ning, and artful insinuations, to represent, suggest, and cause it to be believed, that the Parliament of this kingdom was a wicked, corrupt, useless, and unnecessary establishment; and that the King, and the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in Parliament assembled, wickedly tyrannized over and oppressed the subjects of this kingdom in general; and to infuse into the minds of the subjects of this kingdom groundless and unreasonable discontents and prejudices against our present Sovereign Lord the King and the Parliament of this kingdom, and the constitution, laws, and government thereof, and to bring them into hatred and contempt, on the sixteenth day of February, in the thirty-second year of the reign of our said present Sovereign Lord the King, with force and arms, at London aforesaid, to wit, in the parish of Saint Mary le Bow, in the ward of Cheap, he the said Thomas, wickedly, maliciously and seditiously did write and publish, and cause to be written and published, a certain false, scandalous, malicious, and seditious libel, of and concerning the said late happy Revolution, and the said settlements and limitations of the crown and regal government of the said kingdoms and dominions; and the said act, declaring the rights and liberties of the subject; and the said declaration of the rights and liberties. of the subject therein contained, and the hereditary regal government of the said kingdoms and dominions; and also of and concerning the legislature, constitution, government,

and laws of this kingdom; of and concerning our present Sovereign Lord the King that now is; and of and concerning the Parliament of this kingdom, intituled, "Rights of Man, Part the Second; combining "Principle and Practice: by Thomas Paine, Secretary

for Foreign Affairs to Congress, in the American "War, and Author of the Work, intituled Common "Sense, and the First Part of the Rights of Man; the "Second Edition, London, printed for J. S. Jordan, "No. 166, Fleet Street, 1792;" in which said libel are contained, amongst other things, divers false, scandalous, malicious, and seditious matters. In one part thereof, according to the tenour and effect following, that is to say, "All hereditary government An heritable crown"

" is in its nature tyranny.

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(meaning, amongst others, the crown of thiskingdom) or an heritable throne" (meaning, amongst others, the throne of this kingdom), "ar by what other "fanciful name such things may be called, have no "other significant explanation than that mankind are "heritable property. To inherit a government, is "to inherit the people, as if they were flocks and "herds." And in another part thereof, according to the tenour and effect following; (that is to say,) "This Convention met at Philadelphia, in May 1787, "of which General Washington was elected presi

dent. He was not at that time connected with any "of the State Governments, or with Congress. He "delivered up his commission when the war ended, "and since then had lived a private citizen. The

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"Convention went deeply into all the subjects, and having, after a variety of debate and investigation, "agreed among themselves upon the several parts of

a Federal Constitution, the next question was the "manner of giving it authority and practice. For "this purpose, they did not, like a cabal of cour"tiers, send for a Dutch Stadtholder or a German "Elector, but they referred the whole matter to the sense and interest of the country," (thereby meaning and intending that it should be believed that a cabal of courtiers had sent for the said Prince of Orange and King George the First, heretofore Elector of Hanover, to take upon themselves respectively the regal government of the said kingdom and dominions, without referring to the sense and interest of the subjects of the said kingdoms). And in another part thereof, according to the tenour and effect following; (that is to say,) "The history of "the Edwards and Henries" (meaning Edwards and Henries, heretofore Kings of England), "and 66 up to the commencement of the Stuarts" (meaning Stuarts, heretofore Kings of England), "exhi"bits as many instances of tyranny as could be acted "within the limits to which the nation had restricted "it. The Stuarts" (meaning Stuarts, heretofore Kings of England) "endeavoured to pass these limits, " and their fate is well known. In all those instances, we see nothing of a constitution, but only of re"strictions on assumed power. After this, another "William" (meaning the said William Prince of

Orange, afterwards King of England), "descended

5 from the same stock, and claiming from the same "origin, gained possession" (meaning possession of the crown of England); " and of the two evils, James "and William" (meaning James the Second, heretofore King of England, and the said William Prince of Orange, afterwards King of England)," the na"tion preferred what it thought the least; since from "circumstances it must take one. The act called "the Bill of Rights" (meaning the said act of Parliament, intituled, "An Act declaring the Rights and "Liberties of the Subject, and settling the Succes"sion of the Crown")" comes here into view; what "is it" (meaning the said act of Parliament last mentioned)" but a bargain which the parts of the

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government made with each other to divide powers, profits, and privileges?" (meaning that the last-mentioned act of Parliament was a bargain which the parts of the government in England made with each other to divide powers, profits, and privileges). "shall have so much, and I will have the rest; and "with respect to the nation it said, For your share

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"You

You shall have the right of petitioning. This

being the case, the Bill of Rights" (meaning the said last-mentioned act of Parliament)" is more pro"perly a Bill of Wrongs and of insult. As to what

is called the Convention Parliament, it" (meaning the said Convention of Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, herein before mentioned) "was a thing that made itself, and then made the autho

"thority by which it acted. A few persons got to"gether, and called themselves by that name; se"veral of them had never been elected, and none of "them for the purpose. From the time of William" (meaning the said King William the Third), " a "species of government arose, issuing out of this "coalition Bill of Rights" (meaning the said act, intituled, “An Act, declaring the Rights and Liberties " of the Subject, and settling the Succession of the "Crown")," and more so since the corruption intro-· "duced at the Hanover succession" (meaning the succession of the heirs of the Princess Sophia, Electress and Duchess Dowager of Hanover, to the crown and dignity of this kingdom)" by the agency of Walpole, "that" (meaning the said species of government) can be described by no other name than a despotic

legislation. Though the parts may embarrass each "other, the whole has no bounds; and the only right "it acknowledges out of itself is the right of peti"tioning. Where then is the constitution either that gives or that restrains power? It is not because

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a part of the government" (meaning the government of this kingdom) " is elective, that makes it "less a despotism, if the persons so elected possess "afterwards, as a Parliament, unlimited powers; "election in this case becomes separated from repre"sentation, and the candidates are candidates for despotism." And in another part thereof, according to the tenour and effect following; (that is to say,) "The attention of the government of England (for