Note 651 — THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. (continued 4)

See Boswell's Hebrides, Aug. 24 and Sept. 20. Dr. Franklin (Memoirs, i. 177) says that when the assembly at Philadelphia, the majority of which were Quakers, was asked by New England to supply powder for some garrison, 'they would not grant money to buy powder, because that was an ingredient of war; but they voted an aid of £3000 to be appropriated for the purchase of bread, flour, wheat, or other grain.' The Governor interpreted other grain as gunpowder, without any objection ever being raised.