PAINE. TuomAs, an author famous for ids connection with the American and French revolutions, and for his advocacy of infidel opinions, was b. Jan. 29, 1737, at Thetford, in the county of Norfolk in England. He was trained to the business of his father, who was a staymaker, but afterward obtained a situation in the customs, and the manage ment of a tobacco-manufactory. His income, however, was small, and he fell into debt, and was dismissed in 1774. upon which he went to America; received by a book-seller in Philadelphia. and in 1776 published a pamphlet entitled Common Sense, written in a popular style, in whieh he maintained the cause of the colonies against the mother-country. The success and influence of this publication were extraordinary, and it won him the friendship of Washington, Franklin, and other distinguished American leaders. He was rewarded by congress with the appointment of secretary to the com mittee of foreign affairs: visited France in the summer of 1737, where he made the acquaintance oeBulfon, Malesherbes, La Rochefoneauld, and other eminent men: and ; in the autumn following went to England. where, in 1791, lie published The INghts of Man, the most famous of all the replies to Burke's Reflections upon the Frenchl?evolutflon. The work has gone through innumerable editions, and has been translated into almost all the languages of Europe. His defense of the principles of the French revolution against the magnificent assault of Burke and the outcry of the English aristocracy is vigorous, and by no means unsuccessful. But the value or at least the popularity of the work has been injured by its advocacy of extreme liberal opinions. His assaults on the British
constitution exposed him to a government prosecution, and he fled to France, where he was admitted to citizenship; and in 1792 the department of Pas-de-Calais elected him a deputy to the national convention. where he voted with the Girondists. At the trial of Louis XVI., says Madame de "Thomas Paine alone proposed what would have done bonbr to France if it had been accepted—the offer to the king of an asylum in America;" by which lie offent:cd the mountain party: and in 1793 Robespierre caused him to be ejected from the convention, on the ground of his being a foreigner, and thrown into prison. During his imprisonment lie wrote The Age of Reason, against Atheism, and against Christianity, and in favor of Deism. After an imprisonment of 14 months he was released on the intercession of the American government. and restored to his seat in the convention. He was chosen by Napoleon to introduce a popular form of government into Britain, after he should have invaded and conquered the island. But as Napoleon did not carry out his design, Paine was deprived of an opportunity of play ing the part of legislator for his conquered countrymen. lie then retired into private life, and occupied himself with the study of finance. In 1802 lie returned to the United Slates, and died June 8, 1809. The most complete edition of his works is that by J. P. Mendam (Bost. 1856); the most noted of his numerous biographers is William Cobbett (1793).