hich was taken up
later and finally developed into the University of Pennsylvania; and he
founded an "American Philosophical Society" for the purpose of enabling
scientific men to communicate their discoveries to one another. He
himself had already begun his electrical researches, which, with other
scientific inquiries, he called on in the intervals of money-making and
politics to the end of his life. In 1748 he sold his business in order
to get leisure for study, having now acquired comparative wealth; and
in a few years he had made discoveries that gave him a reputation with
the learned throughout Europe. In politics he proved very able both as
an administrator and as a controversialist; but his record as an
office-holder is stained by the use he made of his position to advance
his relatives. His most notable service in home politics was his
reform of the postal system; but his fame as a statesman rests chiefly
on his services in connection with the relations of the Colonies with
Great Britain, and later with France. In 1757 he was sent to England
to protest against the influence of the Penns in the government of the
colony, and for five years he remained there, striving to enlighten the
people and the ministry of England as to Colonial conditions. On his
return to America he played an honorable part in the Paxton affair,
through which he lost his seat in the Assembly; but in 1764 he was
again despatched to England as agent for the colony, this time to
petition the King to resume the government from the hands of the
proprietors. In London he actively opposed the proposed Stamp Act, but
lost the credit for this and much of his popularity through his
securing for a friend the office of stamp agent in America. Even his
effective work in helping to obtain the repeal of the act left him
still a suspect; but he continued his efforts to present the case for
the Colonies as the troubles thickened toward the crisis of the
Revolution. In 1767 he crossed to France, where he was received with
honor; but before his return home in 1775 he lost his position as
postmaster through his share in divulging to Massachusetts the famous
letter of Hutchinson and Oliver. On his arrival in Philadelphia he was
chosen a member of the Continental Congress and in 1777 he was
despatched to France as commissioner for the United States. Here he
remained till 1785, the favorite of French society; and with such
success did he conduct the aff