THOMAS PAINE
(1737-1809)
64. Rights Of Man: | Being An | Answer To Mr. Burke's Attack | On The | French Revolution. | By | Thomas Paine, | Secretary For Foreign Affairs to Congress In The | American War, And | Author Of The Work Intitled Common Sense. | London: | Printed for J. Johnson, St. Paul's Church-Yard. | MDCCXCI.
"Mr. Burke's Attack," as we have seen, appeared in November, 1790, and Paine immediately replied with the first part of his "Answer." Joseph Johnson, who printed Cowper's Task, and published for Horne Tooke, Fuseli, Bonnycastle and Miss Edgeworth, began the work and issued a few copies, but he became frightened at the serious outlook and gave it up. It was then put into the hands of J. S. Jordan, of No. 166 Fleet Street, who reissued it March 13, 1791, under the superintendence of three of Paine's friends, Paine himself having in the meantime gone to Paris. There were a few corrections in the spelling of some words, some passages were softened, and a preface to the English edition, which Paine sent back from Europe, was added to the new edition.
The success of the book was enormous, and it ran into edition after edition. In a letter to Washington, to whom it was dedicated, Paine says, under date of July 21, 1791:
"... I took the liberty of addressing my late work 'Rights of Man', to you; but tho' I left it at that time to find its way to you, I now request your acceptance of fifty copies as a token of remembrance to yourself and my Friends. The work has had a run beyond anything that has been published in this Country on the subject of Government, and the demand continues. In Ireland it has had a much greater. A letter I received from Dublin, 10th of May, mentioned that the fourth edition was then on sale. I know not what number of copies were printed at each edition, except the second, which was ten thousand....
"I have printed sixteen thousand copies; when the whole are gone, of which there remain between three and four thousand, I shall then make a cheap edition, just sufficient to bring in the price of printing and paper as I did by Common Sense."
The earlier editions of the first part were made uniform with Burke's Reflections, and sold, so we learn from the half-title, for half a crown; the second edition sold for three shillings; and the cheap edition, which was Printed For H. D. Symonds, Paternoster Row, M,DCC,XCII., sold for sixpence.
The Gazetteer for January 25, contained the following announcement: "Mr Paine, it is known, is to produce another book this season. The composition of this is now past, and it was given a few weeks since to two printers, whose presses it was to go through as soon as possible. They printed about half of it, and then, being alarmed by some intimations, refused to go further. Some delay has thus occurred, but another printer has taken it, and in the course of the next month it will appear. Its title is to be a repetition of the former, 'The Rights of Man,' of which the words 'Part the Second,' will show that it is a continuation."