vate persons should think proper to distinguish themselves and their posterity, from their fellow-citizens, and form an order of hereditary knights, in direct opposition to the solemnly-declared sense of their country! I imagine it must be likewise contrary to the good sense of most of those drawn into it, by the persuasion of its projectors, who have been too much struck with the ribbands and crosses they have seen hanging to the buttonholes of foreign officers. And I suppose those who disapprove of it, have not hitherto given it much opposition, from a principle somewhat like that of your good mother, relating to punctilious persons, who are always exacting little observances of respect; that **if people can be pleased with small matters, it is a pity but they should have them." In this view, perhaps, I should not myself, if my advice had been asked, have objected to their wearing their rband and badge themselves according to their fancy, though I certainly should to the entailing it as an honor on their posterity. For honor, worthily obtained, (as that for example of our officers) is in its nature a personal thing, and incommunicable to any but those who had some share in obtaining it. Thus among the Chinese, the most ancient, and from long experience the wisest of nations, honor does not descend, but ascends. If a man from his learning, his wisdom, or his valour, is promoted by the Emperor to the rank of Mandarin, his parents are immediately entitled to all the sane ceremonies of respect from the people, that are established as due to the Mandarin himself; on the supposition that it must have

been owing to the education, instruction, and good example afforded him by his parents, that he was rendered capable of serving the public. This ascending honor is therefore useful to the state, as it encourages parents to give their children a good and virtuous education. But the descending honor, to a posterity who could have no share in obtaining it, is not only groundless and absurd, but often hurtful to that posterity, since it is apt to make them proud, disdaining to be employed in useful arts, and thence falling into poverty, and all the meannesses, servility, and wretchedness attending it; which is the present case with much of what is called the noblesse in Europe. Or if, to keep up the dignity of the family, estates are entailed entire on the eldest male heir, another pest to industry and improvement of the country is introduced, which will be followed by all the odious mixture of pride and beggary, and idleness, that have half depopulated and decultivated Spain; occasioning continual extinction of families by the discouragements of marriage, and neglect in the improvement of estates. I wish therefore that the Cincinnati, if they must go on with their project, would direct the badges of their order to be worn by their fathers and mothers, instead of handing them down to their children. It would be a good precedent, and might have good effects. It would also be a kind of obedience to the fourth commandment, in which God enjoins us to honor our father and mother, but has no where directed us to honor our children. And certainly no mode of honoring those immediate authors of our being

can

can be more effectual, than that of doing praise-worthy actions, which reflect honor on those who gave us our education; or more becoming, than that of manifesting, by some public expression or token, that it is to their instruction and example we ascribe the merit of those actions.

But the absurdity of descending honors is not a mere matter of philosophical opinion, it is capable of mathematical demonstration. A man's son, for instance, is but half of his family, the other half belonging to the family of his wife. His son too, marrying into another family, his share in the grandson is but a fourth; in the great grandson, by the same process, it is but an eighth. In the next generation a sixteenth; the next a thirty-second; the next a sixty-fourth; the next an hundred and twenty-eighth; the next a two hundred and fifty-sixth; and the next a five hundred and twelfth: thus in nine generations, which will not require more than 300 years, (no very great antiquity for a family) our present Chevalier of the order of Cincinnatus's share in the then existing knight, will be but a 512th part; which, allowing the present certain fidelity of American wives to be insured down through all those nine generations, is so small a consideration, that methinks no reasonable in in would hazard for the sake of it, the disagreeable consequences of the jealousy, envy, and ill-will of his countrymen.

Let us go back with our calculation from this young Loble, the 519th part of the present knight, through his nine generations, till we return to the year of the institution. He must have had a

father and mother, they are two, each of thein had a father and mother, they are four. Those of the next preceding generation wil be eight, the next sixteen, the next thirty-two, the next sixtyfour, the next one hundred and twenty-eight, the next two-hundred and fifty-six, and the ninth in this retrocession five hundred and twelve, who must be now existing, and all contribute their proportion of this future Cheraler de Cincinnatus. These, with the rest, make together as follows:

2

4

8

16

32

64

128

256

512

Total... 1022

One thousand and twenty-two men and women, contributors to the formation of one knight. And if we are to have a thousand of these future knights, there must be now and hereafter existing one million and twenty-two thousand fathers and mothers, who are to contribute to their pro luction, unless a part of the number are employed in making more knights thin one. Let us strike of them the 22,000 on the supposition of this double employ, and then consider whether, after a reas Haile estimation of the number ofrog ..4. and fools, and scoundrels, and prostitutes, that are mixed with, and help to make up neces at ly their million of predecessors, posterity will have much reason to boast of the noble blood of the

then

then existing set of Chevaliers of Cncinnatus. The future genealogists two of these Chevaliers, in proving the lineal descent of their bonor through so many genera tions, (even supposing honor capble in its nature of descending) w.ll only prove the small share of this honor which can be justly claimed by any one of them, since the above simple process in arithmetic makes it quite plain and clear, that in proportion as the antiquity of the family shall augmeat, the right to the honour of the ancestor will diminish; and a few generations more would reduce it to something so small as to be very near an absolute nullity. I hope therefore that the order will drop this part of their project, and content themselves, as the Knights of the Garter, Bath, Thistie, St. Louis, and other orders of Europe do, with a life enjoyment of their little badge and ribband, and let the distinction die with those who have merited it. This I imagne will give no offence. For my own part, I shall think it a convessence, when I go into a compay where there may be faces

known to me, if I discover, by this budge, the persons who merit sone particular expression of my respect; and it will save modest virtue the trouble of calling for out regard, by awkward roundabout intimations of having been heretofore employed as officers in the continental service.

The gentleman who made the stage to France to provide the rebands and ¤.edals, has executed Eos coression. To me they s em tolera' ly done; but all such higs are criticised. Some find fault with the Latin, as wanting clas

sical elegance and correctness; and since our nine universities were not able to furnish better Latin, it was pity, they say, that the mottos had not been in English. Others object to the title, as not properly assumable by any but General Washington, and a few others, who served without pay. Others object to the bald eagle, as looking too much like a dindon or turkey. For my own part, I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country; he is a bird of bad moral character: he does not get his living honestly; you may have seen him perched on some dead tree, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the labor of the fishing hawk: and when that diligent bird has at length taken a fish, and is bearing it to his nest for the support of his mate and young ones, the bald eagle pursues him, and takes it from him. With all this injustice he is never in good case, but like those among men who live by sharping and robbing, he is generally poor, and often very lousy. Besides, he is a rank coward: the little king bird, not bigger than a sparrow, attacks him boldly and drives him out of the district. He is therefore by no means a proper emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnati of America, who have driven all the king birds from our country; though exactly fit for that order of knights which the French call. Cherulers d'Industrie. I am on this account, not displeased that the figure is not known as a bald eagle, but looks more like a turkey. For in truth, the turkey is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and withal

a true

a true original native of America. Eagles have been found in all countries, but the turkey was peculiar to ours; the first of the species seen in Europe being brought to France by the Jesuits from Canada, and served up at the wedding table of Charles the Ninth, He is besides, (though a little vain and silly 'tis true, but not the worse emblem for that) a bird of courage, and would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British guards, who should presume to invade his farm-yard with a red

coat on.

I shall not enter into the criticisins made upon their Latin. The gallant officers of America may not have the merit of being great scholars, but they undoubtedly merit much as brave soldiers from their country, which should therefore not leave them merely to fame for their "virtutis premium," which is one of their Latin mottos. Their "esto perpetua," another, is an excellent wish, if they meant it for their country; bad, if intended for their order. The states should not only restore to them the omnia of their first motto, which many of them have left and lost, but pay them justly, and reward them generously.

They

should not be suffered to remain with all their new created chivalry entirely in the situation of the gentleman in the story, which their omnia reliquit reminds me of. You know every thing makes me recollect some story. He had built a very fine house, and thereby much impaired his fortune. He had a pride however in showing it to his acquaintance. One of them, after viewing it all, remarked a motto over the door ŌIA VANITAS.

What, says he, is the meaning of this OIA? 'tis a word I don't understand. I will tell you, said the gentleman: I had a mind to have the motto cut on a piece of smooth marble, but there was not room for it between the ornaments, to be put in characters large enough to be read. I therefore made use of a contraction anciently very common in Latin manuscripts, whereby the m's and n's in words are omitted, and the omission noted by a little dash above, which you may see there, so that the word is omnia, OMNIA VANITAS 0, said his friend, 1 now comprehend the meaning of your motto, it relates to your edifice; and signities that if you have abridged your omnia, you have nevertheless left your VANITAS legible at full length.

I am, as ever,

Your affectionate father,
B. FRANKLIN.

To W. STRAHAN, Esq. M. P. (King's Printer, London.) Suggestions as to the deplorable Stuation of the English Govern

ment.

DEAR SIR, Passy, Feb. 16, 1784. I received and read with pleasure your kind letter of the first instant, as it informed me of the welfare of you and yours. I ain glad the accounts you have from your kinswoman at Philadelphia are agreeable, and I shall be happy if any recommendations from me can be serviceable to Dr Ross, or any others, friends of yours, going to America.

Your arguments persuading me to come once more to England,

are

are very powerful. To be sure I long to see again my friends there, whom I love abundantly: but there are difficulties and objections of several kinds, which at present I don't see how to get over.

I lament with you the political disorders England at present labours under. Your papers are full of strange accounts of anarchy and confusion in America, of which we know nothing, while your own affairs are really in a deplorable situation. In my humble opinion, the root of the evil lies not so much in too long, or too unequally chosen parliaments, as in the enormous salaries, emoluments, and patronage of your great officers; and that you will never be at rest till they are all abolished, and every place of honour made at the same time, instead of a place of profit, a place of expense and burthen. Ambition and avarice are each of them strong passions, and when they are united in the same persons, and have the same objects in view for their gratification, they are too strong for public spirit and love of country, and are apt to produce the most violent factions and contentions. They should therefore be separated, and made to act one against the other. Those places, to speak in our old style (brother type) may be good for the CHAPEL, but they are bad for the master, as they create constant quarrels that hinder the business. For example, here are two months that your government has been employed in getting its form to press; which is not yet fit to work on, every page of it being squabbled, and the whole ready to fall into pye. The founts too must be very scanty, or strangely out of VOL. LIX.

sorts, since your compositors cannot find either upper or lower-case letters sufficient to set the word ADMINISTRATION, but are forced to be continually turning for them. However, to return to common (though perhaps too saucy) language, don't despair; you have still one resource left, and that not a bad one, since it may reunite the empire. We have some remains of affection for you, and shall always be ready to receive and take care of you in case of distress. So if you have not sense and virtue enough to govern yourselves, e'en dissolve your present old crazy constitution, and send members to congress.

You will say my advice "smells of Madeira." You are right. This foolish letter is mere chit-chat between ourselves,over the second bottle. If, therefore, you show it to any body, (except our indulgent friends Dagge and Lady Strachan) I will positively solless you. Yours ever most affectionately,

TO THE

B. FRANKLIN.

REV. DOCTOR MATHER,

BOSTON.