PAINE’S “Rights of Man” (1791–92) was one of the most influential political treatises of the eighteenth century. His “Common Sense,” published in 1776 in America, had been one of the chief factors in uniting the doubtful and conservative element of the Colonists with the Radicals who from the first had determined to overthrow the power of England in North America. Paine, the son of a Quaker stay-maker, was born in Norfolk, England, January 29th, 1737, and came to America in 1774, attracted perhaps by the hope of finding opportunity for his remarkable talents as an agitator and political controversialist. In 1787, after the close of the Revolution, in which he had been one of the most important factors, he returned to England and threw himself into the struggle which the Republicans of France were forcing to an issue against Royalty. The “Rights of Man,” for which Paine was at once prosecuted by the English government, was received with satisfaction by not a few influential Whigs, and when Paine was prosecuted, Erskine, who afterwards appeared for the prosecution in the case against the “Age of Reason,” made one of his most celebrated appeals in behalf of free speech. In 1793 Paine, who had taken up his residence in Paris, was elected to the Assembly, and his course there caused him to be imprisoned by the Terrorists. His “Age of Reason” had made him bitter enemies in the United States, and his former political associates were so slow in coming to his assistance that he suspected them of a desire to see him guillotined as the easiest way to avoid recognizing his services. When finally released he returned to the United States (1802), but was received with great caution by his former friends; and when he died at New York, June 8th, 1809, it was in obscurity and poverty.