ADDRESS AND DECLARATION, OF THE FRIEND'S OF UNIVERSAL
PEACE and LIBERTY,
HELD AT THE THATCHED HOUSE TAVERN, ST. JAMES'S STREET. August 20th. 1791.
BY THOMAS PAINE,
AUTHOR OF THE WORKS INTITLED COMMON SENSE, AND THE RIGHTS OF MAN.
TOGETHER WITH
SOME VERSES,
By the same Author, Which were printed in a PENSYLVANIAN Newspaper.
Price TWO PENCE.
, second part of rights of man.
ADDRESS AND DECLARATION.
Friends and fellow Citizens.
AT a moment like the present, when wilful misrepresentations are industriously spread by the partizans of ar
ary power, and the advocates of passive obedie
ce and Court-G
vernment; we think it incumbent upon us to declare to the world our principles, and the motives of our conduct.
We rejoice at the glorious event of the
French Revol
tion.
If it be asked—What is the French Revolution to us?
We answer (as has been already answered in another place
of the vol
teers of Be
a
t.
)
It it much.
—Much to us as men: Much to us as Englishmen.
As men, we rejoice in the freedom of twenty five millions of our fellow m
n. We rejoice in the prospect, which such a magnificent example opens to the world. We congratulate the French nation for having laid the axe to the root of tyranny, and for erecting Government on the sacred HEREDITARY Rights of MAN.—Rights, which appertain to ALL, and not to a yo
e more than to another. We know of
o human authority, superior to that of a whole nation: a
d we profess and proclaim it as our principle that every nation has at all times, an inherent, indefeasible right to constitute and establish such Government for itself as best accords with its disposition, interest and happiness.
As Englishmen, we also rejoice, because we are
immediately
interested in the French Revolution.
Without enquiring into the justice, on either side of the reproachful charges of intrigue and ambition, which the English and French Court have constantly made on each other, we confine ourselves to this observation:—That if the Court of France only was in fault, and the numerous wars which have distresed both countries are chargeable to her alone, that Court now exists no longer; and the cause and the consequence must cease together. The French, therefore, by the Revolution they have made, have conquered for us as well as for themselves; if it be true, that their Court only was in fault and ours never.
On this state of the case, the French Revolution concerns us
immediately:
We are oppressed with a heavy National debt, a burthen of taxes, and an expensive administration of Government; beyond those of any people in the world. We have also a very numerous poor: and we hold, that the moral obligation of providing for old age, helpless infancy and poverty, is far superior to that of supplying the invented wants of courtly extravagance, ambition and intrigue.
We believe there is no instance to be produced, but in England, of
seven
millions of inhabitants, which make but little more than
one
million of families, paying yearly SEVENTEEN MILIONS of taxes.
As it has always been held out by all administrations, that the restless ambition of the Court of France rendered this expence necessary to us for our own defence: we consequently rejoice as men deeply interested in the French Revolution: for that Cour
as we have already said exists no longer; and consequently the same enormous expences need not continue to us.
Thus rejoicing, as we sincerely do, both as men and Englishmen, as lovers of universal peace and freedom, and as friends to our own national prosperity and a reduction of our public expences: we cannot but express our astonishment, that any part, or any Members of our own Government, should reprobate the extinction of that very power in France, or wish to see it restored, to whose influence they formerly attributed (whilst they appeared to lament) the enormous increase of our own burthens and taxes. What then, Are they sorry that the pretence for new oppressive taxes, and the occasion for continuing many old taxes, will be at an end?—If so, and if it is the policy of Courts and Court Government to prefer enemies to friends, and a system of war to that of peace, as affording more pretences for Places, Offices, Pensions, Revenue and Taxation, it is high time for the people of every nation to look with circumspection to their own interest.
Those who
pay
the expence, and,
not
those who
participate
in the emoluments arising from it, are the persons immediately interested in enquiries of this kind. We are a part of that National body, on whom this annual expence of seventeen millions falls; and we consider the present opportunity of the French Revolution, as a most happy one for lessening the enormous load, under which this nation groans. If this be not done, we shall then have reason to conclude, that the cry of intrigue and ambition against
other
Courts is no more than the common cant of
all
Courts.
We think it also necessary to express our astonishment, that a Government desirous of being called FREE, should prefer connexions with the most despotic and arbitary powers in Europe. We know of none more deserving this description, than those of Turkey and Prussia, and the whole combination of German despots.—Separated as we happily are by nature from the tumults of the Continent we reprobate all systems and intrigues which sacrifice (and that too at a great expence) the blessings of our natural situation. —Such systoms cannot have a national origin.
If we are asked, What Government is?—We hold it to be nothing more than a NATIONAL ASSOCIATION and we hold that to be the best, which secures to every man his rights, and promotes the greatest quantity of happiness with the
least expence.
We live to improve, or we live in vain; and therefore we admit of no maxims of government or policy, on the mere score of antiquity, or other men's authority, the
Old
Whigs, or the
New.
We will exercise the reason with which we are endued, or we possess it unworthily. As reason is given at all times, it is for the purpose of being used at all times.
Among the blessings which the French Revolution has produced to that nation, we enumerate the abolition of the feudal system of injustice and tyranny, on the 4th. of August, 1789. Beneath the feudal system all Europe has long groaned, and from it England is not yet free. Game-laws, borough-tenures and tyrannical monopolies of numerous kinds still remain amongst us: but rejoicing as we sincerely do, in the freedom of others, till we shall happily accomplish our own, we intended to commemorate this prelude to the universal extirpation of the feudal system, by meeting on the anniversary of that day, (the 4th, of August) at the Crown and Anchor. From this meeting we were prevented by the interference of certain
unnamed
and
sculking
persons with the Master of the Tavern, who informed us that on
their
representations he could not receive us.—Let those who live by, or countenance feudal oppressions take the reproach of this ineffectual meanness and cowardice to themselves. They cannot stifle the public declaration of our honest, open, and avowed opinions.
These are our principles, and these our sentiments. They embrace the interest and happiness of the great body of the nation of which we are a part. As to riots and tumults, let those answer for them, who by wilful misrepresentations endeav
ur to excite and promote them; or, who seek to
stun
the sense of the nation, and lose the great cause of public good, in the outrages of a misinformed mob. We take our ground on principles that require no such riotous aid. We have nothing to apprehend from the poor; for we are pleading their cause. And we fear not proud oppression; for we have Truth on our side.
We say, and we repeat it; that the French Revolution opens to the world an opportunity, in which all good citizens must rejoice; that of promoting the general happiness of Man. And that it, moreover, offers to this country in particular an opportunity of reducing our enormous Taxes.
These are our objects, and we will pursue them.
JOHN H
T
K
, Cha
man.
LINES, &c.
By
THOMAS PAINE,
THE Rain pours down, the City looks forlorn,
And gloomy subjects suit the howling morn,
Close by my
e, with door and window fast,
And safely shelter'd from the driving blast,
To gayer thoughts. I bid a days adieu,
To spend a scene of solitude with you.
So oft has black Revenge engros'd the care,
Of all the leisure hours man finds to spare;
So oft has guilt in all her thousand dens,
Call'd for the vengeance of chastising Pens;
That while I fain would case my heart on you,
No thought is left untold, no passion new.
From flight to flight the mental path appears,
Worn with the steps of near six thousand years,
And fill'd throughout with every scene of pain.
From CAIN to G*****, and back from G***** to CAIN.
Alike in cruelty, alike in hate,
In guilt alike, but more alike in fate,
Both curs'd supremely for the blood they drew,
Each from the rising world, while each was new.
Go second CAIN, true likeness of the first,
And strew thy blasted head with homely dust
In ashes sit—in wretched sack-cloth weep
And with unpitied sorrows cease t
lee,
Go haunt the tombs, and single out the place
Where earth itself shall suffer a disgrace.
Go spell the letters on some mouldring urn,
And ask if he who sleeps there can return.
Go count the numbers that in silence lie,
And learn by study what it is to die.
For sure that heart—if any heart you own
Conceits that man expires without a Groan:
That he who lives receives from you a grace,
Or death is nothing but a change of place:
That peace is d
l
, that
y from sorrow springs,
And War the Royal ra
shew of things,
Else wh
these scenes that wound the feeling mind
This sport of death—this Cockpit of Mankind.
Why sobs the widow in perpetual pain?
Why cries the Orphan?—"Oh my Father's slain"
Why hangs the Sire his paralytic head?
And nods with manly grief—"My Son is dead."
Why drops the tears from off the sisters cheek?
And sweetly tells the sorrows she would speak,
Or why in lonely steps does pensive John?
To all the neighbours tell, "Poor masters gone."
Oh could I paint the passion, I can feel,
Or point a horror that would wound like steel
To thy unfeeling, unrelenting mind
I'd send a torture and relieve mankind.
Thou that art husband, father, brother, all
The tender names which kindred learn to call.
Yet like an image carv'd in massey stone,
Th
bear'st the shape, but sentiment has't none,
Al
ied by dust and figure, not by mind,
Thou only herd'st, but liv'st not with mankind.
And prone to love, like some outrageous ape,
Thou know'st each class of beings by their shape.
Since then no hopes to civilize remain
And all petitions have gone forth in vain,
One prayer is left which dreads no proud reply,
That
he
who made thee breath will make thee die.
COMMON SENSE.