Governor Hutchinson says, that he, received early information from whom, and to whom these letters were sent, and with what injunctions, from a person let into the secret." Dr. Franklin had, indeed, written to Dr. Cooper, that "the letters might be shown to some of the Governor's and Lieutenant-Governor's partisans, and spoken of to everybody, for there was no restraint proposed to talking of them, but only to copying." There was, nevertheless, a want of good faith somewhere, as well in other cases as in this.
Copies of Franklin's letters were secretly procured and communicated to Hutchinson, who is known to have sent one of them to the ministry, and it may be presumed that this was not a solitary instance. In his History is published an extract from one of Franklin's letters to Dr. Cooper, which could hardly have been obtained otherwise than surreptitiously.
And, what is worse, there is an omission and substitution, which materially alter the sense, and misrepresent the motives of the writer. The extract relates to the reasons for refusing copies of the letters. As printed in Hutchinson's History, it is made to close as follows; — "And possibly, as distant objects seen through a mist appear larger, the same may happen from the mystery in this case."
Nothing like this was written by Franklin. It was invented for the occasion. His words, for which the above were substituted, are the following.
"However, the term given with these [the original letters] could only be those with which they were received."
The design of the forgery is obvious. With whom it originated is uncertain. It may have been done before the extract was conveyed to Hutchinson. — See Vol. VIII. p. 72. —History of Massachusetts, Vol. III. p. 396.
