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 conven- 
iency; 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 Eng- 
land 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. 
i8