From Benjamin Franklin to Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours, 12 August 1772
To Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours
ALS: Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum
London, Augt. 12. 1772
Dear Sir
I am concern’d to understand lately that you have never been paid as I expected for the Ephemerides, and therefore I send you three Guineas by our valuable Friend M. Baudeau, requesting you will let me have the Accompt at your Leisure, and I will take care for the future that the Payment shall be more punctual.7 You are doing a great deal of Good to Mankind, for which I am afraid you are not duly rewarded, except in the Satisfaction that results from it to your benevolent Mind. With sincere and great Esteem and Affection, I have the Honour to be, Dear Sir, Your most obedient and most humble Servant
B Franklin
M. Dupont.
7. BF had found that his subscription to the Ephémérides had been in arrears for months; see his earlier letter to du Pont de Nemours above, June 15. Abbé Nicolas Baudeau (1730–92) had come to Paris at the behest of its archbishop, and had there founded the Ephémérides in 1765 to refute the ideas of the physiocrats. He had been converted, however, largely by the arguments of du Pont de Nemours, who had joined him and Mirabeau to make the Ephémérides the principal physiocratic mouthpiece. Baudeau’s formulation of his new faith, Première introduction à la philosophie économique, had been published in 1771. For his involvement in Polish affairs see Hutton to BF below, Oct. 23.