ting into a better train." A
month later he reported himself as being still "upon very good terms"
with the new minister, who, he had "reason to think, meant well by the
colonies." So Dartmouth did, undoubtedly, and if the best of intentions
and of feelings could have availed much at this stage of affairs,
Franklin and his lordship might have postponed the Revolution until the
next generation. But it was too late to counteract the divergent
movements of the two nations, and no better proof could be desired of
the degree to which this divergence had arrived than the fact itself
that the moderate Franklin and the well-disposed Dartmouth could not
come into accord. Each people had declared its political faith, its
fundamental theory; and the faith and theory of the one were fully and
fairly adverse to those of the other; and the instant that the talk went
deep enough, this irreconcilable difference was sure to be exposed.

During the winter of 1772-73, following Lord Dartmouth's appointment, a
lively dispute arose in Massachusetts between the Assembly and Governor
Hutchinson. It was the old question, whether the English Parliament had
control in matters of colonial taxation. The governor made speeches and
said Yea, while the Assembly passed resolutions and said Nay. The early
ships, arriving in England in the spring of 1773, brought news of this
dispute, which seemed to have been indeed a hot one. The English
ministry were not pleased; they wanted to keep their relationship with
the colonies tranquil for a while, because there was a renewal of the
danger of a war with Spain. Therefore they were vexed at the over-zeal
of Hutchinson; and Lord Dartmouth frankly said so. Franklin called one
day upon the secretary and found him much perplexed at the
"difficulties" into which the governor had brought the ministers by his
"imprudence." Parliament, his lordship said, could not "suffer such a
declaration of the colonial Assembly, asserting its independence, to
pass unnoticed." Franklin thought otherwise: "It is _words_ only," he
said; "acts of Parliament are still submitted to there;" and so long as
such was the case "Parliament would do well to turn a deaf ear....Force
could do no good." Force, it was replied, might not be thought of, but
rather an act to lay the colonies "under some inconveniences, till they
rescind that declaration." Could they by no possibility be persuaded to
withdraw it? Franklin was clearly of opinion that th