Note 11 — PREFACE

In his will Franklin left £2,000 (still due him for his salary as president of Pennsylvania) for the improvement of the Schuylkill River. Learning that that work of improvement was likely to be delayed, he made a codicil revoking the bequest to the Schuylkill improvement, and devoting it to a scheme of continuous benevolence—£1,000 each were given to Boston and to Philadelphia; under the direction of a certain board of selectmen, small sums (not exceeding £60), were to be loaned to young married artificers at five per cent interest. He estimated that in a hundred years the principal would be vastly increased, and the greater part was then to be devoted to public works. However, many borrowers were unable to repay, and their security proving worthless, the sum at the end of the first century was far below Franklin's expectation.—Ed.