m, from a private
station, from a smaller sphere, diffuse, as I think he may, a beneficial
light; but let him not be made to move and blaze like a comet, to
terrify and to distress."[14] The popular majority in the Assembly
withstood Mr. Dickinson's rhetoric, and, to quote the forcible language
of Bancroft, "proceeded to an act which in its consequences was to
influence the world." That is to say, they carried the appointment.
Franklin likewise set aside Dickinson's seductive counsels, and accepted
the position.

[Note 14: Parton's _Life of Franklin_, i, 451, 452.]

It is not in human nature to be so extravagantly abused in times of
intense excitement, and wholly to hold one's peace. Even the cool temper
of Dr. Franklin was incited to a retort; his defense was brief and
dignified, in a very different tone from that of the aspersions to which
it replied; and it carries that influence which always belongs to him
who preserves moderation amid the passions of a fierce controversy.[15]

[Note 15: See, for example, Franklin's _Works_, iii. 361, 362.]

CHAPTER V

SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND, I

Franklin so hastened his preparations that he was ready to depart again
for England in twelve days after his election. There was no money in the
provincial treasury; but some of the well-to-do citizens, in expectation
of reimbursement, raised by subscription L1100. He took only L500. A
troop of three hundred mounted citizens escorted him from the city
sixteen miles down the river to the ship, and "filled the sails with
their good wishes." This parade, designed only as a friendly
demonstration, was afterward made a charge against him, as an assumption
of pomp and a display of popularity. If it had been deliberately
planned, it would have been ill advised; but it took him by surprise,
and he could not prevent it. The ship cast anchor in St. Helen's Road,
Isle of Wight, on December 9, 1764. He forthwith hastened to London, and
installed himself in the familiar rooms at No. 7 Craven Street, Strand.
In Philadelphia, when the news came of the safe arrival of this "man the
most obnoxious to his country," the citizens kept the bells ringing
until midnight.

So altogether the prospect now seemed agreeable in whatever direction
Dr. Franklin chose to look. He was in quarters in which he was at least
as much at home as he could feel in his house at Philadelphia; Mrs.
Stevenson, his landlady, and her daughter Mary, whom he had sought t