The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• I.: Peace, and the Newfoundland Fisheries. 1 ( First Letter. )
• II.: The American Philosophical Society.
• III.: Emancipation of Slaves.
• IV.: Public Good. 1.
• V.: Letter to the Abbe Raynal. 1
• VI.: Dissertations On Government; the Affairs of the Bank; and Paper Money.
• VII.: The Society For Political Inquiries. 1.
• VIII.: Prospects On the Rubicon: Or an Investigation Into the Causes and Consequences of the Politics to Be Agitated At the Next Meeting of Parliament . 1
• IX.: Specification of Thomas Paine. A.d. 1788….n
• Letter to Jefferson In Paris.
• XI.: Thomas Paine's Answer to Four Questions On the Legislative and Executive Powers.
• XII.: Address and Declaration.
• XIII.: Rights of Man.
• Editor's Introduction.
• Rights of Man Being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack On the French Revolution
• George Washington, President of the United States of America.
• Preface to the English Edition.
• Paine's Preface to the French Edition. 1
• Rights of Man.
• Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens,
• Observations On the Declaration of Rights.
• Miscellaneous Chapter.
• Conclusion.
• XIV.: Rights of Man. Part Second, Combining Principle and Practice.
• French Translator's Preface. (1792.)
• To M. De La Fayette.
• Preface.
• Rights of Man. Part Ii
• Introduction.
• Chapter I.: Of Society and Civilisation.
• Chapter II.: Of the Origin of the Present Old Governments.
• Chapter III.: Of the Old and New Systems of Government.
• Chapter IV.: Of Constitutions.
• Chapter V.: Ways and Means of Improving the Condition of Europe, Interspersed With Miscellaneous Observations.
• Appendix.

PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION.

From the part Mr. Burke took in the American Revolution, it was natural that I should consider him a friend to mankind; and as our acquaintance commenced on that ground, it would have been more agreeable to me to have had cause to continue in that opinion than to change it.

At the time Mr. Burke made his violent speech last winter in the English Parliament against the French Revolution and the National Assembly, I was in Paris, and had written to him but a short time before to inform him how prosperously matters were going on.1 Soon after this I saw his advertisement of the Pamphlet he intended to publish: As the attack was to be made in a language but little studied, and less understood in France, and as everything suffers by translation, I promised some of the friends of the Revolution in that country that whenever Mr. Burke's Pamphlet came forth, I would answer it. This appeared to me the more necessary to be done, when I saw the flagrant misrepresentations which Mr. Burke's Pamphlet contains; and that while it is an outrageous abuse on the French Revolution, and the principles of Liberty, it is an imposition on the rest of the world.

I am the more astonished and disappointed at this conduct in Mr. Burke, as (from the circumstances I am going to mention) I had formed other expectations.

I had seen enough of the miseries of war, to wish it might never more have existence in the world, and that some other mode might be found out to settle the differences that should occasionally arise in the neighbourhood of nations. This certainly might be done it Courts were disposed to set honestly about it, or if countries were enlightened enough not to be made the dupes of Courts. The people of America had been bred up in the same prejudices against France, which at that time characterised the people of England; but experience and an acquaintance with the French Nation have most effectually shown to the Americans the falsehood of those prejudices; and I do not believe that a more cordial and confidential intercourse exists between any two countries than between America and France.

When I came to France, in the spring of 1787, the Archbishop of Thoulouse was then Minister, and at that time highly esteemed. I became much acquainted with the private Secretary of that Minister, a man of an enlarged benevolent heart; and found, that his sentiments and my own perfectly agreed with respect to the madness of war, and the wretched impolicy of two nations, like England and France, continually worrying each other, to no other end than that of a mutual increase of burdens and taxes. That I might be assured I had not misunderstood him, nor he me, I put the substance of our opinions into writing and sent it to him; subjoining a request, that if I should see among the people of England, any disposition to cultivate a better understanding between the two nations than had hitherto prevailed, how far I might be authorised to say that the same disposition prevailed on the part of France? He answered me by letter in the most unreserved manner, and that not for himself only, but for the Minister, with whose knowledge the letter was declared to be written.

I put this letter into the hands of Mr. Burke almost three years ago, and left it with him, where it still remains; hoping, and at the same time naturally expecting, from the opinion I had conceived of him, that he would find some opportunity of making good use of it, for the purpose of removing those errors and prejudices which two neighbouring nations, from the want of knowing each other, had entertained, to the injury of both.

When the French Revolution broke out, it certainly afforded to Mr. Burke an opportunity of doing some good, had he been disposed to it; instead of which, no sooner did he see the old prejudices wearing away, than he immediately began sowing the seeds of a new inveteracy, as if he were afraid that England and France would cease to be enemies. That there are men in all countries who get their living by war, and by keeping up the quarrels of Nations, is as shocking as it is true; but when those who are concerned in the government of a country, make it their study to sow discord and cultivate prejudices between Nations, it becomes the more unpardonable.

With respect to a paragraph in this work alluding to Mr. Burke's having a pension, the report has been some time in circulation, at least two months; and as a person is often the last to hear what concerns him the most to know, I have mentioned it, that Mr. Burke may have an opportunity of contradicting the rumour, if he thinks proper.

Thomas Paine.

[1]My efforts to discover this letter have failed. The following is from Croly's “Life of Burke”. “Among his [Paine's] earliest missives was a letter [from Paris] to Burke, whom he eagerly urged to introduce Revolution into England, by its established name of Reform.” Burke threw back the temptation, or the insult, at once. ’Do you really imagine, Mr. Paine,’ was his reply, 'that the constitution of this kingdom requires such innovations, or could exist with them, or that any reflecting man would seriously engage in them? You are aware than I have, all my life, opposed such schemes of reform, because I know them not to be Reform.’ Paine, however, continued his ill-received correspondence; and whether from the delight of molesting Burke, or the expectation of making him a convert to a side which had the grand charm for the conviction of his own profligate heart, plunder; he sent him narratives of the rapidly recurring triumphs of democracy. In one of those he stated that the Reformers had already determined on the total overthrow of the [French] monarchy, etc.” This letter is said by the reverend biographer to have been written “exactly three days before the storming of the Bastille.”—Editor.