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THE BOSTONIAN PETITION.
It has been seen that the assembly of Boston had voted a petition to
the king for the removal of their governor and deputy governor. This
petition, together with attested copies of the letters, were transmitted
to Dr. Franklin, the agent for the colony, or house of representatives
of Massachusets. These were delivered by Franklin to Lord Dartmouth, who
presented them to the king, and his majesty signified his pleasure that
they should be laid before the privy council.
In the mean time the affair had been the cause of bloodshed. Mr.
Whately, secretary to the treasury, to whom the letters had been
originally addressed, had recently died, and a sharp correspondence
took place between his brother, a banker in Lombard-street, and Mr.
John Temple, lieutenant-governor of New Hampshire: the former wishing
to avoid the charge of giving up the documents, and the latter that
of purloining them. The dispute ran so high that a duel was the
consequence, in which Mr. Whately was dangerously wounded. The event
caused great excitement, and Dr. Franklin wrote and published a letter
in the Public Advertiser, in which he declared that neither Mr. Whately
nor Mr. Temple had any thing to do with the letters, and that both of
them were totally ignorant of the transaction. His words are:--"I think
it incumbent on me to declare, for the prevention of further mischief,
that I alone am the person who obtained and transmitted to Boston the
letters in question.
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