366 TOM PAINE. 



the loyal towns his effigy, with a rope round his neck, 

 was flogged with a cart whip, while the market-bell 

 tolled, and the crowd sung the national anthem, with 

 three cheers after each verse. In other towns, No 

 King ! Liberty ! Equality ! were scribbled on the 

 walls. The soldiers were everywhere tampered with, 

 and the king was mobbed. Pitt, the projector of 

 Reform Bills became a tyrant. Burke, the cham- 

 pion of the American Revolution became a Tory. 



It was not a time to speak of abolition, which was 

 regarded as a revolutionary measure. And such in reality 

 it was, though accidentally associated in England with 

 religion and philanthropy, on account of the character of 

 its leaders. It was pointed out that the atheist philoso- 

 phers had all of them begun by sympathising with the 

 negroes ; one of Tom Paine's first productions was an 

 article against slavery. The committee was declared 

 to be a nest of Jacobins ; their publications were de- 

 nounced as poisonous. There was a time when the 

 king had whispered at a levee, " How go on your 

 black clients, Mr "Wilberforce ? " But now the philan- 

 thropist was in disgrace at court. At this time poor 

 Clarkson's health gave way, and he was carried off the 

 field. And then from Paris there came terrible news ; 

 the people were at last avenged. The long black night 

 was followed by a blood-red dawn. The nobles who 

 had fled to foreign courts had returned with foreign 

 troops ; the kings of Europe had fallen on the new 

 republic, the common enemy of all. The people feared 

 that the old tyranny was about to be replaced, and by 

 a foreign hand ; they had now tasted liberty ; they 

 knew how sweet it was ; they had learnt the joy of 

 eating all the corn that they had sown ; they had 

 known what it was to have their own firelocks and 



