Dr. Priestley; introduced" to
George IV., then Prince of Wales, with whom was Charles Fox, and was
"present at all the coteries of the opposition." Almost every evening he
was invited to dinner-parties, at which the company was chiefly composed
of members of Parliament, and they plied him with interrogations about
his country and its affairs, so that, as he reported, "no question which
you can conceive is omitted."[49] He answered well, and rendered
service as good as it was singular, for which Franklin was probably the
only American who could have furnished the opening. The adventure brings
to mind some of the Jacobite tales of Sir Walter Scott's novels.

[Note 49: Parton's _Life of Franklin_, ii. 307.]

One half of the advantages accruing from "General Burgoyne's
capitulation to Mr. Gates"--such was the Tory euphemism, somewhat ill
considered, since it implied that the gallant British commander had
capitulated to a civilian--was to be reaped in Europe. The excellent
Hartley was already benevolently dreaming of effecting an accommodation
between the two contestants; and seeing clearly that an alliance with
France must be fatal to any such project, he closed a letter on February
3, 1778, to Franklin, by "subjoining one earnest caution and request:
Let nothing ever persuade America to throw themselves into the arms of
France. Times may mend. I hope they will. An American must always be a
stranger in France; Great Britain may for ages to come be their home."
This was as kindly in intention as it was bad in grammatical
construction; but it was written from a point of view very different
from that which an American could adopt. Franklin promptly replied:
"When your nation is hiring all the cut-throats it can collect, of all
countries and colors, to destroy us, it is hard to persuade us not to
ask or accept aid from any power that may be prevailed with to grant it;
and this only from the hope that, though you now thirst for our blood,
and pursue us with fire and sword, you may in some future time treat us
kindly. This is too much patience to be expected of us; indeed, I think
it is not in human nature."

A few days later he transposed Hartley's advice, not without irony: "Let
nothing induce [the English Whigs] to join with the Tories in supporting
and continuing this wicked war against the Whigs of America, whose
assistance they may hereafter want to secure their own liberties, or
whose country they may be glad to retire t