Volume II Part 20 (1/2)
”I have now made two other models, one is pasteboard, five feet span and five inches of height from the cords It is in the opinion of every person who has seen it one of the most beautiful objects the eye can behold I then cast athe construction of that in pasteboard and of the same dimensions The whole was executed in ance, and readiness in execution to the model Ithose Models with me when I come home, which will be as soon as I can pass the seas in safety from the piratical John Bulls
”I suppose you have seen, or have heard of the Bishop of Landaff's answer to ot a copy of it I began a third part, which served also as an answer to the Bishop; but as soon as the clerical Society for proe_ knew of my intention to answer the Bishop, they prosecuted, as a Society, the printer of the first and second parts, to prevent that answer appearing No other reason than this can be assigned for their prosecuting at the time they did, because the first part had been in circulation above three years and the second partthat I was taking up their Champion The Bishop's answer, like Mr Burke's attack on the french revolution; servedforward other subjects upon, with round was not there This is the motive that induced one on without taking any notice of hi additions to the manuscript, and shall continue to do so till an opportunity arrive for publishi+ng it
”If any Aate should colad you would giveThe abscess under which I suffered almost two years is entirely healed of itself, and I enjoy exceeding good health This is the first of October, and Mr Skipwith has just called to tell o by the frigate but not with the knowledge of the Commissioners Remember me with much affection to my friends and accept the same to yourself”
As the Commissioners did not leave when they expected, Paine added several other letters to Jefferson, on public affairs In one (October 1st) he says he has inforovernment ”It was the hope of conquest, and is now the hope of peace that keeps it [Pitt's administration] up” Pitt is anxious about his paper money ”The credit of Paper is suspicion asleep When suspicion wakes the credit vanishes as the dreae Navy, and the expense of it leads to her ruin” The English nation is tired of war, longs for peace, ”and calculates upon defeat as it would upon victory” On October 4th, after the Commissioners had concluded a treaty, Paine alludes to an article said to be in it, requiring certain expenditures in France, and says that if he, Jefferson, be ”in the chair, and not otherwise,” he should offer hient be required ”It will serve to defray my expenses until I can return, but I wish itI a, but I cannot afford it This appoint the object I am now upon of a law of nations for the protection of neutral commerce” On October 6th he reports to Jefferson that at an entertainave the toast: ”A l'union de l'Amerique avec les puissances du Nord pour faire respecter la liberte des mers” On October 15th the last of his enclosures to Jefferson is written He says that Napoleon, when asked if there would be uerre d'ecritoire” In all of Paine's writing about Napoleon, at this ti to ically its drift, and where it will strike
CHAPTER XXV THE LAST YEAR IN EUROPE
{1801}
On July 15, 1801, Napoleon concluded with Pius VII the Concordat
Naturally, the first victim offered on the restored altar was Theophilan-thropy I have called Paine the founder of this Society, because it arose amid the controversy excited by the publication of ”Le Siecle de la Raison,” its e; and because he gave the inaugural discourse Theism was little known in France save as iconoclasion But, as he did not speak French, the practical organization and ement of the Society were the work of others, and ood deal of odium incurred at first by a society which satisfied neither the pious nor the freethinkers, but it found a strong friend on the Directory This was Larevelliere-Lepeaux, whose secretary, Antoine Vallee, and young daughter, had become interested in the movement This statesman never joined the Society, but he had attended one of its ious edifices was ned ten parish churches It is said that when Larevelliere-Lepeaux mentioned to Talleyrand his desire for the spread of this Society, the diploed, and revive the third day” Paine, who had pretty nearly fulfilled that requirereat hopes of its future
But Pius: VII also had an interested eye on it, and though the Concordat did not go into legal operation until 1802, Theophilanthropy was offered as a preliminary sacrifice in October, 1801
The description of Paine by Walter Savage Landor, and representations of his talk, in the ”Iinary Conversations,” so mix up persons, times, and places, that I was at one time inclined to doubt whether the two had met But Mr J M Wheeler, a valued correspondent in London, writes me: ”Landor told my friend Mr Birch of Florence that he particularly ad first obtained an interview at the house of General Dumouriez Landor declared that Paine was always called 'Toood fellow” An intervieith Paine at the house of Dumouriez could only have occurred when the General was in Paris, in 1793 This would account for what Landor says of Paine taking refuge from trouble in brandy There had been, as, Rick of this kind since that period It would appear therefore that Landor must have mixed up at least two intervieith Paine, one in the time of Dumouriez, the other in that of Napoleon Not even such an artist as Landor could invent the language ascribed to Paine concerning the French and Napoleon
”The whole nation may be made as enthusiastic about a salad as about a constitution; about the colour of a cockade as about a consul or a king
You will shortly see the real strength and figure of Bonaparte He is wilful, headstrong, proud, er; he has pulled the pad from his forehead, and will break his nose or bruise his craniuainst every table, chair, and brick in the room, until at last he must be sent to the hospital”
Paine prophesies that Napoleon will make himself emperor, and that ”by his intemperate use of power and thirst of dos, forgetting what beasts they were”
Possibly under the nauises Thoe Nors on account of one of Paine's books are not exaggerated In Mrs Sanford's work is printed a letter from Paris, July 20, 1802, in which Poole says: ”I called one Morning on Tho physiognos, and read us part of a reply which he intends to publish to Watson's 'Apology'”
”Thomas Poole and His Friends,” ii, p 85
Paine see powers at this tilish his manliness and fearlessness, and that he spoke as freely as ever after Bonaparte's supreovernment appears; this was to the Minister of the Interior concerning a proposed iron bridge over the Seine Political France and Paine had parted
Under date of March 18, 1801, President Jefferson informs Paine that he had sent his manuscripts (Maritime Compact) to the printer to be made into a pamphlet, and that the Aainst France He adds:
”You expressed a wish to get a passage to this country in a public vessel Mr Dawson is charged with orders to the captain of the Maryland to receive and accommodate you back if you can be ready to depart at such short warning Rob R Livingston is appointed minister plenipotentiary to the republic of France, but will not leave this till we receive the ratification of the convention by Mr Dawson I aenerally to sentilory to have steadily labored, and with aslive to continue your useful labors and to reap the reward in the thankfulness of nations, is h esteem and affectionate attachment”
”The Minister of the Interior to Thomas Paine: I have received, Citizen, the observations that you have been so good as to address to es They will be of the greatest utility to us when the new kind of construction goes to be executed for the first tihts of ive you, cordially, the expression of my particular estee the appropriation of his patent in England, and the confiscation of a thousand pounds belonging to hi that at this tis to consult with him about an iron arch of 600 feet, over the Thames, then under consideration by a committee of the House of Coressman
The subjoined notes are from letters of Paine to Jefferson:
_Paris, June 9, 1801_ ”Your very friendly letter by Mr Dawson gave me the real sensation of happy satisfaction, and what served to increase it was that he brought it to ratulate America on your election There has been no circumstance with respect to America since the times of her revolution that excited so land, Ireland, and Scotland as the pending election for President of the United States, nor any of which the event has given eneral joy:
”I thank you for the opportunity you giveby the Maryland, but I shall wait the return of the vessel that brings Mr
Livingston”
_Paris, June 25,1801_ ”The Parlia out, and carried into England The pretence, as the papers say, was that a Swedish Minister was on board for America If I had happened to have been there, I suppose they would haveme on shore”