3 Benjamin Franklin [1766
induce the assemblies of America to acknowledge the
right of Parliament to tax them, and would they erase
their resolutions?
A. No, never.
Q. Are there no means of obliging them to erase
those resolutions?
A. None that I know of; they will never do it,
unless compelled by force of arms.
Q. Is there a power on earth that can force them
to erase them?
A. No power, how great soever, can force men to
change their opinions.
Q. Do they consider the post-office as a tax, or as
a regulation?
A. Not as a tax, but as a regulation and conveniency;
 every assembly encouraged it and supported
it in its infancy by grants of money, which they
would not otherwise have done; and the people
have always paid the postage.
Q. When did you receive the instructions you
mentioned ?
A. 1 brought them with me, when I came to England
 about fifteen months since.
Q. When did you communicate that instruction
to the minister?
A. Soon after my arrival, while the stamping of
America was under consideration, and before the bill
was brought in.
Q. Would it be most for the interest of Great
Britain to employ the hands of Virginia in tobacco,
or in manufactures?
A. In tobacco, to be sure.

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