e resolve could only
be withdrawn after the withdrawal of the speech which it answered, "an
awkward operation, which perhaps the governor would hardly be directed
to perform." As for an act establishing "inconveniences," probably it
would only put the colonies, "as heretofore, on some method of
incommoding this country till the act is repealed; and so we shall go on
injuring and provoking each other instead of cultivating that good will
and harmony so necessary to the general welfare." Divisions, his
lordship admitted, "must weaken the whole; for we are yet _one empire_,
whatever may be the opinions of the Massachusetts Assembly." But how to
escape divisions was the conundrum. Could his lordship withhold from
Parliament the irritating documents, though in fact they were already
notorious, and "hazard the being called to account in some future
session of Parliament for keeping back the communication of dispatches
of such importance?" He appealed to Franklin for advice; but Franklin
would undertake to give none, save that, in his opinion, if the
dispatches should be laid before Parliament, it would be prudent to
order them to lie on the table. For, he said, "were I as much an
Englishman as I am an American, and ever so desirous of establishing the
authority of Parliament, I protest to your lordship I cannot conceive of
a single step the Parliament can take to increase it that will not tend
to diminish it, and after abundance of mischief they must finally lose
it." So whenever the crucial test was applied these two men found
themselves utterly at variance, and the hopelessness of a peaceful
conclusion would have been obvious, had not each shunned a prospect so
painful.

It must be confessed that, if Lord Dartmouth was so pathetically
desirous to undo an irrevocable past, Dr. Franklin was no less anxious
for the performance of a like miracle. Both the statesman and the
philosopher would have appreciated better the uselessness of their
efforts, had their feelings been less deeply engaged. Franklin's vain
wish at this time was to move the peoples of England and America back to
the days before the passage of the Stamp Act. "I have constantly given
it as my opinion," he wrote, early in 1771, "that, if the colonies were
restored to the state they were in before the Stamp Act, they would be
satisfied and contend no farther." Two and a half years later, following
the fable of the sibylline books, he expressed the more extreme opin