ARBITRARY ACTS OF THE GOVERNMENT.

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strongly marked satirical character; aiming not merely in a general way at fashionable follies, or the absurdities of opinion and manners presenting themselves in the community at large; but applying the lash to various classes and professions, not omitting either the political, or clerical; exposing abuses in both civil and ecclesiastical administration, and hitting hard. One of these pieces, which appeared in the summer of 1722, gave such offence to the colonial Assembly, that James Franklin, the publisher, was brought before that body, on the Speaker's warrant, severely reprimanded, and sent to prison for one month. It was supposed he might have escaped the sentence, in his own person, if he would have disclosed the writer of the offensive article; but that he manfully refused to do. Benjamin was also taken up and examined before the council; and though he also refused to make any disclosure, he was only admonished and dismissed: on the ground, as he supposed, that an apprentice could not justly be required to betray his master's secrets. Perhaps his youth, for he was only sixteen years old, also served to render the council less rigorous.

During the confinement of James, the management of the paper devolved on Benjamin, who, notwithstanding their private differences, magnanimously resented. the harsh usage his brother received from the public authorities, and gave them, in the paper, to use his own words, some rubs, which his brother took very kindly; while others began to consider him in an unfavorable light, as a youth that had a turn for libelling and satire."

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The proceedings of the colonial government, on this occasion, seem to have been, in truth, not a little arbitrary and oppressive. James Franklin was arraigned, subjected to examination, and sent to prison, on a mere general accusation, with no specific allegation of the

subject-matter of his offence, no exhibition of legal proofs to sustain the accusation, and no trial before a judicial tribunal; and when his term of imprisonment expired, his discharge was accompanied by an act still more arbitrary and tyrannical, if possible, than even his commitment; for the Assembly made an order that "James Franklin should no longer print the newspaper called the New England Courant."

When James obtained his liberation, having come to consider how he should manage to continue the publication of his newspaper, without a direct and bold infraction of the assembly's order, which would be certain to bring upon him the arbitrary power of that body with increased severity, some of his friends advised that he should attain his object by giving his paper a new name. To this, however, there were various objections, some of them having relation to the legal effect on his subscription list, and others arising from considerations of convenience; so that he adopted a different course, and one which resulted in consequences of great importance to his apprentice-brother. The title of the paper remained unchanged, but its publication was coutinued in Benjamin's name; and to protect himself against the charge of disobeying the mandate of the assembly, by printing his paper through the agency of his servant, as the law would consider it, James resorted to the expedient of surrendering to Benjamin his old indenture, with a discharge endorsed upon it, to be kept for exhibition in case of need; while, to enable him to retain the services of his apprentice, a new indenture, for the residue of the term, was executed, but kept secret. This was truly, as Franklin calls it, "a flimsy scheme;" but, though legally void, it was adopted, and the paper was printed for several months on this footing.

RENEWED DISSENSIONS.

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Before long, however, new dissensions arose between the master and his apprentice; and the impatience of Benjamin, under what he deemed the injurious treatment of his brother, led him to assert his freedom, feeling sure that James would not venture to appeal openly, at law, or otherwise, to the secret indenture. In his own account of this affair, he makes the following frank and ingenuous statement:

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'It was not fair in me to take this advantage, and this I therefore reckon one of the first errata of my life; but the unfairness of it weighed little with me, when under the impressions of resentment for the blows his [James's] passion too often urged him to bestow upon me; though he was otherwise not an illnatured man; and perhaps I was too saucy and provoking."

Benjamin, however, carried his resentment no further than simply to break off his apprenticeship; for when his brother, on finding him determined to leave, went round and spoke to the other master-printers in Boston, to prevent his procuring employment, instead of disclosing the actual condition of the indentures, he kept the secret, and turned his thoughts elsewhere, and particularly toward New York, as the nearest place in which he would be likely to obtain employment as a printer. Of his views and motives at this time, he has himself given the following account:—

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I was rather inclined," says he, "to leave Boston, when I reflected that I had already made myself a little obnoxious to the governing party, and, from the arbitrary proceedings of the assembly in my brother's case, it was likely I might, if I stayed, soon bring myself into scrapes; and further, that my indiscreet disputations. about religion, began to make me pointed at with horror by good people, as an infidel and atheist. I concluded, therefore, to remove to New York; but my

father now siding with my brother, I was sensible that if I attempted to go openly, means would be used to prevent me."

In this emergency he resorted to his friend Collins, who, at Benjamin's request, engaged a passage for him in a New York sloop then just about to sail; alleging to the captain, as the reason for his leaving Boston clandestinely, that he had an intrigue with a girl of bad character, whose parents would compel him to marry her, unless he could make his escape in this manner. I sold my books," says he, "to raise a little money, was taken on board the sloop privately, had a fair wind, and in three days found myself at New York, near 300 miles from my home, at the age of seventeen (October, 1723), without the least recommendation, or knowledge of any person in the place, and very little money in my pocket."

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JOURNEY TO PHILADELPHIA.

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CHAPTER IV.

INCIDENTS ON HIS JOURNEY TO PHILADELPHIA.

AT New York Benjamin's early "hankering for the sea,” if he had still cherished it, might have been easily gratified. Fortunately for him, however, if we may judge from actual consequences, that desire had left him; and having now a good trade, one for which he had acquired a liking, and in which he had become an expert workman, he lost no time in seeking for employment as a journeyman-printer. With this view he went at once to Mr. William Bradford, as the most prominent master-printer at that time in the city. This person had originally been established in Philadelphia, and was the earliest printer in Pennsylvania; but having got into a contest with Keith, then governor of that province, he had transferred himself to New York. Mr. Bradford had no occasion to hire an additional hand, but he told Benjamin that his son, Andrew Bradford, who was engaged in the printing business, in Philadelphia, had been recently deprived, by death, of his principal workman, and would, as he confidently believed, be likely to employ him.

For Philadelphia, then, though a hundred miles further, a distance by no means inconsiderable in those days, he manfully set forth; taking himself a sail-boat for Amboy, but leaving his chest, containing most of his