular
position of affairs existed that the triumphant conqueror was even more
resolutely bent upon immediate peace than were the conquered. George
III., newly come to the throne, set himself towards this end with all
the obstinacy of his resolute nature. It became a question of terms, and
eager was the discussion thereof. The colonies were profoundly
interested, for a question sharply argu