ovince, and to levy taxes
therein, supported by precisely the same chain of reasoning whereby
Britain claimed the like right in respect of the American colonies.
This keen and witty satire had a brilliant success, and while Franklin
prudently kept his authorship a close secret, he was not a little
pleased to see how well his dart flew. In one of his letters he says:--

"I was down at Lord le Despencer's when the post brought that day's
papers. Mr. Whitehead was there, too, who runs early through all
the papers, and tells the company what he finds remarkable.... We
were chatting in the breakfast parlor, when he came running in to
us, out of breath, with the paper in his hand. 'Here,' says he,
'here's news for ye! Here's the king of Prussia claiming a right to
this kingdom!' All stared, and I as much as anybody; and he went on
to read it. When he had read two or three paragraphs, a gentleman
present said: 'Damn their impudence! I daresay we shall hear by the
next post that he is upon his march with 100,000 men to back this.'
Whitehead, who is very shrewd, soon after began to smoke it, and
looking in my face said, 'I'll be hanged if this is not some of
your American jokes upon us.'"

Then, amid much laughter, it was admitted to be "a fair hit." Of a like
nature was his paper setting out "Rules for reducing a great Empire to a
small one," which prescribed with admirable satire such a course of
procedure as English ministries had pursued towards the American
provinces. Lord Mansfield honored it with his condemnation, saying that
it was "very able and very artful indeed; and would do mischief by
giving here a bad impression of the measures of government."

Yet this English indifference to transatlantic facts could not always be
met in a laughing mood. It was too serious, too unfortunate, too
obstinately persisted in to excite only ridicule. It was deplorable,
upon the very verge of war, and incredible too, after all the warnings
that had been had, that there should be among Englishmen such an utter
absence of any desire to get accurate knowledge. In 1773 Franklin wrote:
"The great defect here is, in all sorts of people, a want of attention
to what passes in such remote countries as America; an unwillingness to
read anything about them, if it appears a little lengthy; and a
disposition to postpone a consideration even of the things which they
know they must at