of the public; a testimony I think it my duty of
taking this occasion to make to his merit, unasked, as, considering
my great age, I may probably not live to give it personally in
Congress, and I perceive he has enemies."

But however firmly and wisely Franklin stood out against the storm of
importunities he could not for a long time moderate it. He continued to
be "besieged and worried," and to have his time "cut to pieces;" till at
last he wrote to a friend: "You can have no conception how I am
harassed. All my friends are sought out and teased to tease me. Great
officers of all ranks, in all departments, ladies great and small,
besides professed solicitors, worry me from morning to night. The noise
of every coach now that enters my court terrifies me. I am afraid to
accept an invitation to dine abroad.... Luckily I do not often in my
sleep dream of these vexatious situations, or I should be afraid of what
are now my only hours of comfort.... For God's sake, my dear friend, let
this, your twenty-third application, be your last."

His plain-spoken replies, however harshly they may have struck upon
Gallic sensitiveness, at least left no room for any one to misunderstand
him. "I know that officers, going to America for employment, will
probably be disappointed," he wrote; "that our armies are full; that
there are a number of expectants unemployed and starving for want of
subsistence; that my recommendation will not make vacancies, nor can it
fill them to the prejudice of those who have a better claim." He also
wrote to Washington, to whom the letter must have brought joyous relief,
that he dissuaded every one from incurring the great expense and hazard
of the long voyage, since there was already an over-supply of officers
and the chance of employment was extremely slight.[46]

[Note 46: As an example of the manner in which Franklin sometimes
was driven to express himself, his letter to M. Lith is admirable. This
gentleman had evidently irritated him somewhat, and Franklin demolished
him with a reply in that plain, straightforward style of which he was a
master, in which appeared no anger, but sarcasm of that severest kind
which lies in a simple statement of facts. I regret that there is not
space to transcribe it, but it may be read in his _Works_, vi. 85.]

The severest dose which he administered must have made some of those
excitable swords quiver in their scabbards. He drew up and used this

"