178 Benjamin Franklin [1775 
own ships in preference to foreigners, and had no 
desire to see foreign ships enter our ports. That in- 
deed the obliging us to land some of our commodities 
in England before we could carry them to foreign 
markets, and forbidding our importation of some 
goods directly from foreign countries, we thought a 
hardship, and a greater loss to us than gain to 
Britain, and therefore proper to be repealed. But, 
as Britain had deemed it an equivalent for her protec- 
tion, we had never applied, or proposed to apply, for 
such a repeal. And, if they must be continued, I 
thought it best (since the power of Parliament to 
make them was now disputed) that they should be 
reénacted in all the colonies which would demon- 
strate their consent to them. And then, if, as in the 
sixth article, all the duties arising on them were to 
be collected by officers appointed and salaried in the 
respective governments, and the produce paid into 
their treasuries, I was sure the acts would be better 
and more faithfully executed, and at much less 
expense, and one great source of misunderstanding 
removed between the two countries, viz., the calum- 
nies of low officers appointed from home, who were 
for ever abusing the people of the country to govern- 
ment, to magnify their own zeal, and recommend 
themselves to promotion. That the extension of 
the admiralty jurisdiction, so much complained of, 
would then no longer be necessary; and that, besides 
its being the interest of the colonies to execute those 
acts, which is the best security, government might be 
satisfied of its being done, from accounts to be sent 
home by the naval officers of the fourth article.