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"have been in life eminent for the independ

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ence and freedom of their opinions; but the "whole that the bigot to whom I allude has "been able to effect in the case of Mr. Paine, amounts to an acknowledgment that the phi

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losopher died stedfast to those opinions of "religion in which he had lived; and the disappointment is plain enough to be seen, that "similar forgeries could not, with any prospect "of success, be circulated concerning Paine's tergiversation and death - bed conversion, "which were so greedily swallowed for a length of time by the gulls of fanaticism

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respecting Voltaire, D'Alembert, and others, "until the Monthly Review, in the real spirit "of philosophy, dispelled the imposition.

"The late Life of Thomas Paine by Cheet "ham, of New York, gave rise to the above Magazine article. Cheetham humph! Now should it not rather be spelled CHEAT 'EM,

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as applicable to every reader of that farrago "of imposition and malignity, miscalled the "Life of Paine.

"Probably it may be but a travelling name "in order to set another book a-travelling, for "the purpose of scandalizing and maligning "the reputation of a defunct public man, in"stead of the far more difficult task of con"futing his principles.

"Nothing can be more in course than this conjecture, authorised indeed by the following fact, with which I believe the public "is, to this day, unacquainted; namely, that "Mr. Chalmers publicly at a dinner acknow

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ledged himself the author of that very silly " and insipid catchpenny, formerly sent abroad "under the misnomer of a Life of Thomas Paine, by F. Oldys, of America.'

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r

"The chief view of this application is

to ascertain whether or not Mr. Rickman "really intends to undertake the work in " question.

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"I am, Sir, &c. &c.

"POLITICUS."

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"If you had done me the favour of "a call, I would readily have satisfied all your enquiries about the Life of Mr. Paine,

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"It is true I had the memoirs of that truly "wise and good man in a great state of for"wardness about a year ago; but a series of "the most severe and dreadful family distresses "since that time have rendered me incapable of completing them.

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"Tho an entire stranger to me (for I

"have not the least idea from whom the letter

"I am replying to came), I feel obliged to you ." for the liberal opinion therein expressed of me and of my

fitness for the work.

"I have taken great pains that the life of my friend should be given to the world as

"the subject merits; and a few weeks, whenever I can sit down to it, will complete it..

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Unhappily, Cheetham is the real name "of a real apostate. He lived, when Mr. "Paine was my inmate in 1792, at Man

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chester, and was a violent and furious ido"later of his.

"That Mr. Paine died in the full conviction "of the truth of the principles he held when "living I shall fully prove, and should have "answered the contemptible trash about his

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death, so industriously circulated, but that "the whole account exhibited on the face of "it fanatical fraud; and it was pushed for"ward in a mode and manner so ridiculous and

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glaringly absurd, as to carry with it its own "antidote.

"Such Christians would be much better employed in mending their own lives, and "shewing in them an example of good man

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"characters and in detailing silly stories of the "deaths of those deists who have infinitely "outstripped them, in their journey thro

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life, in every talent and virtue, and in dif"fusing information and happiness among "their fellow men.

"I again beg the favour of a call, as the "circumstances attached to the query of your's, "and the delays and hindrances, which are of

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a family and distressing nature, to the pub"lication of Mr. Paine's life, are better adapted "for private than public discussion.

"I am, Sir, your obedient Servant,

"CLIO RICKMAN."

It may not be necessary for me to premise any thing further than to say, that I affect not to rank with literary men, nor, as they rise, do I wish it; that authorship is neither my

* See Preface to my "Poetical Seraps," 2 vols. where this subject is further enlarged on.”

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