William Hunter, to succeed him,
by a commission from the postmaster-general in England. The American
office never had hitherto paid any thing to that of Britain.
We were to have six hundred pounds a year between us, if we could make
that sum out of the profits of the office. To do this, a variety
of improvements were necessary; some of these were inevitably at
first expensive, so that in the first four years the office became
above nine hundred pounds in debt to us. But it soon after began
to repay us; and before I was displac'd by a freak of the ministers,
of which I shall speak hereafter, we had brought it to yield three times
as much clear revenue to the crown as the postoffice of Ireland.
Since that imprudent transaction, they have receiv'd from it--
not one farthing!
The business of the postoffice occasion'd my taking a journey this
year to New England, where the College of Cambridge, of their
own motion, presented me with the degree of Master of Arts.
Yale College, in Connecticut, had before made me a similar compliment.
Thus, without studying in any college, I came to partake
of their honours. They were conferr'd in consideration of my
improvements and discoveries in the electric branch of natural philosophy.
In 1754, war with France being again apprehended, a congress
of commissioners from the different colonies was, by an order
of the Lords of Trade, to be assembled at Albany, there to confer
with the chiefs of the Six Nations concerning the means of defending
both their country and ours.
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