rch
which has been adopted by posterity. Only a very little later he writes:
"Between you and me, the late measures have been, I suspect, very much
the king's own, and he has in some cases a great share of what his
friends call _firmness_." Thus tardily, reluctantly, and at first
gently, the kindly philosopher began to admit to himself and others the
truth as to his Majesty's disposition and character.

Some persons in England, affected by the powerful argument of
non-representation, proposed that the colonies should be represented in
Parliament; and about the time of the Stamp Act the possibility of such
an arrangement was seriously discussed. Franklin was willing to speak
kindly of a plan which was logically unobjectionable, and which involved
the admission that the existing condition was unjust; but he knew very
well that it would never develop into a practicable solution of the
problem, and in fact it soon dropped out of men's minds. January 6,
1766, he wrote that in his opinion the measure of an _Union_, as he
shrewdly called it, was a wise one; "but," he said, "I doubt it will
hardly be thought so here until it is too late to attempt it. The time
has been when the colonies would have esteemed it a great advantage, as
well as honor, to be permitted to send members to Parliament, and would
have asked for that privilege if they could have had the least hopes of
obtaining it. The time is now come when they are indifferent about it,
and will probably not ask it, though they might accept it, if offered
them; and the time will come when they will certainly refuse it. But if
such an Union were now established (which methinks it highly imports
this country to establish), it would probably subsist so long as Britain
shall continue a nation. This people, however, is too proud, and too
much despises the Americans to bear the thought of admitting them to
such an equitable participation in the government of the whole."[23]

[Note 23: To same purport, see letter to Evans, May 9, 1766,
_Works_, iii. 464.]

Haughty words these, though so tranquilly spoken, and which must have
startled many a dignified Briton: behold! a mere colonist, the son of a
tallow chandler, is actually declaring that those puny colonies of
simple "farmers, husbandmen, and planters" were already "indifferent"
about, and would soon feel in condition to "refuse," representation in
such a body as the Parliament of England; also that it "highly imported"
Great