IV.

Return to England

Paine returned to Great Britain in 1787, and in 1791 and 1792 he published Rights of Man, in two parts. It was most famous of all replies to the condemnatory Reflections Upon the French Revolution by the British statesman Edmund Burke. It was also an analysis of the weaknesses of European society, proposing such remedies as republican government and progressive income taxes. A million and a half copies were sold in England alone before the book was suppressed. Paine’s criticism of monarchical rule in Rights of Man caused an uproar in England and led the British government to charge Paine with seditious libel. He was tried in absentia while en route to France in December 1792.