Introduction 
was poured upon him by Wedderburn, give, together, 
an impression of an Ambassador who was certainly 
discharging in full measure his obligations to the 
Dominions he was representing. 
With a full measure of prejudice against the colo- 
nials, whom they persisted in regarding not as fellow 
citizens, but as subjects of Britain, the more intelli- 
gent Englishmen of the day could not but be im- 
pressed with the manliness and the dignity that 
characterized the Ambassador from America, and 
the fullness and precision of his information. 
Franklin's claims to recognition of the rights of 
English-speaking peoples throughout the world were 
based on Magna Charta. The great Charter se- 
cured, in 1215, certain rights that were essential for 
free men. The “free men” whom the Barons and 
Archbishop Langton had in mind in 1215 comprised 
but a small number of citizens. The circle of free 
men has gradually extended so as to include the 
millions of citizens who are now entitled to the exer- 
cise of the rights that were secured for English-speak- 
ing peoples in 1215. 
It was for the rights of the greatest of these Eng- 
lish-speaking communities (rights based on the Char- 
ter of 1215) that Franklin was contending in 1774. 
If the English statesmen of the day had been large- 
minded enough and clear-headed enough to realize 
that the contentions maintained by Franklin, and 
by the Americans whom Franklin was representing, 
were based not only on the great Charter but on the 
great law of justice that should control the action of 
all government, the American Dominion could have 
1V