The Life Of Thomas Paine Volume I Part 26

"We congratulate the French nation for having laid the ax; to the root of tyranny, and for erecting government on the sacred hereditary rights of man; rights which appertain to all, and not to any one more than another.

"We know of no human authority superior to that of a whole nation; and we profess and claim it as our principle that every nation has at all times an inherent and indefeasable right to const.i.tute and establish such government for itself as best accords with its disposition, interest, and happiness.

"As Englishmen we also rejoice, because we are immediately interested in the French Revolution.

"Without inquiring into the justice, on either side, of the reproachful charges of intrigue and ambition which the English and French courts have constantly made on each other, we confine ourselves to this observation,--that if the court of France only was in fault, and the numerous wars which have distressed both countries are chargeable to her alone, that court now exists no longer, and the cause and the consequence must cease together. The French therefore, by the revolution they have made, have conquered for us as well as for themselves, if it be true that this court only was in fault, and ours never.

"On this side of the case the French revolution concerns us immediately: we are oppressed with a heavy national debt, a burthen of taxes, an expensive administration of government, beyond those of any people in the world.

"We have also a very numerous poor; and we hold that the moral obligation of providing for old age, helpless infancy, and poverty, is far superior to that of supplying the invented wants of courtly extravagance, ambition, and intrigue.

"We believe there is no instance to be produced but in England, of seven millions of inhabitants, which make but little more than one million families, paying yearly seventeen millions of taxes.

"As it has always been held out by the administrations that the restless ambition of the court of France rendered this ex-pences necessary to us for our own defence, we consequently rejoice, as men deeply interested in the French revolution; for that court, as we have already said, exists no longer, and consequently the same enormous expences need not continue to us.

"Thus rejoicing as we sincerely do, both as men and Englishmen, as lovers of universal peace and freedom, and as friends to our national prosperity and reduction of our public expences, we cannot but express our astonishment that any part or any members of our own government should reprobate the extinction of that very power in France, or wish to see it restored, to whose influence they formerly attributed (whilst they appeared to lament) the enormous increase of our own burthens and taxes. What, then, are they sorry that the pretence for new oppressive taxes, and the occasion for continuing many old taxes, will be at an end? If so, and if it is the policy of courts and court government to prefer enemies to friends, and a system of war to that of peace, as affording more pretences for places, offices, pensions, revenue and taxation, it is high time for the people of every nation to look with circ.u.mspection to their own interest.

"Those who pay the expences, and not those who partic.i.p.ate in the emoluments arising from them, are the persons immediately interested in inquiries of this kind. We are a part of that national body on whom this annual expence of seventeen millions falls; and we consider the present opportunity of the French revolution as a most happy one for lessening the enormous load under which this nation groans. If this be not done we shall then have reason to conclude that the cry of intrigue and ambition against other courts is no more than the common cant of all courts.

"We think it also necessary to express our astonishment that a government desirous of being called free, should prefer connexion with the most despotic and arbitrary powers in Europe. We know of none more deserving this description than those of Turkey and Prussia, and the whole combination of German despots.

"Separated as we happily are by nature from the tumults of the continent, we reprobate all systems and intrigues which sacrifice (and that too at a great expence) the blessings of our natural situation.

Such systems cannot have a natural origin.

"If we are asked what government is, we hold it to be nothing more than a national a.s.sociation; and we hold that to be the best which secures to every man his rights and promotes the greatest quant.i.ty of happiness with the least expence. We live to improve, or we live in vain; and therefore we admit of no maxims of government or policy on the mere score of antiquity or other men's authority, the old whigs or the new.

"We will exercise the reason with which we are endued, or we possess it unworthily. As reason is given at all times, it is for the purpose of being used at all times.

"Among the blessings which the French revolution has produced to that nation we enumerate the abolition of the feudal system, of injustice, and of tyranny, on the 4th of August, 1789. Beneath the feudal system all Europe has long groaned, and from it England is not yet free. Game laws, borough tenures, and tyrannical monopolies of numerous kinds still remain amongst us; but rejoicing as we sincerely do in the freedom of others till we shall haply accomplish our own, we intended to commemorate this prelude to the universal extirpation of the feudal system by meeting on the anniversary of that day (the 4th of August) at the Crown and Anchor: from this meeting we were prevented by the interference of certain unnamed and sculking persons with the master of the tavern, who informed us that on their representation he would not receive us. Let those who live by or countenance feudal oppressions take the reproach of this ineffectual meanness and cowardice to themselves: they cannot stifle the public declaration of our honest, open, and avowed opinions. These are our principles, and these our sentiments; they embrace the interest and happiness of the great body of the nation of which we are a part. As to riots and tumults, let those answer for them who by wilful misrepresentations endeavour to excite and promote them; or who seek to stun the sense of the nation, and lose the great cause of public good in the outrages of a mis-informed mob. We take our ground on principles that require no such riotous aid.

"We have nothing to apprehend from the poor for we are pleading their cause; and we fear not proud oppression for we have truth on our side.

"We say and we repeat it that the French revolution opens to the world an opportunity in which all good citizens must rejoice, that of promoting the general happiness of man, and that it moreover offers to this country in particular an opportunity of reducing our enormous taxes: these are our objects, and we will pursue them."

A comparative study of Paine's two republican manifestos--that placarded in Paris July 1st, and this of August 20th to the English--reveals the difference between the two nations at that period. No break with the throne in England is suggested, as none had been declared in France until the King had fled, leaving behind him a virtual proclamation of war against all the reforms he had been signing since 1789. The Thatched House address leaves it open for the King to take the side of the Republic, and be its chief. The address is simply an applied "Declaration of Rights." Paine had already maintained, in his reply to Burke, that the English monarch was an importation unrelated to the real nation, "which is left to govern itself, and does govern itself, by magistrates and juries, almost on its own charge, on republican principles." His chief complaint is that royalty is an expensive "sinecure." So far had George III. withdrawn from his attempt to govern as well as reign, which had ended so disastrously in America. The fall of the French King who had aided the American "rebellion" was probably viewed with satisfaction by the English court, so long as the revolution confined itself to France. But now it had raised its head in England, and the alarm of aristocracy was as if it were threatened with an invasion of political cholera.

The disease was brought over by Paine. He must be isolated. But he had a hold on the people, including a large number of literary men, and Nonconformist preachers. The authorities, therefore, began working cautiously, privately inducing the landlords of the Crown and Anchor and the Thatched House to refuse their rooms to the "Painites," as they were beginning to be called But this was a confession of Paine's power.

Indeed all opposition at that time was favorable to Paine. Publicola's reply to "The Rights of Man," attributed to Vice-President Adams, could only heighten Paine's fame; for John Adams' blazing court-dress, which amused us at the Centenary (1889), was not forgotten in England; and while his influence was limited to court circles, the entrance of so high an official into the arena was accepted as homage to the author.

The publication at the same time of the endors.e.m.e.nt of Paine's "Rights of Man" by the Secretary of State, the great Jefferson, completed the triumph. The English government now had Paine on its hands, and must deal with him in one way or another.

The closing of one door after another of the usual places of a.s.sembly to sympathizers with the republican movement in France, being by hidden hands, could not be charged upon Pitt's government; it was, however, a plain indication that a free expression through public meetings could not be secured without risk of riots. And probably there would have been violent scenes in London had it not been for the moderation of the Quaker leader. At this juncture Paine held a supremacy in the const.i.tutional clubs of England and Ireland equal to that of Robespierre over the Jacobins of Paris. He had the giant's strength, but did not use it like a giant. He sat himself down in a quiet corner of London, began another book, and from time to time consulted his Cabinet of Reformers.

His abode was with Thomas Rickman, a bookseller, his devoted friend.

He had known Rickman at Lewes, as a youthful musical genius of the club there, hence called "Clio." He had then set some song of Paine's to music, and afterwards his American patriotic songs, as well as many of his own. He now lived in London with wife and children--these bearing names of the great republicans, beginning with Thomas Paine,--and with them the author resided for a time. A particular value, therefore, attaches to the following pa.s.sages in Rickman's book:

"Mr. Paine's life in London was a quiet round of philosophical leisure and enjoyment. It was occupied in writing, in a small epistolary correspondence, in walking about with me to visit different friends, occasionally lounging at coffee-houses and public places, or being visited by a select few. Lord Edward Fitzgerald, the French and American amba.s.sadors, Mr. Sharp the engraver, Romney the painter, Mrs.

Wolstonecraft, Joel Barlow, Mr. Hull, Mr. Christie, Dr. Priestley, Dr.

Towers, Col. Oswald, the walking Stewart, Captain Sampson Perry, Mr.

Tuffin, Mr. William Choppin, Captain De Stark, Mr. Home Tooke, &c. &c.

were among the number of his friends and acquaintance; and of course, as he was my inmate, the most of my a.s.sociates were frequently his. At this time he read but little, took his nap after dinner, and played with my family at some game in the evening, as chess, dominos, and drafts, but never at cards; in recitations, singing, music, &c; or pa.s.sed it in conversation: the part he took in the latter was always enlightened, full of information, entertainment, and anecdote. Occasionally we visited enlightened friends, indulged in domestic jaunts and recreations from home, frequently lounging at the White Bear, Picadilly, with his old friend the walking Stewart, and other clever travellers from France, and different parts of Europe and America. When by ourselves we sat very late, and often broke in on the morning hours, indulging the reciprocal interchange of affectionate and confidential intercourse. 'Warm from the heart and faithful to its fires' was that intercourse, and gave to us the 'feast of reason and the flow of soul.'"

"Mr. Paine in his person was about five feet ten inches high, and rather athletic; he was broad shouldered, and latterly stooped a little. His eye, of which the painter could not convey the exquisite meaning, was full, brilliant, and singularly piercing; it had in it the 'muse of fire.' In his dress and person he was generally very cleanly, and wore his hair cued, with side curls, and powdered, so that he looked altogether like a gentleman of the old French school. His manners were easy and gracious; his knowledge was universal and boundless; in private company and among his friends his conversation had every fascination that anecdote, novelty and truth could give it. In mixt company and among strangers he said little, and was no public speaker."

Paine does not appear to have ever learned that his name had been pressed for a place in Was.h.i.+ngton's Cabinet, and apparently he did not know until long after it was over what a tempest in Jefferson's teapot his book had innocently caused. The facts came to him while he was engaged on his next work, in which they are occasionally reflected. In introducing an English friend to William Short, U. S. Charge d'Affaires at Paris, under date of November 2d, Paine reports progress:

"I received your favour conveying a letter from Mr. Jefferson and the answers to Publicola for which I thank you. I had John Adams in my mind when I wrote the pamphlet and it has. .h.i.t as I expected.

"M. Len.o.bia who presents you this is come to pa.s.s a few days at Paris.

He is a bon republicain and you will oblige me much by introducing him among our friends of bon foi. I am again in the press but shall not be out till about Christmas, when the Town will begin to fill. By what I can find, the Government Gentry begin to threaten. They have already tried all the under-plots of abuse and scurrility without effect; and have managed those in general so badly as to make the work and the author the more famous; several answers also have been written against it which did not excite reading enough to pay the expence of printing.

"I have but one way to be secure in my next work which is, to go further than in my first. I see that _great rogues_ escape by the excess of their crimes, and, perhaps, it may be the same in honest cases. However, I shall make a pretty large division in the public opinion, probably too much so to encourage the Government to put it to issue, for it will be rather like begging them than me.

"By all the accounts we have here, the french emigrants are in a hopeless condition abroad; for my own part I never saw anything to fear from foreign courts--they are more afraid of the french Revolution than the revolution needs to be of them; and the same caution which they take to prevent the french principles getting among their armies, will prevent their sending armies among the principles.

"We have distressing accounts here from St. Domingo. It is the natural consequence of Slavery and must be expected every where. The Negroes are enraged at the opposition made to their relief and are determined, if not to relieve themselves to punish their enemies. We have no new accounts from the East Indies, and people are in much doubt. I am, affectionately yours, Thomas Paine."

The "scurrility" referred to may have been that of George Chalmers, elsewhere mentioned. Two days after this letter to Short was written Paine received a notable ovation.

There was a so-called "Revolution Society" in London, originally formed by a number of prominent dissenters. The Society had manifested its existence only by listening to a sermon on the anniversary of the Revolution of 1688 (November 4th) and thereafter dining together. It had not been supposed to interest itself in any later revolution until 1789.

In that year the annual sermon was delivered by Dr. Richard Price, the Unitarian whose defence of the American Revolution received the thanks of Congress. In 1776 Price and Burke stood shoulder to shoulder, but the sermon of 1789 sundered them. It was "On the Love of our Country," and affirmed the const.i.tutional right of the English people to frame their own government, to choose their own governors, and to cas.h.i.+er them for misconduct. This was the "red rag" that drew Burke into the arena. Dr.

Price died April 19, 1791, and his great discourse gathered new force from the tributes of Priestley and others at his grave. He had been a staunch friend of Paine, and at the November festival of this year his place was accorded to the man on whom the "Const.i.tutionalists" beheld the mantle of Price and the wreath of Was.h.i.+ngton. The company at this dinner of 1791 at the London Tavern, included many eminent men, some of them members of Parliament. The old Society was transformed--William and Mary and 1688 pa.s.sed into oblivion before Thomas Paine and 1791. It was probably for this occasion that the song was written (by whom I know not)--"Paine's Welcome to Great Britain."

"He comes--the great Reformer comes!

Cease, cease your trumpets, cease, cease your drums!

Those warlike sounds offend the ear, Peace and Friends.h.i.+p now appear: Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, Welcome, thou Reformer, here!

"Prepare, prepare, your songs prepare, Freedom cheers the brow of care; The joyful tidings spread around, Monarchs tremble at the sound!

Freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom,-- Rights of Man, and Paine resound!"

Mr. Dignum sang (to the tune of "The tear that bedews sensibility's shrine.")

"Unfold, Father Time, thy long records unfold, Of n.o.ble achievements accomplished of old; When men, by the standard of Liberty led, Undauntedly conquered or chearfully bled: But now 'midst the triumphs these moments reveal, Their glories all fade and their l.u.s.tre turns pale, While France rises up, and proclaims the decree That tears off their chains, and bids millions be free.

"As spring to the fields, or as dew to the flowers.

To the earth parched with heat, as the soft dropping showers, As health to the wretch that lies languid and wan, Or rest to the weary--is Freedom to man!

Where Freedom the light of her countenance gives, There only he triumphs, there only he lives; Then seize the glad moment and hail the decree That tears off their chains, and bids millions be free.

"Too long had oppression and terror entwined Those tyrant-formed chains that enslaved the free mind; While dark superst.i.tion, with nature at strife, For ages had locked up the fountain of life; But the daemon is fled, the delusion is past, And reason and virtue have triumphed at last; Then seize the glad moments, and hail the decree, That tears off their chains, and bids millions be free.

"France, we share in the rapture thy bosom that fills, While the Genius of Liberty bounds o'er thy hills: Redundant henceforth may thy purple juice flow, Prouder wave thy green woods, and thine olive trees grow!

While the hand of philosophy long shall entwine, Blest emblems, the laurel, the myrtle and vine, And heaven through all ages confirm the decree That tears off their chains, and bids millions be free!"

Paine gave as his toast, "The Revolution of the World," and no doubt at this point was sung "A New Song," as it was then called, written by Paine himself to the tune of "Rule Britannia":

"Hail, Great Republic of the world, The rising empire of the West, Where famed Columbus, with a mighty mind inspired, Gave tortured Europe scenes of rest.

Be thou forever, forever great and free, The Land of Love and Liberty.

"Beneath thy spreading mantling vine, Beside thy flowery groves and springs, And on thy lofty, thy lofty mountains' brow, May all thy sons and fair ones sing.