Richard Carlile

“ However, he carried no pique with him into his retirement, but was as ardent as ever in the cause of independence and a total separation from Britain. He published several plans for an equal system of taxation to enable the Congress to recruit the finances and to reinforce the army, and in the most clear and pointed manner, held out to the inhabitants of the United States, the important advantages they would gain by a cheerful contribution towards the exigencies of the times, and at once to make themselves sufficiently formidable, not only to cope with, but to defeat the enemy. ”

“ France, by a series of successful battles with the monarchs of Europe, began to assume a military character-the very soul of Frenchmen, but the bane of Republicanism. Hence arose a Buonaparte, and hence the fall of France, and the restoration of the hated Bourbons.
After Buonaparte had usurped the sovereign power, and every thing in the shape of a representative system of government had subsided, Mr. Paine led quite a retired life, saw but little company, and for many years brooded over the misfortunes of France, and the advantages it had thrown away, by anticipating its present disgrace. ”

“ The laws of England have been a great bar to the propagation of sound principles and useful lessons on Government, for whatever might have been the disposition and abilities of authors, they have been compelled to limit that disposition and those abilities to the disposition and abilities of the publisher. Thus it has been difficult for a bold and honest man to find a bold and honest publisher; even in the present day it continues to be the same, and the only effectual way of going to work is, for every author to turn printer and publisher as well. ”

“ There were but few Frenchmen amongst the literate part of the community who had any notion of a representative system of Government. The United States had scarcely presented any thing like correct representation, and the boasted constitution of England is altogether a mockery of representation. The people of England have no more direct influence over the Legislature than the horses or asses of England. Mr. Paine saw this, both in France and England, and, at the same time, saw the necessity of inculcating correct notions of Government through all classes of the community. ”

“ Those who are in the habit of running down every thing that does not tally with their antiquated opinions, or the prejudices in which they have been educated, have decried Mr. Paine as an Atheist! Of all the men who ever wrote, Mr. Paine was the most remote from Atheism, and has advanced stronger arguments against the belief of no God, than any who have gone before him, or have lived since. If there be any chance of the failure of Mr. Paine's theological writings as a standard work, it will be on the ground of their being more superstitious than otherwise. ”

“ The reign of terror now commenced in France; every public man who breathed a sigh for Louis was denounced a traitor to the nation, and as such was put to death. Every man who complained of the despotism and violence of the party in power, was hurried to a prison, or before the Revolutionary Tribunal and to immediate execution. Mr. Paine, although a Member of the Convention, was first excluded on the ground of being a foreigner, and then thrown into prison because he had been born in England! ”

“ Intrigue is the natural characteristic of Frenchmen, and they never appeared to relish any thing in the shape of purity or simplicity of principle. Their intrigue being always attended with an impetuosity, has been aptly compared by Voltaire to the joint qualities of the monkey and the tiger. Of all countries on the face of the earth, perhaps France was the least qualified to receive a pure Republican Government. ”

“ If a man durst not publish the whole of the writings of another, he had far better leave them altogether, until another more bold and honest shall be found to undertake the task. Every curtailment must tend to misrepresent; and whatever may be the motive, the act is dishonest.
Mr. Paine had been particularly intimate with Burke, and I have seen an original letter of Burke to a friend, wherein he expressed the high gratification and pleasure he felt at having dined at the Duke of Portland's with Thomas Paine the great political writer of the United States, and the author of "Common Sense." ”

“ The Bible is a most convenient book to afford precedents; and any man might support any opinion or any assertion by quotations from it, Mr. Paine tells us in his first Crisis that he has no superstition about him, which was a pretty broad hint of what his opinions on that score were at that time, but it would have been the height of madness to have urged any religious dissension among the inhabitants of the United States during their hostile struggle for independence. Such is not a time to think about making converts to religious opinions. ”

“ The apathy which was made a sufficient excuse for the one case, should have also formed a sufficient excuse for the other. This was certainly a defect in Mr. Paine's career as a political character. He might have attacked the conduct of John Adams, who was a mortal foe to Paine and all Republicanism and purity of principle, and who found the apathy and indifference of Washington a sufficient cloak and opportunity to enable him to carry on every species of court and monarchical intrigue in the character of Vice-President. ”

“ Paine, I wish to avoid any thing in the shape of quotation from his writings, as I am of opinion, that the reader will glean their beauties from the proper source with more satisfaction; and no Life of Paine that can be compiled will ever express half so much of the man, as his own writings, as a whole, speak for themselves, and almost seem to say "the hand that made us is divine." ”

“ Paine promised the friends of the French Revolution, that he would answer Burke's pamphlet, as soon as he saw it; and it would be difficult to say, whether Burke's "Reflections on the French Revolution," or Paine's "Rights of Man," had the more extensive circulation. One thing we know, Burke's book is buried with him, whilst "Rights of Man," stitl blazes and obtains an extensive circulation yearly, since it has been republished. Its principles will be co-existent with the human race, and the more they are known the more will they be admired. ”

“ To be sure, a man who writes a letter to his relatives or friends is an author, but Mr. Paine thought the word of more import, and did not call himself an author until he saw the benefits he had conferred on his fellow-citizens and mankind at large, by his well-timed "Common Sense" and "Crisis." ”

“ Paine willingly voted for the trial of Louis as a necessary exposure of Court intrigue and corruption; but when he found a disposition to destroy him at once, in preference to banishment, he exposed the safety of his own person in his endeavour to save the life of Louis. Mr. Paine was perfectly a humane man, he deprecated the punishment of death on any occasion whatever. His object was to destroy the monarchy, but not the man who had filled the office of monarch. ”

“ On such an occasion it does not become the Compiler to seek after the adulation of friends, or the slander of enemies; it is equally unnecessary to please or perplex the reader with either; for when an author has passed the bar of nature, it behoves us not to listen to any tales about what he was, or what he did, but to form our judgments of the utility or non-utility of his life, by the writings he has left behind him. Our business is with the spirit or immortal part of the man. ”

“ Paine found great difficulty in procuring a publisher even for his First Part of "Rights of Man." It was thus the great and good Major Cartwright found it necessary during the Suspension of the Habeas Corpus to take a shop and sell his own pamphlets. I do not mean to say that there is a fault in publishers, the fault lays elsewhere, for it is well known that as soon as a man finds himself within the walls of a gaol for any patriotic act, those outside trouble themselves but little about him. ”

“ Paine declined the character of an Author on the account of that pamphlet, for no man need be ashamed to father it either for principle or style. In the same manner might be considered his song "On the Death of General Wolfe," his "Reflections on the Death of Lord Clive," and several other essays and articles that appeared in the Pennsylvania Magazine, and the different newspapers of America, all of which had obtained celebrity as something superior to the general rank of literature that had appeared in the Colonies, and yet even on this ground he also relinquished the title of an author. ”

“ Paine would not allow any man to make any the least alteration or even correction in his writings. He carried this disposition so far as to refuse a friend to correct an avowed grammatical error. He would say that he only wished to be known as what he really was, without being decked with the plumes of another. I admire and follow this part of his principles, as well as most of his others, and I hold the act to be furtive and criminal, where one man prunes, mangles, and alters the writings of another. ”

“ The French Revolution was altogether financial, and not the effect of good triumphing over bad principles. At various periods the people assumed various attitudes, but they were by no means prepared for a Republican form of Government. Political information had made no progress among the mass of the people, as is the case in Britain at this moment. ”

“ If his writings be calculated to render him immortal, we have nothing to do with the body that is earthly and corruptible, and which passes away into the common mass of regenerating matter. Whilst the man is living, we are justified in prying into his actions to see whether his example corresponds with his precept, but when dead, his writings must stand or fall by the test of reason and its influence on public opinion. ”

“ Burke made upon the French Revolution soon gave him an opportunity of doing this, and the production of "Rights of Man" will ever rank Mr. Paine among the first and best of writers on political economy.
The friend and companion of Washington and Franklin could not fail to obtain an introduction to the leading political characters in England, such as Burke, Horne Tooke, and the most celebrated persons of that day. Burke had been the opponent of the English Government during the American war, and was admired as the advocate of constitutional freedom. ”

“ One part of the community is afraid to sell and another afraid to purchase under such conditions. It is not too much to say, that if "Rights of Man" had obtained two or three years free circulation in England and Scotland, it would have produced a similar effect to what "Common Sense" did in the United States of America. ”

“ In his recommendation to Government to increase the salaries of excisemen, he argues from natural feelings, and shews the absolute necessity of placing a man beyond the reach of want, if honesty be expected in a place of trust, and that the strongest inducement to honesty is to raise the spirit of a man, by enabling and encouraging him to make a respectable appearance.
This "Case of the Officers of Excise" procured Mr. Paine an introduction to Oliver Goldsmith, with whom he continued on terms of intimacy during his stay in England. ”

“ He could have no objection to see it published in England, but it was by no means his own act, and he has expressly stated that he wrote it for the French nation and the United States. But truth will not be confined to a nation, nor to a continent, and there can never be an inconsistency proceeding from wrong to right, although there must naturally be a change. ”

“ Cobbett to the people of Britain, for his former abuse of Paine, and I for one am quite content with the apology made.
I shall now close this Memoir, and should the reader think the sketch insufficient, I would say to him that Mr. Paine's own writings will fill up the deficiency, as he was an actor as well as a writer in all the subjects on which he has treated. Wherever I have lightly touched an incident, the works themselves display the minutiæ, and when the reader has gone through the Memoir, and the Works too, he will say, "I am satisfied." ”

“ He found a very different disposition in the United States on his return to what he had left there, when he first went to France. Fanaticism had made rapid strides, and to a great portion of the inhabitants Mr. Paine's theological writings were a dreadful sore. He had also to combat the Washington and John Adams party, who were both his bitter enemies, so that instead of retiring to the United States to enjoy repose in the decline of life, he found himself molested by venomous creatures on all sides. ”

“ It is the want of a due encouragement which the nation should bestow on all useful and persecuted publishers. I may be told that this last observation has a selfish appearance, but let the general statement be first contradicted, then I will plead guilty to selfish views. ”