Mr. Bartram brings a Box to my House, which has a little Vacancy in it; so I put in my Philosophical Pacquet, which I long since intended to send you, but one thing or other has prevented. I would not have any Part of it printed, (unless you should think that printing the Papers relating to Whirlwinds and Water Spouts, together with a Collection of all the Accounts of Spouts and Whirlwinds that have been hitherto publish’d, might excite the Curiosity of Naturalists, and the Attention of Shipmasters and other Travellers, so as to occasion more accurate Observations of those Phaenomena, and produce more particular Accounts, tending to a thorough Explanation. If you should be of that Opinion, I have no Objection to the Making that Use of the Papers on that Subject; but the rest are only for your private Amusement, and when perused I must request you to return them.
I also send you a few Sheets of Paper made of the Asbestos. I am sorry it is so tender. I made some formerly that was much stronger. Please to present a Sheet of it to your noble President, if he will be so good as to accept such a Trifle.
I enclose you a second Bill for £25 Sterling on Account of the Library Company. I must desire you to send us Johnson’s Dictionary, and one for the Academy. The old Accounts of the first Settlement of the Colonies, are very Curious, and very acceptable to the Library Company, who direct me to return you their hearty Thanks for your Kindness in sparing them to the Library.
The Box not being full, I have put in a few more of our Candles, which I recommend for your particular Use when you have Occasion to read or write by Night; they give a whiter Flame Than that of any other kind of Candle, and the Light is more like Daylight than any other Light I know; besides, they need little or no Snuffing, and grease nothing. There is still a little Vacancy at the End of the Box, so I’ll put in a few Cakes of American Soap made of Myrtle Wax, said to be the best Soap in the World for Shaving or Washing fine Linnens, &c. Mrs. Franklin requests your Daughter would be so good as to accept 3 or 4 Cakes of it, to wash your Grandson’s finest Things with.
In your Gentleman’s Magazine for February 1755, I see a Letter from R. Brooke of Maryland, mentioning an American Animal which he says he believes had not been seen or described in Europe. I imagine it to be the same that in New England is called a Woodchuck. When I was on my Journey in that Country last Winter, one of them was killed in the Garden of an Inn I put up at: Having never seen one of them before, I immediately took some Notes towards a Description of it, to show our Friend Bartram, who tells me it is what we here call a Ground Hog. I send you my Notes enclos’d.
I am endeavouring to answer Dr. Parsons’s Request relating to the Indian Names of the Cardinal Numbers. Please to give the enclos’d concerning an extraordinary Worm bred in a Woman’s Liver, to Dr. Clephane.
I hope you have got the Remainder of Douglas. I know I have sent it, but forget by whom.
I have before me your Account dated May 2, 1754: in it I am charged with Dr. Blair’s Chronology and Binding £2 9s. 0d. As that Book was for the Academy, please to charge the Trustees of the Academy with it, and take it out of my Account, if there is, as I suppose there is, a Ballance of theirs in your Hands; if not, let it stand in my Account and I will charge them.
I send you the Hospital Book and our late Votes. In yours of Aug. 4. you express your Concern that such trifling Punctilio’s in our Publick Affairs should obstruct necessary Measures. You will see more of the same Trifling in these Votes, on both sides. I am heartily sick of our present Situation: I like neither the Governor’s Conduct nor the Assembly’s, and having some Share in the Confidence of both, I have endeavour’d to reconcile ’em, but in vain, and between ’em they make me very uneasy. I was chosen last Year in my Absence, and was not at the Winter Sitting when the House sent home that Address to the King, which I am afraid was both ill-judg’d and ill-tim’d. If my being able now and then to influence a Good Measure did not keep up my Spirits, I should be ready to swear never to serve again as an Assembly-man, since both Sides expect more from me than they ought, and blame me sometimes for not doing what I am not able to do, as well as for not preventing what was not in my Power to prevent. The Assembly ride restive; and the Governor, tho’ he spurs with both Heels, at the same time reins-in with both Hands, so that the Publick Business can never move forward; and he remains like St. George in the Sign, always a Horseback, and never going on. Did you never hear this old Catch?