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tended to wean him from a world in which he was no longer fit to act the part assigned him. In this frame of body and mind he continued till five days before his death, when his pain and difficulty of breathing entirely left him, and his family were flattering themselves with the hopes of his recovery, when an im posthumation, which had formed itself in his lungs, suddenly burst and discharged a great quantity of matter, which he continued to throw up while he had sufficient strength to do it, but as that failed, the organs of respiration become gradually oppressed, a calm lethargic state succeeded, and, on the 17th of April 1790, about eleven o'clock at night he quietly expired, closing a long and useful life of eighty-four years and three months." He left one son, governor William Franklin, a zealous loyalist; and a daughter, married to Mr. William Bache, merchant in Philadelphia, who waited on him during his last illness. Three days before he died, he begged that his bed might be made, in order to die in a decent manner; to which Mrs. Bache answered, that she hoped he would recover and live many years. replied, "I hope not." To the two latter he bequeathed the principal part of his estate, during their respective lives, and afterwards, to be divided equally among their children. To his grandson, William Temple Franklin, esq. he left a grant of some lands in the state of Georgia, the greater part of his library, and all his papers. He left also several public legacies: to the Philadelphia library, 3000 volumes; to judge Hopkins, his philosophical apparatus; and to the president of the United States, a gold-headed cane in the following words. "My gold-headed cane, curiously wrought in the form of a cap of liberty, I leave to my friend and the friend of mankind,

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General Washington; if it were a sceptre he has mer.E ited and would become it." He made various be quests and donations to cities, public bodies, and individuals, and requested that the following epitaph, which he composed for himself many years previous to his death, should be inscribed on his tomb-stone.

THE BODY

of

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Printer,
(like the cover of an old book,
it's contents torn out,

and stripped of it's lettering and gilding)
lies here, food for worms;
yet the work itself shall not be lost,
for it will (as he believed) appear once more,

in a new

and more beautiful edition,
corrected and amended

by

the Author.

Philadelphia never displayed a scene of superior grandeur than at the funeral of this great man. His remains were interred on the 21st, and the concourse of people assembled was immense. The body was at tended to the grave by thirty clergymen, and persons of all ranks and professions, arranged in the greatest order. All the bells in the city were muffled and tol led, accompanied by a discharge of Artillery; the newspapers were put in mourning; and nothing was omitted which could shew the respect and veneration of his fellow-citizens. The congress, on this occasion, ordered a general mourning for one month throughout the united States; and the National Assembly of

France decreed a general mourning of three days! “The August spectacle of the first free people on earth in mourning for the father of the liberty of two worlds," says a gentleman, in a letter dated Paris June 14, "added a peculiar interest and solemnity to the session of this day. So memorable a victory of philosophy over prejudice, is not recorded in the annals of the human race." The common council of Paris paid an extraordinary tribute of homage to his memory by attending at the funeral oration delivered by the abbé Fauchett, at the Rotundo, in the New Market, which was hung with black, illuminated with lamps and chandeliers, and decorated for the occasion with the most expensive devices.

"Thou bright luminary of freedom," apostrophiz. ed the abbé, “why should I call thee great? Grandeur is too often the scourge of the human kind, whose felicity thy goodness was ever exerted to promote, Thou hast been the benefactor of the universe! Be thy name ever revered! May it be the comfort of the wretched, and the joy of those who are free! What man is more entitled to our gratitude! It was not sufficient to controul the lightning of heaven, and to avert the fury of the growling tempest: thou hast rendered to mankind a service still greater; thou extinguished the thunder of earthly despots, which was ready to be hurled upon their trembling subjects. What pleasure must it have been to thee on earth to perceive others profiting by thy precepts and thy example! With what greater rapture must thou now contemplate thy own diffusion of light! It will illu mine the world; and man, perceiving his natural dignity, will raise his soul to heaven, and bow to ne empire but that which is founded on virtue and reason. I have but one wish to utter; it is a wish dear to my

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heart; a wish always cherished in thy virtuous and benevolent bosom. Surely it will derive some favour from the throne of God, when uttered in the name of Franklin! It is, that in becoming free, men may become also wiser and better: there is no other means of deserving liberty. An Eulogium on Dr. Franklin was delivered March 1, 1791, in Philadelphia, before both Houses of Congress, and the Ameri. can Philosophical Society, &c. by Wm. Smith, D. D., and published by Cadell, London, 1792.

"Panegyric," say the Monthly Reviewers, in noticing this publication, "which has so often been disgracefully employed in strewing flowers on the tombs of the worthless, redeems her credit when she comes forth with truth by her side, to immortalize the memory of the great and the good. To these epithets, if greatness and goodness be measured by the capacity and the inclination to serve mankind, no man had ever a fairer title than Benjamin Franklin.” The following encomium, from Dr. Smith's eulogy, applies, without being chargeable with any exaggeration to the character of this great man. "At the name of Franklin, every thing interesting to virtue, freedom, and humanity, rises to our recollection! By what Euloge shall we do justice to his pre-eminent abilities and worth? This would require a pre-emi. nence of abilities and worth like his own. His vast

and comprehensive mind was cast in a mould, which nature seems rarely to have used before, and there. fore, can be measured only by a mind cast in a similar mould. His original and universal genius was capable of the greatest things, but disdained not the smallest, provided they were useful. With equal ease and abilities, he could conduct the concerns of a printing-press, and of a great nation; and discharge

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the duties of a public minister of state, or the private executor of a will. Those talents, which have separately entered into the composition of other eminent characters in the various departments of life, were in him united to form one great and splendid character; and, whoever, in future shall be said to have deserved well of his country, need not think himself undervalued, when he shall be compared to a Franklin, in any of the great talents he possessed; but the man who shall be said to equal him in all his talents, and who shall devote them to the like benevolent and beneficent purposes, for the service of his country and the happiness of mankind, can receive no further addition to his praise." Franklin was never

ashamed of his origin, or avoided referring to the time when he wrought for daily hire. In a conversation at Paris, in company with Count D' Aranda and the Duke de la Rochefoucault, he replied to an Irish gentleman who asked him some questions concerning the state of the paper manufactory there, "Few men can give you more information on that subject than myself, for I was originally in the printing trade." When in London he visited the spot, then occupied by Mr Hett, where he once laboured; and he retired with apparent gratification.

The

following extract may serve to evince that rare degree of modesty which he ever retained. In a letter to Dr. Mather of Boston, he says, "You mention your being in your 78th year, I am in my 79th. We are grown old together. It is now more than 60 years since I left Boston; but I remember well both your father and grandfather. The last time I saw the former was in the beginning of 1724, when I visited him after my first trip to Pensylvania. He received me in his library; and on my taking leave,

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