Tom Paine
Writer and Revolutionary
By Jill Scholey
24th Jan 2012
Continued
Rights of Man stirred up much anti-government and anti-monarchist feeling.
Paine’s views on the English Government were clear:
All this seems to show that change of ministers amounts to nothing.
One goes out, another comes in, and still the same measures, vices and extravagance are pursued.
It signifies not who is minister.
The defect lies in the system.
The authorities determined to harass Paine and crush every sign of dissent.
Incidents of burning or hanging Paine’s effigy occurred everywhere.
He was lampooned in news-sheets, and tailed by government agents.
In 1792 Paine was charged with seditious libel.
The authorities were trying to force him to leave the country or withdraw his opinions from public circulation.
Paine decided it would be safer if he left.
He made his way to Dover quayside through a hostile crowd.
Embarking on the packet bound for Calais, Paine left England, never to return.
In France he was welcomed once more, and offered French citizenship, which he accepted.
Wherever he went there were cries of “Vive Thomas Paine”.
Most of the people of France in 1792 had accepted the Revolution, but the question of the king had not been settled.
The monarchy had been suspended, but France was not yet a republic.
The motion that “royalty be abolished in France” was eventually passed unanimously.
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