useful observations; he was full of lively anecdote, and ingenious original pertinent remark, upon almost every subject.

He was always charitable to the poor beyond his means, a sure protector and friend to all Americans in distress that he found in foreign countries. And he had frequent occasions to exert his influence in protecting them during the revolution in France. His writings will answer for his patriotism, and his entire devotion to what he conceived to be the best interest and happiness of mankind. And as to his religion, as it is that of most of the men of science of the present age, and probably of three fourths of those of the last, there can be no just reason for making it an exception in him.

This, sir, is all I have to remark on the subject you mention.

Kolarama, August 11, 1809.

REMARKS.

Mr. Barlow seems to have entertained erroneous opinions in regard to the treatment of Mr. Paine in America. He was received by the ruler, or first magistrate of the country, Thomas Jefferson, with the utmost respect and friendship -He was invited by him to return to the United States; and on being asked if he had done so, replied, "I have, and when he arrives, if there be an office in my gift, suitable for him to fill, I will give it to him ;-I will never abandon old friends to make room for new ones." A friendly correspondence between these two distinguished philanthropists was maintained till the close of Mr. Paine's life. I am also well assured, that the heads of departments and members of congress paid Mr. Paine the utmost respect, during his residence at the city of Washington; and, on his arrival in New-York, a public dinner was given to him, at which about one hundred respectable citizens attended. The most distinguished literary characters paid him every attention, and the mayor of the city gave him an unlimited invitation to visit him, whenever he found it convenient. But Mr. Paine secluded himself very much from society; he courted no favours, and he never was in the habit of giving entertainments, the means commonly employed to attract the attention of the fashionable world. A friend of his, about to accompany him on a visit to a gentleman of great scientific acquirements, took the liberty of suggesting to him the propriety of being more particular in his appearance; to which he replied, "let those dress that need it." Shewing thereby his contempt of the art and management by which those of little or no merit acquire respect.

Mr. Paine, to be sure, was abused by editors of papers unfriendly to democracy. So was Dr. Franklin, so was Thomas Jefferson, so was Joel Barlow.If Mr. Paine had been treated with respect, or even not abused by those editors, it would have been a sure sign, that he had abandoned the cause of liberty, and of man. But his political course has been marked by that bold and manly independence of character which has certainly commanded, if not the approbation, at least the respect of his opponents.

Mr. Barlow himself, on account of his political opinions had been treated with the most shameful neglect by his old friends and associates of the New-England States, and he felt vexed at it, and seems to take this opportunity to express his contempt, by lamenting that Mr. Paine should, as he supposed, have been mortified at similar treatment.

Mr. Barlow was a fashionable man, and had the means, as well as the inclination to make a show. Had Mr. Paine acquired (which he might have done if he had sold, instead of given away his works) a sufficiency to purchase such an establishment as Mr. Barlow had, at Kalorama, and had been so disposed, he might have induced the first men in the country to eat his dinners and to sound his praise.

It was to be expected that religious bigots, who conceive themselves priviledged to hate and persecute every man that does not believe in mysteries and witchcraft, would shun and speak evil of Mr. Paine; as well as certain phari

saical politicians, whose consequence mainly depends on a supposed concr dence of sentiment with the foregoing. Such men would avoid coming in con tact with a man, the fire of whose genius they could not indure for a moment.

The opponents of Mr. Paine's political and religious writings have shewn great solicitude to fix upon him the charge of intemperance; as though, this circumstance, if true, could invalidate, or in the least weaken, the moral force of his principles. The apostate, Cheetham, in his letter to Barlow, particularly alludes to this subject. And it appears that the latter incautiously has too readily acceeded to the slander. The mind, memory and fancy of Mr. Paine, as described by Mr. B. could not apply to a man who "gave himself very much to drink." But, as Mr. Barlow's authority is justly entitled to the highest consideration; and as great importance has affectedly been attached to this allegation against our author; for the satisfaction of those who revere his memory, 1 have made the most rigid inquiries of persons who have been intimate with him, either in Europe or America, to ascertain the facts in this case. A friend of mine gives me the following account of a visit he made to Mr. Paine in the summer of 1806. He was then residing on his farm at New Rochelle, and this gentleman remained with him for several days, during which time Mr. Paine's only drink was water, excepting one tumbler of spirits and water, sweetened, after dinner, and one after supper. Mr. Dean, who managed the farm, assured him that this was Mr. Paine's constant habit, and that one quart of spirits sufficed him for a week, including that given to his friends; which he regularly procured from a grocer every Saturday. This gentleman also saw a certificate, signed by John Lovett, keeper of the city hotel, New-York, with whom Mr. Paine had lodged as a boarder, testifying to his sober habits. This had been procured at the request of a number of gentlemen of Boston, who were desirous to obtain correct information in regard to the charges preferred against him in this respect.

The fact is, Mr. Paine was not a fashionable man of the world, his recluse mode of life disqualified him for convivial parties, and when induced, by his friends, to join in them, he could not keep pace in drinking with those more used to such meetings, without being disguised by it, which was sometimes the case. The very circumstance, therefore, of his abstemious habits rendering him unable to bear but a small quantity of spirituous liquor, without feeling its effects, appears to have given rise to the slanders which have been promulgated against him. The accuteness and strength of mind which he possessed to the close of life is a proof of the correctness of this opinion. Few, if any, of those who accused him of injuring his faculties by hard drinking could cope with him in the field of argument, even in the most advanced stage of his life. They had reason to wish that he had been such as they represented him to be. In that case, he would have been a far less formidable antagonist, and besides kept many of his accusers in countenance; for it is not unusual for the advocates of royalty, after drinking one or two bottles, to curse Thomas Paine for a drunkard.

If what was said by his enemies had become notorious, as they pretend, he would hardly venture to speak of himself in the manner he has, in his letter to Samuel Adams; which he caused to be published in the National Intelligencer, a paper printed at Washington City, and is as follows: "I have yet, I believe, some years in store, for I have a good state of health and a happy mind: I take care of both, by nourishing the first with temperance, and the latter with abundance. This, I believe, you will allow to be the true philosophy of life."

Finally from all I can learn Mr. Paine never drank any spirituous liquors before dinner. He was always bright in the morning, and able to wield his pen with effect, and when it is considered, that he was without family, in a manner isolated from society, and bitterly attacked on all sides by the enemies of civil and religious liberty, if he occasionally indulged a little to dissipate the chagrin arising from these causes, some grains of allowance ought to be made, at least, by his friends: from his enemies none are expected.

I cannot relinquish the subject without taking notice of one of the most vile and wicked stories that was ever engendered in the fruitful imagination of depraved mortals. It was fabricated by a woman, named Mary Hinsdale, and published by one Charles Collins, at New-York, or rather, it is probable that this work was the joint production of Collins and some other fanatics, and that they induced this stupid, ignorant woman to stand sponsor for it.

It states, in substance; that Thomas Paine, in his last illness, was in the most pitiable condition for want of the mere necessaries of life; and that the neighbours out of sheer compassion, contributed their aid to supply him with sustenance that he had become converted to superstition,* and lamented that all his religious works had not been burned: that Mrs. Bonneville was in the utmost distress for having abandoned her religion, as she (M. H.) said for that of Mr. Paine, which he now told her would not answer the purpose, &c. In all this rodomontade there is not a single, solitary ray of truth to give it a colourable pretext. It is humiliating to be under the necessity of exposing such contemptible nonsense. Collins, if he was not the author, was assured of its falsity: But being full of the spirit of fanaticism and intolerance, and believing, no doubt, that the end sanctified the means, he continued to circulate the pious fraud, and the clergy exultingly retailed it from the pulpit. Nothing but religious frenzy coukl have induced Collins, after being warned of the crime he was committing, to persist in publishing this abominable trash.† He had the hardihood even to apply to William Cobbett for the purpose of inducing him to insert it in the life of Thomas Paine, which Mr. Cobbett then contemplated to write. For which he received due chastisement from the pen of that distinguished writer, in a number of his register. I am told that Mr. Cobbett subsequently, having taken great pains to investigate the falsity of this story, exposed and refuted it in the most ample manner, in his Evening Post. This I have not seen, nor is the Register, containing the article alluded to, before me. Mrs. Bonneville was absent in France at the time of its first appearance in NewYork, and when shown to her on her return to America, although her feelings were highly agitated at the baseness of the fabrication, she would not permit her name to appear in print in competition with that of Mary Hinsdale. No notice therefore has been taken of it, excepting by Mr. Cobbett. Indeed it was considered by the friends of Mr. Paine generally to be too contempible to controvert. But as many pious people continue to believe, or pretend to believe, in this stupid story, it was thought proper to say a few words upon it in this publication.

The facts are as follow:-Mary Hinsdale was hired at service in the family of Mr. Willet Hicks, residing at Greenwich Village, in the neighbourhood of Mr. Paine, who occasionally sent some little delicacies to him in the time of his sickness, as every good neighbour would do; and this woman was the bearer. Here is the whole foundation upon which the distorted imagination of Mary Hinsdale, or some one for her, has raised this diabolical fiction. Mr. Hicks was in the habit of seeing Mr. Paine frequently, and must have known if such a wonderful revolution had taken place in his mind, as is stated, and he does not hesitate to say, that the whole account is a pious fraud. Mr. Hicks is a respectable merchant at New-York, and any one there, who has any doubts on the subject, by calling on him will be satisfied. Even James Cheetham, the libeller of Mr. Paine, acknowledges that he died in the religious faith which he had incul

• I make use of the word superstition, and not Christianity, because Mr. Paine was strictly a Christian in the proper sense of the term, which, as before observed, is pure deism.

Since writing the above, it has been suggested to me, by a gentlemen who knows him, that this base act of Collins is attributable more to his actual stupidity than either his fanaticism or malice. That he is too weak to be aware of the sin of slander; and has no doubt, in this case, been made use of, as a mere puppet, by others behind the scene, more knowing and more wicked than himself. If this be the fact, it is charity to state it to the public, as his case will tend to excite pity, and depreciate, in some measure, the enormity of his guilt in this transaction.

cated in his writings. Which is also attested by his physician, Dr. Manley, and all those who visited him in his last illness. But to put this matter beyond all cavil, I shall add the certificate of two old and highly respectable citizens, Thomas Nixon of New-York, and Capt. Daniel Pelton of New Rochelle. It was addressed to William Cobbett, under an expectation that he was about to write the life of Thomas Paine, and left with a friend to be handed to him; but, as the undertaking was relinqnished, it was never delivered, and is now in my possession, in the hand writing of the signers; and is as follows:

TO MR. WILLIAM COBBETT.

SIR-Having been informed, that you have a design to write a history of the life and writings of Thomas Paine, if you have been furnished with materials in respect to his religious opinions, or rather of his recantation of his former opinious before his death, all you may have heard of his recanting is false. Being aware that such reports would be raised after his death by fanaticks which intested his house at the time it was expected he would die, we, the subscribers, intimate acquaintances of Thomas Paine, since the year 1776, went to his house -he was sitting up in a chair, and apparently in the full vigor and use of all his mental faculties. We interrogated him on his religious opinions, and if he had changed his mind or repented of any thing he had said or wrote on that subject. He answered "not at all" and appeared rather offended at our supposition that any change should take place in his mind. We took down in writing the questions put to him, and his answers thereto, before a number of persons then in his room, amongst which was his Doctor, Mrs. Bonneville, &c. This paper is mislaid and cannot be found at present, but the above is the substance, which can be attested by many living witnesses.

New-York, April 24th, 1818.

THOMAS NIXON.
DANIEL PELTON.

The questions and answers, alluded to in this certificate, are wanting to render it complete, but the intention of it is forcibly conveyed, that is, that no change had taken place in the mind of Mr. Paine. And the world may rest assured that he died as he had lived, like a philosopher, in the belief of ONE GOD, and in the hope of IMMORTALITY in another life.

As to his pecuniary circumstances, he was possessed at his death of a farm, which had been sold by him some years before for $10,000, but the purchaser dying, his family induced Mr. P. to receive it back. He had $1,500 in cash on hand, or in convertible insurance stock; and had been paying $30 a week for several weeks before his death, for the board and accommodations of himself, Mrs. Bonneville, and a nurse; which was regularly paid at the end of each week. This does not look like being in want of the means of subsistence.

In regard to what took place respecting his burial, as it has been incorrectly stated, it may not be amiss to remark; that not long before his death, he observed to Mr. Willet Hicks, that as his family belonged to the society of Quakers, and as he had been educated in that persuasion himself, and knew that its members possessed less superstition than other sectarians, he should prefer being interred in their burying ground; but added, as he had been so long separated from them, perhaps there might be objections on their part; and, if so, it was of no consequence. Mr. Hicks accordingly made the proposal to the society, which, in reply, suggested the probability that Mr. P.'s friends might wish to raise a monument to his memory, which being contrary to their rules, would render it inconvenient to them. On this being communicated to Mr. P. he received it with indifference, and here the matter ended. I take the liberty of again referring to Mr. Hicks for the truth of this statement. It has been falsely said, that a difference of religious opinions was the ground of objection made to Mr. P.'s proposition; which, if true, would be a reproach to the

Quaker society, or to any other religious denomination, in' like case. It is well known, that in biggotted catholic countries, no deist, or protestant (heretic, as the catholics would call him) would be permitted to be buried in any consecrated church ground. But it is to be hoped that no protestant of any denomination would wish to see his sect retrograde so far into religious babarism as to refuse decent burial to a fellow-mortal on occount of his religious faith. No such objection has ever been made in New-York; and the vestry of trinity church are obliged by law to permit, without reward, all strangers, as well as those who are not members of any particular church or congregation, to be interred in their burying-ground, on pain, in case of refusal, of forfeiting their charter.

Attempts have been made to injure the character of Mr. Paine, by impugning that of Mrs. Bonneville. James Cheetham, for this offence, after a long and rigid investigation in a court of justice, was mulct in the sum of £100, and obliged to expunge the obnoxious passage from his infamous book. As the connection of Mr. P. with the Bonneville family is not generally known, it is proper to observe, that he resided with Mr. B. at Paris, as his friend and guest for the space of six years. Bonneville was the editor of a public paper during the revolution of France, and on the elevation of Bonaparte to power, refused to approbate the measure, and wrote against it. In this he was probably advised and aided by Mr. P. The consequence was, that Bonaparte suppressed his paper, which was the cause of great embarrassments to him; and Paine, on going to America, invited Bonneville to follow him with his family, promising to do every thing in his power to aid him. Accordingly, some time after his departure, Bonneville sent his wife and three children, remaining in France himself to settle his affairs. They were received by Mr. Paine with the utmost kindness, and provided for; and at his death he left by his will to Bonneville and his children, the greatest portion of his property; thereby paying a debt. of gratitude with interest.