wilful or accidental, in the European newspapers. Mr. Paine answered the Abbe in a letter, and pointed out all his misstatements, with a hope of correcting the future historian. This letter is remarkably well written, and abounds with brilliant ideas and natural embellishments. Ovid's classical and highly admired picture of Envy, can scarcely vie with the picture our Author has drawn of Prejudice in this letter. It will be sure to arrest the reader's attention, therefore I will not mar it by an extract. Mr. Paine never deviated from the path of nature, and he was unquestionably as bright an ornament as ever our Common Parent held up to mankind. He studied Nature in preference to books, and thought and compared as well as read.

The hopes of the British Government having been baffled in the expected reduction of the Colonies, and being compelled to acknowledge their independence, Mr. Paine had now leisure to turn to his mechanical and philosophical studies. He was admitted a member of the American Philosophical Society, and appointed Master of Arts, by the University of Philadelphia, and we find nothing from his pen in the shape of a pamphlet until the year 1786, He then published his "Dissertations on Governments, the Affairs of the Bank, and Paper Money." The object of this pamphlet was to expose the injustice and ingratitude of the Congress in withdrawing the charter of incorporation from the American Bank, and to show, that it would rather injure than benefit the community. The origin of this Bank having been solely for the carrying on of the war with vigour, and to furnish the army with necessary supplies, at a time when the want of food and clothing threatened a mutiny, Mr. Paine condemned the attempt to suppress it as an act of ingratitude.

At a moment when the United States were overwhelmed with a general gloom by repeated losses and disasters, and by want of vigour to oppose the enemy, Mr. Paine proposed a voluntary contribution to recruit the army, and sent his proposal, and five hundred dollars as a commencement, to his friend Mr. M'Clenaghan. The proposal was instantly embraced, and such was the spirit by which it was followed, that the Congress established the leading subscribers into a Bank Company, and gave them a charter. This incident might be said to have saved America for that time, and as Mr. Paine has fairly shown that the Bank was highly advantageous to the interest of the United States at the time of its suppression, and that the act proceeded from party spleen, we cannot fail to applaud the spirit of this pamphlet, although it was an attack on the conduct of the Congress. It forms another proof that our Author never suffered his duty and principle to be biassed by his interest.

In the year 1787, Mr. Paine returned to Europe, and first proceeded to Paris, where he obtained considerable applause for the construction of a model of an iron bridge which he presented to the Academy of Sciences. The iron bridge is now becoming general in almost all new erections, and will doubtless, in a few years, supersede the more tedious and expensive method of building bridges with stone. How few are those who walk across the bridge of Vauxhall and call to mind that Thomas Paine was the first to suggest and recommend the use of the iron bridge: he says, that he borrowed the idea of this kind of bridge from seeing a certain species of spider spin its web*! In the mechanical arts Mr. Paine took great delight, and made considerable progress. In this, as in his political and theological pursuits, to ameliorate the condition, and to add to the comforts, of his fellow men, was his first object and final aim.

From Paris Mr. Paine returned to England after an absence of thirteen years, in which time he had lost his father, and found his mother in distress. He hastened to Thetford to relieve her, and settled a small weekly sum upon her to make her comfortable. He spent a few weeks in his native town, and wrote the pamphlet, intitled "Prospects on the Rubicon," &c. at this time, which appears to have been done as much for amusement and pastime as any thing else, as it has no peculiar object, like most of his other writings, and the want of that object is visible throughout the work. It is more of a general subject than Paine was in the habit of indulging in, and its publication in England produced but little attraction. France, at this moment, had scarcely begun to indicate her determination to reform her government.

England was engaged in the affairs of the Stadt-holder of Holland; and there seemed a confusion among the principal governments of Europe, but no disposition for war.

Mr. Paine having become intimate with Mr. Walker, a large iron-founder of Rotheram, in Yorkshire, retired thither for the purpose of trying the experiment of his bridge. The particulars of this experiment, with an explanation of its success, the reader will find fully developed in his letter to Sir George Staunton. This letter was sent to the Society of Arts in the Adelphi, and was about to be printed in their transactions, but the appearance of the First Part of "Rights of Man," put a stop to its publication in that shape, and afforded us a lesson that bigotry and prejudice form a woeful bar to science and improvement. For the expence of this bridge Mr. Paine had drawn considerable sums from a Mr. Whiteside, an American merchant, on the security of his American property, but this Mr. Whiteside becoming a bankrupt, Mr. Paine was suddenly arrested by his assignees, but soon liberated by two other American merchants becoming his bail, until he could make arrangements for the necessary remittances from America.

During the American war, Mr. Paine had felt a strong; desire to come privately into England, and publish a pamphlet on the real state of the war, and display to the people of England the atrocities of that cause they were so blinded to support. He had an impression that this step would have more effect to stop the bloody career of the English Government, than all he could write in America, and transmit to the English newspapers. It was with difficulty that his friends got him to abandon this idea, and after he had succeeded in obtaining the loan from the French Government, he proposed to Colonel Laurens to return alone, and let him go to England for this purpose. The Colonel, however, positively refused to return without him, and in this purpose he was overcome by the force of friendship. Still the same idea lingered in his bosom after the Americans had won their independence. Mr. Paine loved his country and countrymen, and was anxious to assist them in reforming their Government. The attack which Mr. Burke made upon the French Revolution soon gave him an opportunity of doing this, and the production of "Rights of Man" will ever rank Mr. Paine among the first and best of writers on political economy.

The friend and companion of Washington and Franklin could not fail to obtain an introduction to the leading political characters in England, such as Burke, Horne Tooke, and the most celebrated persons of that day. Burke had been the opponent of the English Government during the American war, and was admired as the advocate of constitutional freedom. Pitt, the most insidious and most destructive man that ever swayed the affairs of England, saw the necessity of tampering with Burke, and found him venal. It was agreed between them that Burke should receive a pension in a