called on me for it, and I delivered it to him.  As he put it into his pocket, he said carelessly, he had either the original, or another copy of it, I do not recollect which.  This last expression struck my attention forcibly, and for the first time suggested to me the thought, that Dr. Franklin had meant it as a confidential deposite in my hands, and that I had done wrong in parting from it.  I have not yet seen the collection he published of Dr. Franklin’s works, and therefore know not if this is among them.  I have been told it is not.  It contained a narrative of the negotiations between Dr. Franklin and the British Ministry, when he was endeavoring to prevent the contest of arms which followed.  The negotiation was brought about by the intervention of Lord Howe and his sister, who, I believe, was called Lady Howe, but I may misremember her title.  Lord Howe seems to have been friendly to America, and exceedingly anxious to prevent a rupture.  His intimacy with Dr. Franklin, and his position with the Ministry, induced him to undertake a mediation between them; in which his sister seemed to have been associated.  They carried from one to the other, backwards and forwards, the several propositions and answers which passed, and seconded with their own intercessions, the importance of mutual sacrifices, to preserve the peace and connection of the two countries.  I remember that Lord North’s answers were dry, unyielding, in the spirit of unconditional submission, and betrayed an absolute indifference to the occurrence of a rupture; and he said to the mediators distinctly, at last, that ’a rebellion was not to be deprecated on the part of Great Britain; that the confiscations it would produce, would provide for many of their friends.’  This expression was reported by the mediators to Dr. Franklin, and indicated so cool and calculated a purpose in the Ministry, as to render compromise hopeless, and the negotiation was discontinued.  If this is not among the papers published, we ask, what has become of it?  I delivered it with my own hands, into those of Temple Franklin.  It certainly established views so atrocious in the British government, that its suppression would, to them, be worth a great price.  But could the grandson of Dr. Franklin be, in such degree, an accomplice in the parricide of the memory of his immortal grandfather?  The suspension, for more than twenty years, of the general publication, bequeathed and confided to him, produced for a while hard suspicions against him:  and if, at last, all are not published, a part of these suspicions may remain with some.

I arrived at New York on the 21st of March, where Congress was in session.

APPENDIX TO THE MEMOIR.

[NOTE A.] Letter to John Saunderson, Esq.

Sir,

Monticello, August 31, 1820.