326 TELFORD'S POLITICS. PART VIII. 



He now seems to have occupied much of his leisure 

 hours in miscellaneous reading. Amongst the numerous 

 books which he read, he expressed the highest admi- 

 ration for Sheridan's ' Life of Swift.' But his Lang- 

 holm friend, who was a great politician, having invited 

 his attention to politics, Telford's reading gradually 

 extended in that direction. Indeed the exciting events 

 of the French Revolution then tended to make all 

 men more or less politicians. The capture of the 

 Bastille by the people of Paris in 1789 passed like 

 an electric thrill through Europe. Then 'followed the 

 Declaration of Eights ; after which, in the course of six 

 months, all the institutions which had before existed in 

 France were swept away, and the reign of justice was 

 fairly inaugurated upon earth! In the spring of 1791 

 the first part of Paine' s ' Eights of Man ' appeared, and 

 Telford, like many others, read it, and was at once carried 

 away by it. Only a short time before, he had admitted 

 with truth that he knew nothing of politics ; but no 

 sooner had he read Paine than he felt completely en- 

 lightened. He now suddenly discovered how much 

 reason he and everybody else in England had for being 

 miserable. Whilst residing at Portsmouth he had quoted 

 to his Langholm friend the lines from Cowper's ' Task,' 

 then just published, beginning " Slaves cannot breathe 

 in England ;" but lo ! Mr. Paine had filled his imagination 

 with the idea that England was nothing but a nation of 

 bondmen and aristocrats. To his natural mind the 

 kingdom had appeared to be one in which a man had 

 pretty fair play, could think and speak, and do the 

 thing he would, tolerably happy, tolerably prosperous, 

 and enjoying many blessings. He himself had felt free 

 to labour, to prosper, and to rise from manual to head 

 work. No .one had hindered him ; his personal liberty 

 had never been interfered with ; and he had freely em- 

 ployed his earnings as he thought proper. But now the 

 whole thing appeared a delusion. Those rosy-cheeked 



