To Benjamin Franklin from Peter Collinson, 1 June 1747
From Peter Collinson
ALS: American Philosophical Society
Londn. June 1: 1747
Respected friend
I shall be pleased to Hear that Mine per Mesnard and Dowers are come safe to your Hands with the books &c. and 4 Transactions2 all Committed to the Care of Elias Bland3 to putt up with his Letters. via N York I advised of your Bill on Oliver4 for £47 5s. 5d. is received and placed to Account.
Inclosed are some proposals.5 Pray send one to J: Logan.
I am with Respects thine
P Collinson
| Books &c. by Dowers and Mesnard | £2: | 2: | 6 |
| Ditto by this Ship | 4: | – |
I doubt not but your proprietors fine present of an Electrical aparatas setts you all to Work.6
Addressed: To Benn. Francklin These
2. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.
3. Elias Bland, Quaker merchant of London, served a five-year apprenticeship to the Philadelphia merchant John Reynell before 1743. He failed, 1750, but was permitted to continue trading for a time under the direction of his creditors. BF lent him £300 in 1759; the loan was repaid promptly. PMHB, LV (1931), 121; LVI (1932), 170–86; LXXII (1948), 354 n, 362.
4. Not identified.
5. Probably the proposals for publishing the Universal History (London, 1747), which BF printed in Pa. Gaz., July 9. Logan acknowledged receiving a copy, July 13. See below, p. 146.
6. For the Library Company’s thanks for this gift, see below, p. 164.