Benjamin Franklin wrote his satirical essay “Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One” to highlight how horribly the English Parliament was treating the colonies. It was published in the journal Public Advertiser in September 1773. At the time he wrote this, Franklin was in England as a colonial representative. The colonists had been growing increasingly unhappy with Parliament not allowing them to have a voice as to how they should be governed. England had been tightening the reins on its colonies, and the colonists resented this. Franklin wrote this essay to illustrate to the English Crown and Parliament how oppressive England’s behavior was to the colonists. The satirical tone of this essay, one of many that he wrote, was typical of Franklin. Franklin might have utilized this rather indirect method of getting his and the colonies’ point across for reasons of diplomacy, to avoid upsetting the Crown or Parliament. His approach became increasingly direct, however, especially after England passed the Intolerable Acts following the Boston Tea Party. Franklin himself, who had once been a Loyalist, changed his mind to favor independence as Britain became more oppressive. The points in Franklin’s essay predicted the grievances outlined later in the petition drafted by the delegates to the First Continental Congress in 1774.