"And as to you, Sir, treacherous in private friendship (for so you have
been to me, and that in the day of danger) and a hypocrite in public
life, the world will be puzzled to decide whether you are an apostate
or an impostor,--whether you have abandoned good principles, or whether
you ever had any."

The remains of the old Convention invited Paine to resume his place in
their assemblage. A committee of eleven, unaided by his experience, had
been working at a new constitution, the political spring-fashion in
Paris for that year. It was the plan since known as the _Directoire_,
reported complete about the time Paine reappeared in the Convention.
Disapproving of some of the details of this instrument, Paine furbished
up his old weapons, and published "A Dissertation on the First
Principles of Government." This tract he distributed among
members,--the _libretto_ of the speech he intended to make.
Accordingly, on the 5th of July, on motion of his old ally, Lanthenas,
who had managed to crawl safely through the troubles, permission was
granted to Thomas Paine to deliver his sentiments on the "Declaration
of Rights and the Constitution." He ascended the tribune for the last
time, and the secretary read the translation. He began, of course, with
rights; but qualified them by adding, that, when we consider rights, we
ought always to couple with them the idea of duties,--a happy union,
which did not strike him before the Reign of Terror, and which is
almost always overlooked. He then brought forward his universal
political specific and panacea,--representative government and a
written constitution. "Had a constitution been established two years
ago," he said, "(as ought to have been done,) the violences that have
since desolated France and injured the character of the Revolution
would, in my opinion, have been prevented." There is nothing else in