Note 74 — Part I (continued 5)
Reading edition
The full title of Dupont de Nemours's work is Physiocratie, ou constitution naturelle du gouvernement le plus avantageux au genre humain. 2 vols. Leyden and Paris, 1767, 1768. Peter Templeman (1711-1769) was Secretary of the London Society of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce and in 1762 corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris (Dictionary of National Biography, LVI, 53-4). "Ami des hommes" is the Marquis de Mirabeau (1715-1789) who wrote L'Ami des hommes, ou traité de la population. [1756] 5th ed., Hamburg, 1760, 4 vols. The "crowning work" of the Physiocrats is François Quesnay's Tableau économique. Published by the British Economic Association, London, 1894.
Dupont's letter of May 10, 1768, to which Franklin's is an answer, is printed in Writings, V, 153-4. From London (Oct. 2, 1770) Franklin writes to Dupont: "Would to God I could take with me [to America] Messrs. du Pont, du Bourg, and some other French Friends with their good Ladies! I might then, by mixing them with my Friends in Philadelphia, form a little happy Society that would prevent my ever wishing again to visit Europe" (Writings, V, 282). Elision marks in letter of July 28 are Franklin's own.