Benjamin Franklin. By John Back McMaster. (Kegan Paul, Trench and
Co.)—In determining Franklin's place among Ameri- can men of letters, the writer has set himself a peculiar, if not difficult task. The Franklin literature is extensive—all has not, indeed, been recovered yet—and is a wonderful mixture of good, bad, and indifferent. When we consider the masterly style, a model of terse and ;vigorous English, and the incomparable common-sense of the man on the one hand, and the hard, coarse; unpoetic insolence which attempted to paraphrase the Book of Job on the other, it need not surprise us that Mr. McMaster has placed his writings in a position by themselves. Much of the Franklin literature was ephemeral, for the most part the material of a great pamphleteering war, and though written with a vigour and wit worthy of the English tongue, was very personal, often coarse, and wanted that finish without which it would not be likely to reach a long life. The political life of Franklin and his writings are so interwoven, that the latter cannot be understood until the real worth of the former is mastered. Still, his fame as "Franklin the patriot" will always outweigh the renown of Dr Franklin the inventor of the lightning-con- ductor, and great writer, and rightly so ; and would not the great Doctor have wished it so himself ? What remains Benjamin Franklin has left to posterity, Mr. McMaster has judged without reserve, solely on their merits and demerits ; nor has he, indeed, spared their author, or hesitated to compare with the many excel- lences his faults, his coarseness, and his irreligion. After all deductions, he remains the most successful of American self-made men. His record in the service of his country is surely unsur- passed. "He was the only man who -wrote his name alike at the foot of the Declaration of Independence, at the foot of the Treaty of Alliance, at the foot of the Treaty of Peace, and at the foot of the Constitution under which we live." And he has produced two works unsurpassed of their kind, "Father Abraham's Address," and "The Autobiography." We have rarely read a more readable biographical sketch, or one that discussed its subject and secured its object better than Benjamin Franklin.
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