FRA

408

FRA

by this privilege above 80,0001. per annum. The following arethe regulations of franking required by 35 Geo. HI. and now inforce. No letter directed by or to any M. P. shall be exemptedfrom postage if it exceeds one ounce in weight. No letter direct-ed by any member shall he exempted, unless he shall actually bein the post-town, or within the limits of its delivery of letters, orwithin CO miles of it on the day. or the day before it, on whichthe letter .-ha!) be put into the office. No member shall be en-t’tlcd to send free from postage more than ten letters in one day,nor to receive more than 15. Whenever the number of letterssent or received by such member in one day shall exceed thenumber exempted, and the postage upon any of them shall differ,the letters chargeable with a higher postage shall be includedin the number exempted, in preference to any chargeable with alower postage, and the remainder shall be chargeable with thepostage to which common letters are now chargeable. PersonswMio may now in right of their orifices send and receive letters freemay continue so to do.

FRANKENDAL, a strong town of Germany , now includedin France , in the department of Mont Tounerre, 8 miles N. \V.of Manhehn, and 8 S. of Worms. Lon. 8. '-’if. E. Lat. 49.Jj. N.

FRaNKKNIA, in botany, a genus of the monogynia order,and hexandria class of plants ; natural order, Calycanthema-. Ca-lyx quinquetid, funnel-shaped; petals five; stigma sexpartite;capsule unilocular and trivaivular. It has three species.

FRANKENSTEIN, a town of France , in the department ofSarre and Moselle, 20 miles S. E. of Deux Pouts.

FRANKFORD, a town of Virginia , the capitalmf Pendletoncounty, 180 miles N. IV". of Richmond .

FRANKFORT, a town of the United States , on the river andin the state of Kentucky .

FRANKINCENSE, is a gummy resin , the product of thejuniperus lycia , consisting of equal parts of gum and resin ; therirst is soluble in water, the other in alcohol. It is brought fromTurkey and the East Indies, but is principally collected in Ara-bia. It usually comes to us in drops, but in a very impure state,a hundred pounds not yielding more than from forty to fifty pound.',of pure frankincense.

FRANKLAND’s Islands , a cluster of islands in the SouthSea; 6 miles from the N. E. coast of New Holland. Lon. 140.0. E. Lat. 17. i3. S.

FRANKLIN, Benjamin, LL. D. and F. R. S. one of themost celebrated philosophers and politicians of the 18th century,was born at Boston , 6th Jan. 1700. lie was the son of JosiasFranklin, a tallow-chandler, descended from an ancient English family, who had resided upwards of three centuries at Eaton inNorthamptonshire , possessing a small freehold estate of 30 acres.Benjamin was placed under him ; but a difference happening be-tween them, he removed to New York , from whence in; went toPhiladelphia , where after serving as a journeyman some time, beattracted the notice of Sir William Keith, the governor , who per-suaded him to set up for himself. Accordingly he came to Eng-land to procure printing materials, but on bis arrival lie found thatthe governor had deceived him by false promises, on which lieworked as a journeyman printer in London , and in I 726 returnedto Philadelphia , where he became clerk to a merchant. He nextentered into partnership with a person named Meredith, in theprinting-business, which he afterwards conducted alone. In 1730he was united to a widow lad), whom he had courted before herfirst marriage. About this period he contributed to (he formingof tiio public library at Philadelphia , and in 1732 be published bis“ Poor Richard’s Almanack,” in which he inserted some usefulaphorisms or maxims of prudence. In 1736 he was appointedclerk to the general assembly at Pennsylvania , ami the year fol-lowing post-master-of Philadelphia. In the French war in 1744he proposed and carried into effect a plan of association for thedefence of that province. About this time he commenced hiselectrical experiments of which he published an account, lie laidthe honour of making several discoveries in this branch of philoso-phy, the principal of which was the identity of the electric tireand lightning. In 1747 he was chosen a representative of the ge-neral assembly, in which situation he distinguished himself by se-veral acts of public utility. By his means a militia bill was- pass-ed, and he was appointed colonel of the Philadelphia regiment,lu 1757 he was sent to England as agent for Pennsylvania . At j

I this time he was chosen fellow of the Royal Society , and honour-j ed with the degree of doctor of laws by the universities of St. An-, drews, Edinburgh , and Oxford. In 1762 he returned to Ame-! rica, but two years afterwards he again visited England, in his1 former capacity as agent, and it was at this period that liewas examined at the bar of the house of commons concern-ing the stamp act. In 1775 lie returned home, and was elect-ee, a delegate to the congress. He was veiy active in thecontest between England and the colonies, and was sent to France ,w here in 1778 he signed a treaty of alliance offensive and defen-sive, which produced a war between that country and England,j In 1783 be signed the definitive treaty of peace, and in 1785 re-turned to America , where he was chosen president of the supreme-council. He died in 1790. Besides his political, miscellaneous,and philosophical pieces published in 4to. and Svo. lu- wrote seve-ral papers in the American Transactions, and two volumes of Es-says, with his life prelixed, written by himself, 2 voE. i‘2mo. Thefollowing epitaph on himself was written by Dr. Franklin manyyears before bis death :

The Body of

Benjamin Franklin, Printer,

Like the cover of an old book.

Us contents torn out,

And stript of its lettering and gilding,

Lies here food for worms.

Yet the work itself shall not be lost;

For it will (as he believed) appear once more,

In a new and moke beautiful edition,

Corrected and amendedBy the Author.

Franklin, a county of Georgia, in the Upper District, seatedon tlie Tugulo.

Franklin, a populous and well-cultivated county of Ken-tucky. Frankfort is the capital .

Feanklin, a county of North Carolina , in Halifax district.

Franklin, a fertile county of Pennsylvania . Chumbersbnrgis the capital.

Franklin, a county of Vermont , containing twenty townships.

Franklin, a cotintv of Virginia .

FRANKS, FRANCS, FRANKIS, or FRANQUIS, a namewhich the Turks, Arabs , Greeks, &c. give to all the people of thewestern parts of Europe . 'Flic appellation is commonly supposedto have had its rise in Asia , at the time of the eroisades; w henthe French made the most considerable figure among the crois-sccs: from which time the '['inks, Saracens, Greeks, Abyssinian *,&<-. used it as a common term for all the Christians of Europe ,and called Europe itself Frankistan. Du Cange says, that aboutthe lime of Charlemagne , they distinguished Eastern France,Western France, J.atin or Roman France, and German France ,which was the ancient France afterwards called Franconia .

FRAN/BURG, a town of Upper Saxony, in Swedish Pome-rania, 14 miles S. of Stralsmul.

FLAPPING, in naval artairs, Hip act of crossing and drawingtogether the several parts of the tackle, or other complication oiropes, which had been already strained to their utmost extent ; ifthis sense it resembles the operation of bracing a drum. The frap'[ling increases tension, and consequently adds to the security ac-quired bv the purchase.

FRASERBURGH , or FRASERS BUB GH, a small sea-porttown in Aberdeenshire , seated on the S. extremity of the Murray'Frith, called Kinnaird’s Head, 16 miles E. of Banff , and 40 N.Aberdeen.

FRATERNAL AFFEC TION is the love and attachmentsubsisting among, or due to one another by, children of the snniofamily. A hearty benevolence, an ardent concern for eachother’s welfare, and a readiness to serve and promote it, are tl> epeculiar offices of this relation.

FRATERNITY, in the Roman Catholic system, signifies asociety for the improvement of devotion. Of these theie are se-veral sorts; as, 1. 'The fraternity ot the rosary, founded by l* 1-Dominic. It is divided into two branches, called the coiiiiv 01 ’rosary, and the perpetual rosary ; the former of whom are oblig'- 1to ronlcss and communicate every rirst Sunday in tin* month, a>' 1 .the latter to repeat the rosary continually. 2. 'The fraternity *’the scapuiary, w hom the blessed Virgin, according to the sabh*'tine bull of pope Job»XXlI. has promised to deliver out of he 1q tl*