This, however, was not a gratuity, although it took that shape. It was but little if any more than was due Mr. Paine, in consequence of the depreciation of the continental money in which his salary as secretary of the committee of foreign affairs had been paid.

Mr. Paine had resolved not to make any application to the congress on the score of his literary labors; but he had several friends in the provincial assemblies who were determined that his exertions should not pass unrewarded. Through their influence, motions in his favor were brought before the legislature of Pennsylvania and the assembly of New York; the former gave him £500, and the latter the confiscated estate of a Mr. Frederick Devoe, a royalist. This estate, situated at New Rochelle, consisting of more than three hundred acres of land in a high state of cultivation, with a spacious and elegant stone house, beside extensive out-buildings, was a valuable acquisition; and the readiness with which it was granted, is a proof of the high estimation in which Mr. Paine's services were held by one of the most opulent and powerful states in the Union.

In 1786, he published at Philadelphia, his "Dissertations on Government," "The Affairs of the Bank," and "PaperMoney." The bank alluded to was the one which had been established some years before, under the name of the "Bank of North America," on the capital of the three hundred thousand pounds, which resulted from the subscription which Paine headed with five hundred dollars, as has already been stated; which bank, instead of being what banks now are,the stimulants of a gambling credit system, and a runious importing system, had been of vast use to the cause of our national independence. Paine advocated a paper currency when it was of use, instead of being an abuse; in his days it helped to secure national independence, instead of subjecting the country, as it now does, to a servitude to the interests of England, which could she have foreseen, it is questionable whether even British pride would not have so succumbed to British avarice, that not a gun would have been fired, or a sword drawn against us. England could have afforded to pay us as many pounds for subjecting ourselves as we have done to her interests, as it cost her pennies to vainly attempt to prevent us from doing this. It is highly worthy of remark, that

Paine opposed giving even the independence promoting Bank of North America, a perpetual charter.

At this time Mr. Paine was highly popular, and enjoyed the esteem and friendship of the most literary, scientific, and patriotic men of the age

हैं

PERIOD THIRD,

1787-1809.

MR. PAINE GOES TO EUROPE. HIS REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS IN ENGLAND. IS ELECTED A MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF FRANCE. TAKES AN ACTIVE PART IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. HIS DEATH.

THE success which had crowned Mr. Paine's exertions in America, made him resolve to try the effects of his influence in the very citadel of the foes of liberal principles in government, whose out-posts he had stormed. As America no longer needed his aid, he resolved to attack the English government at home; to free England herself.

Accordingly, in April, 1787, he sailed from the United States for France, and arrived in Paris after a short passage. His knowledge of mechanics and natural philosophy had procured him the honor of being admitted a member of the American Philosophical Society; he was also admitted Master of Arts by the University of Philadelphia. These honors, though not of much consequence in themselves, were the means of introducing him to some of the most scientific men in France, and soon after his arrival he exhibited to the Adademy of Sciences, the model of an iron bridge which had occupied much of his leisure time during his residence in America. This model received the unqualified approbation of the Academy, and it was afterwards adopted by the most scientific men of England.

From Paris Mr Paine proceeded to London, where he arrived on the third of September. Before the end of that month he went to Thetford to see his mother, who was now borne down by age, and was, besides, in very straightened circcmstances. His father, it appears, had died during his absence; and he hastened to the place of his birth to relieve the wants of his surviving parent. He led a recluse sort of life at Thetford for several weeks, being principally occupied in writing a pamph

let on the state of the nation, under the title of "Prospects on the Rubicon." This was published in London, toward the end

of the year 1787.

During the year 1788, Mr. Paine was principolly occupied in building his bridge. For this purpose he went to Rotherham in Yorkshire, in order that he might have an opportunity of superintending its iron castings.

The situation of France had now become of great interest to all Europe, and Mr. Paine was in the confidence of the chief actors in the great events which were there taking place, and he hastened again to Paris to witness and assist in the downfall of Bourbon despotism, to act his part in the great drama of freedom, the scene of which had shifted from the land of Washington to the country of Lafayette.

The French are peculiarly sensitive to the shafts of ridicule; and Voltarie,* taking a wise advantage of this, had made such good use of his exquisite wit, that both priestcraft and statecraft had become rather absurd than respectable in the estimation of the higher orders of those who held both their wealth and their positions under such patronage.

The writings of the Abbe Raynal had imbued the French with respect for the natural rights of humanity, and consequently with contempt and abhorrence for the vested rights of tyrants; and the writings of that great apostle of liberty, Rousseau, had long been preparing the way, in France, for what those of Paine had effected in America; in fact, Rousseau was the "author hero" of the French Revolution; and it was more owing to his pen, than to anything else, that the views of the people of France so differed from those of their rulers, that, whilst the latter, in assisting America to throw off the British yoke, looked no further than the weakening and humiliating of England, the former approved of, and sustained the measure, as initiatory to the destruction of monarchy itself.

The return from America of the troops of Lafayette had furnished a vast reinforcement to the popular cause, and infused its principles throughout all France. Mr. Paine remarks, that

"As it was impossible to separate the military events which took place in America from the principles of the American

*That Encyclopedia of wit and wisdom, Voltaire's "Philosophical Dictionary," is published by Mr. J. P. Mendum, at the office of the "Boston Investigator."

revolution, the publication of those events in France necessarily connected themselves with the principles that produced them. Many of the facts were in themselves principles; such as the Declaration of American Independence, and the treaty of alliance between France and America, which recognized the natural rights of man, and justified resistence to oppression."

This is the proper place to show that neither Paine, Rousseau, nor Voltaire are at all chargeable with the abominations which have been perpetrated, both in America and France, in the name of liberty; and that our 'scurvy politicians' have no more business to spout their impudent clap-trap in the name of the principles advocated by the author of "The Rights of Man,” than Marat, St. Just, and Robespierre, had to mouth Rousseau. Nothing is plainer, than that the two great moving minds in the American and French revolutions aimed at the practical actualization of liberty.

Had Rousseau awoke from the dead at the time of the French Revolution,-" What!" he would have exclaimed. "Do you take carnage to be what I meant by the state of nature?" "Miscreants!" Paine would thunder in the ears of our rulers, were he now to visit the land over which the starspangled banner waves. "Is elective franchise to end in majority-despotism and spoils? Do you think I mean caucus trickery, election frauds, office gambling, corruption,-in short demagogism, when I said free government?

"Are my teachings to be estimated from the stand-point where 'tis difficult, if not impossible to determine whether 'free laborers' or 'slaves' have the most uncomfortable time of it? In the name of 'Common Sense,' I protest against your gross misrepresentation of me. The contemptible knave and fool game which you are playing in the name of liberty, is but the back step of the forward one towards freedom, which I helped mankind to take.

Call you your miserable hotch-potch of spent supernaturalism and worn out absolution, what I meant by freedom? You might as well call a rotting heap of building materials, which some architect, whose skill was far in advance of his time, had not lived long enough to put together according to his design, the edifice which he intended.

"Ye infidels,* who meanly and hypocritically sneak for

*I wish it to be particularly observed, that I give the term "infidels," a much more extended sense than that which it is popularly supposed to convey.