was crushed, Paine gave the world his views on "Agrarian Justice."
Every man has a natural right to a share in the land; but it is
impossible that every man should exercise this right. To compensate him
for this loss, be should receive at the age of twenty-one fifteen
pounds sterling; and if he survive his fiftieth year, ten pounds _per
annum_ during the rest of his life. The funds for these payments to be
furnished by a tax on inheritances.

Camille Jourdain made a report to the Five Hundred on priests and
public worship, in which he recommended, _inter alia_, that the use of
church-bells and the erection of crosses be again permitted by law.
This reactionary measure excited Paine's liberal bigotry. He published
a letter to Jourdain, telling him that priests were useless and bells
public nuisances. Another letter may be seen, offering his subscription
of one hundred francs to a fund for the invasion of England,--a
favorite project of the Directory, and the dearest wish of Paine's
heart. He added to his mite an offer of any personal service he could
render to the invading army. When Carnot, Barthelemy, and Pichegru were
expelled from power by the _coup d'etat_ of the 18th Fructidor,--a
military demonstration against the Republic,--Paine wrote an address to
the people of France and to the French armies, heartily approving of
the summary method that had been adopted with these reactionists, who
must have their bells and their priests. He did not then perceive the
real significance of the movement.

On one remarkable occasion, Paine made a full-length appearance before
the French public,--not in his character of a political philosopher,
but as a moralist. Robespierre, a few days before his fall, declared
atheism to be aristocratic, reinstated _l'Etre supreme_, and gave a
festival in his honor. There religious matters had rested. Deism, pure