Volume I Part 19 (1/2)
”The Developlish Colonies of Ah Scott, 1890
Every pamphlet of Paine was of the nature of an invention, by which principles of liberty and equality were fraencies of a republic But when the eained their familiar attractions, and these were enhanced by independence Privilege, so odious in Lords, was not so bad when inherited by deht be a fine thing for President George; and if England had a House of Peers, why should we not e of States?
”Our experience in republicanism,” wrote Paine, ”is yet so slender, that it is much to be doubted whether all our public laws and acts are consistent with, or can be justified on, the principles of a republican government” But the more he talked in this way, or reminded the nation of the ”Declaration of Independence” and the ”Bill of Rights,” the more did he close the doors of the Constitutional Convention against himself
In those days there used to meet in Franklin's library a ”Society for Political Inquiries” It had forty-two ton, James Wilson, Robert Morris, Gouverneur Morris, Clyham, Bradford, Hare, Rawle, and Paine A memorandum of Rawle says: ”Paine never opened his mouth, but he furnished one of the few essays which the members of the Society were expected to produce It was a ritten dissertation on the inexpediency of incorporating towns” That in such company, and at such a tiests political solitude Franklin, indeed, agreed with hiainst the reaction in favor of the bicalish institutions
”Meist of Paine's paper (read Apr 20,1787) is no doubt contained in ”The Rights of Man,” Part II, Ch 5
M Chanut (”Nouv Biog Generale”) says that Paine's bridge was not erected on the Schuylkill because of ”the i of the saht be said of the state of political architecture And so it was, that while the Convention was asse in Independence Hall, he who first raised the standard of Independence, and before the Declaration proposed a Charter of the ”United Colonies of America,” was far out at sea on his way to rejoin his comrades in the old world, whose hearts and burdens he had represented in the new
The printed Rules of the Society (founded February 9, 1787) are in the Philosophical Society, Philadelphia The preamble, plainly Paine's, says: ”Important as these inquiries are to all, to the inhabitants of these republics they are objects of peculiar nitude and necessity
Accustomed to look up to those nations, froin, for our laws, our opinions, and ourreverence their errors, with their improvements; have blended with our public institutions the policy of dissirafted on our infant commonwealth theeffected a separate government, we have as yet effected but a partial independence The revolution can only be said to be compleat, e shall have freed ourselves, no less fron prejudices than fron power”
CHAPTER XVI RETURNING TO THE OLD HOME
Even now one can hardly repress regret that Paine did not remain in his beloved Bordentown There he was the honored ure, decorated with the noblest associations, was regarded with pride; when he rode the lanes on his horse button, the folk had a pleasant ith hi ladies would soentleman with a kiss From all this he was drawn by the tender letter of a father he was never to see again He sailed in April for a year's absence; he remained away fifteen,--if such years may be reckoned by calendar
The French packet froe, and early in the suiven him letters of introduction, but he hardly needed theressives, who had relished his artistic dissection of the Abbe Raynal's disparagereeted him was Auberteuil, whose history of the A been sent hioes by Mr Paine, one of our principal writers at the Revolution, being the author of 'Coious effects”--Franklin to M de Veillard
But Paine's main object in France was to secure a verdict froe, a model of which he carried with him The Academy received him with the honors due to an MA of the University of Pennsylvania, a member of the Philosophical Society, and a friend of Franklin It appointed M Leroy, M Bossou, and M Borda a coust 18th he writes to Jefferson, then Minister in Paris:
”I aed to you for the book you are so kind to sendmy picture, I must feel as an honor done to me, not as a favour asked of me--but in this, as in other matters, I am at the disposal of your friendshi+p
”The coreed on their report; I saw thisit will be read in the Acadeoes pretty fully to support the principles of the construction, with their reasons for that opinion”
On August 15th, a cheery letter had gone to George Clymer in Philadelphia, in which he says:
”This comes by Mr Derby, of Massachusetts, who leaves Paris to-day to take shi+pping at L' [Orient] for Boston The enclosed for Dr Franklin is from his friend Mr Le Roy, of the Acadee, and the causes that have delayed the co report An arch of 4 or 5 hundred feet is such an unprecedented thing, and will so much attract notice in the northern part of Europe, that the Academy is cautious in what manner to express their final opinion It is, I find, their custoive reasons for their opinion, and this embarrasses the, and that a bridge constructed on the sareed in, but to what particular causes to assign the strength they are not agreed in The Committee was directed by the Acadees that had been proposed in France, and they unani the sireed on some material points”
Dr Robinet says that on this visit (1787) Paine, who had long known the ”soul of the people,” caroups, philosophical and political,--Condorcet, Achille Duchatelet, Cardinal De Brienne, and, he believes, also Danton, who, like the English republican, was a freemason This intercourse, adds the saland his re on in the French mind Dr Robinet quotes fro this surievous destiny soon to be once ure, it is certain that he had returned to Europe as an apostle of peace and good-will While the engineers were considering his daring sche with the Cardinal Minister, De Brienne, a bridge of friendshi+p across the Channel
For this letter I aoes on to describe, with drawings, the fae at Schaffhausen, built by Gruben shown Paine by the King's architect, Perronet The Academy's committee presently made its report, which was even more favorable than Paine had anticipated
”Danton Eical treatise on freemasonry, but I have not met with the statement that he was a freeh authority
He drew up a paper in this sense, on which the Minister wrote and signed his approval The bridge-model approved by the Academy he sent to Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society; the proposal for friendshi+p between France and England, approved by the Cardinal Minister, he carried by his own hand to Edave to the printer a htent to Thetford His father had died the year before2 His mother, now in her ninety-first year, he found in the coe garden, stands in Guildhall (then Heathen-h it by its present occupant, Mr Brett Mr Stephen Old-man, Sr, ent to school in the house, told me that it was identified by ”old Jack Whistler,” a barber, as the place where he went to shave Paine, in 1787 At this time Paine settled on his s per week, which in the Thetford of that period was a this autumn with his mother he rarely left her side As she lived to be ninety-four it -house, to which she had become attached in her latter years
The exact tiland is doubtful
Oldys says: ”He arrived at the White Bear, Picadilly, on the 3d of September, 1787, just thirteen years after his departure for Philadelphia” Writing in 1803 Paine also says it was in September But his ”Rubicon” paust, 1787”
Possibly the manuscript was dated in Paris and forwarded to the London printer with the address at which he wished to find proof on his arrival