JOHN HORNE TOOKE.

J

OHN HORNE TOOKE, a prominent English politician

and philologist, educated at Westminster and Eaton schools, and at the St. Johns College, Cambridge. He was inducted to the chapelry of New Brentford in 1760, but the clerical profession being little suited to his habits and feelings, he resigned his living at the above place and studied law at the Temple. In 1775 he was sentenced to imprisonment on a charge of having libelled the king's troops in America. In 1792, he was tried at the " Old Bailey" on a charge of treason and acquitted. His crime was an attempt to effect a reform in Parliament. He was defended by the celebrated lawyer, Thomas Erskine, (afterwards Lord High Chancellor of England,) who had also defended Thomas Paine from the charge of treason, brought before the same court.

Many persons have believed that Horne Tooke was the author of the Letters of Junius.—E.

dered their purposed commemoration of the fourth of August. *

The following account of Paine's manner of life, about this period, is given by his friend Clio Rickman :†

"Mr. Paine's life in London was a quiet round of philosophical leisure and enjoyment. It was occupied in writing, in a small epistolary correspondence, in walking about with me to visit different friends, occasionally lounging at coffee-houses and public places, or being visited by a select few. Lord Edward Fitzgerald, the French and American ambassadors, Mr. Sharp, the engraver, Romney, the painter, Mrs. Wollstonecraft, Joel Barlow, Mr. Hull, Mr. Christie, Dr. Priestley, Dr. Towers, Colonel Oswald, the walking Stewart, Captain Sampson Perry, Mr. Tuffin, Mr. William Choppin, Cap-. tain De Stark, Mr. Horne Tooke, &c., &c., were among the number of his friends and acquaintance; and of course, as he was my inmate, the most of my associates were frequently his. At this time he read but little, took his nap after dinner, and played with my family at some game in the evening, as chess, dominoes, and drafts; in recitations, singing, music, &c.; or passed it in conversation: the part he took in the latter was always enlightened, full of information, entertainment, and anecdote. Occasionally we visited enlightened friends, indulged in domestic jaunts, and recreations from home, frequently lounging at the White Bear, Picadilly, with his old friend the walking Stewart, and other clever travellers from France, and different parts of Europe and America. When by ourselves we sat very late, and often broke in on the morning hours, indulging the recip

*4th of August, 1789 - the day on which the nobles of France, enlightened by the burning of their mansions, "voluntarily" surrendered their privileges (which they could not retain, which were no longer allowed,) not to the people, but to their "representatives," the moneyed classes, whose patriotism fomented the revolution, and whose philosophy overthrew it.

† Rickman, p. 100.

rocal interchange of affectionate and confidential intercourse."

Paine was now engaged in preparing the second part of the RIGHTS OF MAN.* The ministry endeavored to prevent its publication. Having discovered the printer, they employed him to purchase the entire copyright of this second part, as well as the remaining copyright of the first part. Beginning with an offer of one hundred guineas, he increased his bidding to one thousand; but Paine replied, that "he would never put it in the power of any printer or publisher to suppress or alter a work of his, by making him master of the copy, or give him the right of selling it to any minister, or to any other person, or to treat as a mere matter of traffic that which he intended should operate as a principle." Failing in this, the ministry next attempted to delay the publication of the work. It contained, among other

"The publication of Rights of Man, says Richard Carlisle, in his Life of Paine, "formed as great an era in the politics of England as Common Sense had done in America the difference is only this-the latter had an opportunity of being acted upon instantly, while the former has had to encounter corruption and persecution; but that it will finally form the basis of the English Government is certain. Its principles are so self-evident that they flash conviction on the most unwilling mind that gives the work a calm perusal. The First Part of Rights of Man passed unnoticed as to prosecution, nor did Burke venture a reply, though he was mean enough to advise a criminal process against its author. The proper principles of a government, where the welfare of the community is the object of that government, as the case should always be, are so correctly and forcibly laid down in Rights of Man, that the book will stand, as long as the English language is spoken, as a monument of political wisdom and integrity.

"It should be observed that Mr. Paine never sought profit from his writings, and when he found that Rights of Man had obtained a peculiar attraction, he gave up the copyright to whomsoever would print it, although he had had so high a price offered for it. He would always say they were works of principle, written solely to ameliorate the condition of mankind, and, as soon as published, the common property of anyone who thought proper to circulate them.

"The First Part of Rights of Man has not that methodical arrangement which is to be found in the Second Part, but an apology arises for it: Mr. Paine had to tread the "wilderness of rhapsodies" that Burke had prepared for him. The part is, however, interspersed with such delightful ornaments, and such indisputable principles, that the path does not become tedious. No work has better defined the causes of the French Revolution, and the advantages that would have arisen from it had France been free from the corrupting influence of foreign powers.

"After some difficulty, a publisher was found for Rights of Man, in Mr. Jordan, late of 166, Fleet-street. The First Part appeared on the 13th of March, 1791, and the Second Part on the 16th of February in the following year. The Government was

matters, a proposition for reducing the taxes; and it was desirous that it should appear on the day of the meeting of parliament: but the printer, finding he could not purchase it, suddenly refused to proceed with the printing; and another printer had to be sought for. The Appendix furnishes reason to believe, that this honest man (the first printer,) regularly forwarded the proof sheets to the minister; and that certain alterations in the taxes, &c., proposed by Mr. Pitt, at the opening of the session of parliament, were the result of these confidential communications with the purpose of forestalling Paine's objections.

The RIGHTS OF MAN, part the second-combining principle and practice-was published by Mr. Jordan, on the 16th of February, 1792; and the sale equalled that of the first part. The following extract from Hazlitt, no mean authority, will evidence the sensation which the appearance of this masterly work produced :

"Paine's 'RIGHTS OF MAN' was the only really powerful reply (to Burke's Reflections), and, indeed, so powerful and explicit, that the government undertook to crush it by an ex-officio information, and by a declaration of war against France to still the ferment, and excite an odium against its admirers, as taking part with a

paralyzed at the rapid sale of the First Part, and the appearance of the Second. The attempt to purchase having failed, the agents of the Government next set to work to ridicule it, and to call it a contemptible work. Whig and Tory members, in both houses of Parliament, affected to sneer at it, and to laud our glorious constitution as a something impregnable to the assaults of such a book. However, Whig and Tory members had just begun to be known, and their affected contempt for Rights of Man served but as advertisements, and greatly accelerated its sale. In the month of May, 1792, the King issued his proclamation, and the King's devil, his ex-officio information, on the very same day, against Rights of Man. This in some measure impeded its sale, or occasioned it to be sold in a private manner; through which means it is impossible to give effectual circulation to any publication. One part of the community is afraid to sell, and another to purchase, under such conditions. It is not too much to say that, if Rights of Man had obtained two or three years' free circulation in England and Scotland, it would have produced a similar effect to that which Common Sense did in the United States of America. The French Revolution had set the people of England and Scotland to think, and Rights of Man was the book to furnish materials for thinking."-Eckler.