When he first became a member of Assembly, that body and the proprietary governors, Penn's representatives, were in hot dispute, chiefly with respect to the immunity from taxation claimed by the latter. In this Franklin took an active part. "He was soon looked up to as the head of the opposition, and to him have been attributed many of the spirited replies of the Assembly to the messages of the governors. His influence in that body was very great. This arose not from any superior powers of eloquence; he spoke but seldom, and ho never was known to make anything like an elaborate harangue. His speeches often consisted of a single sentence, or of a well-told story, the moral of which was always obviously to the point. He never attempted the flowery fields of oratory. His manner was plain and mild. His style in speaking was like that of his writings, simple, unadorned, and remarkably concise. With this plain manner, and his penetrating and RAW judgment, he was able to confound the most eloquent and subtle of his adversaries, to confirm the opinion of his friends, and to make converts of the unprejudiced who had opposed him." (' Life,' p. 115.) Having thus shown his talents, he was sent to England in 1757, on the part of the Assembly, to manage the con troversy before the privy council, and was successful : it was decided that the estates of the proprietaries ought to pay their fair proportion of the public burdens. He remained in England after this question was settled, as agent for Pennsylvania ; and his conduct was so highly approved that Massachusetts, Maryland, and Georgia, severally appointed him their agent. By this time his name was well known to European philosophers. He was chosen a member of the Royal Society, and of several foreign scientific bodies at a later period; in 1772 he was made a foreign associate of the Acad6mie des Sciences, and the universities of Oxford, Edinburgh, and St. Andrews, admitted him to the degree of D.C.L. Ou his return to America, in 1762, he received the thanks of the Assembly, " no well for the faithful discharge of his duty to that province in particular, as for the many and important services done to America in general during his residence in Great Britain." Being re-elected a member of Assembly, Franklin was earnest in endeavouring to procure a change in tho government, by vesting directly in the king those rights and powers, which were held mediately by the proprietaries, to the injury, as he thought, of the community. Party spirit ran high on this point ; and the friends of the proprietaries had influence enough to prevent his election in 1761. On the meeting of the Assembly however he was re-appointed provincial agent in England. He was a warm opponent of the Stamp Act : and his examination at the bar of the House of Commons in 1766, when the repeal of that unhappy measure was proposed, shows the minuteness, variety, and readiness of his information. (See his Works, vol. iii., p. 245.) In tho outset of the contest he ie said to have been truly desirous of effecting a reoonciliation between the mother country and the colonies. The rough treatment which he experienced in the course of his negotiations is reported to have changed his temper. That he should have been deprived of his postmastership, is not wonderful. On one occasion, before the privy council, being assailed by Wedderburne, then solicitor-general, in a torrent of personal abuse, which was received with evident pleasure by the council, be bore it in silence, and apparently unmoved. On changing his dress however he is reported to have said, that ho never again would wear that suit till he had received satisfaction for that day's insult. His next appearance in it was on the day when, as minister
of the United States, he signed the treaty by which England recog nised the independence of the colonies.
In 1775, perceiving that there was little chance of a reconciliation being effected, he returned to Philadelphia, and the day after he landed, was elected a delegate to the Congress then assembled in that city. His character and services marked him out for the most important employments during that and the following year : among them he was sent on a fruitless mission to persuade the Canadians to join in the insurrection ; and was appointed president of the conven tion assembled at Philadelphia, for the purpose of remodelling the government of Pennsylvania. Towards the end of 1776 he was sent to France, where in conjunction with his brother minister, Silas Deane, hr succeeded in inducing the French Government to form an offensive and defensive affiance with tho United States, Feb. 6, 1778. Having made several journeys to the Continent in his former visits to Europe, he was already known in person as well as by reputation to the aeientifio and literary men of France, by whom he was received with the highest marks of respect. Nor did his political engagements prevent his bestowing some share of his attention on science. He bore a part iu exposing the frauds practised under the name of animal magnetism. In 1785 he was recalled, at his own wish, and was succeeded by Jefferson. Soon after his return ho was chosen member of the supreme executive council for the city of Philadelphia, and in a short time was elected president of the same. In 1787 he was delegate for the state of Pennsylvania, in the convention appointed to revise and amend the Articles of Union, and his last political act was an address to his colleagues, entreatiog them to sacrifice their own private views, for the sake of unanimity in recommending the new constitution, as determined by the majority, to their constituents.
After enjoying, through a long life, an unusual share of health, the just reward of temperance and activity, Franklin was compelled in 1788 to quit public life, by the infirmities of age. But he still retained'his philanthropy undiminished, and his intellect unclouded; and his name appears, as president of the Abolition Society, to a memorial to Congress, dated February 12,1789, praying them to exert the full extent of power vested in them by the constitution in dis couraging the traffic in men. This was his last public act. Still ho preserved his liveliness and 'energy, during those intervals of ease which a painful disease, the stone, afforded to him. This however was not the proximate cause of his death. He died, after a short illness, from disease of the lungs, Apri 117, 1790, aged eighty-four.
Dr. Franklin's published works were collected iu three volumes, with his fragment of his own life, continued by Dr. Stuber, prefixed.
He bequeathed his papers to his grandson, William Temple Franklin, by whom, after long delay, an excellent Life of Franklin,' including many of his miscellaneous writings, and much of his correspondence, was published. The 'Biog. Univeraelle ' contains a long memoir of him by Biot ; and his character and conduct have employed the pens of several of the most distinguished Americans of the present day. The latest and best life of Dr. Franklin is that by Mr. Jared Sparks, prefixed to an edition of the Works of Franklin, in 10 vols. 8vo.