The ensuing Autobiography finishes in the year 1757, with the arrival of Franklin in England, whither he was sent by the Assembly of Pennsylvania to insist upon the rights of the province to tax the proprietors of the land still held under the Penn charter for their share of the cost of defending it from hostile Indians and others. In this mission he was completely successful. Indeed, big services were found to be so valuable that he was appointed agent also for the provinces of Massachusetts, Maryland, and Georgia. While in England he was honoured with the degree of Doctor of Laws by the universities of Oxford, Edinburgh, and St. Andrews. He was also made an Associate of the Academy of Paris.

These honours were granted chiefly on account of his contributions to the advancement of electrical science, as described, though briefly, in the following pages. These important researches in electricity were commenced in 1746, and in the course of a few years gave him rank amongst the most illustrious natural philosophers. He exhibited in a more distinct manner than had hitherto been done the theory of positive and negative electricity by means of his well-known experiment with a kite. He demonstrated also that lightning and electricity are identical; and it was he who first suggested the lightningrod as a means of protecting buildings.

In 1762 Franklin returned to America; but two years afterwards he was again sent to England—this time to contest the pretensions of Parliament to tax the American colonies without representation. The obnoxious Stamp Act was threatened, and he was examined before the House of Commons in regard thereto. The act was passed—to be repealed, however, in the following year. Meanwhile the differences between the British government and the colonies in regard to the prerogatives of the Crown and the powers of Parliament became more and more grave in consequence of the home government still claiming the right to tax.