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The Life and Writings of Thomas Paine (v. 10)
The Life and Writings of Thomas Paine - v. 10 Author:Thomas Paine Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: TO THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND ON THE INVASION OF ENGLAND T N casting my eye over England and America, - and comparing them together, the difference is very strikin... more »g. The two countries were created by the same power, and peopled from the same stock. What then has caused the difference? Have those who emigrated to America improved, or those whom they left behind degenerated? There are as many degrees of difference in the political morality of the two people as there are of longitude between the two countries. Paine wrote a letter read by Coupe to the Council of Five Hundred, January 28, 1798: "CmzExs Representatives: Though it is not convenient to me, in the present situation of my affairs, to subscribe to the loan toward the descent upon England, my economy permits me to make a small patriotic donation. I send a hundred livres, and with it all the wishes of my heart for the success of the descent, and a voluntary offer of any service I can render to promote it. "There will be no lasting peace for France, nor for the world, until the tyranny and corruption of the English Government be abolished, and England, like Italy, become a sister republic. As to those men, whether in England, Scotland, or Ireland, who, like Robespierre in France, are covered with crimes, they, like him, have no other resource than committing more. But the mass of the people are the friends of liberty: tyranny and taxation oppress them, but they deserve to be free. "Accept, Citizens Representatives, the congratulations of an old colleague in the dangers we have passed and on the happy prospect before us. Salut et retpct."—Ed. In the science of cause and effect, everything that enters into the composition of either must be allowed its proportion of influence. Investigating, therefore, into the cause...« less