[Rarebooks] FS: 1760 Benjamin Franklin Pamphlet: "The Canada Pamphlet"

[Ezra Tishman]

AARDVARK BOOKS

& Ezra Tishman Book Appraisals
ABAA / ILAB / IOBA / ASA 3650 Chambers St. • Eugene, OR 97405 541-683-3131/541-520-9821 thebookfinder at gmail.com


Good morning, Bookwomen and Bookmen, Shop Kitties & Shop Pups:

Ezra from Aardvark offers this quite scarce but defective pamphlet (LACKS TITLE PAGE), lately proved by scholars to have been penned by founding father Benjamin Franklin.
England was weighing the possibility of giving Canada to France. In this publication, printed and hawked by Franklin’s nephew Benjamin Mecom,
Franklin urged Britain to retain possession of that country, for reasons of strategic location, common English heritage, economic needs, etc. ((either before or after its publication,
Franklin owned 2000 acres near Enfield, Nova Scotia).


Franklin, Benjamin . THE INTEREST OF GREAT BRITAIN CONSIDERED WITH REGARD TO HER COLONIES
AND THE ACQUISITIONS OF CANADA AND GUADALOUPE. TO WHICH ARE ADDED, OBSERVATIONS
CONCERNING THE INCREASE OF MANKIND, PEOPLING OF COUNTRIES, &C...AS THE VERY INGENIOUS,
USEFUL, AND WORTHY AUTHOR OF THIS PAMPHLET (B------N F-------N, LL. D) IS WELL KNOWN AND
MUCH ESTEEMED BY THE PRINCIPAL GENTLEMEN IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 

Boston, Massachusetts:
Re-printed, by B. (Benjamin) Mecom, and sold at the New Printing-Office, Near the Town-House, 1760. The Second Boston
Edition.

LACKS TITLE PAGE: Octavo, 8" x 5 1/2." Original stitching. Edges untrimmed, slightly tattered. pp. 3-59, [5].
Advertisement for: An historical review of the Constitution and Government of Pennsylvania ..("Ascrib’d to Mr. F."), p.
60-64. Minor paper loss to edges of first leaf. First and last leaf browned, interior pages tanned. Large diagonal damp-stain on
interior pages, affecting all but first few leaves. Text readable throughout. (ESTC W17001 )* (Sabin, 35450) (Howes, J-26)
(Evans 8602)

In light of recent evidence, the scholarship now suggests that Benjamin Franklin is the principal author of this work, with some
contributions made by his acquaintance, Richard Jackson. Nineteenth-century bibliographers misattributed the work to
Jackson. (See The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 1966). It probably didn't help that when asked by Hume whether he had
written the piece, Mr. Franklin purportedly denied having done so. The pamphlet was published by printer/bookseller
Benjamin Mecom, who was Franklin's nephew.

A 1943 Goodspeed auction catalogue (365-059) states: "This Boston edition is somewhat scarcer than the London edition
printed the same year." (RBH).														


Founding Father Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) authored this pamphlet, known as the 'Canada pamphlet' in the midst of the
Seven Years' War (1756-1763). It is said to have been written in response to "A Letter Addressed to Great Men" by John
Douglas and "Remarks on the Letter Addressed to Great Men" by William Burke. In response to "A letter addressed to great
men" by John Douglas and "Remarks on the Letter addressed to great men" by William Burke. Frequently attributed to
Richard Jackson; more recently to Benjamin Franklin and Jackson as joint authors. In it, Franklin laid out a methodical
argument that Great Britain should take Canada from the French, as opposed to the sugar-rich West Indian colony of
Guadeloupe, when the British win the war. His views countered the more popular opinion that Guadeloupe would be the more
strategic choice. His persuasive arguments ultimately convinced Great Britain to take that tack during negotiations for peace
in 1763. The resulting Treaty of Paris solidified Great Britain's hold of the North American mainland, and paradoxically
helped to foster a desire for American independence.

So how did Benjamin Franklin turn the tide of public opinion in 1760? In this pamphlet, he warned that failure to secure
Canada jeopardized the safety and economy of the thirteen colonies. Attacks from Canada would disrupt the mercantilist
system on which the Empire relied. This highly influential pamphlet helped set the geopolitical stage in which the American
Revolution was enacted.

"At the time of its publication, the authorship of this pamphlet was attributed to Franklin, although in the nineteenth century it
was credited to Richard Jackson. In 1966 The Papers of Benjamin Franklin returned it to Franklin's oeuvre: "in recent years
Franklin's authorship has been reestablished in the minds of all but a few doubters, though, as Franklin himself seems to have
acknowledged, he received some help from his friend and ally Jackson." Franklin anticipates a British victory in the French
and Indian wars and debates which territory is more important for Great Britain to retain: Canada or sugar-rich Guadelope.
Most interesting is a passage where Franklin discusses the possibility of the colonies may grow and this "may render them
dangerous. Of this I own, I have not the least conception, when I consider that we have already fourteen separate governments
... and if we extend ... shall probably have as many more ... Those we now have, are not only under different governors, but
have different forms of government, different laws, different interests, and some of them different religious persuasions and
different manners. Their jealousy of each other is so great that however necessary an union of the colonies has long been, for
their common defence and security against their enemies, ... yet they have never been able to effect such an union among
themselves ... Nothing but the immediate command of the crown has been able to produce even the imperfect union but lately
seen there, of the forces of some colonies.”

																						$1,850



PICS:   https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8xkv3iwvh73iw18/AABTDViYKHZDVrsEfCO_lJiFa?dl=0 <https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8xkv3iwvh73iw18/AABTDViYKHZDVrsEfCO_lJiFa?dl=0>


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