His Private Diplomacy with Lord Howe and Mrs. Howe

The last proposition aroused Franklin's indignation. "It was to me," he said, "what the French vulgarly call spitting in the soup." But he showed no signs of a ruffled temper, and promised to draw up for Lord Howe a new series of propositions, which he did in terms similar to those of the "Hints."

All these private diplomatic operations ended in leaving Mrs. Howe and her brother no wiser than before the first game of chess was played with Dr. Franklin. He had checkmated his competitors in the art of diplomacy.

British satirists and caricaturists handled the ministers and the king with considerable severity in 1774. In a caricature published with the Westminster Magazine in April, entitled "The White-Hall Pump," poor Britannia is thrown down upon her child America, while Lord North, who was remarkable for his short-sightedness, viewing her through his glass, is pumping upon her, and seems to enjoy her distress. A parcel of Acts and Bills, Magna Charta, Coronation Oaths, &c., are scattered upon the ground. Lord Mansfield, with an act of Parliament, is seen (in the full caricature--only a part of it is here given) standing by the side of North to give him legal support, while other ministers are near.