643 



but, on the contrary, they are more difficult 

 to raise there than in England, and much 

 worse. 



Tom Paine, by his book entitled Com- 

 mon Sense being dispersed through the 

 country, during the war in x^merica, spirit- 

 ed the people to fight with more resolution 

 for their independence than all that great 

 character General Washington could do : 

 and it is believed, that, had not that 

 publication appeared, the object of the war 

 would have been given up : it is acknow- 

 ledged as a fact, by many well-informed 

 men, that the Americans were previously 

 very much dejected. But Tom Paine, 

 with all his own sense and reason, lost his 

 temper, and behaved in such a manner, that, 

 had he returned to America during the in- 

 fluence of the federal party, before the ap- 

 pointment of Mr. Jefferson to the president- 

 ship, he would have been treated like a mad 

 dog. The evil effects, perhaps, of this bad 

 man's counsel were not lessened by his ab- 

 sence, ' 



