FRANKLAND'S ISLANDS, a cluster of islands in the South Pacific, on the north-east coast of New Holland, about six miles from the land. Long. 146° E., lat. 17° 12′ S.

FRANK'LIN, n. s. From frank, a freeholder; an ancient name for a freeholder of considerable property. Fortescue (de L L. Ang. c. 29) describes a Franklin to be a pater familias, magnis ditatus possessionibus. He is classed with, but after, the miles and armiger, and is distinguished from the liberé tenentes and valecti; though as it should seem the only real distinction between him and other freeholders consisted in the largeness of his estate. Spelman, in v. Franklein, quotes the following passage from Trivet's Fr. Chronicle (M S. Bibl. R. S. n. 56). Thomas de Brotherton, filius, Edwardi I. (Mareschallus Anglia), apres la mort resposa la fille de un Francheslyn apelée Alice. There appears no foundation for Dr. Johnson's definition of a franklin as a gentleman servant, steward, or bailiff.' A modern life of Dr. Franklin, whose memorable name with that of various other English families has been derived from this word, alludes to the following passage from Chaucer as contradicting our lexicographer :

A frankelein was in this compagnie
White was his berd as is the dayesie-
An householder and that a grete was he
Seint Julian he was in his contree-
At sessions ther was he lord and sire,
Full often time he was knight of the shire
An anelace and a gipciere all of silk
Heng at his gerdel white as morwe milk.

Chancer.

A spacious court they see, Both plain and pleasant to be walked in Where them does meet a franklin fair and free. Faerie Queene. FRANKLIN (Benjamin), LL.D. and F. R.S., one of the most celebrated philosophers and politicians of the eighteenth century, was born at Boston, January 6th, 1706. He was the son of Josias Franklin, a tallow-chandler, descended from an ancient English family, who had resided upwards of three centuries at Ecton in Northamptonshire, possessing a small freehold estate of thirty acres, and the eldest son whereof had been uniformly bred up to the profession of a blacksmith. This family had early embraced the opinions of the reformation, and were in danger of suffering for them, under the bloody reign of queen Mary I. Josias was the youngest branch of this family. He had joined the nonconformists, and upon the prohibition of conventicles, under Charles II., emigrated with his wife and family to New England in 1682; where, on the death of his first wife, he married Abiah Folger, daughter of Peter Folger, author of several tracts on liberty of conscience, who bore him nine children besides the subject of the present memoir. Benjamin early acquired reading and writing, but made no progress in arithmetic, as he states in his Life written by himself. From ten to twelve years of age he worked at his father's business; but his inclination for books determined the latter to make him a printer, though his elder brother James was already of that profession. To this

brother he was accordingly bound apprentice, and by his rapid proficiency in the business soon became of great use to him, though he was often treated rather tyrannically. Meantime he improved himself in arithmetic and other branches of science, as well as in composition, by writing anonymous essays for his brother's paper, The New England Courant, and which, being much admired, were for some time of advantage to it. But one of them, upon a political subject, happening to give offence to the Assembly, his brother was taken up, imprisoned for a month, and prohibited from printing his newspaper. The paper was then continued under the name of Benjamin Franklin, whose indentures were discharged, and a new secret contract agreed upon: but fresh differences afterwards arising between the brothers, our author, at the age of seventeen, emigrated to Philadelphia, where he arrived, without knowing a single individual in it, after escaping the danger of being taken up as a rur away servant, and various other adventures, which he humorously describes in his Memoirs. Here he soon obtained employment froin Bradford and Keimer, the only two printers then in the city. After this he was introduced by his brother-in-law, Captain Holmes, to Sir William Keith, governor of the province, who promised to do much for him, but, except entertaining him occasionally, in his own house or a tavern, performed nothing. By his advice, however, be paid a visit to his parents, and in the end of 1724, sailed for London, where by his own merit, without Sir William's promised letters of recommendation and credit, he obtained the best employment, first in Palmer's printing office, and afterwards in Watt's. At this time our author falling in with some Deistical companions, renounced the religious principles in which he had been educated, commenced sceptic, and pub lished a Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain, wherein he endeavoured to prove that there is no difference between virtue and vice; which he afterwards considered as one of the grand errors of his life. This work, however, introduced him to the acquaintance of Drs. Mandeville, and Pemberton, Sir Hans Sloane, and other celebrated authors. But he had been only eighteen months in London, during which time, living very temperately, or rather abstemiously, he had begun to lay up money, when a proposal was made to him by his friend, Mr. Denham, of returning to Philadelphia. This gentleman had been formerly a mercnant in Bristol, and, having failed, emigrated to Ame rica, where he made a fortune; then returned, invited his creditors to a feast, and paid their balances with interest. He engaged Franklin as his clerk and book-keeper, and to superintend the goods he was carrying back to America. They accordingly sailed on the 3d of July, 1726, and arrived at Philadelphia, October 11; but Denham dying in February, 1727, our auther engaged once more as a printer with Keimer: whom he also served as a letter-founder, inkmaker, engraver, and copper-plate printer; as well as constructor of a press for that purpose. This press, which was the first that had beer seen in the country, was erected

by Mr. Franklin, at Burlington, to print some New Jersey money-bills; and proved the means of his acquaintance with judge Allen, and several other members of the assembly, who were afterwards of great service to him. After this, he commissioned types from London, set up a printing-office, in company with Hugh Meredith, a fellow-workman, whose father advanced some money for them; and, at the same time, Franklin established a weekly club, for mutual improvement, which proved an excellent school of philosophy. This society, which was called the Junto, lasted nearly forty years. Mean time his industry, which was habitual, receiving additional energy from the idea of working for himself, rapidly advanced his credit, and Keimer, being unable to continue his newspaper, sold the copyright to Franklin for a mere trifle; who, by his improvements in the conduct and execution of it, soon raised it to a high degree of celebrity. After this, his accurate and elegant manner of printing recommended him to the employment of the assembly: and his partner Meredith, giving up the printing, turned farmer, and thus left Franklin sole proprietor of the business in 1729. Whereupon his friends, Messrs. Coleman and Grace, offered him money to carry it on extensively, and he accepted of half the offered sum from each. Soon after, a new emission of paper currency being wished for by the public, but opposed by the opulent part of the assembly, Franklin published a pamphlet on the subject, which, being unanswerable, occasioned the measure to be carried through, and himself to be rewarded by being employed to print the bills. Public and private employment now flowing upon him more and more, he, in 1730, married a lady, whose maiden name was Read, for whom he had entertained an affection before he went to London, and whose attachment was mutual: although, during his absence, she had been prevailed on by her mother, to marry one Rogers, a potter, who had used her so ill, that she did not so much as bear his name. (See Franklin's Life, written by himself, and published by Dr. Price). To our author she proved an excellent wife, and contributed much to the success of his shop. In 1731 Franklin's love of literature led him to set on foot, first a private, and afterwards a public library, which, in 1742, was incorpoporated by the name of the Library Company of Philadelphia; which now consists of many thousand volumes, besides a philosophical apparatus, &c. In 1732 he began to publish Poor Richard's Almanack, a work which he rendered remarkable by its numerous valuable and concise moral maxims, recommending industry and economy, and which he at last collected into one humorous address to the reader, entitled The Way to Wealth, which has since been translated into various languages. In 1736 he entered on his political career, by being appointed clerk to the general assembly of Pennsylvania. In 1737 he was appointed post-master. In 1738 he formed the first company for preventing damages by fires, and soon after got an insurance office erected. In 1744, during the war between France and Britain, the French and Indians having made inroads upon the frontiers of the province, he

proposed a voluntary association for its defence; which was approved of, and immediately signed by 1200 citizens, who chose Franklin their colonel. But he was then too deeply engaged in philosophical and political pursuits, to accept of that honor. In 1745 he published an account of his new invented fire-place (see FIRE-PLACE); and in 1725, was elected a member of the General Assembly, where he supported the rights of the citizens in opposition to the proprietaries. In 1749 he completed the plan of the Philadelphia Academy, upon the most lil erat principles, which was incorporated in 1753. Franklin had now conducted himself so well in his office of post-master to the province, that in 1765 he was appointed deputy post-master general for the British colonies; and, in his hands, this branch of the revenue soon yielded thrice as much, annually, as that of Ireland. Yet none of these public avocations prevented his making important discoveries in science. The Leyden experiment in electricity having rendered that science an object of general curiosity, Mr. Frankin applied himself to it, and soon distinguished himself so eminently in that science, as to attract the attention and applause of not only the count de Buffon, and other French philosophers, but even of Louis XV. himself. He was the first who thought of securing buildings from lightning; and he was also the first inventor of the electrical kite; having completed his experiment in June 1752, a full year before M. de Romas's discovery. His theory of positive and negative electricity has likewise received the sanction of public approbation; though many think it is not fully capable of supporting itself. See ELECTRICITY, index. His theories were at first opposed by the members of the Royal Society in London; but in 1755, when he returned to that city, they voted him the gold medal, which is annually given to the author of a memoir on the most curious and interesting subject. He was likewise admitted a member of the society, and had the degree of LL.D. conferred upon him by the universities of St. Andrews, Edinburgh, and Oxford. When the war broke out between Britain and France, he returned to America, to take a share in the public affairs of his native country. About 1753 he set on foot, and prevailed on the assembly to establish, the Pennsylvania hospital. In 1754, the American colonies having suffered much by the depredations of the Indians on their frontiers, he drew up, and presented to the commissioners from several colonies, a plan of union (called the Albany Plan, from the place where they met), which, though unanimously approved of by the commissioners, was at last rejected by the assemblies, as giving too much influence to the president, who was to be appointed by the king; and disapproved of by the British ministry, as giving too much power to the representatives of the people. This rejection on both sides affords the strongest proof of the excellency and impartiality of his plan, as suited to the situation of Britain and America at that period. It appears to have steered exactly between the opposite interests of both countries. In 1757 he restored tranquillity to the province, by an amicable and

equitable settlement of the differences that had long subsisted between the proprietaries and the people, as to taxation. In 1766 he travelled iuto 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 Philade phia 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 se ject, 12th February, 1789. During the greatest part of his life he had been very healthy. In 1735, indeed, he was attacked by a pleunst. 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; notwithstandirwhich, 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, be 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,
Like the cover of an old book,

Its contents torn out,
And stript of its lettering and gilding,
Lies here food for worms.

Yet the work itself shall not be lost; For it will (as he believed) appear once more, In a new and more beautiful Edition, Corrected and amended

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 occa sion 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 venera tion of the citizens for so illustrious a character.

Congress ordered a public mourning through

uumber 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. 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 religia, signifies a society originated for the purposes ef 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 ro sary; 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 bare footed, carrying in their hands a wooden cross. 4. That of St. Austin's leathern girdle compre hends many devotees. Italy, Spain, and Por tugal are countries where the greatest number of these fraternities, some of which assume the name of arch-fraternities, resided. Pope Cle ment 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