equitable settlement of the differences that had long subsisted between the proprietaries and the people, as to taxation. In 1766 he travelled into Holland and Germany, and in 1767 he visited France; being every where received with the greatest marks of attention by men of science. He was introduced in the latter kingdom to Louis XV. Returning to England in 1767, he was examined before the house of commons concerning the stamp act. In 1773, having been appointed agent for Pennsylvania, he again came over to England, while the disputes between Great Britain and America were on the point of coming to extremities; when he attracted the public attention by a letter on the duel betwixt Mr. Whatley and Mr. Temple, concerning the publication of governor Hutchinson's letters. On the 28th January 1774 he was examined before the privy council on a petition he had presented long before, as agent for Massachusett's Bay, against Mr. Hutchinson; but this petition, being disagreeable to ministry, was precipitately rejected, and Dr. Franklin was soon after removed from his office of post-master general. He was now looked upon by government with such a jealous eye, that it was proposed to arrest him as a fomenter of rebellion. The Dr., however, departed for America in the beginning of 1775 with such privacy, that he had left England before it was suspected that he entertained any such design. Being elected a delegate to the continental Congress, he had a principal share in bringing about the revolution, and declaration of independency. In 1776 he was deputed by congress to Canada, to persuade the Canadians to throw off the British yoke; but they had been so much disgusted with the hot-headed zeal of the New Englanders, who had burnt some of their chapels, that they refused to listen to their proposals, though enforced by all the arguments Dr. Franklin could urge. On his return to Philadelphia, Congress, sensible how much he was esteemed in France, sent him to finish the negociations of Mr. Silas Dean. This important commission was readily accepted by the Dr., though then in the seventy-first year of his age. The event is well known; a treaty was signed between France and America; and M. le Rá asserts, that the Dr. strongly advised M. Maurepas not to lose a single moment, if he wished to secure the friendship of America, and to detach it from the mother country. In 1777 he was regularly appointed plenipotentiary from Congress to the French court. Having at last seen the full accomplishment of his wishes by the conclusion of the peace in 1783, which confirmed the independence of America, he requested to be recalled, and Mr. Jefferson was appointed to succeed him. Dr. Franklin arrived safe at Philadelphia in September 1785, and was received amidst the acclamations of a vast multitude, who conducted him in triumph to his own house. In a few days he was visited by the members of Congress and the principal inhabitants. He was afterwards twice elected president of the assembly. In 1787 he was appointed a delegate from Pennsylvania, for revising the articles of confederation; and signed the new constitution in the name of the state. He was also chosen president of the Philadelphia Society for alleviating the miseries of prisons, and of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery. His last public act was signing a memorial on this subject, 12th February, 1789. During the greatest part of his life he had been very healthy. In 1735, indeed, he was attacked by a pleurisy, which ended in a suppuration of the left lobe of the lungs, so that he was almost suffocated by the quantity of matter thrown up. But from this, as well as another attack, he recovered so completely, that his breathing was not affected. As he advanced in years, however, he became subject to fits of the gout, to which, in 1782, a nephritic colic was added. From this time he became subject also to the stone; and during the last year of his life these complaints almost entirely confined him to his bed; notwithstanding which, neither his mental abilities, nor his cheerfulness forsook him. His memory was tenacious to the last; a remarkable instance of which is, that he learned to speak French after he was seventy. About sixteen days before he died, he was seized with a feverish disorder; which, about the third or fourth day, was attended with a pain in the left breast, accompanied with a cough and laborious breathing. Thus he continued for five days, when the painful symptoms ceased; but a new imposthume had now taken place in the lungs, which suddenly breaking, he was unable to expectorate the matter fully, and expired on the 17th April, 1790. He left one son, governor William Franklin, a zealous loyalist; and a daughter, married to Mr. Willlam Bache, merchant in Philadelphia, who waited upon him during his last illness. Dr. Franklin was sententious but not fluent in society; more inclined to listen than to talk; and an instructive rather than a pleasing companion. He was author of many tracts on electricity, and other branches of natural philosophy, on politics and miscellanecus subjects. The following epitaph on himself was written by Dr. Franklin many years before his death : The Body of BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, PRINTER, Its contents torn out, Yet the work itself shall not be lost; BY THE AUthor. His funeral is said to have been more numerously and more respectably attended than any other that had ever taken place in America. The concourse of people assembled upon the occasion was immense. All the bells in the city were muffled, the newspapers published with black borders, &c. The body was interred amid peals of artillery, and nothing is said to have been omitted that could display the veneration of the citizens for so illustrious a character. Congress ordered a public mourning through out America for one month. Dr. Smith, provost of the College of Philadelphia, and Mr. Rittenhouse, one of its members, were selected by the Philosophical Society to prepare a eulogium to the memory of its founder; and the subscribers to the city library, who had just erected a handsome building for containing their Dooks, left a vacant niche for a statue of their benefactor. This has since been placed there by the munificence of an estimable citizen of Philadelphia. FRANKLIN (Mrs. Eleanor Anne), known as :. authoress, as Miss Porden, was the youngest daughter of Mr. Porden, an architect; and was born in July, 1795. She exhibited in her youth a remarkable memory, and a strong bias towards literature, which led her to make considerable progess in the acquirement of the Greek and other languages. She wrote, in her seventeenth year, her first poem, The Veils, or the Triumph of Constancy, which was published in 1815, with a dedication to countess Spencer. Three years afterwards appeared a small Poetical Tribute, under the name of The Arctic Expedition, suggested by a visit to the Isabella and Alexander discovery ships, which led to an acquaint ance with captain Franklin, the celebrated navigator, whom she married after his return home, in August, 1823. The year previously appeared Miss Porden's epic poem on the subject of the third crusade, entitled Cœur de Lion, dedicated by permission to the king. In June, 1824, the birth of a daughter encouraged hopes in her friends that a tendency to a pulmonary complaint, increased by the bursting of a bloodvessel in 1822, might be counteracted, but these expectations were soon destroyed, and she died February 22nd, 1825, a few days after her hushand had sailed from England on his second expedition. FRANKLIN, the north-westernmost county of Vermont, United States, is bounded north by Lower Canada, and west by Lake Champlain Population, in 1816, 16,427. The chief town is St. Alban's. FRANKLIN, a county of Pennsylvania, is bounded on the north by Mifflin, north-east and east by Cumberland and York, south by Washington county in Maryland, west by Bedford county, and north-west by Hunterdon. It produces iron, and is well watered by the Connegocheague river. Population, in 1816, 23,083. The chief town is Chambersburg. FRANKLIN, a county of Kentucky, bounded worth by Scott county, north-west and west by Shelby, south-east by Fayette, and south by Woodford. Population in 1816, 8013. Frankfort is the chief town. FRANKLIN, a county of North Carolina, in Halifax district. It is bounded on the north by Greenville, south by Johnston, north-east by Warren, south-west by Wake, and west by Orange county. Population, in 1816, 10,166. Louisburg is the chief town. FRANKLIN, a county of Virginia, bounded on the north by Bedford, north-west by Botetourt, west by Montgomery, south-west by Henry, south by Patrick, and east by Campbell county. It is about forty miles long, and twenty-five broad, and contained, in 1816, 10,724 inhabi tants. FRANKLIN, a county of Georgia, situated in the upper district, bounded east and north-east by Tugulo River, west and north-west by the country of the Cherokees, south by the branches of Broad River, and south-east by Elbert county. Population, in 1816, 10,815. FRANKS, FRANCS, FRANKIS, or FRANQUIS, a name which the Turks, Arabs, Greeks, &c., give to all the people of the western parts of Europe. The appellation is commonly supposed to have had its rise in Asia, at the time of the crusades, when the French made the most considerable figure among the croissées; from which time the Turks, Saracens, Greeks, Abyssinians, &c., used it as a common term for all the Christians of Europe, and called Europe itself Frankistan. E. Goar, in his notes on Condinus, cap. 5, N. 43, gives another origin of the appellation Franks, of greater antiquity. The Greeks, he says, at first confined the name to the Franci, or German Franks, who had settled in Gaul (see FRANCE); but afterwards they gave it to the Apulians and Calabrians, after they had been conquered by the Normans; and at length they extended it to all the Latins. In this sense is the name used by several Greek writers; as Comnenus, &c.; who, to distinguish the French, called them the Western Franks. Du Cange adds, that about the time of Charlemagne, they distinguished eastern France, or western France, Latin or Roman France, and German France, which was the ancient France, afterwards called Franconia. FRANTICK, adj. Lat. phreneticus; Gr. FRAN TICKLY, adv. φρενητικος. Phrenetick ; FRANTICKNESS, n. s. Smad; deprived of understanding by violent madness; outrageously and turbulently mad; transported by violence of passion; outrageous; turbulent. Simply mad Far off, he wonders what makes them so glad; Of Bacchus' merry fruit they did invent, Or Cybel's frantick rites have made them mad. Faerie Queene. Esteeming, in the frantick error of their minds, the greatest madness in the world to be wisdom, and the highest wisdom foolishness. Hooker. The lover frantick, Fie, fie, how frantickly I square my talk. Id. Dryden. She tears her hair, and, frantick in her griefs, Calls out Lucia. Addison's Cato I had not strength to stir, or strive, Byron. Prisoner of Chillon. FRASCATI, a small but beautiful town and bishop's see of the ecclesiastical state, in the Campagna di Roma, on the side of a hill near the site of the ancient Tusculum. It contains nothing remarkable, except a seminary, endowed by the late cardinal York, once bishop here. Population about 9000 In the environs are a number of villas belonging to Roman families, who pass the summer here. The ruins of Tusculum are scattered in long lines of walls and arches higher up the hill, intermingled with shrubs and bushes. The view is particularly interesting towards the north-east. Frascati is ten miles south-east of Rome. FRASERBURGH, or FRASERSBURGH, a small sea-port town in Aberdeenshire, seated on the south extremity of the Murray Frith, called Kinnaird's Head. It was erected in the sixteenth century, on Sir Alexander Fraser's estate, whence the name. It has a good harbour, made and kept up at a considerable expense by the proprietor and the town, and well adapted for building small vessels. There are from eleven to fifteen feet water within the harbour, and twenty feet immediately without at spring tides; without is a tolerable road for shipping, in a bay nearly a league in length, and half a league in breadth, with good anchorage in a sandy bottom. Vessels of about 200 tons burden enter the harbour. Fraserburgh contains above 1000 inhabitants; and is well situated for trade with the east coast of Europe. The town has been much improved of late years. It is sixteen miles east of Banff, and forty north of Aberdeen. FRATELLINI (Joanna), a celebrated Italian paintress, born at Florence, in 1666. The archduchess Vittoria, having noticed in her a readiness at her pencil, procured for her the best masters, and in a short time she acquired such a command of the pencil, that she surpassed her instructors in elegance, as well as in beauty of coloring. She painted delicately in enamel, and in crayon painting was equal to Rosalba: one of her best works is a picture of herself and son in the ducal gallery of Florence, in which city she died in 1731. FRATELLINI (Laurence Maria), the son of Joanna, was born in 1690, and studied under Gabbiani. He painted principally portraits, animals, landscapes, and historical subjects. He died in 1729. FRATERNAL, adj. Fr. fraternel; Lat. FRATERNALLY, adv. fraternus. Brotherly; FRATERNITY, N. S. pertaining to brothers; becoming brothers. The state or quality of a brother. Body of men united; corporation; society; association; brotherhood; men of the same class and character. The admonitions, fraternal or paternal, of his fellow Christians, or of the governors of the church, then more publick reprehensions; and, upon their unsuccessfulness, the censures of the church, until he reform and return. One shall arise Hammond. FRATERNITY, in the Roman Catholic religion, signifies a society originated for the purposes of devotion. Of these there were several sorts; as, 1. The fraternity of the rosary, founded by St. Dominic. It is divided into two branches, called the common rosary, and the perpetual rosary; the former of whom are obliged to confess and communicate every first Sunday in the month, and the latter to repeat the rosary continually. 2. The fraternity of the scapulary, whom the blessed Virgin, according to the sabbatine bull of pope John XXII., has promised to deliver out of hell the first Sunday after their death. 3. The fraternity of St. Francis's girdle are clothed with a sack of a gray color, which they tie with a cord; and in processions walk barefooted, carrying in their hands a wooden cross. 4. That of St. Austin's leathern girdle comprehends many devotees. Italy, Spain, and Portugal are countries where the greatest number of these fraternities, some of which assume the name of arch-fraternities, resided. Pope Clement VII. instituted the arch-fraternity of charity, which distributed bread every Sunday among the poor, and gave portions to forty poor girls on the feast of St. Jerome their patron. 5. The fraternity of death buried such dead as were abandoned by their relations, and caused masses to be celebrated for them. FRATRICELLI, or FRATELLI, Ital. q. d. fraterculi, little brothers, in ecclesiastical history, an enthusiastic sect of Franciscans, which rose in Italy, particularly in Ancona, about A. D. 1294. The word was used as a term of derision, as they were most of them apostate monks. For this reason the term, as a nick-name, was given to many other sects, as the Catharists, Waldenses, &c., however different in their opinions and in their conduct. But this denomination, applied to the austere part of the Franciscans, was considered by them as honorable. See FRANCISCANS. The founders were P. Maurato, and Foiombroni, who having obtained of pope Celestin V. a permission to live in solitude, after the manner of hermits, and to observe the rule of St. Francis in all its rigor, several idle vagabond monks joined them, who, living after their own fancies, and making all perfection to consist in poverty, were soon condemned by pope Boniface VIII. and his successor, and the inquisitors ordered to proceed against them as heretics; which commission they executed with great barbarity. Upon this, retiring into Sicily, Peter John Oliva de Serignan had no sooner published his Comment on the Apocalypse, than they adopted his opinions. They held the Romish church to be Babylon, and proposed to establish another far more perfect one. They maintained, that the rule of St. Francis was the evangelical rule observed by Jesus Christ and his apostles. They foretold the reformation of the church, and the restoration of the true gospel of Christ, by the genuine followers of St. Francis; and declared their assent to most of the doctrines published under the name of the abbot Joachim, in the Introduction to the everlasting Gospel, a book published in 1250, and explained by one of the spiritual friars, whose name was Gerhard. Among other enor mities, inculcated in this book, it is pretended that St. Francis was the angel mentioned in Rev. xiv. 6, and had promulgated to the world the true and everlasting gospel of God; that the gospel of Christ was to be abrogated in 1260, and to give place to this new gospel; and that the ministers of this great reformation were to be humble and bare-footed friars, destitute of all worldly employments. Some say they even elected a pope of their church; at least they appointed a general, with superiors, and built monasteries, &c. Besides the opinions of Oliva, they held, that the sacraments of the church were invalid; because those who administered them had no longer any power or jurisdiction. They were condemned afresh by pope John XXII. in consequence of whose cruelty they regarded him as the true antichrist; but several of them, returning into Germany, were sheltered by Louis, duke of Bavaria, the emperor. There are authentic records from which it appears that no fewer than 2000 persons were burnt by the inquisition, from 1318 to the time of Innocent VI. The severities against them were again revived towards the close of the fifteenth century, by pope Nicolas V. and his successors. However, all the persecutions which this sect endured were not sufficient to extinguish it; for it subsisted till the time of the Reformation in Germany, when its remaining votaries embraced the doctrine and discipline of Luther. And this has led Popish writers to charge the Fratricelli with many enormities, some of which are recounted by Bayle, under the article FRATRICELLI. They had several other denominations: they were called Dulcini, from one of their doctors; Bizochi, Beguins, and Beghardi. FRATRICIDE, n. s. Fr. fratricide; Lat. fratricidium. The murder of a brother. The fratricide [of Abel] is said by some to have been committed in this place. Maundrell. Journey to Aleppo. FRATTA, LA, a considerable town of Italy, in the Venetian states, and standing on the Scorta here reside a number of the old and noble families of this once flourishing state. It is in the Polesino di Rovigo, six miles southwest of Rovigo, and has 6,300 inhabitants. FRATTA MAGGIORE, a considerable town of Naples, not far from the capital. A great quantity of cordage is manufactured here; and the principal church is an elegant building. Population 8500. FRAUBRUNNEN, a town of the canton of Berne, Switzerland, on the road to Saleure. Here was founded a celebrated abbey of this name in 1246. The Bernois were here victorious, in 1375, over the Burgundians and Normans. In 1798 the troops of the canton sustained a defeat near this town from the French. It is seven miles north of Berne. It contains about 1400 inhabitants, and is a bishop's see. FRAUD, n. s. Lat. fraus, Fr. fraude. FRAUD FUL, adj. Deceit; cheat; trick; FRAUD FULLY, adv.artifice; subtilty; stratagem. Artful; trickish; deceitful; subtle. Whi rather take ghe no wrong? whi rather suffren ghe not dysseit? but also ghe doen wrong, and doen fraude and that to britheren. Wiclif. 1 Cor. vi. If success a lover's toil attends, Who asks if force or fraud obtained his ends. Pope. Such is the knowledge of vice, the various tempations to it, and the secret ways of practising it, especially the arts of dissimulation, fraud, and dishonesty. Mason. FRAUD, in law, signifies deceit in grants, or conveyances of lands, &c. or in bargains and sales of goods, &c., to the damage of another person. A fraudulent conveyance of lands or goods, to deceive creditors, as to creditors is void in law. And a fraudulent conveyance, to defraud purchasers, is also to such purchasers void; and the persons justifying or putting off such grants as good, shall forfeit a year's value of the lands, and the full value of the goods and chattels, and likewise shall be imprisoned. See CHEAT. All frauds and deceits, for which there is no remedy by the ordinary course of law, are properly cognizable in equity; and it is admitted, that matters of fraud were one of the chief branches to which the jurisdiction of chancery was originally confined. 4 Inst. 84. It would be endless to enumerate the several cases, wherein relief has been given against frauds; but the following instances are too material to be omitted. Wherever fraud or surprise can be imputed to, or collected from the circumstances of the transaction, equity will interpose and relieve against it. Toth. 101. 2. 2 Ch. Ca. 103. Finch. 161. 2 P. Wms. 203, 270. 3 P. Wms. 130. 2 Vern. 189. 2 Atk. 324. 2 Vez. 407. It is said, however, that it must not be understood, from cases of this kind being generally brought into equity, that the courts of law are incompetent to relieve; for, where the fraud can be clearly established, courts of law exercise a concurrent jurisdiction with courts of equity; and will relieve by making void the instrument obtained by such corrupt agreement or fraud. 1 Burr. 396. Wood's Inst. 296. Therefore where the obliger was an unlettered man, and the bond was not read over to him, he was allowed to plead this circumstance in an action on the boud. 9 Hen. V. 15, cited 11 Co. 27, b. So if the bond be in part read to an unlettered man, and some of its material contents be omitted or misrepresented. 2 Rol. Ab. 28, p. 8. It is observable that lord Coke in the same passage where he confines the jurisdiction of courts of equity to such frauds covin and deceit, for which there is no remedy by the ordinary course of law,' seems to admit that all frauds were not relievable at law. See 3 Inst. 84. The chancery may decree a conveyance to be fraudulent, merely for being voluntary, and without any trial at law; yet it has been insisted, that fraud or not, was triable only by a jury. Pre. Ch. 14, 15. As to those gifts or conveyances which want a good or meritorious consideration for their support; their being voluntary seems to have been always a sufficient ground to conclude that they were fraudulent; but though the statute protects the legal right of creditors against the fraud of their debtors, it anxiously excepts from such imputation the bonâ fide discharge of a moral duty. It therefore does not declare all voluntary conveyances, but all fraudulent conveyances, to be void; and whether the conveyance be fraudulent or not is declared to depend on the consideration being good, and also bonâ fide. A good consideration is that of blood, or of natural love and affection. A gift made for such consideration ought certainly to prevail, unless it be found to break in upon the legal rights of others; in that case it is equally clear it ought to be set aside. If therefore a man being indebted convey to the use of his wife or children, such conveyance would be within the statute; for though the consideration be good, yet it is not bona fide; that is, the circumstances of the grantor render it inconsistent with that good faith which is due to his creditors. Fonblanque's Treat. Eq. c. 4, sect. 12 in notes. Fraudulent gifts, or grants of goods to defraud the lord of his heriot, shall be void; and the value of the goods forfeited, under statute 13 Eliz. c. 5. Fraudulent conveyances to multiply votes at election of knights of the shire, shall be taken against the persons making them as free and absolute; and all securities for redeeming and restoring, &c.; to be void, statute 10 Ann. c. 23. Gross criminal frauds are punishable by way of indictment or information; such as playing with false dice, causing an illiterate person to execute a deed to his prejudice, &c.; for these and such like offences the party may be punished not only with fine and imprisonment, but also with such farther infamous punishment as the judges in their discretion shall think proper. FRAUDULENCE, n. s. fice. Lat. fraudulentia. Deceitfulness; trickishness; proneness to arti We admire the Providence of God in the continuance of Scripture, notwithstanding the endeavours of infidels to abolish, and the fraudulence of hereticks always to deprave the same. Hooker. He that by fact, word, or sign, either fraudulently or violently, does hurt to his neighbour, is bound to make restitution. Taylor. He with serpent tongue Supplanted Adam, FRAUENBOURG, a town of East Prussia, in Poland, on the river Frischellaff, six or seven leagues to the north-east of Elbing. In the ca the subject of which the eminent John Berthedral is the tomb of the great Copernicus, on nouilli, of Berlin, wrote to the earl of Buchan a letter, dated the 22nd of February, 1794, of which the following is a translation: In the year 1777 the bishop of Warmia, whom I met he had the pleasure to discover, in his cathedral in the abbey of Oliva, near Dantzic, told me that of Frauenbourg, the long neglected tomb of Copernicus. In the year 1778, on my journey to Russia, passing through that town, and having nothing to do during my short stay there that could interest me more, I went to the cathedral in search of this precious monument. I knew nobody in Frauenbourg, but in the street I accosted a canon, whose countenance and manner encouraged my address, and I was not disappointed. He told me, that as for the spot where lay interred the ashes of Copernicus, there was coffins of the deceased canons in a vault, where, no certainty, because it was usual to place the in the course of time, from their number, it was impossible to distinguish them from each other; but that with respect to the sepulchral stone, it was a slab of marble, such as was usual for others of the same station, with the short inscription, Nic. Copernicus, Thor. That this stone had been hidden, from neglect, many years, and afterwards accidentally observed and placed in the chapter-house of the cathedral, with a view to consider maturely of a proper place for its erection. I regret, however, very much, that I did not make a point with my guide to show me this stone, as, if a part of the inscription be not effaced, it does not tally with that recorded by Gassendi, who says, p. 325, in his life of CoPolish historian, caused to be erected to the mepernicus, that bishop Martin Cromer, a celebrated mory of that great astronomer unam tabulam marmoream, with this inscription :— D. O. M. N. D. NICOLAO COPERNICO MEDICINE DOCTORI. CANONICO VARMIENSI. EJUS DISCIPLINE INSTAURATORI. MARTINUS CROMERUS EPISCOPUS VARMIENSIS HONORIS ET AD POSTERITATEM MEMORIE CAUSA POSUIT. M.D.LXXXI. Gassendi adds, that it was thirty-six years after the death of Copernicus; but this does not agree with the date of our stone. My canon had for his apartment the dormitory of Copernicus, and he kindly asked me to pay it a sentimental visit, |