"with such a country as America, but could "avail nothing in one highly corrupted like "France. To disagree in opinion with a mind 66 so heated was to incur all the resentment it "contained. Thomas Paine had preserved an

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intimacy with Brissot from an acquaintance of lang date, and because he spoke the English language; when Brissot fell Paine was in

danger, and, as his preface to the second part " of the 'Rights of Man,' shews, he had a miracu"lous escape.

"The Americans in Paris saw the perilous "situation of their fellow citizen, of the cham"pion of the liberty of more than one quarter of "the world; they drew up an address and pre"sented it at the bar of the convention; it was "worded as follows:

"Citizens! the French nation had invited "the most illustrious of all ́ foreign nations to " "the honour of representing her.

"Thomas Paine, the apostle of liberty in “America, a profound and valuable philosopher a virtuous and esteemed citizen, came

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"to France and took a seat among you. Parti"cular circumstances rendered necessary the "'decree to put under arrest all the English "residing in France.

"Citizens! representatives! we come to "' demand of you Thomas Paine, in the name of "the friends of liberty, in the name of the "Americans your brothers and allies; was there

'any thing more wanted to obtain our demand "'we would tell you. Do not give to the ""leagued despots the pleasure of seeing Paine "in irons. We shall inform you that the seals "'put upon the papers of Thomas Paine have "'been taken off, that the committee of gene"'ral safety examined them, and far from "finding among them any dangerous proposi"tions, they only found the love of liberty "which characterised him all his life time, that "'eloquence of nature and philosophy which "made him the friend of mankind, and those

'principles of public morality which merited. " "the hatred of kings, and the affection of his ""fellow-citizens.

"In short, Citizens! if you permit us to

"restore Thomas Paine to the embraces of his ""fellow-citizens we offer to pledge ourselves "as securities for his conduct during the short "time he shall remain in France.""

After his liberation he found a friendly asylum at the American minister's house, Mr. Monroe, now president of the United States; and for some years before Mr. Paine left Paris, he lodged at M. Bonville's, associating occasionally with the great men of the day, Condorcet, Volney, Mercier, Joel Barlow, &c. &c. and sometimes dining with Bonaparte and his generals. *-He now indulged his mechanical turn, and amused himself in bridge and ship modelling, and in pursuing his favorite studies,

* When Bonaparte returned from Italy he called on Mr. Paine and invited him to dinner: in the course of his rapturous address to him he declared that a statue of gold ought to be erected to him in every city in the universe, assuring him that he always slept with his book "Rights of Man' under his pillow, and conjured him to honor him with his correspondence and advice.

This anecdote is only related as a fact. Of the sincerity of the compliment, those must judge who know Bonaparte's principles best.

the mathematics and natural philosophy. "These models," says a correspondent of that time, "exhibit an extraordinary degree not only "of skill but of taste in mechanics, and are wrought with extreme delicacy entirely by his own hands. The largest of these, the model "of a bridge, is nearly four feet in length: the "iron-works, the chains, and every other article belonging to it were forged and manufactured

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by himself. It is intended as the model of a bridge which is to be constructed across the "Delaware, extending 480 feet with only one "arch. The other is to be erected over a narrower "river, whose name I forget, and is likewise a single arch, and of his own workmanship excepting the chains, which instead of iron are cut out of pasteboard, by the fair hand of his correspondent,' The little Corner of the World,' "whose indefatigable perseverance is extraor "dinary. He was offered £3000 for these models "and refused it. He also forged himself the "model of a crane of a new description, which "when put together exhibited the power of the "lever to a most surprising degree."

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During this time he also published his

'Dissertation on first Principles of Government,' his Essay on Finance,' his first and second parts of the Age of Reason,' his 'Letter to Washington,' his 'Address to the Theophilanthropists,' 'Letter to Erskine,' &c. &c. Poetry too employed his idle hours, and he produced some fine pieces, which the world will probably one day see.

Wearied with the direction things took in France, which he used to say, was "the pro-.

mised land, but not the land of promise," he had long sighed for his own dear America,

"It is," he would say, "the country of heart and the place of my political and

my

See 'Letters from Thomas Paine to the Citizens of America,' after an absence of fifteen years in Europe, to which are subjoined some letters between him and the late General Washington, Mr. Samuel Adams, and the late President of the United States, Mr. Jefferson; also some original Poetry of Mr. Paine's, and a Fac Simile of his hand-writing in 1803. London: published by and for Clio Rickman, Upper Mary-le-bone-Street, London.