appeared to relish any thing in the shape of purity or simplicity of principle. Their intrigue being always attended with an impetuosity, has been aptly compared by Voltaire to the joint qualities of the monkey and the tiger. Of all countries on the face of the earth, perhaps France was the least qualified to receive a pure Republican Government. The French nation had been so long dazzled with the false splendours of its grand monarch, that a Court seemed the only atmosphere in which the real character of Frenchmen could display itself. At least, the Court had assimilated the character of the whole nation to itself. The French Revolution was altogether financial, and not the effect of good triumphing over bad principles. At various periods the people assumed various attitudes, but they were by no means prepared for a Republican form of Government. Political information had made no progress among the mass of the people, as is the case in Britain at this moment. There were but few Frenchmen amongst the literate part of the community who had any notion of a representative system of Government. The United States had scarcely presented any thing like correct representation, and the boasted constitution of England is altogether a mockery of representation. The people of England have no more direct influence over the Legislature than the horses or asses of England. Mr. Paine saw this, both in France and England, and, at the same time, saw the necessity of inculcating correct notions of Government through all classes of the community. He struggled in vain during his own lifetime, but the seed of his principles has taken root, and is now beginning to shoot forth.

France, by a series of successful battles with the monarchs of Europe, began to assume a military character-the very soul of Frenchmen, but the bane of Republicanism. Hence arose a Buonaparte, and hence the fall of France, and the restoration of the hated Bourbons.

After Buonaparte had usurped the sovereign power, and every thing in the shape of a representative system of government had subsided, Mr. Paine led quite a retired life, saw but little company, and for many years brooded over the misfortunes of France, and the advantages it had thrown away, by anticipating its present disgrace. He saw plainly that all the benefits which the Revolution ought to have preserved, would be foiled by the military ambition of Buonaparte. He would not allow the epithet Republic to be applied to it, without condemning such an association of ideas, and insisted upon it, that the United States of America was alone, of all the governments on the face of the earth, entitled to that honourable appellation.

In this retirement Mr. Paine wrote two small pamphlets of considerable interest: the one was his "Agrarian Justice opposed to Agrarian Law and Agrarian Monopoly;" the other was his "Decline and Fall of the English system of Finance," the first was a plan for creating a fund in all societies to give a certain sum of money to all young people about to enter into life, and live by their own industry, and to make a provision for all old persons, or such as were past labour, so that their old age might be spent serenely and comfortably. The idea was evidently the offspring of humanity and benevolence: of its practicability I cannot speak; here, as nothing but experience could prove it. His "Decline and Fall of the English System of Finance," is of more immediate importance, as no one of his pamphlets has displayed the acuteness, the foresight, and the ability of Mr. Paine, as a political economist, more than this. We can now speak most feelingly on this subject as this is the moment at which all his financial and funding system predictions are about to be fulfilled. Talk of Jewish prophets, or Christian prophets! look at this little pamphlet, and here you will find a prophet indeed! No imposter but a real prophet! A prophet who preferred common sense to divine inspiration. A prophet who stood not in need of any Holy Ghost to instruct him, but who prophesied from reason and natural circumstances. Mr. Cobbett has made this little pamphlet a text book, for most of his elaborate treatises, on our finances, and funding systems. This pamphlet was written in the year 1796, one year before the bank refused to pay its notes in gold. This latter circumstance, has in some measure had the effect of lengthening the existence of the funding system, although its occurrence was previously foretold by Mr. Paine, as one of the natural consequences of that system. On the authority of a late register of Mr. Cobbett's, I learn that the profits arising from the sale of this pamphlet, were devoted to the relief of the prisoners confined in Newgate for debt.

Mr. Paine, found it impossible to do any good in France, and he sighed for the shores of America. The English cruizers prevented his passing during the war; but immediately after the peace of Amiens he embarked and reached his adopted country. Before I follow him to America, I should notice his attack on George Washington. It is evident from all the writings of Mr. Paine that he lived in the closest intimacy with Washington up to the time of his quitting America in 1787, and it further appears, that they corresponded up to the time of Mr. Paine's imprisonment in the Luxembourg. But here a fatal breach took place. Washington having been the nominal Commander-in-Chief during the struggle for independence, obtained much celebrity, not for his exertions during that struggle, but in laying down all command and authority immediately on its close, and in retiring to private life, instead of assuming any thing like authority or dictation in the Government of the United States, which his former situation would have enabled him to do if he had chosen. This was a circumstance only to be paralleled during the purest periods of the Roman and Grecian Republics, and this circumstance obtained for Washington a fame to which his Generalship could not aspire. Mr. Paine says, that the disposition of Washington was apathy itself, and that nothing could kindle a fire in his bosom-neither friendship, fame, or country. This might in some measure account for the relinquishment of all authority, at a time when he might have held it, and, on the other hand, should have moderated the tone of Mr. Paine in complaining of Washington's neglect of himself whilst confined in France. The apathy which was made a sufficient excuse for the one case, should have also formed a sufficient excuse for the other. This was certainly a defect in Mr. Paine's career as a political character. He might have attacked the conduct of John Adams, who was a mortal foe to Paine and all Republicanism and purity of principle, and who found the apathy and indifference of Washington a sufficient cloak and opportunity to enable him to carry on every species of court and monarchical intrigue in the character of Vice-President. I will, however, state this case more simply.

During the imprisonment of Mr. Paine in the Luxembourg, and under the reign of Robespierre, Washington was President of the United States, and John Adams was Vice-President. John Adams was altogether a puerile character, and totally unfit for any part of a Republican Government. He openly avowed his attachment to the monarchical system of Government: he made an open proposition to make the Presidency of the United States hereditary in the family of Washington, although the latter had no children of his own; and even ran into an intrigue and correspondence with the Court and Ministry of England, on the subject of his diabolical purposes. All this intelligence burst upon Paine immediately on his liberation from a dreadful imprisonment, and at a moment when the neglect of the American Government had nearly cost him his life. It was this which drew forth this virulent letter against Washington. The slightest interference of Washington would have saved Paine from several months unjust and unnecessary imprisonment, for there was not the least charge against him, further than being born an Englishman; although he had actually been outlawed in