ABSTRACT
This chapter shows Franklin's disillusionment with the colonies treatment at the hands of the king and Parliament, and it helped solidify the erroneous opinion that Franklin was pushing for independence in the early 1770s. Printed in The Public Advertiser, September 11 1773, this is one of Franklin's most bitter and biting satires, written for a London newspaper a few months before Franklin revealed himself to be the one who sent copies of Thomas Hutchinson's letters to the Massachusetts legislature. He writes, “An ancient Sage valued himself upon this, that tho he could not fiddle, he knew how to make a great City of a little one. The Science that I, a modern Simpleton, am about to communicate is the very reverse. I address myself to all Ministers who have the Management of extensive Dominions, which from their very Greatness are become troublesome to govern, because the Multiplicity of their Affairs leaves no Time for fiddling”.
