Benjamin Franklin Papers
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Permanent link for this document:
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-28-02-0436

To Benjamin Franklin from Chaumont, [after 11 February 1779?]

From Chaumont

AL: National Archives

[after February 11, 1779?]2

On vient de m’apprendre qu’un Banquier de Paris a reçu samedy une lettre de son correspondant de Londres qui lui marque qu’il s’est formé dans cette ville un parti contre le Roi et le Parlement. Ils s’appellent Kepellistes du nom de Kepel, ou les Blancs parcequ’ils portent une grande cocarde blanche aux quatre coins de laquelle sont écrits ces mots: vive Louis XVI restaurateur de la liberté.

Le même Correspondant ajoute que dans 15. jours il apprendra des nouvelles beaucoup plus intéressantes encore dans le même genre.

[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]

2The day the news reached London from Portsmouth of Admiral Keppel’s acquittal of all charges in his court martial. His cause had become a rallying point for the parliamentary opposition. Popular celebrations of his acquittal turned into mob actions against not only Sir Hugh Palliser’s house, but also those of Lords North, Germain, and Sandwich, as well as many of the ministry’s supporters. The mob also forced its way through the gates of the Admiralty and broke all the windows: The General Advertiser and Morning Intelligencer, Feb. 13, 1779. Our dating of the present letter is conjectural, but the extravagance of the rumors it contains seems to fit with the wildness of the moment.

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