COMMON SENSE.

JUNIUS is heard no more in England. The fame of this unknown author has gone round the world. A score of volumes have been written to prove his identity. with a score of names. But all that has been said is wild with conjecture, and arguments have only been built upon "rumor," and "facts" drawn from the imagination. A scientific criticism has never been attempted. Truth has been insulted by the imagination in its wild ramblings, and writers have contented themselves with theory and fancy, "to pile up reluctant quarto upon solid folio, as if their labors, because they are gigantic, could contend with truth and Heaven." But while the king and his cabinet are setting traps, and hunting up and down the whole realm for this "mighty boar of the forest," in fear that he will again plunge at the king, or tear the ermine of Lord Mansfield, Thomas Paine, just landed upon the shores of America, hurls back a shaft at royalty which transfixes it to the wall of its castle. This was Common Sense. A reaction had taken place in England, and the people of America were also affected thereby. Reconciliation was the cry, independence scarcely lisped, and, when lisped, people "startled at the novelty of it." "In this state of political suspense," says Mr. Paine, "the pamphlet of

Common Sense made its appearance, and the success it met with does not become me to mention. Dr. Franklin, Mr. Samuel, and John Adams were severally spoken of as the supposed author. I had not, at that time, the pleasure either of personally knowing or being known to the two last gentlemen. The favor of Dr. Franklin's friendship I possessed in England, and my introduction to this part of the world was through his patronage. In October, 1775, Dr. Franklin proposed giving me such materials as were in his hands toward completing a history of the present transactions, and seemed desirous of having the first volume out the next spring. I had then formed the outlines of Common Sense and finished nearly the first part; and, as I supposed the doctor's design in getting out a history was to open the new year with a new system, I expected to surprise him with a production on that subject much earlier than he thought of, and, without informing him what I was doing, got it ready for the press as fast as I conveniently could, and sent him the first pamphlet that was printed off."-Note, Crisis, iii.

Opening the new year with a new system is emphatically what Junius also did, and it is most remarkable that the appearance of Junius' first Letter had, at first, the same effect in England that Common Sense had in America. Both came like thunderbolts. "On January 10, 1776, when 'a reconciliation with the mother country was the wish of almost every American,' a pamphlet called Common Sense, advocating the establishment of a republic of free and independent states, burst upon the world' in the language of Dr. Rush-with an effect which has rarely been produced by types and pa

per in any age or country.' It was immediately denounced as one of the most artful, insidious, and pernicious of pamphlets!' John Dickinson, a staunch supporter of the American cause, and author of the 'Farmers' Letters,' opposed the idea of independence in a speech as a member of the Continental Congress. The author of 'Plain Truth,' one of the many replies to Common Sense, thought that 'volumes were insufficient to describe the horror, misery, and desolation awaiting the people at large in the siren form of American independence.' Dr. William Smith, provost of the University of Pennsylvania, said, in his 'Cato's Letters,' published in March, 1776: 'Nor have many weeks yet elapsed since the first open proposition for independence was published to the world; it certainly has no countenance from congress, and is only the idol of those who wish to subvert all order among us, and rise on the ruins of their country.""-Art. Thomas Paine, New Am. Cyc.

This was the first effort in America toward revolution. It was a bold hand, moved by a daring heart, that wrote Common Sense. In style and language, in argument and sentiment, in spirit and character, it is the finest political document ever produced in the English language. The object for which Junius and Common Sense were written I have shown to be the same, namely: revolution, and that the base of operation has only been changed. It is still an attack upon king, lords, and commons, and a defense of the people. I now go to show that Common Sense is a concise reproduction of Junius, in sentiment, style, and method of argumentation. But I will first call to the reader's

mind a sentence from Junius in answer to the assertion of Dr. Smith just quoted, that Common Sense was "the first open proposition for independence." On the contrary, the first open statement of Junius in regard to the colonies, addressed to the king six years before this, is as follows: "Looking forward to independence, they might possibly receive you for their king; but, if you ever retire to America, be assured they will give you such a covenant to digest as the presbytery of Scotland would have been ashamed to offer to Charles the Second. They left their native land in search of freedom, and found it in a desert. Divided as they are into a thousand forms of policy and religion, there is one point in which they all agree-they equally detest the pageantry of a king, and the supercilious hypocrisy of a bishop.”

I have now only to remark: when Thomas Paine came to America, at least when he wrote Common Sense, he understood the American people and what they wanted better than they did themselves; and so did Junius.

I now bring Common Sense and Junius together to show parallels of idea, method, and style.

COMMON SENSE was ad- JUNIUS was dedicated to dressed to the inhabitants the English nation; porof America, the Introduc- tions of the Dedication are tion of which is as follows: as follows:

"Perhaps the sentiments. "I dedicate to you a colcontained in the following lection of letters written by pages are not yet sufficient- one of yourselves, for the ly fashionable to procure common benefit of us all. them general favor; a long They would never have habit of not thinking a grown to this size without thing wrong, gives it a su- your continued encourage

perficial appearance of be- ment and applause. To ing right, and raises, at me they originally owe first, a formidable outcry nothing but a healthy, sanin defense of custom. But guine constitution. Under the tumult soon subsides. your care they have thriven; Time makes more converts to you they are indebted for than Reason. whatever strength or beau

"A long and violent ty they possess. abuse of power is general- "When kings and minly the means of calling the isters are forgotten, when right of it in question (and the force and direction of in matters, too, which personal satire is no longer might never have been understood, and when measthought of had not the suf- ures are only felt in their ferers been aggravated into remotest consequences, this the inquiry), and as the book will, I believe, be king of England hath un- found to contain principles dertaken, in his own right, worthy to be transmitted to support the parliament to posterity. When you in what he calls theirs, and leave the unimpaired, heas the good people of this reditary freehold to your country are grievously op- children, you do but half pressed by the combination, your duty. Both liberty they have an undoubted and property are precarious, privilege to inquire into the unless the possessors have pretensions of both, and sense and spirit enough to equally to reject the usurpa- defend them.

tions of either.

it.

"Be assured that the laws. "In the following sheets which protect us in our the author hath studiously civil rights, grow out of avoided every thing which the constitution, and they is personal among ourselves. must fall or flourish with Compliments as well as This is not the cause censure to individuals make of faction or of party, or of no part thereof. The wise any individual, but the and the worthy need not common interest of every the triumph of a pamphlet; man in Britain. Although and those whose sentiments the king should continue