Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/139

was raging on the frontiers. Not even the ſenſe of danger was ſufficient to reconcile, for ever ſo ſhort a time, their jarring intereſts. The aſſembly ſtill infilled upon the juſtice of taxing the proprietary eſtates, but the governors conſtantly refuſed to give their aſſent to this meaſure, without which no bill could paſs into a law. Enraged at the obſtinacy, and what they conceived to be unjuſt proceedings of their opponents, the aſſembly at length determined to apply to the mother country for relief. A petition was addreſſed to the king, in council, ſtating the inconveniencies under which the inhabitants laboured, from the attention of the proprietaries to their private intereſts, to the neglect of the general welfare of the community, and praying for redreſs. Franklin was appointed to preſent this addreſs, as agent for the province of Pennſylvania, and departed from America in June 1757. In conformity to the inſtructions which he had received from the legiſlature, he held a conference with the proprietaries, who then reſided in England, and endeavoured to prevail upon them to give up the long-conteſted point. Finding that they would hearken to no terms of accommodation, he laid his petition before the council. During this time governor Denny aſſented to a law impoſing a tax, in which no diſcrimination was made in favour of the eſtates of the Penn family. They, alarmed at this intelligence, and Franklin's exertions, uſed their utmoſt endeavours to prevent the royal ſanction being given to this law, which they repreſented as highly iniquitous, deſigned to throw the burthen of ſupporting government upon them, and calculated to produce the moſt ruinous conſequences to them and their poſterity. The cauſe was amply diſcuſſed before the privy council. The Penns found here ſome ſtrenuous advocates;