The Heirs to Paine’s Democratic Tradition. By Horst Ihde. P.M. Kemp-Ashraf, Jack Mitchell (Editor), Essays in Honour of William Gallacher, with Supplement: Thomas Spence: The History of Crusonia and Other Writings. Humboldt University Press, Berlin, 1966. pp 354. 15/- 

THIS commemorative volume is something of a botch-potch. Jumbled together are short tributes to Gallacher, extracts from his own writings, a number of essays mostly on literary themes, and a section which re-prints some of Thomas Spence’s work. 

Amongst the wealth of material there is much of pure gold and the essay by Horst Ihde The Heirs to Paine’s Democratic Tradition is a nugget which deserves high as a well reasoned and fair minded assessment of Paine’s influence amongst the revolutionary movements of his own time, and of ours. 

Herr Ihde begins his essay by rightly stressing Paine’s contact with the common people, emphasising his solidarity with the progressive rank and file, and underlining his tremendous contribution to winning converts to the working class movement by the power of his political writing. Ihde quotes to support these claims a letter from the Sheffield Society for Constitutional Information of March 1792, which gives a vivid insight into the impact made by Paine’s Rights of Man on the whole of the British working class movement: 

“We declare that we have derived more true knowledge from the works of Mr. Thomas Paine, entitled Rights of Man, Part the First and Second, than from any author on the subject. The practice as well as principle of government is laid down, in these works, in a manner so clear and irresistibly convincing that the Society do hereby resolve to give their thanks to Mr. Paine for his said two publications… Also, resolve unanimously, that the thanks of this Society be given to Mr. Paine, for the effectionate concern he has shown in his second work on behalf of the poor, the infant, and the aged.” 

This example can serve for many more. When Rights of Man was published it spoke for all men everywhere, and Ihde shows clearly how great was its influence on the revolutionary movements of Britain, France, America, Cuba, Austria, Bohemia, Hungary, and Germany. He makes clear, too, Paine’s impact on minds as different as those of Jefferson, Whitman, and Freneau. He places Paine firmly in the broad republic democratic tradition which found its echo in the writing of Jefferson.

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IN December 1788, Gouverneur Morris left America with many business plans, financial schemes, and a muted desire to impose his will on the political scene on both sides of the Atlantic. Before leaving, he had asked Washington for letters which would introduce him only to those persons “….who in your opinion may be useful to me.” In return he offered his services to Washington in this manner: am about shortly to take my departure from Philadelphia for the kingdom of France, and I expect to visit both Holland and England. When I desire to be favoured with your commands, it is not the mere ceremonious form of words, which you may every day meet from every man you meet, and which you may know better than any man how to estimate at its true value. Whether I can be useful to you in any way, I know not; but this I know that you may command my best endeavors.” (J.Sparks, Life of Gouverneur Morris, Boston, 1832. Vol.l. p.293.) It may have been hesitation or subtle humour, but Washington for the moment commanded Morris simply to buy him a watch in London. Nonetheless, the political and economic aspects of Morris’s mission were to grow with the intensity of the French Revolution. 

Both these aspects were also apparent in the storm that broke over his appointment as American Ambassador to France. Monroe, in voting against the nomination, said, “He is a man of monarchy. He is not fit to be employed in this country 9r in France…. He went to Europe to sell lands and certificates.” (M.Conway,Life and Correspondence of Rufus Kin: New York, 1894. Vol. l. p.421.) Jefferson also protested 8 the proposed appointment of “….this high flying monarchist who closed his eyes and spirit to facts that were against his desires, who considered his wishes to be the truth and who had constantly poisoned the president’s head.” (P.L.Ford, Writings of Jefferson, New York, 1892. Vol. l. p.188.)

Across the Atlantic, LaFayette wrote to Washington that Morris was an aristocrat who had constantly expressed principles contrary to the Revolution, thus making him unfit for the post of American Ambassador. It was an opinion the LaFayette family continued to hold in spite of the services rendered them by Morris. Madame Wayette wrote in 1797 that although Morris “….saved my life he is an extreme aristocrat, and would willingly be a. counter revolutionary. I would be careful about confiding to him our present and future secrets.” (A. Maurois, Adrienne, ou la Vie de Mme. de LaFayette, Paris, 1961. Vol.11. p.358.)

Soon after Morris’s nomination, Louis Otto, French charge d’affaires in Philadelphia, wrote to his home office: “The secrecy with which the Senate covers its deliberations serves to veil personal interest which reigns there in all its strength.” And he added of Gouverneur Morris “He is entirely devoted to his correspondent (Robert Morris) with whom he has Iievn: c’Cte:tantiY.zonnected in his business and opinion…. He is perhaps the most eloquent and ingenious man of his country, but his – countrymen themselves distrust his talents. They admire but fear him.” (Archives des Affaires Estrangeres, Paris. Etats-Uhis, Vol. 35. Folder 301.) Otto ended by warning that Robert Morris and Gouverneur Morris were working to replace the French alliance with an English one. 

In spite of this opposition, Morris’s appointment passed the Senate in January 12, 1792. But, then, he had powerful and ambitious men pressing for his appointment: Senator Johnson of Connecticut, Robert Morris, and Alexander Hamilton — all men who either had financial interest in fostering Morris’s diplomatic career oversaw in him one who would help them to shape-American foreign policy.’ (Julian P. Boyd, Number 7. Alexander Hamilton’s Secret Attempts to Control American Foreign Policy, Princeton, N.J., 1964. p.29.) Indeed, Morris’s actions for the rest of his stay in Europe justified the worse fears of his opponents. 

One of the first to congratulate Morris was James Swan, an American merchant and speculator in Europe, who added in his letter dated:, Paris, February 1792, “The beef and pork and timber affairs rest when they were on your arrival, and with your advice or consent I shall take steps with the Committee of Marine as will force the order giving power to the minister.” (Swan to Marris. Feb.1792, Gouverneur Morris Papers, Columbia University Special Collections. Hereafter Morris Papers.) It is probable that Morris gave his advice or consent, for soon after Swan obtained, with the aid of LaFayette, remunerative contracts to furnish the French Navy with stores and salt meat provisions. 

This association lasted for many years and took Morris and Swan through those grey passages where politics and financial intrigue entangled to plague the revolutionary government. Morris continued his political intriguing during his tenure as Ambassador, and there is good reason to believe that he did not permit his financial activity to lag. 

Interestingly enough, many of the men who, with Morris, were involved in defending Louis XVI and the monarchy on the eve of the August 10th Insurrection were the same men who worked closely with Morris in financial schemes. It was a certain M.Bremond who assisted. Morris in much of this activity. Bremond, a Provençal, was associated with Morris as early as 1789 when Bremond sent him a_report on French finances which he had written for the Controller General, de Lambert. Both men were associated in many schemes including land speculations in America, and speculation in the French debt to German princes. (Morris Papers, Bremond Memoire. See also Gouverneur Morris, Diary of the French Revolution, Boston, 1939.  Vol.11. Pp.175-195, 211-263, 269-345.) Before the 10th of August, however, Bremond ran errands for Morris, bought the correspondence of the Jacobins for him, and introduced him to such men of affairs as the bankers Schweizer and Jeanneret. Morris thought it important enough to note in his diary, January 17,1792, “Bremond reads to me a memoire upon Switzerland written by Mr.Schweizer.” It was these bankers who were entrusted with the 5000 louis d’or which the King of France had allotted for the abortive counter-revolutionary measures on 10 August 1792. Schweizer later turned up as a business partner of James Swan, who also had commercial ties with Gouverneur Morris. 

For the moment, though, Morris was involved, against the advice of Washington, in counselling Louis XVI as how to flee France and how to put down the coming insurrection of August 10th. (Morris, op. cit., Vol.11, p.476.) On the 22nd of July, Monciel, minister to the King, brought to the home of Morris 547,000 livres, “of which by the second of August, 539,0% livres were already being used according to the orders of the King.” (Ibid. p.477.) The gold was divided into purses of twenty louis and was to be used to buy men willing to fight for the King, “preferably among the Marseillais,” for they would be the least suspected. Some of these men were already lodged in Bremond’s home. The plan was for these Federds from Marseille 11 “to repair to certain places and there to fight under their chiefs.” (Ibid.) Morris, in the meantime, with the aid of Monciel, prepared an address to be used to harangue the mercenaries before the battle. Morris also helped write a letter intended as a message from the King to the section of the Faubourg Saint-Marceau which, Morris noted, “will, it is supposed, give his majesty that Faubourg.” (Ibid. p.488.)

Morris’s efforts in behalf of the King and the monarchy came to nothing as the insurrection of August 10th broke over Paris. Royalists and their supporters were scattered, many taking refuge in Morris’s home. Brernond, of course, was forced to flee, but for a moment he hesitated between the offer made to him by the Fededres still lodged in his home to take him to southern France, and his first impulse to flee to England. He chose the latter, obtaining a passport with the help of the bankers Schweizer and Jeanneret, and left for England on the night of September 17. Before he left, however, he took the 5000 louis d’or and put them in the hands of Schweizer and Jeanneret. He also gave them 2000 louis of his own, “leaving them free to employ them in useful speculation.” (Morris Papers, Bremond Memoire.)

These bankers were admirably placed and, much like Morris, mixed financial and political affairs to such an extent that their influence went beyond banking circles. (J.Bouchary, Les Manieurs d’Argent a Paris a la Fin du 18 eme Siecle, Paris, 1939. p.10. (Mr.Bouchary writes: “6e furent surtout les manieurs d’argent ttrangers qui eurent une activitd extra-financiere; ce furent les Claviere, les Boyd, 1es Frey, les Guzmann, les Proli, les Schweizer….et quelgues autres qui tenterent d’entrafl-ier la France dans des aventures, soit en soutenant des contre-revolutionnaires, en formant des troubles a l’intdrieur elri dressant l’une contre l’autre.„ les faction; soit en faisant proposer des motions ultra-revolutionnaire au en poussant A la guerre contre les autres puissances europdennes.”)) As early as 1789 they were lending money to the French government through Bremond. (Morris Papers, Bremond Memoire) Their influence with the revolutionary government eventually developed so that they were sent on a political mission to Switzerland as agents of the Committee of Public Safety. Morris knew their worth, when in 1791 he ; recommended them to William Short in Holland, who was negotiating the American debt for, “They have great strength both with the Court and 41b the Assembly. (Morris, op.cit. Vol.11. p.158.)

In his long report covering the period from 1789 to 1795 sent to Morris, Bremond described his insistent efforts to recover the 5000 louis d’or. The report indicates that Bremond was interested in speculating on furniture and other goods confiscated from emigres. In spite of Bremond’s pleas, the bankers apparently tied up all- of Bremond’s 7000 louis (5000 of Louis XVI’s and 2000 of his own) in their own affairs. And indeed they were- in a good position for such affairs, for when Bremond went to Switzerland in 1794, he found them there, “charges d’une mission politique du comite de salut_public;” At the same time, these bankers were in the business of buying the confiscated property of French emigres, shipping it to Switzerland, and then on to England, where it was sold excellent prices on the fluctuation of which Bremond and M. Rougemont kept them informed. (Denis de Rougement was an associate of Frangois Jeanneret in 1785. Bouchary. op.cit., p.104.) They dealt in furniture, paintings, books, lace, and bric—a—brac. Towards the end of May 1794, however, an agent of these bankers, a M. Gattey, who was the bookstore owner in Paris, was arrested and his shop with books valued at 150,000 livres belonging to Schweizer and Jeanneret were put under scelles. (Morris Papers, Bremond Memoire.)

Bremond became quite frantic, for not only did the return of his money now depend on the sale of these goods, but M.Gattey had now been arrested. Bremond must have known that Gattey’s bookstore was a meeting place for many political groups, including the ultra—royalist Salon Francais. The frantic tone of his writing indicates that he might have known that Gattey was in the pay of d’Antraigues, head of the Royalist spy ring. (J.Chaumie, Le Reseau d’Antraigues et la Contre-Revolution — 1791-1793, Paris, 1965. Pp.46, 115.) The bankers seemed little concerned about this, although Jeanneret Sr., writing to Bremond on June 23,1794, from Switzerland, complained that his commercial affairs “n’ont pas de succes.” It was Bremond who gave them advice on how to save their property. In all this, Bremond was not only in touch with the bankers, but he must also have been in touch with Morris, for he was one of the first to know when horris had asked for a passport. And as early as August, he wrote to 2u Jeanneret Jr. that, “The Ambassador was about to leave . France.” (Morris Papers, Bremond Memoire)

Yet it was not until after the 9th of Thermidor that the activities resumed. And this we know, curiously enough, not through Bremond, but from another source. James Swan, who was now in partnership with Schweizer, apparently had been in Paris and in touch with Morris in 1794. For Swan wrote on October 11,1794, three days before Morris left for Switzerland: 

“Dear Sir, In our letter of the 2nd.inst. we mentioned that we should be two-thirds interested in all rules or contracts. We mean by that only, in the contracts, as the word sales, is an error in the hurry of writing. – In any speculation you may make, we agree to be one half interested. Enclosed we send you a copy of an arrete of the comite de salut public, taken a few days since by which we are authorized to export seven million in specie value, which we shall do immediately in Barins, Muslins, Muslinettes and other British Manufactured Dry Good for 500,000. In sugars Rum and other prize goods – for 2,500,000. In super fine broad cloths for 500,000. 1000 tons eau de vie de Cognac for 1,400,000. Bordeau, a la cognac for 1,000,000. 1000 wines for 1,000,000 of whatever may be wanting or not quickly to be got of these articles, we shall supply in Bijoux, and silversmiths works, in fine linens, Cambricks, laces,etc. – James Swan and Schweizer”

The enclosed copy of the arrete of the comity de salut public, dated 15 Vendemiaire An 3 – or 6 October 1794, read:

“On the report of the commission of commerce and provisions the committee of public safety degrees

Article 1

The commercial house of Swan and Schweizer and Co. is authorized to export and sell to the account of the Republic for 7 million in metal value merchandise made up of wines, eaux de vie, luxury items and enemy prizes.

Article :11

The produce of the sale will be used to buy and import grains, wheat, rice, dry legumes, preserved meats.” 

The decree was signed by “les mares du Comite de Salut Public: “R. Lindetieur de la Marne, Treilhard (A number of men on the Committee had particular interests in the goods of the emigres: Treilhard in 1793 had been sent to Manly, residence of the Capet family where he apparently stripped it of everything including the iron grills of the park, and sent to Paris “furniture rich in galoons and broidery of,. gold and silver;” adding that they would bring better prices in Paris. Ancien Moniteur, Vol. XVIII (October 23, 1793), p.173.), Delmas, Merlin (99) (This number 99 appears in the manuscript beside Merlin’s name. It may have been a code number.) Thuriot. (Morris Papers, Swan to Morris. Letter quoted as found in the Papers.)”

The economic association no doubt proved beneficial to both men. A year later, Swan wrote from America, where Schweizer was also at the time, asking Morris if he would plead the cause of American merchants whose ships had been taken by the British as prizes. Swan offered 1000 pounds for every ship released. 

When this possibility of making money is added to his desire to influence political affairs, one understands why Morris remained in Europe four years after his recall as Minister to France. After all, it was for financial and political reasons that he had come in the first place.

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100 Years of Freethought by David Tribe. London: Elek Books Ltd.,1967. PP 259. 42/-

This book has much to commend it, at the same time it is rather a difficult work on which to comment. Central to it is the hundred years existence of the National Secular Society, but it is not really a history of the organisation. 

The title thus misleads. It suggests to the casual bookshop browser that it is a history, the author, however, hotly denies this, claiming instead his work to be a social document. Yet whatever the author may or may not think, the theories associated with freethought in general and the NSS in particular cannot be seen in isolation from their historic context. This the author is forced to see as we gather from the amount of historical detail the work includes. Unfortunately in seeking to compile a social document and being forced, so it appears, against his own will to include a large amount of historical data, Mr. Tribe fails to give us a really satisfactory contribution to an important but little recognised part of recent history. In noting that the subject matter on which he writes is, “too vast”, the author cites the most telling criticism against his book. One is tempted to suggest that the work would have been far better if Mr. Tribe had set his sights a little lower and given us more detailed information on fewer themes. 

There is lacking from the pages of 100 Years of Freethought certain information that would clarify some nagging questions about fairly recent NSS history. Why, for example, did his own immediate predecessor as President leave the Society? Why no mention of the short, stormy period when P.V. Morris was NSS General Secretary — indeed Morris is not mentioned.? Why was G.H. Taylor, NSS Executive Committee member and author of the valuable Chronology of British Secularism expelled from the Society? It is no answer to questions such as these, and there are many more one could ask, to claim that the work is not strictly an historical essay. The NSS is after all central to its theme. 

Several other points made by Mr. Tribe are open to question, not least – his explanation of Paine’s dismissal from his post as excise officer. Likewise one could question the rather cavalier contention that The Age of Reason is not a work of scholarship. By today’s standards it may not be but by the standards of the eighteenth century it certainly was and men of the calibre of Bishop Watson gave it their serious attention. Watson also attempted an answer to Gibbon’s Beeline and Fall… It is interesting to note in passing that another Bishop, Colenso„ certainly incorporated some of Paine’s ideas in his controversial theological works,without acknowledgement of course, but is not cast aside by Mr. Tribe as showing in those works a lack of scholarship. 

Mr. Tribe’s work is sectionalised allowing the author to present much of his subject matter in short sketches. These sketches are historical, in the main, in outline and taken as a whole we begin to see that in recent years the NSS has acted increasingly as a medium for uniting various groups interested in aspects of social reform so that they campaign. as a unit instead of a scattered collection of organisations each operating in seeming isolation from the others. Important as such a role is in its present limited way, and if extended it could possibly bring in, or speed up the bringing about of, much needed changes, it does raise fundamental questions bearing on the future role of the NSS, questions not adequately entered into by the author. 

100 Years of Freethought is an important reference work, well printed, ironically in view of its subject matter in Eire, and reasonably priced. One tends to think that illustrations would have improved it but probably its price would then have shot up. Anyone interested in the history of freethought should get a copy, however, having said this one is forced to add that the sad fact remains, the history of the past 100 years of freethought still remains to be written.

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If ever the magpie instinct in a man were justified, it is wonderfully justified in the case of Ambrose C. Barker, whose collection of Paine material was presented a little while ago by Miss Ella Twynam to the Thetford Public Library. The five shelves of the A.G. Barker Collection, together with other Paineiana that the library has, form an excellent source of fascinating material for students and advanced researchers alike. 

There are some notes in what I recognise as Barker’s handwriting, inserted into one volume, and written about 1936. He says in part: 

“Some forty years ago two Paine Exhibitions were held to celebrate the first issue of the Age of Reason. Wheeler ° wrote the introduction to one of the catalogues expressing the hope that a Paine Institute should be established in which could be gathered books, pamphlets, medals, tokens, prints, etc. relating to Paine. Nothing came of it and the two collections were dispensed, which I regard as a calamity… The coming bicentenary gives us an opportunity of remedying this… Myself beginning in a very modest way, my collection is now probably the largest in England. At my decease, I am now in my seventy—eighth year, what will become of my collection? Were a well established Paine Museum in existence, I might as well Verb sap!” 

Though no Paine Museum exists, Miss Twynam has been true to the spirit of Barker’s wishes in presenting this valuable collection to Thetford, and numerous Painites will be grateful to her. The book, in which the quoted notes were inscribed, is a very rare edition of Paine’s Essay on Dreams, published in Paris in 1803 and printed by M. Chateau under the title Extracts from the M.S. Third Part of Thomas Paine’s Age of Reason Chapter the Second- Article Dream. It is one of the gems of the collection. 

Last December I spent a few days in Thetford, examining the Paine material, taking copious notes, and becoming increasingly enthusiastic by what I saw. Perhaps I can now present a short and personal digest of my notes, in order to make more widely known the sort of material that is there. As will be seen; a broad variety of different aspects of Paine’s life and works is represented, perhaps with a particular richness in material, on his theological views.

Especially topical, in view of the recent ignorant representation of Paine on the British stage, are examples of religious bigotry in the 19th.century, like two illustrated eight page pamphlets, titled Extracts from the Life of Thomas Paine Author of “The Age of Reason”). One was published in Paisley in 1822 and printed by J. Neilson; it has a laureated bust, facing right, in a squared circle, and it starts with the mythical “seduction of Madam Bonneville” by Paine. The other is undated and was published in London, being printed by A. Applegarth & E. Cowper, Nelson Place, Gravel-lane, Southwark. The contents matter is the same as the other pamphlet, but the illustration shows Paine in a dishevelled state with a bottle and two glasses, (one overturned), on a table beside him. 

In some miscellaneous folders at the Thetford Public Library (outside the. Barker Collection) I also came across a fine article by W.T. Stead from the Review of Reviews (undated), entitled 4 Little Homily upon a Well-Known Text, Dedicated to the Rev.Dr.Torrey This deals with the ° slanders against Paine for “taking another man’s wife” and against Colonel Robert Ingersoll for connections with publishers of “obscene literature.” In this article Paine’s relationship with Madam Bonneville is described as “the kindly hospitality shown by an old man of sixty- seven to the refugee family of his French benafactor.” It continues by referring to the libel case that Madam Bonneville brought against James Cheetham – and won – saying:

“The only man who ever imputed a shadow of obloquy to Paine in this connection went into the witness-box after Paine’s death and solemnly swore that there was no foundation for his calumny.”

This matter links with Paine’s views on man’s exploitation of women written and published by him in the August 1775 number of the Pennsylvania Magazine. This essay is little known today, and unfortunately for many years it has been known obliquely and is rarely quoted directly. It does seem to me, though, that Richard Cathie, writing in The Republican in 1822 very well mirrors Paine’s views on the subject and carries them forward: 

“The freedom and independency of women is the best proof of and guarantee and independency of man.” (8th. Feb. 1822)

In this year of the fiftieth anniversary of partial Women’s Suffrage in Britain this is still so true; lip service is paid to the cause of rights of women, as it has been in the past – examples that I culled at Thetford include those of Ella Wheeler Wilcox, (“Paine….first suggested justice to women” 1st. May 1914) and of Ernest Thurtle, (“…he wrote articles attacking slavery and complaining of the inferior position of women, and others showing his ReptIlican sympathies” (July, 1936).

Perhaps 1968 will give an opportunity for reprinting Paine’s short essay, An Occasional Letter on the Female Sex.  

There is a new consciousness of the importance of visual history, and the material at Thetford contains some interesting examples, including a pencil drawing in a grangerised copy of Thomas Martin’s The History of the Town of Thetford, (London, J. Nichols, 1779). The book itself shows T.Bassett’s engraving of Paine, taken from Willson Peele’s portrait; a note on the pencil sketch says, “A drawing from which Mr.Bassett engraved his plate:- I knew Thomas Paine, and positively declare this to be a great likeness Geo B B(illegible) Thetford”. e An important difference between the two is the inscription on the book that Paine is holding. In the engraving it is “The RIGHTS OF MAN”, while in the drawing it is “In the cause of Liberty and my Country the Crises and common Sense” (Note small “c”). 

Also to be seen are photos of places in Paris and America, where Paine lived, of monuments and statues of Paine, and of meetings that commemorate his life. 

Our Vice-President, Colonel Richard Gimbel, started a few years ago to compile a list of events held to honour Paine’s memory, often taking place on the anniversaries of his birthday, both here and in America. In 1960 he published a list of nearly 70 such events. In the Thetford Library I found evidence of six more, (four of them in the USA between 1908-10), that are not recorded in Gimbel. I use the word “evidence” rather deliberately, as some of the scraps of information maddeningly are incomplete, though the clues are enough to put anyone on the right track. 

A while ago a student of Paine was surprised that I had some editions of The Letters of Junius in my Thomas Paine Library, and was equally surprised, when I explained that at one time it was believed that Junius was Paine. The real identity of Junius has not been established, though about forty people have been nominated for the title. The literature on the question is great, but two that I unearthed at Thetford are worth mentioning here: the first, Junius Unmasked: or, Thomas Paine the Author of The Letters of Junius, and the Declaration of Independence, was published at Washington, D.C. in 1872 and carries no author’s name, while the second, Thomas Paine: Was He Junius? by William Henry Burr, was published by the Freethought Publishing Company in San Francisco in 1890. I had never seen these books before, and only my short time in Thetford prevented my studying them – one of the many things I expect to do on a return visit.

Every so often a new theory comes up, too, about what eventually happened to Paine’s bones that William Cobbett dug up and brought to England. I certainly found one or two of the popular theories recorded ‘ in items at the Thetford Library, but especially interesting to me was the confirmation that the pseudonym, “An Old Daylighter”, that the author of a small booklet, Thomas Paine’s Bones and Their Owners,(Norwich,1908), cho00-2for his interesting account was J.Hunns. The source of this information is a letter to Ambrose Barker (30 August,1910) from Edward Burgess,Ltd, of Norwich, who published the booklet. 

As well as items of direct relationship to Paine, the Library has quite a bit that is connected with the radical movement, especially that in Britain in the 1790s. Sampson Perry’s Argus is especially worth mention. Perry and Paine were friends in both London and Paris, so the bits of news about Paine in the Luxembourg prison have added interest, though they add little to what is known already; accounts of the activities of the London Corresponding Society and the Society for Constitutional Information (of which Paine was a member), have all the flavour of progressive political activity against a most repressive British government and its supporters. The sour taste that William Wilberforce left in the mouthes of the fighters for freedom is seen in Perry’s description of him as being “once the defender of distant slaves, now the advocate of absent lords.” (p.98. 1795). 

The Library has several copies of The Jockey Club and The Female Jockey Club, (1794), for which the fearless publishers J.D.Symonds and J.Ridgway were sent to Newgate gaol, the sentences being also linked with some of Paine’s works that they published. The Barker Collection also contains The Case of Charles Pigott, (author of the Jockey Club books), published by D.I.Eaton in 1793, as well as accounts of such democrats as Eaton, William Frend, Thomas Muir, William Cobbett and others. 

Later material includes The Trial of Thomas Davidson for publishing a blasphemous Libel in the Deists’ Magazine, (London,R.Helder,1820), and associated books of the same period, all of which merit study.

Perhaps with this admittedly rather personal survey I have whetted the appetite of others to go to Thetford. I hope so. I am, certain that they will get the same kindly and friendly treatment as I did from Thetford’s experienced Librarian, Mr. J.R. Akam, (but, as he also deals with the – Library at Attleborough the courtesy of a letter in advance would be l advisable — to The Guildhall, Thetford, Norfolk). F.H. Millington, who W. Deputy Mayor of Thetford during the Paine centenary celebrations in 1909, and whose scrap-books form part of the Paine material in the Library, and our former Vice-President, the late G.R.Blaydon„ (erstwhile Mayor and Town Clerk), are Thetford men, who have contributed a great deal to the knowledge of Thomas Paine. They have laid the local – foundations, on which today’s local Thetford pride in the town’s most famous son is being built. The local public library, as much as the fine gilded statue of Thomas Paine, is a corner-stone of this work. 

Joseph Mazzini Wheeler contributed a great number of items to the exhibitions.

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