Volume I Part 28 (1/2)
”Mr Jordan, No 166 Fleet-street”
Some copies were in Paine's hands three days before publication, as appears by a note of February 13th to Jefferson, on hearing of Morris'
appoints this to New York, is on the point of setting out I am therefore confined to time I have enclosed six copies of my work for yourself in a parcel addressed to the President, and three or four for my other friends, which I wish you to take the trouble of presenting
”I have just heard of Governeur Morris's appointment _It is ato him when I see him, I do not express it to you with the injunction of confidence
He is just now arrived in London, and this circumstance has served, as I see by the french papers, to increase the dislike and suspicion of soainst him
”In the present state of Europe it would be best to ton a strong private protest against Morris, but in vain Paine spoke frankly to Morris, who ton's birthday:
”February 22 I read Paine's new publication today, and tell him that I ah at this, and relies on the force he has in the nation He seems to become every hour more drunk with self-conceit It seems, however, that his work excites but little enation I tell hiainst all schemes of reformation both here and elsewhere He declares that the riots and outrages in France are nothing at all It is not worth while to contest such declarations I tell him, therefore, that as I am sure he does not mean what he says, I shall not dispute it Visit the duchess of Gordon, who tells ive Paine his inforhtly of our situation, as being engaged in a civil ith the Indians I smile, and tell her that Britain is also at ith Indians, though in another heuely to the book of George Chalmers (”Oldys”)
”A ministerial bookseller in Picadilly, who has been employed, as common report says, by a clerk of one of the boards closely connected with the Ministry (the board of Trade and Plantations, of which Lord Hawkesbury is president) to publish what he calls ood,) used to have his books printed at the sa office that I employed”
In his fifth edition Chalmers claims that this notice of his work, unaccompanied by any denial of its statements, is an admission of their truth It looks as if Paine had not then seen the book, but he never further alluded to it There was nothing in Chal answer, and its tar and feathers were so adroitly mixed, and applied with such ain silence ”Nothing can lie like the truth”
Not that Chalmers confines himself to perversions of fact
The book bore on its title-page five falsehoods: ”Pain,”
instead of ”Paine”: ”Francis Oldys”; ”A M”; ”University of Pennsylvania”; ”With a Defence of his Writings” There is a marked increase of virulence with the successive editions The second is in cheap form, and bears at the back of its title this note: ”Read this, and then hand it to others who are requested to do likewise”
Chaleniously interwoven with the actual stumbles and humiliations of Paine's early life, that the facts could not be told without dragging before the public histreaty with his divorced wife Chalovernment employe in this business had he not cared , as we have seen (Preface, xv), his first edition as a ”Defence” of Paine's writings he reaped a pecuniary harvest from the Painites before the substitution of ”Review” teed more than it converted The poh to presently drop its lion skin, revealing ears sufficiently long to expect for a government clerk the attention accorded to a reverend MA of the University of Pennsylvania This degree was not only understood in England with a clerical connotation, but it competed with Paine's ”MA”
from the same institution The pseudonyee froh to sell several editions But the author was known early in 1792, and was naether favorable to Paine After rebuking Paine for personalities towards rees with him about the Constitution But he declares that Paine has collected the essence of the most venerated writers of Europe in the past, and applied the saovernment, which cannot stand the test
”The Constitution will; but _the presentthat Constitution_ must shrink from the comparison And this is the reason, that foolish Mr Rose of the Treasury trembles on the bench, and the crafty clerk in Lord Hawkesbury's office, carries on his base attacks against Paine by sap, fights hiuise for the most impudent falsehoods that ever were published, and stabs him in the dark But, of this upstart clerk at the cockpit, more hereafter”
”Paine's Political and Moral Maxilishman London Printed for H D Symonds, Paternoster Row, 1792” The introductory letter is dated May 15th
George Challike a repudiation co from him or from ”Oldys” in any of his ten editions, the libel recoiled on the govern inconvenient arguossip for private scandals was resented, and the calumnies were discounted Nevertheless, there was probably solish” tracking of a ered the republicans, it could hardly fail to intiest interests, even the liberties, of English peoples ly exciting thehis wife; the leader's phalanx of friends is for one instant disconcerted; Burke perceives the opportunity and points it out to the King; Pitt must show equal jealousy of royal authority; Paine is prosecuted There is little doubt that Pitt was forced to this first step which reversed the traditions of English freedolish Robespierre of counter-revolution
”Pitt 'used to say,' according to Lady Hester Stanhope, 'that Toht, but then he would add, what ae Tom Paine's opinions we should have a bloody revolution”-- Encyclop Britaanica
On May 14th Paine, being at Broainst Jordan, his publisher He hastened to London and assumed the expense of Jordan's defence Jordan, however, privately couilty, surrender his notes relating to Paine, and receive a verdict to the author's prejudice--that being really the end of the government's business with the publisher On May 21st a sus (Rick's Bench on June 8th On the sas On May 25th, in the debate on the Proclamation, Secretary Dundas said in the House of Coainst Jordan were instituted because Mr
Paine could not be found Thereupon Paine, detecting the unreality of the prosecution of his publisher, addressed a letter to the Attorney-General Alluding to the remark of Dundas in Parlia himself never went a step out of his way, nor in the least instance varied froht choose to adopt with respect to him It is on the purity of his heart, and the universal utility of the principles and plans which his writings contain, that he rests the issue; and he will not dishonour it by any kind of subterfuge The apart the work last winter, he has continued to occupy to the present hour, and the solicitors of the prosecution knohere to find him; of which there is a proof in their own office, as far back as the 21st of May, and also in the office of , for the sake of the case, that the reason for proceeding against the publication was, as Mr Dundas stated, that Mr Paine could not be found, that reason can now exist no longer The instant that I was inforainst me as the author of, I believe, one of the most useful and benevolent books ever offered to mankind, I directed my attorney to put in an appearance; and as I shall ood and upright conscience, I have a right to expect that no act of littleness will bethe future issue with respect to the author
This expression may, perhaps, appear obscure to you, but I am in the possession of soainst the publisher is not intended to be a _real_ action”
He then intimates that, if his suspicions should prove well-founded, he ithdraw fro the publisher, and proposes that the case against Jordan be given up At the close of his letter Paine says:
”I believe that Mr Burke, finding himself defeated, has been one of the promoters of this prosecution; and I shall return the co, in a future publication, that he has been a masked pensioner at 1500 per annum for about ten years Thus it is that the public ation is produced”
The secret negotiations with the publisher being thus discovered, no ht out at Paine's trial