buy at much lower prices from other countries.
Moreover, they were obliged to sell only in Great Britain, where heavy
imposts served to curtail the net profits of the producer. Even such
manufactures as could be carried on in the colonies were forbidden to
them. He concluded:--

"These kinds of secondary taxes, however, we do not complain of,
though we have no share in the laying or disposing of them; but to
pay immediate, heavy taxes, in the laying, appropriation, and
disposition of which we have no part, and which perhaps we may know
to be as unnecessary as grievous, must seem hard measures to
Englishmen, who cannot conceive that by hazarding their lives and
fortunes in subduing and settling new countries, extending the
dominion and increasing the commerce of the mother nation, they
have forfeited the native rights of Britons, which they think ought
rather to be given to them, as due to such merit, if they had been
before in a state of slavery."

A third letter discussed a proposition advanced by Shirley for giving
the colonies representation in Parliament. Franklin was a little
skeptical, and had no notion of being betrayed by a kiss. A real
unification of the two communities lying upon either side of the
Atlantic, and even a close approximation to proportionate
representation, would constitute an excellent way out of the present
difficulties. But he saw no encouragement to hope for this.

In fact, the project of laying direct internal taxes upon the colonies
by act of Parliament was taking firm root in the English mind, and
colonial protests could not long stay the execution of the scheme. Even
such grants of money as were made by some of the colonial legislatures
were vetoed, on the ground that they were connected with encroachments,
schemes for independence, and an assumption of the right to exercise
control in the matter of the public finances.[5] The Penns rejoiced.
Thomas Penn wrote, doubtless with a malicious chuckle: "If the several
assemblies will not make provision for the general service, an act of
Parliament may oblige them here." He evidently thought that it would be
very wholesome if government should become incensed and severe with the
recalcitrants.

[Note 5: Bancroft, _Hist. U. S._ iv. 176.]

During his discussion with Shirley, Franklin had been upon a visit to
Boston. He "left New England," he says, "slowly, and with great
reluctance;" fo