Note i-159 — INTRODUCTION

Add to this, Franklin's use of the Swiftian hoax and complex irony. After writing Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One (1773) he explained to a friend: "These odd ways of presenting Matters to the publick View sometimes occasion them to be more read, talk'd of, and more attended to" (Writings, VI, 137). Parton observes that the Edict of the King of Prussia "was the nine-days' talk of the kingdom." Raynal unsuspectingly used Franklin's Polly Baker, as an authentic document in his Histoire .... Franklin's Exporting of Felons to the Colonies, The Sale of Hessians, and A Dialogue between Britain, France, Spain, Holland, Saxony, and America illustrate these trenchant devices used to achieve a political purpose.