Thomas Paine and England

TO THE SHERIFF OF THE COUNTY OF SUSSEX OR THE GENTLEMAN WHO SHALL PRESIDE AT THE MEETING TO BE HELD AT LEWES, JULY FOURTH DATED AT LONDON, JUNE 30, 1792. SIR: I have seen in the Lewes newspapers, of June twenty-fifth, an advertisement, signed by sundry persons, and also by the sheriff, for holding a […]

Foner’s Introduction: The case brought by the English government against Paine was set down in the Calendar for June 8, 1792. Paine was in the court that day, but to his disappointment the trial was postponed to December 18. Meanwhile he continued to address letters to government officials filled with irony and sarcasm. LORD LIEUTENANT

Philip Foner’s introduction: Rights of Man divided British public opinion into Burkeites and Paineites, inspired a generation of democratic reformers, and formed the programs of hundreds of popular societies which sprang up throughout Great Britain. It was inevitable, therefore, that British royalty would seek frantically to destroy the influence of the writer who had dared

ON THE PROSECUTION AGAINST THE SECOND PART OF RIGHTS OF MAN SIR:-As there can be no personal resentment between two strangers, I write this letter to you, as to a man against whom I have no animosity. You have, as Attorney-General, commenced a prosecution against me as the author of “Rights of Man.” Had not

OR AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF THE POLITICS TO BE AGITATED AT THE NEXT MEETING OF PARLIAMENT from the 1787 London pamphlet. PREFACE AN expression in the British Parliament respecting the American war, alluding to Julius Caesar having passed the Rubicon, has on several occasions introduced that river as the figurative river