Life and Writings of Thomas Paine - 1908 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: PREFACE TO THE FRENCH EDITION WE may regard the amazement occasioned throughout Europe by the French Revolution from two standpoints: its influence on foreign... more » nations, and its influence on foreign governments. Every country in Europe considers the cause of the French people as identical with the cause of its own people, or rather, as embracing the interests of the entire world. But those who rule those countries do not entertain quite the same opinion. Now, this is a difference to which we are bound to give the deepest attention. The people are not to be confounded with their government; and this is especially the case when the relation of the English Government to its people is considered. The French Revolution has no more bitter enemy than the English Government. The evidence of its ill-feeling is plain to every eye; witness the gratitude expressed by the Elector of Hanover, sometimes styled King of England, a feeble and crazy personage, to Mr. Burke because the latter has, in his work, grossly libeled it, and also the slanderous invectives of Mr. Pitt, the Prime Minister, in his parliamentary harangues. The original preface, written by Paine in English, is lost. A French translation, however, of which the following is a version, appeared in Paris in May, 1791. The behavior of the English Government in its dealings with France is a palpable contradiction of all its pretensions of amity, however seemingly candid, and proves clearly that its official expressions of regard are illusory, that its court is a treacherous court, a demented court, which is a prominent factor in every European plot and quarrel, because it is in search of a war that will serve as an excuse for its insane prodigality. But the people of England are actuated by entirely different motives: t...« less