with their compeers.  There, also, was Turgot, the greatest of all.  There was another person in some respects as famous as any of these, but leading a very different life, whom Franklin saw often,—­I refer to Caron de Beaumarchais, the author already of the “Barbier de Seville,” as he was afterwards of the “Mariage de Figaro,” who, turning aside from an unsurpassed success at the theatre, exerted his peculiar genius to enlist the French Government on the side of the struggling Colonies, predicted their triumph, and at last, under the assumed name of a mercantile house, became the agent of the Comte de Vergennes in furnishing clandestine supplies of arms even before the recognition of Independence.  It is supposed that through this popular dramatist Franklin maintained communications with the French Government until the mask was thrown aside.[24]

Beyond all doubt, Turgot is one of the most remarkable intelligences which France has produced.  He was by nature a philosopher and a reformer, but he was also a statesman, who for a time held a seat in the cabinet of Louis XVI., first as Minister of the Marine, and then as Comptroller of the Finances.  Perhaps no minister ever studied more completely the good of the people.  His administration was one constant benefaction.  But he was too good for the age in which he lived,—­or rather, the age was not good enough for him.  The King was induced to part with him, saying, when he yielded,—­“You and I are the only two persons who really love the people.”  This was some time in May, 1776; so that Franklin, on his arrival, found this eminent Frenchman free from all the constraints of a ministerial position.  The character of Turgot shows how naturally he sympathized with the Colonies struggling for independence, especially when represented by a person like Franklin.  In a prize essay of his youth, written in 1750, when he was only twenty-three years of age, he had foretold the American Revolution.  These are his remarkable words on that occasion:—­

“Colonies are like fruits, which do not hold to the tree after their maturity.  Having become sufficient in themselves, they do that which Carthage did, that which America will one day do."[25]

One of his last acts before leaving the Ministry was to prepare a memoir on the American War, for the information of the Comte de Vergennes, in which he says “that the idea of the absolute separation of the Colonies and the mother-country seems infinitely probable; that, when the independence of the Colonies shall be entire and acknowledged by the English, there will be a total revolution in the political and commercial relations of Europe and America; and that all the mother-countries will be forced to abandon all empire over their colonies, to leave them entire liberty of commerce with all nations, and to be content in sharing with others this liberty, and in preserving with their colonies the bonds of amity and fraternity."[26] This memoir of the French statesman bears date the sixth of April, 1776, nearly three months before the Declaration of Independence.