Besides the ministry which had come with the regent, Reorgan- the council of state, and the departments of the four ization on ministries of home, finances, war and marine then Portu- existing, there were created in the course of one year a supreme court of justice, a board of patronage and administration of the property of the church and military orders, an inferior court of appeal, the court of exchequer and royal treasury, the royal mint, bank of Brazil, royal printing-office, powder-mills on a large scale, and a supreme military court.
A series of school books, in the Maltese language printed in Roman characters, with translations in English interlined in different type, was produced at the government printing office and sold at cost price.
A rapid composer and a workman full of resource, Franklin was soon recognized as the master spirit of the shop. Sir William Keith (1680-1749), governor of the province, urged him to start in business for himself, and when Franklin had unsuccessfully appealed to his father for the means to do so, Keith promised to furnish him with what he needed for the equipment of a new printing office and sent him to England to buy the materials.
Personally he had little connexion with the Philadelphia printing office after 1748, when David Hall became his partner and took charge of it.
In 1825 he obtained congenial employment in the printing office of the Church Missionary Society at Islington, and in 1827 was transferred to the same society's establishment at Malta.
