"There were but two foreigners in the con"vention, Anarcharsis Cloots and myself. We were both put out of the convention by the

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same vote, arrested by the same order, and "carried to prison together the same night. He "was taken to the guillotine, and I was again left. Joel Barlow was with us when we went to prison. Joseph Leban, one of the vilest "characters that ever existed, and who made "the streets of Arras run with blood, was my suppliant member of the convention for the department of the Pais de Calais. When I was put out of the convention he came and "took my place. When I was liberated "from prison and voted again into the conven"tion he was sent to the same prison and took

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my place there, and he went to the guillotine "instead of me. He supplied my place all the 66 way One hundred and sixty-eight per

thro.

sons were taken out of the Luxembourg in one night, and a hundred and sixty of them guillo"tined the next day, of which I know I was to "have been one; and the manner I escaped that "fate is curious, and has all the appearance of "accident. The room in which I was lodged

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was on the ground floor and one of a long

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range of rooms under a gallery, and the door "of it opened outward and flat against the wall;

so that when it was open the inside of the door "appeared outward, and the contrary when it "was shut: I had three comrades fellow-prisoners "with me, Joseph Vanhuile of Bruges, since "president of the municipality of that town, "Michael Robins, and Bastini of Louvain. "When persons by scores and by hundreds were to be taken out of prison for the guillotine it

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was always done in the night, and those who performed that office had a private mark or signal by which they knew what rooms to go "to, and what number to take.

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We, as I said, were four, and the door of our room was marked, unobserved by us, with "that number in chalk; but it happened, if happening is a proper word, that the mark was put on the door when it was open and flat against the wall, and thereby came on the "inside when we shut it at night, and the de"stroying angel passed it by. A few days after "this Robespierre fell, and the American ambassa“dor arrived and reclaimed me, and invited me 66 to his house.

"During the whole of my imprisonment, prior "to the fall of Robespierre, there was no time "when I could think my life worth twenty-four "hours; and my mind was made up to meet "its fate. The Americans in Paris went in a "body to the convention to reclaim me, but "without success. There was no party among "them with respect to me. My only hope then "rested on the government of America that it "would remember me.

"But the icy heart of ingratitude, in what

ever man it is placed, has neither feelings nor sense of honour. The letter of Mr. Jefferson "has served to wipe away the reproach, and "done justice to the mass of people of "America."

While Mr. Paine was in prison he wrote much of his 'Age of Reason,' and amused himself with carrying on an epistolary correspondence with Lady S*** under the assumed name of The Castle in the Air,' and her ladyship answered under the signature of 'The Little Corner of the World.' This correspondence is reported to be extremely beautiful and interesting.

At this period a deputation of Americans solicited the release of Thomas Paine from prison; and as this document, and the way in which it is introduced in Mr. Sampson Perry's history of the French revolution, bear much interest, and are highly honourable to Mr. Paine, the deputation, and Mr. Perry, I give it in his own words:

"As an historian does not write in conformity "to the humours or caprice of the day, but looks

to the mature opinions of a future period, so "the humble tracer of these hasty sketches,

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though without pretensions himself to live in "after times, is nevertheless at once desirous of

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proving his indifference to the unpopularity of "the moment, and his confidence in the justice posterity will exercise towards one of the greatest friends of the human race. The author "is the more authorised to pass this eulogium on

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a character already sufficiently celebrious,

having had the means and the occasion of

exploring his mind and his qualities, as well "with suspicion as with confidence. The name "of Thomas Paine may excite hatred in some, "and inspire terror in others. It ought to do

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neither, he is the friend of all; and it is only

"because reason and virtue are not sufficiently "prevalent, that so many do not love him: he is "not the enemy of those even who are eager to "have his fate at their disposal. The time may "not be far off when they will be glad their "fate were at his; but the cowardly as well as "the brave have contributed to fill England "with dishonour for silently allowing the best "friends of the human race to be persecuted with a virulence becoming the darkest ages only.

"The physical world is in rapid movement, "the moral advances perhaps as quick; that part "of it which is dark now will be light; when it "shall have but half revolved, men and things "will be seen more clearly, and he will be most esteemed by the good who shall have made the

c.

largest sacrifice to truth and public virtue. “Thomas Paine was suspected of having checked

"the aspiring light of the public mind by opi"nions not suitable to the state France was in. "He was for confiding more to the pen, and "doubting the effect of the guillotine.