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"Ben Franklin"
Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography: Page 89
of 154
Philadelphia, respecting some negligence in rendering, and inexactitude of his
accounts, took from him the commission and offered it to me. I accepted it
readily, and found it of great advantage; for, tho' the salary was small, it
facilitated the correspondence that improv'd my newspaper, increas'd the number
demanded, as well as the advertisements to be inserted, so that it came to
afford me a considerable income. My old competitor's newspaper declin'd
proportionably, and I was satisfy'd without retaliating his refusal, while
postmaster, to permit my papers being carried by the riders. Thus he suffer'd
greatly from his neglect in due accounting; and I mention it as a lesson to
those young men who may be employ'd in managing affairs for others, that they
should always render accounts, and make remittances, with great clearness and
punctuality. The character of observing such a conduct is the most powerful of
all recommendations to new employments and increase of business.
I began now to turn my thoughts a little to public affairs, beginning, however,
with small matters. The city watch was one of the first things that I conceiv'd
to want regulation. It was managed by the constables of the respective wards in
turn; the constable warned a number of housekeepers to attend him for the night.
Those who chose never to attend paid him six shillings a year to be excus'd,
which was suppos'd to be for hiring substitutes, but was, in reality, much more
than was necessary for that purpose, and made the constableship a place of
profit; and the constable, for a little drink, often got such ragamuffins about
him as a watch, that respectable housekeepers did not choose to mix with.
Walking the rounds, too, was often neglected, and most of the nights spent in
tippling. I thereupon wrote a paper, to be read in Junto, representing these
irregularities, but insisting more particularly on the inequality of this
six-shilling tax of the constables, respecting the circumstances of those who
paid it, since a poor widow housekeeper, all whose property to be guarded by the
watch did not perhaps exceed the value of fifty pounds, paid as much as the
wealthiest merchant, who had thousands of pounds worth of goods in his stores.
On the whole, I proposed as a more effectual watch, the hiring of proper men to
serve constantly in that business; and as a more equitable way of supporting the
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