Trial of Thomas Paine

The government of William Pitt, worried by the possibility that the French Revolution might spread to England, had begun suppressing works that espoused radical philosophies.

He was instead represented in absentia by Thomas Erskine, a noted lawyer and orator who was severely criticised by government supporters in the months leading up to the trial.

At the trial, Archibald Macdonald, representing the prosecution, argued that Paine's work served only to inflame the populace and distribute radical ideas to those without the experience to understand them in context.

[5] Britain was initially sympathetic to the revolutionaries of France, but the sympathy dissolved with the execution of Louis XVI and was replaced by hostility and a growing schism within the Whigs.

While the Foxite branch argued for the Revolution as a source of general liberty, the administration of William Pitt became increasingly repressive, fearing the spread of Jacobinism to the United Kingdom and the overthrow of the government.

While some joined societies dedicated to parliamentary reform, others formed mobs under the banner of "Church and King" and attacked the homes of liberals and those who sympathised with the French Revolution, including that of Joseph Priestley.

[7] The Association for Preserving Liberty and Property against Republicans and Levellers was formed and served as "an organised body of private agents engaged in ferreting out sedition wherever it raised its inky head".

Having returned to England, he decided to write a book, Rights of Man, addressing the arguments of Edmund Burke, a prominent conservative strongly fearful of the French Revolution.

[17] Paine was instead represented in absentia by Thomas Erskine, a famous lawyer and orator who served as Attorney General to the Prince of Wales.

Paine's writ was followed by hundreds of loyal addresses, many of which targeted him, the burning of an effigy in Exeter and the banning of the sale of any of his books in Chester.

Chapman testified that he had intended to print the second part until he came upon a passage that "appeared of a dangerous tendency"[24] and that, after an argument with a drunken Paine, he then returned the book.

[25] Erskine offered no evidence, admitting that Paine had written both the Rights of Man and the letter to Macdonald and instead chose to begin speaking.

Other reactions were less positive; William Godwin wrote a letter to Erskine shortly after the trial arguing that his statement that individuals were free to publish works attacking or criticising the Constitution "had a considerable share in prosecuting the verdict of guilty".