George Washington's World - Benjamin Franklin looks and learns

A carriage ran along the streets of Stonehenge.  Two men got out.  "Nobody knows how long these old stones have laid here," said the older as they walked along the ruins. "They were here when Caesar and the Romans first came here and no one knows how long they had been there already then."

As the older man spoke this, he looked up and anyone could have recognized his face.  It was the kind and gentle Benjamin Franklin, here to look and to learn.

He had his views of England and America, and he traveled around Ireland and Scotland and Great Britain quite a bit.  He wondered why the Britains were so sure the Americans had to be ruled this way or that and were not allowed to object.  He wondered about that until he met a couple of the most important men, such as Lord Granville.

Lord Granville

Lord Granville said that the Americans were troublesome and needed to be kept in order, particularly since they were so far away.  At that distance, he felt, it would be better if they just learned to simply obey.

Back home, Benjamin Franklin said, "In Old England that I have seen.  Everything is very bad and topsy-turvy.  The old nobleman are very proud and their lives are very easy.  The smaller people have hard times even making a living.  In Scotland, they go barefoot and make do.  But in Ireland, most of the people live on buttermilk and potatoes most of the year and can barely make enough to live, even in their tiny little huts.  Compared to them, we are gentlemen and very, very rich!"

Benjamin Franklin