AS you opened the debate in the house of Commons, May 25th, on the Pro­clamation for suppressing. Publications, which that Proclamation (without naming any) calls wicked and seditious, and as you applied those approbrious epithets to the works entitled "RIGHTS OF MAN," I think it unne­cessary to offer any other reason for addressing this Letter to you.

I begin, then, at once, by declaring that I do not believe there are to be found in the writings of any author, ancient or modern, on the subject of Government, a spirit of greater benignity, and a stronger inculcation of moral [Page 4]principles than in those which I have published. They come, Sir, from a man, who, by having lived in different countries, and under different systems of Government, and who, being in­timate in the construction of them, is a bet­ter judge of the subject than it is possible that you, from the want of those opportunities, can be:—And, besides this, they come from an heart that knows not how to beguile.

I will further say, that when that moment arrives in which the best consolation that shall be left will be that of looking back on some past actions, more virtuous, more meritorious, than the rest, I shall then with happiness re­member, among other things, I have written the RIGHTS OF MAN.—As to what Pro­clamations, or Prosecutions, or Place-men, or Place-expectants,—those who possess, or those who are gaping for office, may say of them, it will not alter their character, either with the world or with me.

Having, Sir, made this declaration, I shall proceed to remark, not particularly upon your own Speech on that occasion, but on any other Speech to which your Motion on that day gave rise; and I shall begin with that of Mr. ADAM.

This Gentleman accuses me of not having done the very thing that I have done, and which he says, if I had done, he should not have ac­cused me.

[Page 5]Mr. ADAM, in his Speech, (see the Morn­ing Chronicle of May 26,) says, ‘That he had well considered the subject of Constitu­tional Publications, and was by no means ready to say (but the contrary) that books of science upon Government, though re­commending a doctrine or system different from the form of our Constitution, (meaning that of England) were fit objects of prose­cution; that if he did, he must condemn (which he meant not to do) HARRINGTON for his Oceana, SIR. THOMAS MORE for his Eutopia, and HUME for his Idea of a per­fect Common-wealth. But, (continued Mr. Adam,) the Publication of Mr. PAINE was very different; for it reviled what was most sacred in the Constitution, destroyed every principle of subordination, and established no­thing in their room.’

I readily perceive that Mr. ADAM had not read the Second Part of Rights of Man, and I am put under the necessity, either of submitting to an erroneous charge, or of jus­tifying myself against it; and I certainly shall prefer the latter.—If, then, I shall prove to Mr. ADAM, that, in my reasoning upon Sys­tems of Government in the Second Part of Rights of Man, I have shewn as clearly, I think, as words can convey ideas, a certain System of Government, and that not existing in theory only, but already in full and establish­ed, [Page 6]practice, and systematically and practically free from all the vices and defects, of the Eng­lish Government, and capable of producing more happiness to the People, and that also with an eightieth part of the Taxes, which the present System of English Government consumes; I hope he will do me the justice when he next goes to the House, to get up and confess he had been mistaken in saying, that I had established nothing, and that I had destroyed every principle of subor­dination. Having thus opened the case, I now come to the point.

In the Second Part of RIGHTS OF MAN, I have distinguished Government into two classes or systems; the one the hereditary system; the other the representative system.

In the First Part of Rights of Man, I have en­deavoured to shew, and I challenge any man to refute it, that there does not exist a right to esta­blish Hereditary Government; or, in other words Hereditary Governors; because Hereditary Go­vernment always means a Government yet to come, and the case always is, that the People who are to live afterwards, have always the same right to chuse a Government for themselves, as the people had who lived before them.

In the Second Part of Rights of Man, I have not repeated those arguments, because they are irrefutable; but have confined myself to shew the defects of what is called Hereditary Government, or Hereditary Succession; that it must, from the [Page 7]nature of it, throw Government into the hands of men totally unworthy of it, from want of principle, or unfitted for it from want of capaci­ty.—James the IId. is recorded as an instance of the first of these cases; and instances are to be found almost all over Europe to prove the truth of the latter.

To shew the absurdity of the Hereditary Sys­tem still more strongly, I will now put the fol­lowing case—Take any fifty men promis­cuously, and it will be very extraordinary, if out of that number, one man should be found, whose principles and talents taken together, (for some might have principles, and others have talents) would render him a person truly fitted to fill any very extraordinary office of Na­tional Trust. If, then, such a fitness of cha­racter could not be expected to be found in more than one person out of fifty, it would happen but one in a thousand years to the eldest son of any one family, admitting each, on an average, to hold the office twenty years. Mr. Adam talks of something in the Constitution which he calls most sacred; but I hope he does not mean hereditary succession, a thing which appears to me a violation of every order of nature, and of common sense.

When I look into History, and see the mul­titudes of men, otherwise virtuous, who have died, and their families been ruined, in defence of knaves and fools, and which they would not [Page 8]have done, had they reasoned at all upon the system; I do not know a greater good that an individual can render to mankind, than to en­deavour to break the chains of political super­stition. Those chains are now dissolving fast, and proclamations and prosecutions will serve but to hasten that dissolution.

Having thus spoken of the Hereditary Sys­tem as a bad system, and subject to every pos­sible defect; I now come to the Representative System; and this Mr. ADAM will find stated in the Second Part of the Rights of Man, not only as the best, but as the only Theory of Go­vernment under which the liberties of a people can be permanently secure.

But it is needless now to talk of mere Theo­ry, since there is already a Government in full practice, established upon that Theory, or in other words, upon the Rights of Man, and has been so for almost twenty years. Mr. Pitt, in a speech of his some short time since, said, ‘That there never did, and never could ex­ist a Government established upon those Rights, and that if it began at noon, it would end at night.’ Mr. Pitt is not yet arrived at the degree of a school-boy in this species of knowledge. His practice has been confined to the means of extorting revenue, and hist boast has been— how much ? Whereas the boast of the System of Government that I am speaking of, is not how much, but how little.

[Page 9]The System of Government purely repre­sentative, unmixed with any thing of here­ditary nonsense, began in America. I will now compare the effects of that system of Go­vernment with the system of Government in England, both during, and since the close of the war.

So powerful is the Representative System; first, by combining and consolidating all the parts of a country together, however great the extent; and secondly, by admitting of none but men properly qualified into the Govern­ment, or dismissing them if they prove to be otherwise, that America was enabled thereby totally to defeat and overthrow all the schemes and projects of the Hereditary Government of England against her. As the establishment of the Revolution and Independance of America is a proof of this fact, it is needless to enlarge upon it.

I now come to the comparative effect of the two Systems since the close of the war, and I re­quest Mr. Adam to attend to it.

America had internally sustained the ravage of upwards of seven years of war, which En­gland had not. England sustained only the expence of the war; whereas America sustained, not only the expence, but the destruction of property committed by both armies. Not a house was built during that period, and many thou­sands were destroyed. The farms and planta­tions [Page 8] [...] [Page 9] [...] [Page 10]along the coast of the country, for more than a thousand miles, were laid waste. Her commerce was annihilated. Her ships were ei­ther taken or had rotted within her own har­bour. The credit of her funds had fallen up­wards of ninety per cent that is, an original hundred pounds would not sell for ten pounds. In fine, she was apparently put back an hun­dred years when the war closed; which was not the case with England.

But such was the event, that the same Re­presentative System of Government, though since better organized, which enabled her to conquer, enabled her also to recover; and she now presents a more flourishing condition, and a more happy and harmonized society under that system of Government, than any country in the world can boast under any other. Her towns are rebuilt, much better than before; her farms and plantations are in higher im­provement than ever; her commerce is spread over the world, and her funds have risen from less than ten pounds the hundred to upwards of one hundred and twenty. Mr. Pitt, and his colleagues, talk of the things that have hap­pened in his boyish Administration, without knowing what greater things have happened elsewhere, and under other systems of Govern­ment.

I next come to state the expence of the two systems, as they now stand in each of the [Page 11]countries; but it may first be proper to ob­serve, that Government in America is what it ought to be, a matter of honour and trust, and not made a trade of for the purpose of lucre.

The whole amount of the nett taxes in En­gland (exclusive of the expence of collection, of drawbacks, of seizures and condemnations, of fines and penalties, of fees of office, of litiga­tions and informers, which are some of the bless­ed means of enforcing them) is, seventeen mil­lions. Of this sum, about nine millions go for the payment of the interest of the National Debt, and the remainder, being about eight millions, is for the current annual expences. Thus much for one side of the case. I now come to the other.

The expence of all the several departments of the general Representative Government of the United States of America, extending over a space of country nearly ten times larger than England, is two hundred and ninety-four thou­sand, five hundred and fifty-eight dollars, which, at 4s. 6d. per dollar, is 66,275l. 11s. sterling, and is thus apportioned.

On account of the incursions of the Indians on the back settlements, Congress is, at this time, obliged to keep six thousand militia in pay, in addition to a regiment of foot, and a battalion of artillery, which it always keeps; and this increases the expence of the War De­partment to 390,000 dollars, which is 87,795l. sterling, but when Peace shall be concluded with the Indians, the greatest part of this expence will cease, and the total amount of the expence of Government, including that of the army, will [Page 13]not amount to one hundred thousand pounds sterling, which, as has been already stated, is but an eighteenth part of the expences of the English Government.

I request Mr. Adam and Mr. Dundas, and all those who are talking of Constitutions, and blessings, and Kings, and Lords, and the Lord knows what, to look at this statement. Here is a form and system of Government, that is better organized and better administered than any Government in the world, and that for less than one hundred thousand pounds per annum, and yet every Member of Congress receives, as a compensation for his time and attendance on public business, one pound seven shillings per day, which is at the rate of nearly five hundred pounds a year.

This is a government that has nothing to fear. It needs no proclamations to deter peo­ple from writing and reading. It needs no po­litical superstition to support it. It was by en­couraging discussion, and rendering the press free upon all subjects of Government, that the principles of Government became understood in America, and the people are now enjoying the present blessings under it. You hear of no riots, tumults, and disorders in that country; because their exists no cause to produce them. Those things are never the effect of Freedom, but of restraint, oppression, and excessive taxation.

In America there is not that class of poor [Page 14]and wretched people that are so numerously dis­persed all over England, and who are to be told by a Proclamation, that they are happy; and this is in a great measure to be accounted for, not by the difference of Proclamations, but by the difference of Governments and the dif­ference of Taxes between that country and this. What the labouring people of that country earn they apply to their own use, and to the education of their children; and do not pay it away in taxes as fast as they earn it, to support Court extravagance, and a long enor­mous list of Place-men and pensioners; and besides this, they have learned the manly doctrine of reverencing themselves, and con­sequently of respecting each other; and they laugh at those imaginary beings called Kings and Lords, and all the fraudulent trumpery of Courts.

When Place-men and Pensioners, or those who expect to be such, are lavish in praise of a Government, it is not a sign of its being a good one. The pension list alone, in England, (see Sir John Sinclair's History of the Revenue, page 6, of the Appendix,) is One Hundred and seven thousand Four Hundred and Four Pounds, which is more than the expences of the whole Government of America amount to. And I am now more convinced than before, that the offer that was made to me of a Thousand Pounds, for the copy-right of the Second Part of the [Page 15] Rights of Man, together with the remaining copy-right of the First Part, was to have ef­fected, by a quick suppression, what is now at­tempted to be done by a Prosecution. The connection which the person who made that offer has with the King's Printing Office, may furnish part of the means of enquiring into this affair, when the Ministry shall please to bring their Prosecution to issue. But to return to my subject.—

I have said, in the Second Part of Rights of Man, and I repeat it here, that the service of any man, whether called King, President, Se­nator, Legislator, or any thing else, cannot be worth more to any country, in the regular rou­tine of office, than Ten Thousand Pounds per annum. We have a better man in America, and more of a Gentleman than any King I ever knew of, who does not occasion even half that expence; for, though the salary is fixed at Five Thousand Two Hundred and Sixty-Five Pounds, he does not accept it, and it is only the incidental expences that are paid out of it. The name by which a man is called is, of itself, but an empty thing. It is worth and character alone which can render him valuable, for without these, Kings, and Lords, and Presidents are but jingling names.

But without troubling myself about Consti­tutions of Government, I have shewn, in the Second Part of Rights of Man, that an alliance [Page 16]may be formed between England, France, and America, and that the expences of Government in England may be put back to one million and an half, viz.

And even this sum is fifteen times greater than the expences of Government are in America; and it is also greater than the whole peace esta­blishment of England amounted to about an hundred years ago. So much has the weight and oppression of Taxes encreased since the Re­volution, and especially since the year, 1714.

To shew that the sum of 500,000l. is suf­ficient to defray all the civil expences of Go­vernment, I have, in that work, annexed the following estimate for any country of the same extent as England:

In the first place, three hundred Representa­tives, fairly elected, are sufficient for all the purposes to which Legislation can apply, and preferable to a larger number.

If then an allowance, at the rate of five hundred pounds per ann. be made to every Re­presentative, deducting for non-attendance, the expence, if the whole number attended six months each year, would be £ 75,000

[Page 17]The Official Departments could not possibly exceed the following number, with the sa­laries annexed, viz.

If a Nation chose, it might deduct four per cent. from all the offices, and make one of twenty thousand pounds per annum; and style the person who should fill it, King, or Majes­ty, or Madjesty, or give him any other title.

Taking, however, this sum of one million and an half as an abundant supply for all the expences of Government under any form what­ever, there will remain a surplus of nearly six millions and an half out of the present Taxes, after paying the interest of the National Debt; and I have shewn, in the Second Part of Rights of Man, what appears to me the best mode of applying the surplus money; for I am now speaking of expences and savings, and not of systems of Government.

I have in the first place, estimated the poor-rates at two millions annually, and shewn that the first effectual step would be to abolish the poor-rates entirely, (which would be a saving [Page 18]of two millions to the house-keepers,) and to remit four millions out of the surplus taxes to the poor to be paid to them in money in pro­portion to the number of children in each fa­mily, and the number of aged persons.

I have estimated the number of persons of both sexes in England, of fifty years of age and upwards, at 420,000, and have taken one-third of this number, viz. 140,000, to be poor people.

To save long calculations, I have taken 70,000 of them to be upwards of fifty years of age and under sixty, and the other to be sixty years and upwards; and to allow six pounds per ann. to the former class, and ten pounds per ann. to the latter. The expence of which will be,

There will then remain of the four millions 2,880,000l. I have stated two different methods of appropriating this money. The one is to pay it in proportion to the number of children in each family, at the rate of three or four pounds per ann. for each child; the other is, to apportion it according to the expence of living in different countries; but in either of these cases it would, together with the allowance to be made to the aged, completely take off taxes from one-third of all the families in England, besides [Page 19]relieving all the other families from the burthen of poor-rates.

The whole number of families in England, lotting five souls to each family, is one million four hundred thousand, of which I take one third, viz. 466,666 to be poor families, who now pay four millions of taxes, and that the poorest pays at least four guineas a year; and that the other thirteen millions are paid by the other two-thirds. The plan, therefore, as stated in the work is, first, to remit or repay, as is al­ready stated, this sum of four millions to the poor, because it is impossible to separate them from the others in the present mode of collect­ing taxes on articles of consumption; and, se­condly, to abolish the poor-rates, the house and window-light tax, and to change the Com­mutation Tax into a progressive Tax on large estates, the particulars of all which are set forth in the work, and to which I desire Mr. ADAM to refer for particulars. I shall here content my­self with saying, that to a town of the population of Manchester, it will make a difference in its favour, compared with the present state of things, of upwards of fifty thousand pounds annually, and so in proportion to all other places through­out the nation. This certainly is of more con­sequence, than that the same sums should be collected to be afterwards spent by riotous and profligate courtiers, and in nightly revels at the Star and Garter Tavern, Pall-Mall.

[Page 20]I will conclude this part of my letter with an extract from the Second Part of Rights of Man, which Mr. Dundas (a man rolling in luxury at the expence of the nation) has brand­ed with the epithet of "wicked."

‘By the operation of this plan, the poor laws, those ins;truments of civil torture, will be superseded, and the wasteful expence of litigation prevented. The hearts of the hu­mane will not be shocked by ragged and hun­gry children, and pers;ons of seventy and eighty years of age begging for bread. The dying poor will not be dragged from place to place, to breathe their last, as a reprisal of pa­rish upon parish. Widows will have a main­tenance for their children, and not be carted away, on the death of their husbands, like culprits and criminals, and children will no longer be considered as increasing the distresses of their parents. The haunts of the wretched will be known, because it will be to their advantage, and the number of petty crimes, the offspring of poverty and distress, will be lessened. The poor, as well as the rich, will then be interested in the support of Govern­ment and the cause and apprehension of riots and tumults will cease. Ye who sit in ease, and solace yourselves in plenty, and such there are in Turkey and Russia as well as in Eng­land, and who say to yourselves, are we not well off? have ye thought of these things? [Page 21]When ye do, ye will cease to speak and feel for yours;elves alone.’—Rights of Man, Part II. p. 136.

After this remis;s;ion of four millions be made, and the poor Rates and Hous;e and Window­light Tax be abolished, and the Commutation Tax changed, there will still remain nearly one million and an half of surplus Taxes; and as by an alliance between England, France, and America, armies and navies will, in a great measure be rendered unnecessary; and as men who have either been brought up in, or long ha­bited to, those lines of life, are still citizens of a nation in common with the rest, and have a right to participate in all plans of National benefit, it is stated in that work (Rights of Man, Part II.) to apply annually 507,000l. out of the surplus taxes to this purpose in the following manner:

The limits to which it was proper to confine this letter, will not admit of my entering into [Page 22]further particulars. I address it to Mr. Dundas because he took the lead in the debate, and he wishes, I suppose, to appear conspicuous; but the purport of it is to justify myself from the charge which Mr. Adam has made.

This Gentleman, as has been observed in the beginning of this Letter, considers the writings of Harrington, Moore, and Hume, as justifia­ble and legal Publications, because they reason­ed by comparison, though, in so doing, they shewed plans and systems of Government, not only different from, but preferable to, that of England; and he accuses me of endeavouring to confuse, instead of producing a system in the room of that which which I had reasoned against; whereas the fact is, that I have not only reason­ed by comparison of the Representative system against the Hereditary system, but I have gone further; for I have produced an instance of a Government established entirely on the Repre­sentative system, under which much greater hap­piness is enjoyed, much fewer Taxes required, and much higher credit is establis;hed, than under the system of Government in England. The Funds in England have risen since the war only from 54l. to 97l. and they have been down, since the Proclamations, to 87l. whereas the Funds in America rose in the mean time from 10l. to 120l. His charge against me "of destroying every principle of subordination," is equally as groundless, which even a single paragraph from [Page 23]the work will prove, and which I shall here quote:

‘Formerly, when divisions arose respecting Go­vernments, recourse was had to the sword, and a civil war ensued. That savage custom is ex­ploded by the new system, and recourse is had to a National Convention. Discussion, and the generol will, arbitrates the question, and to this private opinion yields with a good grace, and order is preserved uninterrupted.’—Rights of Man, Part II. p. 173.

That two different charges should be brought at the same time, the one by a Member of the Le­gislative for not doing a certain thing, and the other by the Attorney General for doing, it, is a strange jumble of contradictions. I have now jus­tified myself, or the work rather, against the first, by stating the case in this letter, and the justifica­tion of the other will be undertaken in its proper place. But in any case the work will go on.

I shall now conclude this Letter with saying, that the only objection I found against the plan, and principles contained in the Second Part of Rights of Man when I had written the book, was, that they would beneficially interest at least nine­ty-nine persons out of every hundred throughout the nation, and therefore would not leave sufficient room for men to act from the direct and disinter­ested principle of honour; but the prosecution now commenced has fortunately removed that objec­tion, and the approvers and protectors of that [Page 24]work now feel the immediate impulse of honour, added to that National Interest.

I HAVE s;een in the Public Newspapers the following Advertisement, to wit—

Taking it for granted, that the aforesaid Ad­vertisement, equally as obscure as the Proclama­tion to which it refers, has nevertheless some meaning, and is intended to effect some purpose; and as prosecution (whether wisely or unwisely, justly or unjustly) is already commenced against a work intitled RIGHTS OF MAN, of which I have the honour and happiness to be the author; I feel it necessary to address this Letter to you, and to request that it may be read publicly to the Gentlemen who shall meet at Epsom in conse­quence of the Advertisement.

The work now under prosecution is, I conceive, the same work which is intended to be suppressed by the aforesaid Proclamation.—Admitting this to be the case, the Gentlemen of the county of Surrey are called upon by somebody to condemn a work, and they are at the same time forbidden by the Proclamation to know what that work is; and they are further called upon to give their aid [Page 26]and assistance to prevent other people from know­ing it also.—It is therefore necessary that the Au­thor, for his own justification, as well as to pre­vent the Gentlemen who shall meet from being imposed upon by misrepresentation, should give some outlines of the principles and plans which that work contains.

The work, Sir, in question contains, first, an investigation of general principles of Govern­ment.

It also distinguishes Government into two clas­ses or systems, the one the hereditary system— the other the representative system; and it com­pares these two systems with each other.

It shews, that what is called Hereditary Go­vernment cannot exist as a matter of right; be­cause Hereditary Government always means a Government yet to come; and the case always is, that those who are to live afterwards have al­ways the same right to establish a Government for themselves as the people who had lived be­fore them.

It also shews the defect to which Hereditary Government is unavoidably subject: that it must, from the nature of it, throw Government into the hands of men totally unworthy of it from the want of principle, or unfitted for it from want of capacity. JAMES the IId. and many others are recorded in the Englist History, as proofs of the former of those cases, and instances are to be found almost over Europe, to prove the truth of the latter.

[Page 27]It then shews that the representative system is the only true system of Government; that it is also the only system under which the liberties of any people can be permanently secure; and fur­ther, that it is the only one that can continue the same equal probability at all times of admitting of none but men properly qualified, both by princi­ples and abilities, into Government, and of exclud­ing such as are otherwise.

The work shews also, by plans and calcula­tion not hitherto denied nor controverted, not even by the prosecution that is commenced, that the taxes now existing may be reduced at least six millions, that taxes may be entirely taken off from the Poor, who are computed at one third of the nation; and that taxes on the other two thirds may be considerably reduced— that the aged Poor may be comfortably provided for, and the children of poor families properly educated—that fifteen thousand soldiers, and the same number of sailors; may be disbanded and allowed three shillings per week during life out of the surplus taxes; and also that a proportion-allowance may be made to the officers, and the pay of the remaining soldiers and sailors be en­creased; and that it is better to apply the sur­plus taxes to those purposes than to consume them upon lazy and profligate placemen and pensioners; and that the revenue, said to be twenty thousand pounds per annum, raised by a tax upon coals, and given to the Duke of RICHMOND, is a gross imposition upon all the [Page 28]people of London, ought to be instantly abo­lished.

This, Sir, is a concise abstract of the prin­ciples and plans contained in the work that is now prosecuted, and for the suppression of which the Proclamation appears to be intended: but as it is impossible that I can in the compass of a letter, bring into view all the matters contained in the work, and as it is proper that the Gen­tlemen who may compose that Meeting should know what the merits or demerits of it are, be­fore they come to any resolutions, either direct­ly or indirectly relating thereto, I request the honour of presenting them with one hundred copies of the Second Part of the RIGHTS OF MAN, and also one thousand copies of my letter to Mr. DUNDAS, which I have directed to be sent to Epsom for that purpose; and I beg the favour of the Chairman to take the trouble of presenting them to the Gentlemen who shall meet on that occasion, with my sincere wishes for their happiness, and for that of the Nation in general.

Having now closed thus much of the subject of my letter, I next come to speak of what has relation to me personally. I am well aware of the delicacy that attends it, but the purpose of calling the Meeting appears to me so inconsistent with that justice that is always due between man and man, that it is proper I should (as well on account of the Gentlemen who may meet, as [Page 29]on my own account) explain myself fully and candidly thereon.

I have already informed the Gentlemen, that a prosecution is commenced against a work of which I have the honour and happiness to be the Author; and I have good reasons for believ­ing that the Proclamation which the Gentlemen are called to consider, and to present an Address upon, is purposely calculated to give an impres­sion to the Jury before whom that matter is to come. In short, that it is dictating a verdict by Proclamation; and I consider the instigators of the Meeting to be held at Epsom, as aiding and abetting the same improper, and in my opi­nion illegal purpose, and that in a manner very artfully contrived, as I shall now shew.

Had a Meeting been called of the Freeholders of the County of Middlesex, the Gentlemen who had composed that Meeting would have rendered themselves objectionable as persons to serve on a Jury before whom the judicial case was afterwards to come. But by calling a meet­ing out of the County of Middlesex, that mat­ter is artfully avoided, and the Gentlemen of Surrey are summoned, as if it were intended thereby to give a tone to the sort of verdict which the instigators of the Meeting no doubt wish should be brought in, and to give counte­nance to the Jury in so doing.

WHEN I wrote you the Letter which Mr. HORNE TOOKE did me the favour to pre­sent to you, as Chairman of the Meeting held at Epsom, Monday, June 18th it was not with much expectation that you would, do me the jus­tice of permitting, or recommending it to be pub­lickly read. I am well aware that the signature of THOMAS PAINE has something in it dreadful to sinecure Placemen and Pensioners; and when you, on seeing the Letter opened, informed the Meeting that it was signed THOMAS PAINE, and added, in a note of exclamation, "the common enemy of us all," you spoke one of the greatest truths you ever uttered, if you confine the ex­pression to men of the same description with your­self; men living in indolence and luxury, on the spoil and labours of the public.

The letter has since appeared in the ARGUS, and probably in other papers. It will justify it­self; but if any thing on that account hath been wanting, your own conduct at the Meeting [Page 31]would have supplied the omission. You there sufficiently proved that I was not mistaken in sup­posing that the Meeting was called to give an in­direct aid to the prosecution commenced against a work, the reputation of which will long out-live the memory of the Pensioner I am writing to.

When Meetings, Sir, are called by the parti­zans of the Court, to preclude the Nation the right of investigating Systems and Principles of Government, and of exposing errors and defects, under the pretence of prosecuting any individual —it furnishes an additional motive for maintain­ing facred that violated right.

The principles and arguments contained, in the work in question, RIGHTS OF MAN, have stood, and they now stand, and I believe ever will stand, unrefuted. They are stated in a fair and open manner to the world, and they have al­ready received the public approbation of a greater number of men, of the best of characters, of every denomination of religion, and of every rank in life, (Placemen and Pensioners excepted) than all the Juries that shall meet in England, for ten years to come, will amount to, and I have more-good reasons for believing that the approvers of that work, as well private as public, are already more numerous than all the present Electors throughout the Nation.

Not less than forty pamphlets, intended as an­swers thereto, have appeared, and as suddenly dis­appeared: Scarcely are the titles of any of them remembered, notwithstanding their endeavours [Page 32]have been aided by all the daily abuse which the Court and Ministterial Newspapers, for almost a year and a half, could bestow, both upon the work and the author; and now that every at­tempt to refute, and every abuse has failed, the invention of calling the work a Libel has been hit upon, and the discomfited party has pusilla­nimously retreated to prosecution and a Jury, and obscure Addresses.

As I well knew that a long Letter from me will not be agreeable to you, I will relieve your un­easiness by making it as short as I conveniently can; and will conclude it with taking up the sub­ject at that part where Mr. HORNE TOOKE was interrupted from going on when at the Meeting.

That Gentleman was staring, that the situ­ation you stood in render it improper for you to appear actively in a scene in which your private interest was too visible; that you were a Bed­chamber Lord at a thousand a year, and a Pen­sioner at three thousand pounds a year more— and here he was stopped by the little, but noisy circle you had collected round. Permit me then, Sir, to add an explanation to his words, for the benefit of your neighbours, and with which, and a few observations, I shall close my letter.

When it was reported in the English News­papers, some short time since, that the Empress of RUSSIA had given to one of her minions a large tract of country, and several thousands of [Page 33]peasants as property, it very justly provoked in­dignation and abhorrence in those who heard it. But if we compare the mode practiced in Eng­land, with that which appears to us so abhorrent in Russia, it will be found to amount to very near the same thing;—for example—

As the whole of the revenue in England is drawn by taxes from the pockets of the people, those things called gifts and grants, (of which kind are all pensions and sinecure places) are paid out of that stock. The difference, there­fore, between the two modes is, that in England the money is collected by the Government, and then given to the Pensioner, and in Russia he is left to collect it for himself. The smallest sum which the poorest family in a county so near London as Surrey, can be supposed to pay annu­ally of taxes, is not less than five pounds; and as your sinecure of one thousand, and pension of three thousand per annum, are made up of taxes paid by eight hundred such poor families, it comes to the same thing as if the eight hundered families had been given to you, as in Russia, and you had collected the money on your ac­count. Were you to say that you are not quar­tered particularly on the people of Surrey, but on the nation at large, the objection would a­mount to nothing; for as there are more Pensi­oners than counties, every one may be consider­ed as quartered on that in which he lives

What honour or happiness you can derive [Page 34]from being the PRINCIPAL PAUPER of the neighbourhood, and occasioning a greater ex­pence than the poor, the aged, and the infirm, for ten miles round you, I leave you to enjoy. At the same time I can see that it is no wonder you should be strenuous in suppressing a book which strikes at the root of those abuses. No wonder that you should be against Reforms, a­gainst the Freedom of the Press, and the Right of Investigation. To you, and to others of your description, these are dreadful things; but you should also consider, that the motives which prompt you to act, ought, by reflection, to com­pel you to be silent.

Having now returned your compliment, and sufficiently tired your patience, I take my leave of you, with mentioning, that if you had not prevented my former Letter from being read at the Meeting, you would not have had the trou­ble of reading this; and also with requesting, that the next time you call me ‘ a common ene­my,’ you would add, " of us sinecure Placemen and Pensioners.