Closely related to Franklin’s political pamphlets are his writings on economics, which, though undertaken with a political or practical purpose and not in a purely scientific spirit, rank him as the first American economist. He wrote in 1729A Modest Enquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency, which argued that a plentiful currency will make rates of interest low and will promote immigration and home manufactures, and which did much to secure the further issue of paper money in Pennsylvania. After the British Act of 1750 forbidding the erection or the operating of iron or steel mills in the colonies, Franklin wroteObservations concerning the Increase of Mankind and the Peopling of Countries(1751); its thesis was that manufactures come to be common only with a high degree of social development and with great density of population, and that Great Britain need not, therefore, fear the industrial competition of the colonies, but it is better known for the estimate (adopted by Adam Smith) that the population of the colonies would double every quarter-century; and for the likeness to Malthus’s12“preventive check” of its statement: “The greater the common fashionable expense of any rank of people the more cautious they are of marriage.” HisPositions to be examined concerning National Wealth(1769) shows that he was greatly influenced by the French physiocrats after his visit to France in 1767. HisWail of a Protected Manufacturervoices a protest against protection as raising the cost of living; and he held that free trade was based on a natural right. He knew Kames, Hume and Adam Smith, and corresponded with Mirabeau, “the friend of Man.” Some of the more important of his economic theses, as summarized by W. A. Wetzel, are: that money as coin may have more than its bullion value; that natural interest is determined by the rent of land valued at the sum of money loaned—an anticipation of Turgot; that high wages are not inconsistent with a large foreign trade; that the value of an article is determined by the amount of labour necessary to produce the food consumed in making the article; that manufactures are advantageous but agriculture only is truly productive; and that when practicable (as he did not think it practicable at the end of the War of Independence) state revenue should be raised by direct tax.
Franklin as a scientist13and as an inventor has been decried by experts as an amateur and a dabbler; but it should be remembered that it was always his hope to retire from public life and devote himself to science. In the American Philosophical Society (founded 1743) scientific subjects were much discussed. Franklin wrote a paper on the causes of earthquakes for hisGazetteof the 15th of December 1737; and he eagerly collected material to uphold his theory that waterspouts and whirlwinds resulted from the same causes. In 1743, from the circumstance that an eclipse not visible in Philadelphia because of a storm had been observed in Boston, where the storm although north-easterly did not occur until an hour after the eclipse, he surmised that storms moveagainstthe wind along the Atlantic coast. In the year before (1742) he had planned the “Pennsylvania fire-place,” better known as the “Franklin stove,” which saved fuel, heated all the room, and had the same principle as the hot-air furnace; the stove was never patented by Franklin, but was described in his pamphlet dated 1744. He was much engaged at the same time in remedying smoking chimneys, and as late as 1785 wrote to Jan Ingenhousz, physician to the emperor of Austria, on chimneys and draughts; smoking street lamps he remedied by a simple contrivance. The study of electricity he took up in 1746 when he first saw a Leyden jar, in the manipulation of which he became expert and which he improved by the use of granulated lead in the place of water for the interior armatures; he recognized that condensation is due to the dielectric and not to the metal coatings. A note in his diary, dated the 7th of November 1749, shows that he had thenconjectured that thunder and lightning were electrical manifestations; in the same year he planned the lightning-rod (long known as “Franklin’s rod”), which he described and recommended to the public in 1753, when the Copley medal of the Royal Society was awarded him for his discoveries. The famous experiment with the kite, proving lightning an electrical phenomenon, was performed by Franklin in June 1752. He overthrew entirely the “friction” theory of electricity and conceived the idea of plus and minus charges (1753); he thought the sea the source of electricity. On light Franklin wrote to David Rittenhouse in June 1784; the sum of his own conjectures was that the corpuscular theory of Newton was wrong, and that light was due to the vibration of an elastic aether. He studied with some care the temperature of the Gulf Stream. In navigation he suggested many new contrivances, such as water-tight compartments, floating anchors to lay a ship to in a storm, and dishes that would not upset during a gale; and beginning in 1757 made repeated experiments with oil on stormy waters. As a mathematician he devised various elaborate magic squares and novel magic circles, of which he speaks apologetically, because they are of no practical use. Always much interested in agriculture, he made an especial effort (like Robert R. Livingston) to promote the use of plaster of Paris as a fertiliser. He took a prominent part in aeronautic experiments during his stay in France. He made an excellent clock, which because of a slight improvement introduced by James Ferguson in 1757 was long known as Ferguson’s clock. In medicine Franklin was considered important enough to be elected to the Royal Medical Society of Paris in 1777, and an honorary member of the Medical Society of London in 1787. In 1784 he was on the committee which investigated Mesmer, and the report is a document of lasting scientific value. Franklin’s advocacy of vegetarianism, of sparing and simple diet, and of temperance in the use of liquors, and of proper ventilation has already been referred to. His most direct contribution to medicine was the invention for his own use of bifocal eyeglasses.
A summary of so versatile a genius is impossible. His services to America in England and France rank him as one of the heroes of the American War of Independence and as the greatest of American diplomats. Almost the only American scientist of his day, he displayed remarkably deep as well as remarkably varied abilities in science and deserved the honours enthusiastically given him by thesavantsof Europe.
Bibliography.—Franklin’s works were not collected in his own lifetime, and he made no effort to publish his writings.Experiments and Observations on Electricity(London, 1769) was translated into French by Barbeu Dubourg (Paris, 1773); Vaughan attempted a more complete edition,Political, Miscellaneous and Philosophical Pieces(London, 1779); an edition in three volumes appeared after Franklin’s death (London, 1806); what seemed the authenticWorks, as it was under the care of Temple Franklin, was published at London (6 vols., 1817-1819; 3 vols., 1818) and with some additional matter at Philadelphia (6 vols., 1818). Sparks’s edition (10 vols., Boston, 1836-1842; revised, Philadelphia, 1858) also contained fresh matter; and there are further additions in the edition of John Bigelow (Philadelphia, 1887-1888; 5th ed., 1905) and in that by Albert Henry Smyth (10 vols., New York, 1905-1907). There are important Frankliniana, about 13,000 papers, in the possession of the American Philosophical Society, to which they were conveyed by the son of Temple Franklin’s executor, George Fox. Other papers which had been left to Fox lay for years in barrels in a stable garret; they were finally cleared out, their owner, Mary Fox, intending to send them to a paper mill. One barrel went to the mill. The others, it was found, contained papers belonging to Franklin, and this important collection was bought and presented to the university of Pennsylvania. The valuable Frankliniana collected by Henry Stevens were purchased by Congress in 1885. These MS. collections were first carefully gone over for the edition of theWorksby A. H. Smyth. Franklin’sAutobiographywas begun in 1771 as a private chronicle for his son, Governor William Franklin; the papers, bringing the story of his father’s life down to 1730, were lost by the governor during the War of Independence, and in 1783 came into the possession of Abel James, who restored them to Franklin and urged him to complete the sketch. He wrote a little in 1784, more in 1788, when he furnished a copy to his friend le Veillard, and a little more in 1790. The original manuscript was long in the possession of Temple Franklin, who spent years rearranging the matter in it and making over into politer English his grandfather’s plain-spokenness. So long was the publication delayed that it was generally believed that Temple Franklin had sold all the papers to the British government; a French version,Mémoires de la vie privée(Paris, 1791), was retranslated into English twice in 1793 (London), and from one of these versions (by Robinson) still another French version was made (Paris, 1798). Temple Franklin, deciding to print, got from le Veillard the copy sent to him in 1788 (sending in return the original with autograph alterations and the final addition), and from the copy published (London, 1817) an edition supposed to be authentic and complete. The complete autograph of the biography, acquired by John Bigelow in 1867 from its French owners, upon collation with Temple Franklin’s edition showed that the latter contained 1200 emasculations and that it omitted entirely what had been written in 1790. Bigelow published the completeAutobiographywith additions from Franklin’s correspondence and other writings in 1868; a second edition (3 vols., Philadelphia, 1888) was published under the title,The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Written by Himself.In addition to theAutobiographysee James Parton,Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin(2 vols., New York, 1864); John T. Morse, Jr.,Benjamin Franklin(Boston, 1889, in the American Statesmen series); J. B. McMaster,Benjamin Franklin as a Man of Letters(Boston, 1887, in American Men of Letters series); Paul L. Ford,The Many-Sided Franklin(New York, 1899) andFranklin Bibliography(Brooklyn, 1889); E. E. Hale and E. E. Hale, Jr.,Franklin in France(2 vols., Boston, 1888); J. H. A. Doniol,Histoire de la participation de la France a l’établissement des États-Unis d’Amérique(Paris, 6 vols., 1886-1900); S. G. Fisher,The True Benjamin Franklin(Philadelphia, 1899); E. Robins,Benjamin Franklin(New York, 1898, in the American Men of Energy series); W. A. Wetzel, “Benjamin Franklin as an Economist,” No. 9, in series 13 ofJohns Hopkins Studies in Historical and Political Science; and the prefaces and biographical matter in A. H. Smyth’s edition of theWorks(New York, 10 vols., 1905-1907).
Bibliography.—Franklin’s works were not collected in his own lifetime, and he made no effort to publish his writings.Experiments and Observations on Electricity(London, 1769) was translated into French by Barbeu Dubourg (Paris, 1773); Vaughan attempted a more complete edition,Political, Miscellaneous and Philosophical Pieces(London, 1779); an edition in three volumes appeared after Franklin’s death (London, 1806); what seemed the authenticWorks, as it was under the care of Temple Franklin, was published at London (6 vols., 1817-1819; 3 vols., 1818) and with some additional matter at Philadelphia (6 vols., 1818). Sparks’s edition (10 vols., Boston, 1836-1842; revised, Philadelphia, 1858) also contained fresh matter; and there are further additions in the edition of John Bigelow (Philadelphia, 1887-1888; 5th ed., 1905) and in that by Albert Henry Smyth (10 vols., New York, 1905-1907). There are important Frankliniana, about 13,000 papers, in the possession of the American Philosophical Society, to which they were conveyed by the son of Temple Franklin’s executor, George Fox. Other papers which had been left to Fox lay for years in barrels in a stable garret; they were finally cleared out, their owner, Mary Fox, intending to send them to a paper mill. One barrel went to the mill. The others, it was found, contained papers belonging to Franklin, and this important collection was bought and presented to the university of Pennsylvania. The valuable Frankliniana collected by Henry Stevens were purchased by Congress in 1885. These MS. collections were first carefully gone over for the edition of theWorksby A. H. Smyth. Franklin’sAutobiographywas begun in 1771 as a private chronicle for his son, Governor William Franklin; the papers, bringing the story of his father’s life down to 1730, were lost by the governor during the War of Independence, and in 1783 came into the possession of Abel James, who restored them to Franklin and urged him to complete the sketch. He wrote a little in 1784, more in 1788, when he furnished a copy to his friend le Veillard, and a little more in 1790. The original manuscript was long in the possession of Temple Franklin, who spent years rearranging the matter in it and making over into politer English his grandfather’s plain-spokenness. So long was the publication delayed that it was generally believed that Temple Franklin had sold all the papers to the British government; a French version,Mémoires de la vie privée(Paris, 1791), was retranslated into English twice in 1793 (London), and from one of these versions (by Robinson) still another French version was made (Paris, 1798). Temple Franklin, deciding to print, got from le Veillard the copy sent to him in 1788 (sending in return the original with autograph alterations and the final addition), and from the copy published (London, 1817) an edition supposed to be authentic and complete. The complete autograph of the biography, acquired by John Bigelow in 1867 from its French owners, upon collation with Temple Franklin’s edition showed that the latter contained 1200 emasculations and that it omitted entirely what had been written in 1790. Bigelow published the completeAutobiographywith additions from Franklin’s correspondence and other writings in 1868; a second edition (3 vols., Philadelphia, 1888) was published under the title,The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Written by Himself.
In addition to theAutobiographysee James Parton,Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin(2 vols., New York, 1864); John T. Morse, Jr.,Benjamin Franklin(Boston, 1889, in the American Statesmen series); J. B. McMaster,Benjamin Franklin as a Man of Letters(Boston, 1887, in American Men of Letters series); Paul L. Ford,The Many-Sided Franklin(New York, 1899) andFranklin Bibliography(Brooklyn, 1889); E. E. Hale and E. E. Hale, Jr.,Franklin in France(2 vols., Boston, 1888); J. H. A. Doniol,Histoire de la participation de la France a l’établissement des États-Unis d’Amérique(Paris, 6 vols., 1886-1900); S. G. Fisher,The True Benjamin Franklin(Philadelphia, 1899); E. Robins,Benjamin Franklin(New York, 1898, in the American Men of Energy series); W. A. Wetzel, “Benjamin Franklin as an Economist,” No. 9, in series 13 ofJohns Hopkins Studies in Historical and Political Science; and the prefaces and biographical matter in A. H. Smyth’s edition of theWorks(New York, 10 vols., 1905-1907).
(R. We.)
1Keimer and his sister had come the year before from London, where he had learned his trade; both were ardent members of the fanatic band of “French prophets.” He proposed founding a new sect with the help of Franklin, who after leaving his shop ridiculed him for his long square beard and for keeping the seventh day. Keimer settled in the Barbadoes about 1730; and in 1731 began to publish at Bridgetown the semi-weeklyBarbadoes Gazette. Selections from it calledCaribbeana(1741) andA Brand Plucked from the Burning, Exemplified in the Unparalleled Case of Samuel Keimer(1718) are from his pen. He died about 1738.2The meeting between Franklin, the type of the shrewd, cool provincial, and Braddock, a blustering, blundering, drinking British soldier, is dramatically portrayed by Thackeray in the 9th chapter ofThe Virginians.3Many questions (about 20 of the first 25) were put by his friends to draw out what he wished to be known.4The house is familiar from the drawing of it by Victor Hugo.5Many of these portraits bore inscriptions, the most famous of which was Turgot’s line, “Eripuit fulmen coelo sceptrumque tyrannis.”6Notably in a pamphlet comparing the Jews and the Anti-Federalists.7William Franklin served on the Canadian frontier with Pennsylvania troops, becoming captain in 1750; was in the post-office in 1754-1756; went to England with his father in 1758; was admitted to legal practice in 1758; in 1763, recommended by Lord Fairfax, became governor of New Jersey; he left the Whig for the Tory party; and in the War of Independence was a faithful loyalist, much to the pain and regret of his father, who, however, was reconciled to him in part in 1784. He was held as a prisoner from 1776 until exchanged in 1778; and lived four years in New York, and during the remainder of his life in England with an annual pension of £800 from the crown.8For the prevention of counterfeiting continental paper money Franklin long afterwards suggested the use on the different denominations of different leaves, having noted the infinite variety of leaf venation.9“Seventy-five editions of it have been printed in English, fifty-six in French, eleven in German and nine in Italian. It has been translated into Spanish, Danish, Swedish, Welsh, Polish, Gaelic, Russian, Bohemian, Dutch, Catalan, Chinese, modern Greek and phonetic writing. It has been printed at least four hundred times, and is to-day as popular as ever.”—P. L. Ford, inThe Many-Sided Franklin(1899).10Both Swift and Franklin made sport of the typical astrologer almanack-maker.11Another hoax was Franklin’s parable against religious persecution thrown into Scriptural form and quoted by him as the fifty-first chapter of Genesis. In a paper on a “Proposed New Version of the Bible” he paraphrased a few verses of the first chapter of Job, making them a satiric attack on royal government; but the version may well rank with these hoaxes, and even modern writers have been taken in by it, regarding it as a serious proposal for a “modernized” version and decrying it as poor taste. Matthew Arnold, for example, declared this an instance in which Franklin was lacking in his “imperturbable common sense”; and J. B. McMaster, though devoting several pages to its discussion, very ingenuously declares it “beneath criticism.”12Malthus quoted Franklin in his first edition, but it was not until the second that he introduced the theory of the “preventive check.” Franklin noted the phenomenon with disapproval in his advocacy of increased population; Malthus with approval in his search for means to decrease population.13The title of philosopher as used in Franklin’s lifetime referred neither in England nor in France to him as author of moral maxims, but to him as a scientist—a “natural philosopher.”
1Keimer and his sister had come the year before from London, where he had learned his trade; both were ardent members of the fanatic band of “French prophets.” He proposed founding a new sect with the help of Franklin, who after leaving his shop ridiculed him for his long square beard and for keeping the seventh day. Keimer settled in the Barbadoes about 1730; and in 1731 began to publish at Bridgetown the semi-weeklyBarbadoes Gazette. Selections from it calledCaribbeana(1741) andA Brand Plucked from the Burning, Exemplified in the Unparalleled Case of Samuel Keimer(1718) are from his pen. He died about 1738.
2The meeting between Franklin, the type of the shrewd, cool provincial, and Braddock, a blustering, blundering, drinking British soldier, is dramatically portrayed by Thackeray in the 9th chapter ofThe Virginians.
3Many questions (about 20 of the first 25) were put by his friends to draw out what he wished to be known.
4The house is familiar from the drawing of it by Victor Hugo.
5Many of these portraits bore inscriptions, the most famous of which was Turgot’s line, “Eripuit fulmen coelo sceptrumque tyrannis.”
6Notably in a pamphlet comparing the Jews and the Anti-Federalists.
7William Franklin served on the Canadian frontier with Pennsylvania troops, becoming captain in 1750; was in the post-office in 1754-1756; went to England with his father in 1758; was admitted to legal practice in 1758; in 1763, recommended by Lord Fairfax, became governor of New Jersey; he left the Whig for the Tory party; and in the War of Independence was a faithful loyalist, much to the pain and regret of his father, who, however, was reconciled to him in part in 1784. He was held as a prisoner from 1776 until exchanged in 1778; and lived four years in New York, and during the remainder of his life in England with an annual pension of £800 from the crown.
8For the prevention of counterfeiting continental paper money Franklin long afterwards suggested the use on the different denominations of different leaves, having noted the infinite variety of leaf venation.
9“Seventy-five editions of it have been printed in English, fifty-six in French, eleven in German and nine in Italian. It has been translated into Spanish, Danish, Swedish, Welsh, Polish, Gaelic, Russian, Bohemian, Dutch, Catalan, Chinese, modern Greek and phonetic writing. It has been printed at least four hundred times, and is to-day as popular as ever.”—P. L. Ford, inThe Many-Sided Franklin(1899).
10Both Swift and Franklin made sport of the typical astrologer almanack-maker.
11Another hoax was Franklin’s parable against religious persecution thrown into Scriptural form and quoted by him as the fifty-first chapter of Genesis. In a paper on a “Proposed New Version of the Bible” he paraphrased a few verses of the first chapter of Job, making them a satiric attack on royal government; but the version may well rank with these hoaxes, and even modern writers have been taken in by it, regarding it as a serious proposal for a “modernized” version and decrying it as poor taste. Matthew Arnold, for example, declared this an instance in which Franklin was lacking in his “imperturbable common sense”; and J. B. McMaster, though devoting several pages to its discussion, very ingenuously declares it “beneath criticism.”
12Malthus quoted Franklin in his first edition, but it was not until the second that he introduced the theory of the “preventive check.” Franklin noted the phenomenon with disapproval in his advocacy of increased population; Malthus with approval in his search for means to decrease population.
13The title of philosopher as used in Franklin’s lifetime referred neither in England nor in France to him as author of moral maxims, but to him as a scientist—a “natural philosopher.”
FRANKLIN, SIR JOHN(1786-1847), English rear-admiral and explorer, was born at Spilsby, Lincolnshire, on the 16th of April 1786. His family was descended from a line of free-holders or “franklins” from whom some centuries earlier they had derived their surname; but the small family estate was sold by his father, who went into business. John, who was the fifth and youngest son and ninth child, was destined for the church. At the age of ten he was sent to school at St Ives, and soon afterwards was transferred to Louth grammar school, which he attended for two years. About this time his imagination was deeply impressed by a holiday walk of 12 m. which he made with a companion to look at the sea, and he determined to be a sailor. In the hope of dispelling this fancy his father sent him on a trial voyage to Lisbon in a merchantman; but it being found on his return that his wishes were unchanged he was entered as a midshipman on board the “Polyphemus,” and shortly afterwards took part in her in the hard-fought battle of Copenhagen (2nd of April 1801). Two months later he joined the “Investigator,” a discovery-ship commanded by his cousin Captain Matthew Flinders, and under the training of that able scientific officer was employed in the exploration and mapping of the coasts of Australia, where he acquired a correctness of astronomical observation and a skill in surveying which proved of eminent utility in his future career. He was on board the “Porpoise” when that ship and the “Cato” were wrecked (18th of August 1803) on a coral reef off the coast of Australia, and after this misfortune proceeded to China. Thence he obtained a passage to England in the “Earl Camden,” East Indiaman, commanded by Captain (afterwards Sir) Nathaniel Dance, and performed the duty of signal midshipman in the famous action of the 15th of February 1804 when Captain Dance repulsed a strong French squadron led by the redoubtable Admiral Linois. On reaching England he joined the “Bellerophon,” 74, and was in charge of the signals on board that ship during the battle of Trafalgar. Two years later he joined the “Bedford,” attaining the rank of lieutenant the year after, and served in her on the Brazil station (whither the “Bedford” went as part of the convoy which escorted the royal family of Portugal to Rio de Janeiro in 1808), in the blockade of Flushing, and finally in the disastrous expedition against New Orleans (1814), in which campaign he displayed such zeal and intelligence as to merit special mention in despatches.
On peace being established, Franklin turned his attention once more to the scientific branch of his profession, and sedulously extended his knowledge of surveying. In 1818 the discovery of a North-West Passage to the Pacific became again, after along interval, an object of national interest, and Lieutenant Franklin was given the command of the “Trent” in the Arctic expedition, under the orders of Captain Buchan in the “Dorothea”. During a heavy storm the “Dorothea” was so much damaged by the pack-ice that her reaching England became doubtful, and, much to the chagrin of young Franklin, the “Trent” was compelled to convoy her home instead of being allowed to prosecute the voyage alone. This voyage, however, had brought Franklin into personal intercourse with the leading scientific men of London, and they were not slow in ascertaining his peculiar fitness for the command of such an enterprise. To calmness in danger, promptness and fertility of resource, and excellent seamanship, he added an ardent desire to promote science for its own sake, together with a love of truth that led him to do full justice to the merits of his subordinate officers, without wishing to claim their discoveries as a captain’s right. Furthermore, he possessed a cheerful buoyancy of mind, sustained by deep religious principle, which was not depressed in the most gloomy times. It was therefore with full confidence in his ability and exertions that, in 1819, he was placed in command of an expedition appointed to proceed overland from the Hudson Bay to the shores of the Arctic Sea, and to determine the trendings of that coast eastward of the Coppermine river. At this period the northern coast of the American continent was known at two isolated points only,—this, the mouth of the Coppermine river (which, as Franklin discovered, was erroneously placed fourdegreesof latitude too much to the north), and the mouth of the Mackenzie far to the west of it. Lieutenant Franklin and his party, consisting of Dr Richardson, Midshipmen George Back and Richard Hood, and a few ordinary boatmen, arrived at the depot of the Hudson’s Bay Company at the end of August 1819, and making an autumnal journey of 700 m. spent the first winter on the Saskatchewan. Owing to the supplies which had been promised by the North-West and Hudson’s Bay Companies not being forthcoming the following year, it was not until the summer of 1821 that the Coppermine was ascended to its mouth, and a considerable extent of sea-coast to the eastward surveyed. The return journey led over the region known as the Barren Ground, and was marked by the most terrible sufferings and privations and the tragic death of Lieutenant Hood. The survivors of the expedition reached York Factory in the month of June 1822, having accomplished altogether 5550 m. of travel. While engaged on this service Franklin was promoted to the rank of commander (1st of January 1821), and upon his return to England at the end of 1822 he obtained the post rank of captain and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. The narrative of this expedition was published in the following year and became at once a classic of travel, and soon after he married Eleanor, the youngest daughter of William Porden, an eminent architect.
Early in 1825 he was entrusted with the command of a second overland expedition, and upon the earnest entreaty of his dying wife, who encouraged him to place his duty to his country before his love for her, he set sail without waiting to witness her end. Accompanied as before by Dr (afterwards Sir) John Richardson and Lieutenant (afterwards Sir) George Back, he descended the Mackenzie river in the season of 1826 and traced the North American coast as far as 149° 37′ W. long., whilst Richardson at the head of a separate party connected the mouths of the Coppermine and Mackenzie rivers. Thus between the years 1819 and 1827 he had added 1200 m. of coast-line to the American continent, or one-third of the whole distance from the Atlantic to the Pacific. These exertions were fully appreciated at home and abroad. He was knighted in 1829, received the honorary degree of D.C.L. from the university of Oxford, was awarded the gold medal of the Geographical Society of Paris, and was elected corresponding member of the Paris Academy of Sciences. The results of these expeditions are described by Franklin and Dr Richardson in two magnificent works published in 1824-1829. In 1828 he married his second wife, Jane, second daughter of John Griffin. His next official employment was on the Mediterranean station, in command of the “Rainbow,” and his ship soon became proverbial in the squadron for the happiness and comfort of her officers and crew. As an acknowledgment of the essential service which he rendered off Patras in the Greek War of Independence, he received the cross of the Redeemer of Greece from King Otto, and after his return to England he was created knight commander of the Guelphic order of Hanover.
In 1836 he accepted the lieutenant-governorship of Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania), and held that post till the end of 1843. His government was marked by several events of much interest, one of his most popular measures being the opening of the doors of the legislative council to the public. He also founded a college, endowing it largely from his private funds, and in 1838 established a scientific society at Hobart Town (now called the Royal Society of Tasmania), the meetings of which were held in Government House and its papers printed at his expense. In his time also the colony of Victoria was founded by settlers from Tasmania; and towards its close, transportation to New South Wales having been abolished, the convicts from every part of the British empire were sent to Tasmania. On an increase of the lieutenant-governor’s salary being voted by the colonial legislature, Sir John declined to derive any advantage from it personally, while he secured the augmentation to his successors. He welcomed eagerly the various expeditions for exploration and surveying which visited Hobart Town, conspicuous among these, and of especial interest to himself, being the French and English Antarctic expeditions of Dumont d’Urville and Sir James C. Ross—the latter commanding the “Erebus” and “Terror,” with which Franklin’s own name was afterwards to be so pathetically connected. A magnetic observatory fixed at Hobart Town, as a dependency of the central establishment under Colonel Sabine, was also an object of deep interest up to the moment of his leaving the colony. That his unflinching efforts for the social and political advancement of the colony were appreciated was abundantly proved by the affection and respect shown him by every section of the community on his departure; and several years afterwards the colonists showed their remembrance of his virtues and services by sending Lady Franklin a subscription of £1700 in aid of her efforts for the search and relief of her husband, and later still by a unanimous vote of the legislature for the erection of a statue in honour of him at Hobart Town.
Sir John found on reaching England that there was about to be a renewal of polar research, and that the confidence of the admiralty in him was undiminished, as was shown by his being offered the command of an expedition for the discovery of a North-West Passage to the Pacific. This offer he accepted. The prestige of Arctic service and of his former experiences attracted a crowd of volunteers of all classes, from whom were selected a body of officers conspicuous for talent and energy. Captain Crozier, who was second in command, had been three voyages with Sir Edward Parry, and had commanded the “Terror” in Ross’s Antarctic expedition. Captain Fitzjames, who was commander on board the “Erebus,” had been five times gazetted for brilliant conduct in the operations of the first China war, and in a letter which he wrote from Greenland has bequeathed some good-natured but masterly sketches of his brother officers and messmates on this expedition. Thus supported, with crews carefully chosen (some of whom had been engaged in the whaling service), victualled for three years, and furnished with every appliance then known, Franklin’s expedition, consisting of the “Erebus” and “Terror” (129 officers and men), with a transport ship to convey additional stores as far as Disco in Greenland, sailed from Greenhithe on the 19th of May 1845. The letters which Franklin despatched from Greenland were couched in language of cheerful anticipation of success, while those received from his officers expressed their glowing hope, their admiration of the seamanlike qualities of their commander, and the happiness they had in serving under him. The ships were last seen by a whaler near the entrance of Lancaster Sound, on the 26th of July, and the deep gloom which settled down upon their subsequent movements was not finally raised till fourteen years later.
Franklin’s instructions were framed in conjunction with Sir John Barrow and upon his own suggestions. The experience of Parry had established the navigability of Lancaster Sound (leading westwards out of Baffin Bay), whilst Franklin’s own surveys had long before satisfied him that a navigable passage existed along the north coast of America from the Fish river to Bering Strait. He was therefore directed to push through Lancaster Sound and its continuation, Barrow Strait, without loss of time, until he reached the portion of land on which Cape Walker is situated, or about long. 98° W., and from that point to pursue a course southward towards the American coast. An explicit prohibition was given against a westerly course beyond the longitude of 98° W., but he was allowed the single alternative of previously examining Wellington Channel (which leads out of Barrow Strait) for a northward route, if the navigation here were open.
In 1847, though there was no real public anxiety as to the fate of the expedition, preparations began to be made for the possible necessity of sending relief. As time passed, however, and no tidings reached England, the search began in earnest, and from 1848 onwards expedition after expedition was despatched in quest of the missing explorers. The work of these expeditions forms a story of achievement which has no parallel in maritime annals, and resulted in the discovery and exploration of thousands of miles of new land within the grim Arctic regions, the development of the system of sledge travelling, and the discovery of a second North-West Passage in 1850 (see Polar Regions). Here it is only necessary to mention the results so far as the search for Franklin was concerned. In this great national undertaking Lady Franklin’s exertions were unwearied, and she exhausted her private funds in sending out auxiliary vessels to quarters not comprised in the public search, and by her pathetic appeals roused the sympathy of the whole civilized world.
The first traces of the missing ships, consisting of a few scattered articles, besides three graves, were discovered at Franklin’s winter quarters (1845-1846) on Beechey Island, by Captain (afterwards Sir) Erasmus Ommanney of the “Assistance,” in August 1851, and were brought home by the “Prince Albert,” which had been fitted out by Lady Franklin. No further tidings were obtained until the spring of 1854, when Dr John Rae, then conducting a sledging expedition of the Hudson’s Bay Company from Repulse Bay, was told by the Eskimo that (as was inferred) in 1850 white men, to the number of about forty, had been seen dragging a boat southward along the west shore of King William’s Island, and that later in the same season the bodies of the whole party were found by the natives at a point a short distance to the north-west of Back’s Great Fish river, where they had perished from the united effects of cold and famine. The latter statement was afterwards disproved by the discovery of skeletons upon the presumed line of route; but indisputable proof was given that the Eskimo had communicated with members of the missing expedition, by the various articles obtained from them and brought home by Dr Rae. In consequence of the information obtained by Dr Rae, a party in canoes, under Messrs Anderson and Stewart, was sent by government down the Great Fish river in 1855, and succeeded in obtaining from the Eskimo at the mouth of the river a considerable number of articles which had evidently belonged to the Franklin expedition; while others were picked up on Montreal Island a day’s march to the northward. It was clear, therefore, that a party from the “Erebus” and “Terror” had endeavoured to reach the settlements of the Hudson’s Bay Company by the Fish river route, and that in making a southerly course it had been arrested within the channel into which the Great Fish river empties itself. The admiralty now decided to take no further steps to determine the exact fate of the expedition, and granted to Dr Rae the reward of £10,000 which had been offered in 1849 to whosoever should first succeed in obtaining authentic news of the missing men. It was therefore reserved for the latest effort of Lady Franklin to develop, not only the fate of her husband’s expedition but also the steps of its progress up to the very verge of success, mingled indeed with almost unprecedented disaster. With all her available means, and aided, as she had been before, by the subscriptions of sympathizing friends, she purchased and fitted out the little yacht “Fox,” which sailed from Aberdeen in July 1857. The command was accepted by Captain (afterwards Sir) Leopold M’Clintock, whose high reputation had been won in three of the government expeditions sent out in search of Franklin. Having been compelled to pass the first winter in Baffin Bay, it was not till the autumn of 1858 that the “Fox” passed down Prince Regent’s Inlet, and put into winter quarters at Port Kennedy at the eastern end of Bellot Strait, between North Somerset and Boothia Felix. In the spring of 1859 three sledging parties went out, Captain (afterwards Sir) Allen Young to examine Prince of Wales Island, Lieutenant (afterwards Captain) Hobson the north and west coasts of King William’s Island, and M’Clintock the east and south coasts of the latter, the west coast of Boothia, and the region about the mouth of Great Fish river. This splendid and exhaustive search added 800 m. of new coast-line to the knowledge of the Arctic regions, and brought to light the course and fate of the expedition. From the Eskimo in Boothia many relics were obtained, and reports as to the fate of the ships and men; and on the west and south coast of King William’s Island were discovered skeletons and remains of articles that told a terrible tale of disaster. Above all, in a cairn at Point Victory a precious record was discovered by Lieutenant Hobson that briefly told the history of the expedition up to April 25, 1848, three years after it set out full of hope. In 1845-1846 the “Erebus” and “Terror” wintered at Beechey Island on the S.W. coast of North Devon, in lat. 74° 43′ 28″ N., long. 91° 39′ 15″ W., after having ascended Wellington Channel to lat. 77° and returned by the west side of Cornwallis Island. This statement was signed by Graham Gore, lieutenant, and Charles F. des Voeux, mate, and bore date May 28, 1847. These two officers and six men, it was further told, left the ships on May 24, 1847 (no doubt for an exploring journey), at which time all was well.
Such an amount of successful work has seldom been accomplished by an Arctic expedition within any one season. The alternative course permitted Franklin by hisinstructionshad been attempted but not pursued, and in the autumn of 1846 he had followed that route which was specially commended to him. But after successfully navigating Peel and Franklin Straits on his way southward, his progress had been suddenly and finally arrested by the obstruction of heavy (“palaeocrystic”) ice, which presses down from the north-west through M‘Clintock Channel (not then known to exist) upon King William’s Island. It must be remembered that in the chart which Franklin carried King William’s Island was laid down as a part of the mainland of Boothia, and he therefore could pursue his wayonlydown its western coast. Upon the margin of the printed admiralty form on which this brief record was written was an addendum dated the 25th of April 1848, which extinguished all further hopes of a successful termination of this grand enterprise. The facts are best conveyed in the terse and expressive words in which they were written, and are therefore givenverbatim: “April 25th, 1848. H.M. Ships ‘Terror’ and ‘Erebus’ were deserted on 22nd April, five leagues N.N.W. of this, having been beset since 12th September 1846. The officers and crews, consisting of 105 souls under the command of Captain F. R. M. Crozier, landed in lat. 69° 37′ 42″ N., long. 98° 41′ W. This paper was found by Lieut. Irving ... where it had been deposited by the late Commander Gore in June 1847. Sir John Franklin died on the 11th June 1847; and the total loss by deaths in the expedition has been to this date 9 officers and 15 men.” The handwriting is that of Captain Fitzjames, to whose signature is appended that of Captain Crozier, who also adds the words of chief importance, namely, that they would “start on to-morrow 26th April 1848 for Back’s Fish river.” A briefer record has never been told of so tragic a story.
All the party had without doubt been greatly reduced through want of sufficient food, and the injurious effects of three winters in these regions. They had attempted to drag with them two boats, besides heavily laden sledges, and doubtless had soonbeen compelled to abandon much of their burden, and leave one boat on the shore of King William’s Island, where it was found by M’Clintock, near the middle of the west coast, containing two skeletons. The route adopted was the shortest possible, but their strength and supplies had failed, and at that season of the year the snow-covered land afforded no subsistence. An old Eskimo woman stated that these heroic men “fell down and died as they walked,” and, as Sir John Richardson has well said, they “forged the last link of the North-West Passage with their lives.” From all that can be gathered, one of the ships must have been crushed in the ice and sunk in deep water, and the other, stranded on the shore of King William’s Island, lay there for years, forming a mine of wealth for the neighbouring Eskimo.
This is all we know of the fate of Franklin and his brave men. His memory is cherished as one of the most conspicuous of the naval heroes of Britain, and as one of the most successful and daring of her explorers. He is certainly entitled to the honour of being the first discoverer of the North-West Passage; the point reached by the ships having brought him to within a few miles of the known waters of America, and on the monument erected to him by his country, in Waterloo Place, London, this honour is justly awarded to him and his companions,—a fact which was also affirmed by the president of the Royal Geographical Society, when presenting their gold medal to Lady Franklin in 1860. On the 26th of October 1852 Franklin had been promoted to the rank of rear-admiral. He left an only daughter by his first marriage. Lady Franklin died in 1875 at the age of eighty-three, and a fortnight after her death a fine monument was unveiled in Westminster Abbey, commemorating the heroic deeds and fate of Sir John Franklin, and the inseparable connexion of Lady Franklin’s name with the fame of her husband. Most of the relics brought home by M‘Clintock were presented by Lady Franklin to the United Service Museum, while those given by Dr Rae to the admiralty are deposited in Greenwich hospital. In 1864-1869 the American explorer Captain Hall made two journeys in endeavouring to trace the remnant of Franklin’s party, bringing back a number of additional relics and some information confirmatory of that given by M’Clintock, and in 1878 Lieutenant F. Schwatka of the United States army and a companion made a final land search, but although accomplishing a remarkable record of travel discovered nothing which threw any fresh light on the history of the expedition.
See H. D. Traill,Life of Sir John Franklin(1896).
See H. D. Traill,Life of Sir John Franklin(1896).
FRANKLIN, WILLIAM BUEL(1823-1903), Federal general in the American Civil War, was born at York, Pennsylvania, on the 27th of February 1823. He graduated at West Point, at the head of his class, in 1843, was commissioned in the Engineer Corps, U.S.A., and served with distinction in the Mexican War, receiving the brevet of first lieutenant for his good conduct at Buena Vista, in which action he was on the staff of General Taylor. After the war he was engaged in miscellaneous engineering work, becoming a first lieutenant in 1853 and a captain in 1857. Soon after the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 he was made colonel of a regular infantry regiment, and a few days later brigadier-general of volunteers. He led a brigade in the first battle of Bull Run, and on the organization by McClellan of the Army of the Potomac he received a divisional command. He commanded first a division and then the VI. Corps in the operations before Richmond in 1862, earning the brevet of brigadier-general in the U.S. Army; was promoted major-general, U.S.V., in July 1862; commanded the VI. corps at South Mountain and Antietam; and at Fredericksburg commanded the “Left Grand Division” of two corps (I. and VI.). His part in the last battle led to charges of disobedience and negligence being preferred against him by the commanding general, General A. E. Burnside, on which the congressional committee on the conduct of the war reported unfavourably to Franklin, largely, it seems, because Burnside’s orders to Franklin were not put in evidence. Burnside had issued on the 23rd of January 1863 an order relieving Franklin from duty, and Franklin’s only other service in the war was as commander of the XIX. corps in the abortive Red River Expedition of 1864. In this expedition he received a severe wound at the action of Sabine Cross Roads (April 8, 1864), in consequence of which he took no further active part in the war. He served for a time on the retiring board, and was captured by the Confederates on the 11th of July 1864, but escaped the same night. In 1865 he was brevetted major-general in the regular army, and in 1866 he was retired. After the war General Franklin was vice-president of the Colt’s Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company, was president of the commission to lay out Long Island City, N.Y. (1871-1872), of the commission on the building of the Connecticut state house (1872-1873), and, from 1880 to 1899, of the board of managers of the national home for disabled volunteer soldiers; as a commissioner of the United States to the Paris Exposition of 1889 he was made a grand officer of the Legion of Honour; and he was for a time a director of the Panama railway. He died at Hartford, Connecticut, on the 8th of March 1903. He wrote a pamphlet,The Gatling Gun for Service Ashore and Afloat(1874).
SeeA Reply of Major-General William B. Franklin to the Report of the Joint Committee of Congress on the Conduct of the War(New York, 1863; 2nd ed., 1867), and Jacob L. Greene,Gen. W. B. Franklin and the Operations of the Left Wing at the Battle of Fredericksburg(Hartford, 1900).
SeeA Reply of Major-General William B. Franklin to the Report of the Joint Committee of Congress on the Conduct of the War(New York, 1863; 2nd ed., 1867), and Jacob L. Greene,Gen. W. B. Franklin and the Operations of the Left Wing at the Battle of Fredericksburg(Hartford, 1900).
FRANKLIN, an organized district of Canada, extending from the Arctic Circle to the North Pole. It was formed by order-in-council on the 2nd of October 1895, and includes numerous islands and peninsulas, such as Banks, Prince Albert, Victoria, Wollaston, King Edward and Baffin Land, Melville, Bathurst, Prince of Wales and Cockburn Islands. Of these, Baffin Land alone extends south of the Arctic Circle. The area is estimated at 500,000 sq. m., but the inhabitants consist of a few Indians, Eskimo and fur-traders. Musk-oxen, polar bears, foxes and other valuable fur-bearing animals are found in large numbers. The district is named after Sir John Franklin.
FRANKLIN, a township of Norfolk county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., with an area of 29 sq. m. of rolling surface. Pop. (1900) 5017, of whom 1250 were foreign-born; (1905, state census) 5244; (1910 census) 5641. The principal village, also named Franklin, is about 27 m. S.W. of Boston, and is served by the New York, New Haven & Hartford railway. Franklin has a public library (housed in the Ray memorial building and containing 7700 volumes in 1910) and is the seat of Dean Academy (Universalist; founded in 1865), a secondary school for boys and girls. Straw goods, felt, cotton and woollen goods, pianos and printing presses are manufactured here. The township was incorporated in 1778, previous to which it was a part of Wrentham (1673). It was the first of the many places in the United States named in honour of Benjamin Franklin (who later contributed books for the public library). Horace Mann was born here.
FRANKLIN, a city of Merrimack county, New Hampshire, U.S.A., at the confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnepesaukee rivers to form the Merrimac; about 95 m. N.N.W. of Boston. Pop. (1890) 4085; (1900) 5846 (1323 foreign-born); (1910) 6132; area, about 14.4 sq. m. Franklin is served by the Concord Division of the Boston & Maine railway, with a branch to Bristol (13 m. N.W.) and another connecting at Tilton (about 5 m. E.) with the White Mountains Division. It contains the villages of Franklin, Franklin Falls, Webster Place and Lake City, the last a summer resort. The rivers furnish good water power, which is used in the manufacture of a variety of commodities, including foundry products, paper and pulp, woollen goods, hosiery, saws, needles and knitting machines. The water-works are owned and operated by the municipality. Here, in what was then a part of the town of Salisbury, Daniel Webster was born, and on the Webster farm is the New Hampshire orphans’ home, established in 1871. The town of Franklin was formed in 1828 by the union of portions of Salisbury, Sanbornton, Andover and Northfield. The earliest settlement within its limits was made in 1748 in the portion taken from Salisbury. Franklin was incorporated as a city in 1895.
FRANKLIN, a city and the county-seat of Venango county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., at the confluence of French Creek and Allegheny river, about 55 m. S. by E. of Erie, in the N.W. part of the state. Pop. (1890) 6221; (1900) 7317 (489 being foreign-born); (1910) 9767. Franklin is served by the Erie, the Pennsylvania, the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, and the Franklin & Clearfield railways. Its streets are broad and well paved and shaded, and there are two public parks, a public library and many handsome residences. Franklin is the centre of the chief oil region of the state, and from it great quantities of refined oil are shipped. Natural gas also abounds. The city’s manufacture include oil-well supplies, boilers, engines, steel castings, iron goods, lumber, bricks, asbestos goods, manifolding paper and flour. On the site of the present city the French built in 1754 a fortification, Fort Machault, which after the capture of Fort Duquesne by the English was a rallying place for Indians allied with the French. In 1759 the French abandoned and completely destroyed the fort; and in the following year the English built in the vicinity Fort Venango, which was captured by the Indians in 1763 during the Conspiracy of Pontiac, the whole garrison being massacred. In 1787 the United States built Fort Franklin (about 1 m. above the mouth of French Creek) as a protection against the Indians; in 1796 the troops were removed to a strongly built and well-fortified wooden building, known as “Old Garrison,” at the mouth of French Creek, and in 1803 they were permanently withdrawn from the neighbourhood. Franklin was laid out as a town in 1795, was incorporated as a borough in 1828, and was chartered as a city in 1868. Most of its growth dates from the discovery of oil in 1860.
FRANKLIN, a town and the county-seat of Williamson county, Tennessee, U.S.A., in the central part of the state, on the Harpeth river, and about 20 m. S.W. of Nashville. Pop. (1900) 2180; (1910) 2924. Franklin is served by the Louisville & Nashville railway. It is the seat of the Tennessee Female College and the Battle Ground Academy, and its chief objects of interest are the battle-ground, the Confederate cemetery and the Confederate monument. During the Civil War Franklin was the scene of a minor engagement on the 10th of April 1863, and of a battle, celebrated as one of the most desperately fought of the war, which took place on the 30th of November 1864. The Union general Schofield, who was slowly withdrawing to Nashville before the advance of General J. B. Hood’s army, which he was ordered to hold in check in order to give Thomas time to prepare for battle (seeAmerican Civil War, § 32), was unable immediately to cross the Harpeth river and was compelled to entrench his forces south of the town until his wagon trains and artillery could be sent over the stream by means of two small bridges. In the afternoon Schofield’s outposts and advanced lines were attacked by the Confederates in full strength, and instead of withdrawing as ordered they made a determined stand. Thus the assailants, carrying the advanced works by storm, rushed upon the main defences on the heels of the broken advanced guard, and a general engagement was brought on which lasted from 3.30 until nine o’clock in the evening. Against, it is said, thirteen separate assaults, all delivered with exceptional fury, Schofield managed to hold his position, and shortly before midnight he withdrew across the river in good order. The engagement was indecisive in its results, but the Union commander’s purpose, to hold Hood momentarily in check, was gained, and Hood’s effort to crush Schofield was unavailing. The losses were very heavy; Hood’s effective forces in the engagement numbered about 27,000, Schofield’s about 28,000; the Confederate losses (excluding cavalry) were about 6500, excluding the slightly wounded; six general officers were killed (including Major-General P. R. Cleburne, a brave Irishman who had been a corporal in the British army), six wounded, and one captured; the Union losses (excluding cavalry) were 2326. In two of the Confederate brigades all the general and field officers were killed or wounded.