POST-RIDING THE CITY WATCH.

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when its bags of at most but a few score pounds in weight, were almost universally carried on horseback, and in these times, when it is speeded in tons by steam. In 1737, the post-rider went southward from Philadelphia to Newport, in Virginia, once a month; and northward, as far as New York, once every fortnight. In 1743, this activity was so much accelerated that, in summer, the mail was carried southward as far as Annapolis, in Maryland, once in two weeks, and northward to New York every week; though, in winter, the transit, each way, was still at the previous rates. This, moreover, is a fair specimen of the general sluggishness of all social movements in those times, when compared with the intense activity now imparted to them all by steam, which, in every practical sense, has reduced a month to a day, and the seven days of the week to as many hours; while the yet more wonderful application of another of nature's elemental forces, to the spreading of intelligence, has reduced even those hours to seconds.

With a productive business, so well established and methodized as to demand less of his personal attention to its details, Franklin, now at the age of thirty-one years, was led, by his innate desire to be useful to the extent of his ability, to apply his mind, more directly than he had yet done, to the consideration of public affairs, and especially to the concerns of the community to which he immediately belonged. His first effort, in this way, was directed to the improvement of the night-watch of the city. This important concern was, at that time, intrusted wholly to the ward constables, who called out small nightly squads of housekeepers to patrol their respective beats. Such housekeepers as did not or could not turn out, paid to the constable of their ward six shillings each, for the ostensible purpose of enabling him to hire substitutes. But as the sums thus collected, even if faithfully

applied, were more than sufficient for the alleged purpose, and as the constables seem never to have been required to account for the surplus money, great irregularities and abuses ensued. These payments, moreover, when considered as a tax levied to protect property, were monstrously unequal, each non-serving housekeeper paying the same amount, without regard to sex or property.

Franklin's first step toward reforming this objectionable system, was to read before the Junto a paper exposing the inefficiency and abuses of the course pursued. He insisted especially on the gross inequality and injustice of the assessment, under which a poor widow, (to use one of his own illustrations,) who could not render the personal service required, and whose property to be protected might not exceed fifty pounds, was, if a housekeeper, obliged to pay as much as the richest merchant who had merchandise to the amount of thousands of pounds in his warehouses; and he proposed that ablebodied and trusty men should be hired for fixed terms of service, and the expense paid by a general tax fairly apportioned upon property.

This obviously just proposal was approved by the Junto; and on being, by its members, brought forward in the other clubs, as an original proposition in each, it was well received by them also. The new plan was not immediately carried into effect by the city authorities; but, by the course pursued, and the discussions to which it led, not only in the clubs, but in the community generally, the public mind was prepared for it, and in a few years, when the young men belonging to the clubs came to participate more fully and directly in the management of municipal concerns, it was adopted.

Another and still more important service rendered to Philadelphia, about the same period, by Franklin, was the establishment of the first fire-company in that city.

FIRE-COMPANIES INTRODUCED.

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By way of preparation for the accomplishment of his object, he first laid before the Junto, and then before the public, a full and valuable paper on the general subject of fires, calling attention to the manner in which houses and other buildings are often exposed to them by injudicious arrangements in their structure, as well as by the personal heedlessness of their occupants; and suggesting various modes of avoiding such hazards beforehand, as well as different means of extinguishing the flames when kindled.

The publication of this paper was shortly followed by the actual organization of a fire-company, and by other measures for security against fires. At Franklin's suggestions, also, the members of the company were to provide themselves with leathern buckets, for supplying water, and with sacks and baskets for saving goods, and to take them to every fire. They agreed also to meet, from time to time, to communicate facts and exchange views in relation to fires and the best way to encounter them.

The value of this association was soon felt to be so great, that others like it were successively formed, until a numerous and efficient force for the protection of the city was the result; and more than fifty years after, when Franklin was relating these transactions, he took occasion to observe, with a gratification he was well entitled to enjoy, that the Union Fire-Company, the first one formed, was still existing, though all its original members were dead, except himself and another person a year older than himself.

Such were some of the services rendered to the community by Franklin in his early manhood. It was the constant tendency of his mind to apply principles to practice his strongly-marked disposition and ability to be useful, guided by an enlightened and sincere public

spirit, which won for him the esteem and confidence of society, and laid the foundation of that influence with his fellow-citizens, which, to their advantage and the credit of their good sense, not less than to his own honor, he ultimately enjoyed, to an extent not attained by any of his cotemporaries, and probably never surpassed.

REV. GEORGE WHITEFIELD.

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CHAPTER XIX.

WHITEFIELD-RELIGIOUS VIEWS-ACADEMIES AND SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATIONS MILITARY DEFENCE, AND THE QUAKERS-WESTERN POSTS-THE FRANKLIN STOVE.

In his own narrative of this period of his life, Franklin has given an interesting sketch of that celebrated popular preacher, the Rev. George Whitefield, who made his first appearance in this country in the year 1739. As Whitefield, including his various visits, was a good deal in Philadelphia, Franklin became intimately acquainted with him; and though never one of his converts, he was deeply impressed by the earnest and exciting eloquence of the preacher, and held him in high esteem as a thoroughly sincere, honest, warm-hearted, benevolent man.

When Whitefield first presented himself in Philadelphia, the clergy of that city freely admitted him into their pulpits; but for some reason not specifically stated, they pretty soon took offence, and closed their churches against him, so that he was compelled for a time to address the people in the fields. This, however, being found not only inconvenient and uncomfortable, but hazardous to health, a proposal was started among some of his more zealous and active admirers to build an independent meeting-house, to which not only Whitefield, but any other preacher of whatever denomination, should have free access. The proposal instantly took, and subscriptions were speedily obtained sufficient to purchase