64. Rights Of Man: " Being An " Answer To Mr. Burke's Attack " On The " French Revolution. " By " Thomas Paine, " Secretary For Foreign Affairs to Congress In The " American War, And " Author Of The Work Intitled Common Sense. " London: " Printed for J. Johnson, St. Paul's Church-Yard. " MDCCXCI.

"Mr. Burke's Attack," as we have seen, appeared in November, 1790, and Paine immediately replied with the first part of his "Answer." Joseph Johnson, who printed Cowper's Task, and published for Horne Tooke, Fuseli, Bonnycastle and Miss Edgeworth, began the work and issued a few copies, but he became frightened at the serious outlook and gave it up. It was then put into the hands of J. S. Jordan, of No. 166 Fleet Street, who reissued it March 13, 1791, under the superintendence of three of Paine's friends, Paine himself having in the meantime gone to Paris. There were a few corrections in the spelling of some words, some passages were softened, and a preface to the English edition, which Paine sent back from Europe, was added to the new edition.

The success of the book was enormous, and it ran into edition after edition. In a letter to Washington, to whom it was dedicated, Paine says, under date of July 21, 1791:

"... I took the liberty of addressing my late work 'Rights of Man', to you; but tho' I left it at that time to find its way to you, I now request your acceptance of fifty copies as a token of remembrance to yourself and my Friends. The work has had a run beyond anything that has been published in this Country on the subject of Government, and the demand continues. In Ireland it has had a much greater. A letter I received from Dublin, 10th of May, mentioned that the fourth edition was then on sale. I know not what number of copies were printed at each edition, except the second, which was ten thousand....

"I have printed sixteen thousand copies; when the whole are gone, of which there remain between three and four thousand, I shall then make a cheap edition, just sufficient to bring in the price of printing and paper as I did by Common Sense."

The earlier editions of the first part were made uniform with Burke's Reflections, and sold, so we learn from the half-title, for half a crown; the second edition sold for three shillings; and the cheap edition, which was Printed For H. D. Symonds, Paternoster Row, M,DCC,XCII., sold for sixpence.

The Gazetteer for January 25, contained the following announcement: "Mr Paine, it is known, is to produce another book this season. The composition of this is now past, and it was given a few weeks since to two printers, whose presses it was to go through as soon as possible. They printed about half of it, and then, being alarmed by some intimations, refused to go further. Some delay has thus occurred, but another printer has taken it, and in the course of the next month it will appear. Its title is to be a repetition of the former, 'The Rights of Man,' of which the words 'Part the Second,' will show that it is a continuation."

The title in full, runs as follows: Rights Of Man. " Part " The Second. " Combining " Principle And Practice. " By " Thomas Paine, " [Four lines] London: " Printed for J. S. Jordan, No. 166, Fleet-Street. " 1792.

The volume was the same size as the first part, and contained 178 pages, selling, as the half-title tells us, for three shillings. It was dedicated to Lafayette. This part was also issued by Symonds in a cheap edition, uniform with the first part, which sold for sixpence.

The printer alarmed by the "intimations" was Chapman. He had offered successively, at different stages of the publication, £100, £500, and £1000, for the work, but Paine preferred to keep it in his own hands, fearing, perhaps, that this was a government attempt to suppress the book. From a financial point of view he was wise, since, on July 4, he handed over to the Society for Constitutional Information, £1000, which he had already received from sales. After Chapman's withdrawal, Jordan took up the printing, but with the understanding that if questioned he should say that Paine was author and publisher, and would personally answer for the work.

The fears of the printers proved anything but groundless. The persecution, by imprisonment or fines, of those who were connected with the publishing (printing and selling) of the book would "astonish you", as Dr. Currie writes in 1793, "and most of these are for offences committed many months ago. The printer of the Manchester Herald has had seven different indictments preferred against him for paragraphs in his paper; and six different indictments for selling or disposing of six different copies of Paine—all previous to the trial of Paine. The man was opulent, supposed worth 20,000 l.; but these different actions will ruin him, as they were intended to do."

Octavo.

Collation: 1 l., 162 pp.