To Benjamin Franklin from Robert Strange, 28 February 1782
From Robert Strange
ALS:8 American Philosophical Society
London 29th. [i.e., 28]9 Feby. 1782
No. 52 Great Queen Street.—
My dear Sir
Mrs. Strange and I return you our sincere thanks for the letters you were so good as lately forward us from America. This morning I called upon our acquaintance Mr. Strahan, as he had communicate to me your last letter wherein you desired him to send you your work of Cicero’s Cato Major &c.1 I herewith have the pleasure of transmitting it you by our friend Mr. Alexander. Mr. Strahan is affraid it is not the edition you required, but it is such as he could procure for the present. I do believe he would have wrote you, but you may suppose he has not recovered the defeat of this morning in the house of Commons, which, thank God, opens, at least, a prospect of terminating the calamities of this country and of America— I heartily congratulate with you on this occasion.
In about two months hence I intend paying a visit to Paris2 and shall one day abruptly come in upon you and take a Sunday’s dinner— If you have any commands from this country I shall be happy in obeying them, mean while, with my best compts. to your grandson, I am, most respectfully My dear Sir Your obedt. huml. Servt.
Robt. Strange
Addressed: Benjamen Franklin Esqr. / at Passy
Endorsed: Letter from Mr Strange, Engraver, to BF.
Notation: R. Strange 29 Feby. 1782.—
8. There is also a translation at the AAE. This was one of the letters BF forwarded to Rayneval on March 22; see above, p. 253, note 4. BF made several markings on this ALS that were transferred to the French translation. He annotated the name “Strahan” with the phrase “Member of Parliament.” He also underlined everything from “has not recovered” to the end of the first paragraph. Strahan, a supporter of North, represented Wootton Bassett in the Commons: Namier and Brooke, House of Commons, III, 489–91.
9. Based on his mention of the vote in Parliament, which occurred at 2:00 A.M. on Feb. 28; see Burke’s letter of that date.
1. BF’s letter to Strahan (with an enclosure to Isabella Strange) is above, Dec. 4.
2. Although his family lived in Lincoln’s Inn Fields in London, Robert Strange spent much of his time in Paris: James Dennistoun, Memoirs of Sir Robert Strange … (2 vols., London, 1855), II, 183.