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Student’s Encyclopedia of Great American Writers
Finally, the edict ends with a proclamation that all criminals—and again Franklin follows with a laundry list of the various crimes they may have committed—will be thrown out of their jail cells and sent to the “said Island of Great Britain for the better peopling of that country.” The fi nal word, however, is from Franklin, who removes the mask of the King of Prussia to reveal “these regulations are copied from Acts of the English Parliament respecting their colonies.” He declares the notion “impossible” as he cannot conscience that a “people distinguished for their love of liberty” should behave in such a “mean and injudicious” manner.
For Discussion or Writing 1. Just as in “The Way to Wealth,” Franklin reserves the real message of his essay until its conclusion. Consider the reason for this rhetorical decision, and its effects in the two essays. 2. Franklin’s essay appeared in a London newspaper while the statesman was visiting England. He reports that his host, Lord Le Despencer, at fi rst believed the essay and later attributed it to “your American jokes upon us.” Consider how this essay’s intended audience shapes its content.
“Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One” (1773) Franklin dedicated this pamphlet, which appeared on the eve of the American Revolution, to Lord Hillsborough, British secretary for colonial affairs. It provides the “ministers who have the management of extensive dominions” with a step-by-step set of instructions on how to decrease this “troublesome” burden, and thus liberate more time for “fiddling,” by reducing the empire. The common themes reemerging in the pamphlet involve taxation without representation, the inflated salaries and general dispositions of colonial authorities, and the legal system to which the colonists are subject.
Before helping to secure an alliance with France in 1778, Franklin put his pen to work to express the sentiments of the colonists. In this sketch, published in the Public Advertiser in 1773, Franklin provides a list of 20 actions that a large empire, such as England, can take to alienate its colonists, foment a rebellion, and ultimately reduce its size. Number 11 of these actions, for example, reads, “To make your Taxes more odious, and more likely to procure Resistance, send from the Capital a Board of Officers to superintend the Collection, composed of the most indiscreet, ill-bred and insolent you can fi nd.” “Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One” belongs to the genre of satire. A favorite form for 18th-century writers such as Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift, satire involves ridicule of someone or something—a person, for example, or an institution. In this case, the target of Franklin’s satire is the English government. As does the Declaration of Independence, which Franklin helped to write three years later, this sketch delineates England’s transgressions against its colonies. Instead of taking a straightforward approach of simply naming these transgressions, as the Declaration of Independence does, this satire employs irony, a common ingredient of satire. Irony always involves some kind of contrast; in this case, Franklin implies that the English leaders wish to turn their “Great Empire” into a “Small One,” when he knows very well that they do not. As is often the case with irony, the effect is humor.
For Discussion or Writing 1. Compare this satirical sketch with the Declaration of Independence. What do the two works have in common? How are they different? Why do you think that Franklin chose this satirical technique to criticizing England’s behavior? 2. Imagine that you are an English authority. Write your own set of “rules” in which you satirize the colonists’ behavior. 3. Franklin’s pamphlet was preceded by the Stamp Act, which was passed in 1765, and followed by the Intolerable Acts of 1774. Research these