GDH Cole In 1792, the British government prosecuted Thomas Paine for containing "defamatory statements" in his famous book.In fact, that prosecution was the beginning of the great crackdown on British radicalism that followed the French Revolution and, for a time, extinguished radicalism as an organized movement.In fact, Paine himself did not appear in court and never served the sentence imposed on him.For Paine was in France in 1792, a member of the National Assembly, and an honorary citizen of the emerging revolutionary country, although he soon fell out of favor for opposing the execution of Louis, and was banished as he had been from England. Leaving France to seek a new home in the American Republic, in the days when that country was fighting for its independence, he had done so heroically.

Paine's fame predates his classic reply to Burke's attack on the French Revolution.He became famous for his positions in the American War of Independence; and his writings in America, especially in the American Revolutionary War, played a prominent role in solidarity with the colonial revolt against George III and his ministers for eventual victory .But these early works were not well-known in England until they were published, making their author one of the most widely read, most loved, and most hated political commentators in Great Britain. The first part, published in 1791, was a reply to Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution, which was itself a response to Dr. Richard Price's famous lectures on Civil Liberties answer.Price was a leading figure among British dissident clergymen, also defended the inhabitants of the American colonies, and participated in the 1688 "Glorious Revolution" sponsored by the Revolutionary Society in 1788

①Memorial meeting.Burke, a Whig, had supported the peoples of the American colonies, and although he deplored the separation caused by Britain's mishandling of its disputes with the colonists, he believed the separation was inevitable.The French Revolution, however, was another matter. Whereas the English Revolution of 1688 had firmly secured the landed aristocracy in power, the French Revolution a century later threatened to wipe out the aristocracy and its privileges.To Burke, a Whig, any society without a ruling aristocracy and a well-established church seemed to be in chaos, for he considered church and aristocracy indispensable to the virtues and social traditions that held society together pillars.He insisted that social institutions be founded on great customs and traditions, of which the nobility were the necessary guardians.Social institutions are not based on reason, and it is disastrous to imagine that a nation can be built on reason.States and societies are gradually developed, not created; no generation has the right to stretch out the evil hand to possess them, or to transform them with the feeble light of reason. , was guillotined on January 21, 1793. - translator

②Burke (1729-1797), a British bourgeois politician, once sympathized with the American Revolutionary War, but fiercely opposed the French Revolution. His book "Recollections of the French Revolution" (1790) represented the trend of thought of European restorationism at that time. - translator ①Refers to the expulsion of King James II by the British Parliament in 1688, and welcomed his Protestant daughter Mary and her husband William the ruler to the throne.This event was called the "Glorious Revolution" in British history, and it was actually a coup d'état launched by the British bourgeoisie and the new aristocracy at that time. - translator

②The Whig Party is the predecessor of the British Liberal Party. During the British bourgeois revolution in the seventeenth century, two groups, the Whig Party and the Tory Party, were formed in the British Parliament. The Whig Party represented the interests of the industrial and commercial bourgeoisie and the new aristocracy, and the Tory Party The Party represents the interests of the landlords and nobles. - Moisturize them.It is the sacred duty of each generation to pass on to the next this precious social heritage inherited; only the nobility can ensure that this heritage is preserved intact.

Paine's refutation of this violent discourse against the sansculottes and the rationalists who sought to establish a new France was, once published, a glittering masterpiece cherished by the common people.Godwin's "A Theory of Political Justice" was only addressed to a very small number of educated people, while Thomas Paine's was addressed directly to the poor in language that craftsmen and shopkeepers could understand.His book was repeatedly reprinted within months of its release.After the book was banned, people continued to be convicted and imprisoned for reprinting or selling it. After 1815, when this repression was finally loosened for a while, there was an immediate outpouring of new reprints, and by 1817 and 1819 new repressive decrees again made it possible to publish Paine's "seditious" and "blasphemous" works. Once committed as a punishable offence, the above situation is repeated.

Thomas Paine's books are popular and rightfully so.It is regarded as the poor man's bible because it was the first book in British political writing to illuminate the situation of ordinary people from the perspective of ordinary people.Paine, the staystay maker and tax collector, belonged to the people: he knew how to address them as one of them.For the same reason, his books were rightfully suppressed in the hands of the ruling class.This is because the book was indeed dangerous to the ruling class, whereas Godwin's A Theory of Political Justice and many other radical works of the time were not.This book is dangerous because not only does he systematically articulate the rights of the poor in unmistakable language, but he also presents, for the first time ever, a radical social reform program that gives the poor both abstract rights and It also presents them with practical interests to fight for.

This radical project, which was the first to appear in England, was collected in Part II, and was published in 1792, when the great pamphlet controversy aroused by Burke's Reflections and Part I was in full swing.In the first part, Paine wants to do two main things—defend the French Revolution by refuting Burke's slander, and connect his defense of the French Revolution with a candid statement of fundamental political rights on behalf of the British people.In the second part, after further affirming those rights against the objections against him, he turns to proclaiming some positive measures of social reform, which still have their reality today and make them different from any other writings of his time. very different.This is because Paine called, a century and a half ago, for the need for universal public education, for child allowances and old-age pensions (it should be noted that pensions start at fifty and increase slightly at sixty), and for public measures to The unemployed were placed into paid work, and these measures were financed by a progressive income tax (raised to twenty shillings per pound on the largest incomes).

In addition, Paine formulated his criteria for the correct reform of social institutions in fluent English. "Which country in the world can say: The poor in our country are happy; there is neither ignorance nor cause of poverty among them; there are no prisoners in prisons; there are no beggars in the streets; old people are well fed; The world kisses me, because I am dear to happiness. A country that can say these words can be proud of its constitution and government." In words like these Paine places himself among the great pioneers of activism.To be sure, he was not a socialist; for, when he wrote, socialism had not yet been born and was still only the figment of utopia builders like More and Mably.But he believed that the state could be used as an effective instrument for promoting the welfare of its citizens; he was also convinced that this end could not be achieved unless it was based on perfect democratic equality, and that, provided that democratic equality was the basis of society, the can achieve this goal.He absolutely believed in representative democracy. "Combining the rite system with democracy, ① Sans-culottes Han is a contemptuous term for the nobles during the French Revolution. In the late eighteenth century, the French nobles all wore tight-fitting velvet trousers, and the majority of the revolutionary masses wore zubu trousers, so Name. - Translator

A system of government will be obtained capable of accommodating and uniting all different interests, and territories of different sizes and populations. He was convinced that democracy would promote peace and happiness, and would lead to "universal security, which is a means to general commerce." He also believed deeply in human freedom.For him, simply tolerating different opinions was not enough. "Intolerance is the Pope armed with fire and fagots; Tolerance is the Pope's sale or grant of sin." He demanded not only tolerance, but the affirmation that differences of opinion are useful and creative, and that equal rights be accorded to all, however divided they may be.The state may have the right to punish certain behaviours, but under no circumstances has the right to persecute or punish dissent.What opinions a man pleases to hold, it is his natural right; and citizenship or state-granted rights can never abolish these natural rights, because citizenship or state-granted rights can only arise from natural rights.

This was the language of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment.But Paine gave it a new purpose.Voltaire and Rousseau never advocated full democracy or had faith in the creativity of ordinary people.In fact, at that time there was no movement among ordinary people, no active creativity capable of attracting their attention.The movement was in its infancy when Paine wrote it, but he had the insight and courage to see it, and his writings, more than those of any other man, helped it in its early struggles. formation and trend.It is no wonder that Thomas Hardy's London Correspondence - the first political group of working men in England - thanked and congratulated Paine warmly for his publication, as did many other social groups that sprung up at the time.Every movement needs a gospel, and Paine's has been the gospel of working-class British radicals for at least two generations. Today, when the world is once again confronted with a struggle between fundamental forces, the challenges and appeals are not outdated.Paine's writings are no longer our gospel, because many of the issues have been greatly altered.Every age must find its own social gospel and express it in its own language, according to its own most pressing problems.But the gospel of the past is not dead, and Paine's account of the strength of the French Revolution is instructive for today.In fact, the French Revolution did not achieve the kind of democracy it proclaimed as its goal and as the only legitimate basis for any social system.After an uphill struggle, it only helped to clear the way for the sowing of the seeds of democracy.Today, wherever the crops of democracy begin to grow, there are still reactionaries and oppressors determined to bring it down. What Paine fought in America, France, and England in the eighteenth century we must fight today, and as valiantly as he, if we are not to suffer defeat.In this struggle we cannot do without the inspiration of the past, of the thinkers, of the doers, of the fighters who have made possible the great progress of ordinary men.The gains made in the long march for the happiness of mankind are still at stake.We need a new Paine to inspire us and unite us in decent and sane causes.Yet Paine Sr. can also fuel our courage and our faith in the causes of ordinary people. May 31, 1937 Revised July 1949