To Benjamin Franklin from Pierre-Jean Grosley, 15 January 1781
From Pierre-Jean Grosley2
ALS: American Philosophical Society
Lundi 15 Janvr [1781]
Grosley qui n’a point perdu le souvenir du plaisir qu’il a eû de voir à Londres Monsieur francklin chez Le Dr. Pringle á ses conversations de Pall-mall, desireroit trés fort de se renouveller dans le plaisir.
Il auroit à l’entretenir du sujet d’un Mém. dont il a les materiaux prets pour La soc. Royle. de Londres;3 et il saisiroit avec le plus vif empressement l’occasion de voir l’egal de ces fameux Legislateurs des anciens peuples quos ad pugnam pulchrâ pro libertate.4
Il demeure a Paris cul de sac du cloitre S. Germain l’auxerrois où il attendra les ordres de Monsieur francklin pour le voir soit à Paris soit à séve.
Addressed: A Monsieur / Monsieur Le Docteur francklin / En sa maison, / A Passi
Endorsed: Grosley
2. Originally trained in the law, Grosley (1718–1785) became a writer and was elected to several academies: DBF. During a tour to England in 1765, he was made a fellow of the Royal Society. His meeting with BF in London, which he recalls in this letter (his only appearance in BF’s papers), undoubtedly took place during that tour.
Grosley published his observations on London society and the English people in general in Londres (Paris, 1770). Two years later, his friend Thomas Nugent translated the work as A Tour to London, or, New Observations on England and Its Inhabitants (London, 1772).
3. If this memoir was ever sent, the Royal Society did not publish it in their Transactions.
4. Whom something beautiful pushes toward battle for liberty.