PART FOUR

AS SOON as I was settled in a lodging Mr. Charles had provided for me, I went to visit Dr. Fothergill, to whom I was strongly recommended, and whose counsel respecting my proceedings I was advis'd to obtain. He was against an immediate complaint to government, and thought the proprietaries should first be personally appli'd to, who might possibly be induc'd by the interposition and persuasion of some private friends, to accommodate matters amicably. I then waited on my old friend and correspondent, Mr. Peter Collinson, who told me that John Hanbury, the great Virginia merchant, had requested to be informed when I should arrive, that he might carry me to Lord Granville's, who was then President of the Council and wished to see me as soon as possible. I agreed to go with him the next morning. Accordingly Mr. Hanbury called for me and took me in his carriage to that nobleman's, who receiv'd me with great civility; and after some questions respecting the present state of affairs in America and discourse thereupon, he said to me: "You Americans have wrong ideas of the nature of your constitution; you contend that the king's instructions to his governors are not laws, and think yourselves at liberty to regard or disregard them at your own discretion. But those instructions are not like the pocket instructions given to a minister going abroad, for regulating his conduct in some trifling point of ceremony. They are first drawn up by judges learned in the laws; they are then considered, debated, and perhaps amended in Council, after which they are signed by the king. They are then, so far as they relate to you, the law of the land, for the king is the LEGISLATOR OF THE COLONIES." I told his lordship this was new doctrine to me. I had always understood from our charters that our laws were to be made by our Assemblies, to be presented indeed to the king for his royal assent, but that being once given the king could not repeal or alter them. And as the Assemblies could not make permanent laws without his assent, so neither could he make a law for them without theirs. He assur'd me I was totally mistaken. I did not think so, however, and his lordship's conversation having a little alarm'd me as to what might be the sentiments of the court concerning us, I wrote it down as soon as I return'd to my lodgings. I recollected that about 20 years before, a clause in a bill brought into Parliament by the ministry had propos'd to make the king's instructions laws in the colonies, but the clause was thrown out by the Commons, for which we adored them as our friends and friends of liberty, till by their conduct towards us in 1765 it seem'd that they had refus'd that point of sovereignty to the king only that they might reserve it for themselves.

第四部分

查尔斯先生为我安排了住处，我一安顿好后，就立即去拜访了福瑟吉尔博士，因为有人向他强烈引荐了我，还建议我就诉讼事务向他咨询。福瑟吉尔博士反对立即向政府提出控诉，认为应首先和领主们私下商量，通过一些朋友从中劝说调解，也许能就此事达成和解。我又去拜访了与我通信的老朋友彼得·柯林森先生，他告诉我来自弗吉尼亚的大商人约翰·汉伯里先生请求在我到达时通知他，他可以带我去见时任枢密院院长的格兰维尔勋爵，后者也希望尽快见到我。我答应第二天早上和他一起去。于是汉伯里先生来接我，我们坐着他的马车到了格兰维尔勋爵那里，勋爵很有礼貌地接待了我。在问了我一些有关美洲现状的问题，并就此谈了一会儿后，他对我说：“你们美洲人对你们宪法的本质有着错误的认识，你们认为英王给总督的命令并不是法律，还认为你们可以自由选择遵守或是漠视这些命令。但它们并不是国王授予即将出国的公使的袖珍指令，告诉他一些有关礼仪的细枝末节。它们首先由熟谙法律的法官们起草，再由枢密院反复考虑、辩论或者修改，然后由国王签字认可。因此，这些命令对你们来说即是法律，因为国王是‘殖民地的立法者'。”我告诉勋爵我从未听过这样的理论。我从宪章上早就得知，我们的法律应由我们的议会制定，固然需要呈交国王批准，但一经批准，国王就不能再加以废止或是更改。没有国王的批准，议会不能制定永久性法律，而不经议会同意，国王也同样不能制定法律。勋爵肯定地说我完全错了。但我不这么认为，和勋爵的谈话倒是提醒了我英国内阁对于我们有着怎样的看法，于是我一回到住处就把这次谈话记录了下来。我回忆起约20年前，内阁向议会提出的议案中有这么一条，即国王的命令应成为殖民地的法律，但当时议会下院将此条否决了，我们还因此非常尊敬他们，把他们看成是朋友，是自由的朋友，直到1765年他们做出那样的事情，可能他们当时拒绝国王在殖民地拥有主权，只是想把这一权利留给自己吧。

After some days, Dr. Fothergill having spoken to the proprietaries, they agreed to a meeting with me at Mr. T. Penn's house in Spring Garden. The conversation at first consisted of mutual declarations of disposition to reasonable accommodations, but I suppose each party had its own ideas of what should be meant by reasonable. We then went into consideration of our several points of complaint, which I enumerated. The proprietaries justify'd their conduct as well as they could, and I the Assembly's. We now appeared very wide, and so far from each other in our opinions as to discourage all hope of agreement. However, it was concluded that I should give them the heads of our complaints in writing, and they promis'd then to consider them. I did so soon after, but they put the paper into the hands of their solicitor, Ferdinand John Paris, who managed for them all their law business in their great suit with the neighboring proprietary of Maryland, Lord Baltimore, which had subsisted 70 years, and wrote for them all their papers and messages in their dispute with the Assembly. He was a proud, angry man, and as I had occasionally in the answers of the Assembly treated his papers with some severity, they being really weak in point of argument and haughty in expression, he had conceived a mortal enmity to me, which discovering itself whenever we met, I declin'd the proprietary's proposal that he and I should discuss the heads of complaint between our two selves, and refus'd treating with any one but them. They then by his advice put the paper into the hands of the Attorney and Solicitor-General for their opinion and counsel upon it, where it lay unanswered a year wanting eight days, during which time I made frequent demands of an answer from the proprietaries, but without obtaining any other than that they had not yet received the opinion of the Attorney and Solicitor-General. What it was when they did receive it I never learnt, for they did not communicate it to me, but sent a long message to the Assembly drawn and signed by Paris, reciting my paper, complaining of its want of formality, as a rudeness on my part, and giving a flimsy justification of their conduct, adding that they should be willing to accommodate matters if the Assembly would send out some person of candour to treat with them for that purpose, intimating thereby that I was not such.

几天以后，福瑟吉尔博士已同领主们谈过此事，他们同意与我在托马斯·佩恩先生在春季花园的住所里见面。会面一开始，各方都宣称希望谋求事情的合理解决，但我想至于什么是“合理”，各自都有自己的看法。然后我们开始讨论我们的几点控诉意见，我把它们一一列举出来。领主们尽力为自己的行为辩解，而我则证明州议会的决定是正当的。我们这时的分歧非常大，似乎没有达成一致的希望。但我们最终决定由我把我们的控诉意见写下来交给他们，他们答应会予以考虑。我很快照办了，但是他们却把这份文件交给他们的律师费迪南德·约翰·帕里斯，此人负责他们与毗邻的马里兰州领主巴尔的摩勋爵的大诉讼案中的全部法律事务，这桩案子已经持续了70年之久，他还为领主们撰写与州议会争辩的所有文件和文章。他生性傲慢，脾气不好，我曾在为州议会写的回复文章中言辞激烈地反驳他的文章，因为这些文章确实论证薄弱，语气傲慢，于是他把我看成他的死敌，每次我们碰面，这种敌意就自然流露出来。领主们提议让我和他两人来讨论我们的控诉意见，我予以拒绝并表示只和他们本人进行讨论。于是领主们根据他的建议把这份文件交给检察长和副检察长，征询他们的意见。这份文件在他们那里搁置了一年只差八天，期间我常常向领主们询问答复，除了他们还未收到检察长和副检察长的意见外，别无任何音信。他们收到意见后，我也从不知道意见内容是什么，因为他们没有告诉我，只向州议会写了封由帕里斯拟写和签名的长信，详谈了我的意见书，说这篇意见书写得毫无规矩，从中看出我的粗鲁无礼，信中为他们的行为做了牵强附会的辩护，还说如果州议会能派个坦诚正直的人来和他们处理此事，他们会更愿意达成和解，言下之意就是我不是这样的人。

The want of formality or rudeness was, probably, my not having address'd the paper to them with their assum'd titles of True and Absolute Proprietaries of the Province of Pennsylvania, which I omitted as not thinking it necessary in a paper, the intention of which was only to reduce to a certainty by writing, what in conversation I had delivered viva voce.

But during this delay, the Assembly having prevailed with Gov'r Denny to pass an act taxing the proprietary estate in common with the estates of the people, which was the grand point in dispute, they omitted answering the message.

他说我没有规矩、粗鲁无礼，大概是因为我在意见书中没有使用他们的尊称“宾夕法尼亚州真正和绝对的领主们”，我认为在这份文件中没有必要用这样的称呼，所以省略了，因为这份文件的目的只是将我在谈话中已经口头表达的意见用书面形式确定下来而已。

但就在意见书耽搁期间，州议会已经说服丹尼总督批准了对领主财产和平民财产同样征税的法案，这是我们的争论焦点，所以州议会也不回复他们的信了。

When this act however came over, the proprietaries, counselled by Paris, determined to oppose its receiving the royal assent. Accordingly they petition'd the king in Council, and a hearing was appointed in which two lawyers were employ'd by them against the act, and two by me in support of it. They alledg'd that the act was intended to load the proprietary estate in order to spare those of the people, and that if it were suffer'd to continue in force, and the proprietaries who were in odium with the people, left to their mercy in proportioning the taxes, they would inevitably be ruined. We reply'd that the act had no such intention, and would have no such effect. That the assessors were honest and discreet men under an oath to assess fairly and equitably, and that any advantage each of them might expect in lessening his own tax by augmenting that of the proprietaries was too trifling to induce them to perjure themselves. This is the purport of what I remember as urged by both sides, except that we insisted strongly on the mischievous consequences that must attend a repeal, for that the money, L100,000, being printed and given to the king's use, expended in his service, and now spread among the people, the repeal would strike it dead in their hands to the ruin of many, and the total discouragement of future grants, and the selfishness of the proprietors in soliciting such a general catastrophe, merely from a groundless fear of their estate being taxed too highly, was insisted on in the strongest terms. On this, Lord Mansfield, one of the counsel rose, and beckoning me took me into the clerk's chamber, while the lawyers were pleading, and asked me if I was really of opinion that no injury would be done the proprietary estate in the execution of the act. I said certainly. "Then," says he, "you can have little objection to enter into an engagement to assure that point." I answer'd, "None at all." He then call'd in Paris, and after some discourse, his lordship's proposition was accepted on both sides; a paper to the purpose was drawn up by the Clerk of the Council, which I sign'd with Mr. Charles, who was also an Agent of the Province for their ordinary affairs, when Lord Mansfield returned to the Council Chamber, where finally the law was allowed to pass. Some changes were however recommended and we also engaged they should be made by a subsequent law, but the Assembly did not think them necessary; for one year's tax having been levied by the act before the order of Council arrived, they appointed a committee to examine the proceedings of the assessors, and on this committee they put several particular friends of the proprietaries. After a full enquiry, they unanimously sign'd a report that they found the tax had been assess'd with perfect equity.

当这项法案送交英国时，领主们在帕里斯的建议下决定反对其得到英王批准。他们在枢密院向国王请愿，枢密院指定了时间对此事进行听审。领主们请了两个律师反对这项法案，我也请了两个律师为法案辩护。领主们宣称，该法案目的在于加重领主财产负担以减轻平民负担，如果法案持续有效，考虑到平民普遍憎恶领主，在确定征税比例上如任由平民决定，那么领主不可避免地会破产。我们回答说法案并无此种目的，也不会产生这种结果。财产估价员们诚实谨慎，曾起誓要公平公正地对财产进行估价，他们如通过增加领主税额来减少自己的税款，从中所获的利益实在微不足道，不值得为此违背自己的誓言。这就是我所记得的双方的主张。此外，我们还着重强调如果撤销法案，后果将非常严重，因为我们已印发10万英镑的纸币，供给英王使用，为英王服务，现在已在人民中流通，如果撤销法案，人民手中的纸币就成了废纸，这会使很多人破产，将来政府要通过拨款也不太可能了。我们还用最激烈的言辞强调，领主们仅仅因为无端地担心自己的财产缴税太多，便要招致这样一场巨大灾难，实在是自私自利。这时，各位律师还在辩论，枢密院的一位顾问曼斯菲尔德勋爵站起身来，向我招手把我带到秘书室里，问我法案的执行是否真的不会对领主的财产造成损失。我说当然。他说：“那么你应该不反对订约保证这一点吧。”我说：“一点也不反对。”于是他把帕里斯叫了进来，经过一番谈话后，双方都同意了勋爵的提议。枢密院的秘书为此起草了一份文件，我和查尔斯先生签了字，他也是为他们处理日常事务的州代表。这时曼斯菲尔德勋爵回到了枢密院会议室里，法案最终得到了通过。但枢密院提出应对法案作些修改，我们也保证将在随后的法律中把这些改动加以确定，但州议会却认为无此必要，因为在枢密院的指令下达之前，该年的税款已根据法案征收。他们指定了一个委员会来检查征税财产估价员们的工作，并把领主的几位特殊的朋友安排在委员会中。经过详细审查，委员会成员一致认可财产估价做到了完全公平，并在报告上签了字。

The Assembly looked into my entering into the first part of the engagement, as an essential service to the Province, since it secured the credit of the paper money then spread over all the country. They gave me their thanks in form when I return'd. But the proprietaries were enraged at Governor Denny for having pass'd the act, and turn'd him out with threats of suing him for breach of instructions which he had given bond to observe. He, however, having done it at the instance of the General, and for His Majesty's service, and having some powerful interest at court, despis'd the threats and they were never put in execution…[Unfinished].

州议会认为我所订合约的第一部分是对本州的重大贡献，因为它保证了当时已在全州发行的纸币的信用。我回美洲时，他们向我郑重道谢。但是领主们对丹尼总督批准法案感到怒不可遏，他们撤销了他的职务，还威胁说因为他违反了其有义务遵守的领主命令，所以要起诉他。但丹尼总督是在将军的要求下这么做的，同时也是为英王陛下服务，加上他在英国内阁认识一些有权有势的人，所以他并不把领主的威胁放在眼里，而这些威胁也从来没有付诸实行……（未完成）

CHIEF EVENTS IN FRANKLIN'S LIFE

Ending, as it does, with the year 1757, the autobiography leaves important facts un-recorded. It has seemed advisable, therefore, to detail the chief events in Franklin's life, from the beginning, in the following list:

1706 He is born, in Boston, and baptized in the Old South Church.

1714 At the age of eight, enters the Grammar School.

1716 Becomes his father's assistant in the tallow-chandlery business.

1718 Apprenticed to his brother James, printer.

1721 Writes ballads and peddles them, in printed form, in the streets; contributes, anonymously, to the "New England Courant," and temporarily edits that paper; becomes a freethinker, and a vegetarian.

1723 Breaks his indenture and removes to Philadelphia; obtaining employment in Keimer's printing-office; abandons vegetarianism.

1724 Is persuaded by Governor Keith to establish himself independently, and goes to London to buy type; works at his trade there, and publishes "Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain."

1726 Returns to Philadelphia; after serving as clerk in a dry goods store, becomes manager of Keimer's printing-house.

1727 Founds the Junto, or "Leathern Apron" Club.

1728 With Hugh Meredith, opens a printing-office.

1729 Becomes proprietor and editor of the "Pennsylvania Gazette" ; prints, anonymously, "Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency" ; opens a stationer's shop.

1730 Marries Rebecca Read.

1731 Founds the Philadelphia Library.

1732 Publishes the first number of "Poor Richard's Almanac" under the pseudonym of "Richard Saunders." The Almanac, which continued for twenty-five years to contain his witty, worldly-wise sayings, played a very large part in bringing together and molding the American character which was at that time made up of so many diverse and scattered types.

1738 Begins to study French, Italian, Spanish, and Latin.

1736 Chosen clerk of the General Assembly; forms the Union Fire Company of Philadelphia.

1737 Elected to the Assembly; appointed Deputy Postmaster-General; plans a city police.

1742 Invents the open, or "Franklin," stove.

1743 Proposes a plan for an Academy, which is adopted 1749 and develops into the University of Pennsylvania.

1744 Establishes the American Philosophical Society.

1746 Publishes a pamphlet, "Plain Truth," on the necessity for disciplined defense, and forms a military company; begins electrical experiments.

1748 Sells out his printing business; is appointed on the Commission of the Peace, chosen to the Common Council, and to the Assembly.

1749 Appointed a Commissioner to trade with the Indians.

1751 Aids in founding a hospital.

1752 Experiments with a kite and discovers that lightning is an electrical discharge.

1753 Awarded the Copley medal for this discovery, and elected a member of the Royal Society; receives the degree of M.A. from Yale and Harvard. Appointed joint Postmaster-General.

1754 Appointed one of the Commissioners from Pennsylvania to the Colonial Congress at Albany; proposes a plan for the union of the colonies.

1755 Pledges his personal property in order that supplies may be raised for Braddock's army; obtains a grant from the Assembly in aid of the Crown Point expedition; carries through a bill establishing a voluntary militia; is appointed Colonel, and takes the field.

1757 Introduces a bill in the Assembly for paving the streets of Philadelphia; publishes his famous "Way to Wealth" ; goes to England to plead the cause of the Assembly against the Proprietaries; remains as agent for Pennsylvania; enjoys the friendship of the scientific and literary men of the kingdom.

[HERE THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY BREAKS OFF]

1760 Secures from the Privy Council, by a compromise, a decision obliging the Proprietary estates to contribute to the public revenue.

1762 Receives the degree of LL.D. from Oxford and Edinburgh; returns to America.

1763 Makes a five months' tour of the northern colonies for the purpose of inspecting the postoffices.

1764 Defeated by the Penn faction for reelection to the Assembly; sent to England as agent for Pennsylvania.

1765 Endeavors to prevent the passage of the Stamp Act.

1766 Examined before the House of Commons relative to the passage of the Stamp Act; appointed agent of Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Georgia; visits Gottingen University.

1767 Travels in France and is presented at court.

1769 Procures a telescope for Harvard College.

1772 Elected Associe Etranger of the French Academy.

1774 Dismissed from the office of Postmaster-General; influences Thomas Paine to emigrate to America.

1775 Returns to America; chosen a delegate to the Second Continental Congress; placed on the committee of secret correspondence; appointed one of the commissioners to secure the cooperation of Canada.

1776 Placed on the committee to draft a Declaration of Independence; chosen president of the Constitutional Committee of Pennsylvania; sent to France as agent of the colonies.

1778 Concludes treaties of defensive alliance, and of amity and commerce; is received at court.

1779 Appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to France.

1780 Appoints Paul Jones commander of the "Alliance."

1782 Signs the preliminary articles of peace.

1783 Signs the definite treaty of peace.

1785 Returns to America; is chosen President of Pennsylvania; reelected 1786.

1787 Reelected President; sent as delegate to the convention for framing a Federal Constitution.

1788 Retires from public life.

1790 April 17, dies. His grave is in the churchyard at Fifth and Arch streets, Philadelphia. Editor.

富兰克林生平大事记

富兰克林的自传只写到了1757年，留下许多重要事件没有记载。因此在此从头详细记录富兰克林生平的大事似乎很有意义，详见下表：

1706年　富兰克林出生于波士顿，在旧南方教堂受洗。

1714年　八岁时进入文法学校学习。

1716年　为父亲的油烛生意帮忙。

1718年　到哥哥詹姆斯的印刷店里当学徒。

1721年　创作叙事诗并沿街叫卖印刷出来的诗歌；匿名给《新英格兰报》投稿，担任该报的临时编辑；成为自由思想者和素食者。

1723年　抛弃学徒契约，来到费城；在凯默的印刷所工作；放弃食素。

1724年　接受基思总督的建议，决定独立开店，前往伦敦购置铅字；在印刷店干活，并发表《论自由与穷困、快乐与痛苦》一文。

1726年　回到费城；在一家干货店担任职员，后为凯默管理印刷店。

1727年　成立“学习社”，或叫“皮围裙”俱乐部。

1728年　与休·梅雷迪斯合开印刷所。

1729年　接办《宾夕法尼亚报》并担任编辑；匿名印发《论纸币的本质和必要性》一文；开文具店。

1730年　与丽贝卡·里德结婚。

1731年　建立费城图书馆。

1732年　以理查德·桑德斯的笔名发表《穷理查年鉴》的第一版。《穷理查年鉴》连续发行25年，包含他许多充满智慧和世俗经验的格言，这对凝聚和塑造原无定性的美利坚民族性格发挥了重要作用。

1738年　开始学习法语、意大利语、西班牙语和拉丁语。

1736年　被选为州议会秘书；成立费城联合消防队。

1737年　当选为州议会议员；担任副邮政总长；计划成立费城警察局。

1742年　发明开式或“富兰克林式”火炉。

1743年　提出成立学院的计划，于1749年实现，该学院是宾夕法尼亚大学的前身。

1744年　成立美国哲学学会。

1746年　出版一本小册子《明显的事实》，论述建立规范化防务的必要性，并组建了一支军队；开始电学实验。

1748年　将印刷所出售；担任治安委员会委员，当选为参事会成员及州议会议员。

1749年　担任与印第安人贸易的专员。

1751年　帮助建立医院。

1752年　用风筝做实验，发现闪电是一种放电现象。

1753年　因这一发现被授予科普利奖章，当选为皇家学会会员；获耶鲁大学和哈佛大学文科硕士学位；与他人共同担任邮政总长。

1754年　作为宾夕法尼亚代表之一出席在奥尔巴尼举行的殖民地大会；提出殖民地联盟计划。

1755年　为布雷多克军队筹集车马并用个人财产作担保；因克朗波因特之行获得州议会拨款；使建立一支志愿民兵部队的议案在议会获得通过；担任防卫队上校，带军打仗。

1757年　提出为费城街道铺路的议案；发表著名的《通向财富之路》一文；去英国为州议会向领主征税抗辩；留在英国担任宾夕法尼亚代理人；与英国科学界和文学界人士结下友谊。

自传写到此处

1760年　通过让步，使枢密院决定同意对殖民地领主财产征税作为财政收入。

1762年　获得牛津大学和爱丁堡大学法学博士学位；回到美洲。

1763年　对北部殖民地作为期五个月的访问，视察当地邮局。

1764年　在州议会改选中败给佩恩一派；作为宾夕法尼亚代理人前往英国。

1765年　尽力阻止《印花税法案》通过。

1766年　因《印花税法案》通过一事在英国下议院答问；担任马萨诸塞、新泽西和佐治亚代理人；访问哥廷根大学。

1767年　在法国旅行，被引见给法国王室。

1769年　为哈佛大学购买一架望远镜。

1772年　当选为法国科学院外国合作院士。

1774年　被免去邮政总长一职；影响托马斯·潘恩使其移民美洲。

1775年　回到美洲；当选为第二届大陆会议代表；担任秘密通讯委员会委员；担任确保加拿大合作事务的专员之一。

1776年　担任《独立宣言》起草委员会委员；当选为宾夕法尼亚制宪会议主席；作为殖民地代理人前往法国。

1778年　与法国签订防御联盟条约和友好商务条约；接受法国国王会见。

1779年　担任驻法全权大使。

1780年　任命保罗·琼斯为“联军”指挥官。

1782年　签订和平合约草案。

1783年　签订和平合约。

1785年　回到美国；当选为宾夕法尼亚州州长；1786年再次当选。

1787年　再次当选为州长；作为代表出席联邦制宪会议。

1788年　退出公共生活。

1790年4月17日　与世长辞。安葬在费城第五街和拱门街墓地，墓志铭为“印刷工富兰克林”。