THE great American Benjamin Franklin is well known for a quotation about the certainty of death and taxes. Mr. Franklin, whose face is on the $100 dollar bill, wrote to Jean-Baptiste Leroy in 1789: “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”

In the letter to his French scientist friend in relation to the US Constitution that was approved two years earlier in 1787, the popular former ambassador to France said, “Our new constitution is now established and has an appearance that promises permanency” and then added the famous quotation. The reference to death is due to his failing health due to old age. He died a year later, in 1790.