And surely such a state is not to
be put into yearly hazard for the pleasure of _keeping the house full_,
or the ambition of _out-brewing Whitbread_? _Piozzi Letters_, p. 24.
[1087] See _ante_, ii. 136. The following letter, of which a fac-simile
is given at the beginning of vol. iii. of Dr. Franklin's _Memoirs_, ed.
1818, tells of 'a difference' between the famous printer of Philadelphia
and the King's Printer of London.
'Philada., July 5, 1775.
'Mr. Strahan,
'You are a Member of Parliament, and one of that Majority which has
doomed my Country to Destruction.--You have begun to burn our Towns, and
murder our People.--Look upon your Hands!--They are stained with the
Blood of your Relations! You and I were long friends:--You are now my
Enemy,--and
'I am, yours,
'B. FRANKLIN.'
When peace was made between the two countries the old friendship was
renewed. _Ib_. iii. 147.
[1088] On this day he wrote a touching letter to Mr. Elphinston, who had
lost his wife (Croker's _Boswell_, p. 66, note). Perhaps the thoughts
thus raised in him led him to this act of reconciliation.
[1089] Dr. Johnson here addresses his worthy friend, Bennet Langton,
Esq.
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