At the time when this Cobbett-Bonneville sketch was written New York was still a provincial place. Nicolas Bonneville, as Irving describes him, seated under trees at the Battery, absorbed in his classics, might have been regarded with suspicion had it been known that his long separation from his family was due to detention by the police. Madame Bonneville is reserved on that point. The following incident, besides illustrating the characters of Paine and Bonneville, may suggest a cause for the rigor of Bonneville's surveillance. In 1797, while Paine and Bonneville were editing the Bien Informe, a "suspect" sought asylum with them. This was Count Barruel-Beauvert, an author whose writings alone had caused his denunciation as a royalist. He had escaped from the Terror, and now wandered back in disguise, a pauper Count, who knew well the magnanimity of the two men whose protection he asked. He remained, as proof-reader, in the Bonneville house for some time, safely; but when the conspiracy of 18 Fructidor (September 4, 1797) exasperated the Republic against royalists, the Count feared that he might be the means of compromising his benefactors, and disappeared. When the royalist conspiracy against Bonaparte was discovered, Barruel-Beauvert was again hunted, and arrested (1802). His trial probably brought to the knowledge of the police his former sojourn with Paine and Bonneville. Bonaparte sent by Fouché a warning to Paine that the eye of the police was upon him, and that "on the first complaint he would be sent to his own country, America." Whether this, and the closer surveillance on Bonneville, were connected with the Count, who also suffered for a time, or whether due to their anti-slavery writings on Domingo, remains conjectural. Towards the close of life Bonneville received a pension, which was continued to his widow. So much even a monarchy with an established church could do for a republican author, and a freethinker; for Bonneville had published heresies like those of Paine.
THOMAS PAINE, A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE AND CHARACTER.
[More exactly than any other author Thomas Paine delineates every Circumstantial Events, private or Public in his Writings; nevertheless, since many pretended Histories of the Life of T. P. have been published, tracing him back to the day of his]* birth, we shall shortly observe, that, as was never denied by himself, he was born at Thetford, in the County of Norfolk, England on the 29. January, in the year 1737; that his father Joseph Paine was a stay-maker, and by religion a Quaker; that his mother was the daughter of a country attorney, and that she belonged to the Church of England; but, it appears, that she also afterwards became a Quaker; for these parents both belonged to the Meeting in 1787, as appears from a letter of the father to the son.
* The bracketed words, Madame Bonneville's, are on a
separate slip. An opening paragraph by Cobbett is crossed
out by her pen: "The early years of the life of a Great Man
are of little consequence to the world. Whether Paine made
stays or gauged barrels before he became a public character,
is of no more importance to us than whether he was swaddled
with woollen or with linen. It is the man, in conjunction
with those labours which have produced so much effect in the
world, whom we are to follow and contemplate. Nevertheless,
since many pretended histories of the life of Paine have
been published, etc."
The above-mentioned histories relate (and the correctness of the statement has not been denied by him), that Paine was educated at the free-school of Thetford; that he left it in 1752, when he was fifteen years of age, and then worked for some time with his father: that in a year afterwards, he went to London: that from London he went to Dover: that about this time he was on the eve of becoming a sailor: that he afterwards did embark on board a privateer: that, between the years 1759 and 1774 he was a stay maker, an excise officer, a grocer, and an usher to a school; and that, during the period he was twice married, and separated by mutual consent, from his second wife.*
* The dates given by Cobbett from contemporary histories
require revision by the light of the careful researches made
by myself and others, as given at the beginning of this
biography.
In this year 1774 and in the month of September, Paine sailed from England for Philadelphia, where he arrived safe; and now we begin his history; for here we have him in connection with his literary labours.
It being an essential part of our plan to let Thomas Paine speak in his own words, and explain himself the reason for his actions, whenever we find written papers in his own hand, though in incomplete notes or fragments, we shall insert such, in order to enable the reader to judge for himself, and to estimate the slightest circumstances. Sauvent d'un grand dessin un mot nous fait juger. "A word often enables us to judge of a great design."
"I happened to come to America a few months before the breaking out of hostilities. I found the disposition of the people such that they might have been led by a thread and governed by a reed. Their suspicion was quick and penetrating, but their attachment to Britain was obstinate, and it was at that time a kind of treason to speak against it. They disliked the Ministry, but they esteemed the Nation. Their idea of grievance operated without resentment, and their single object was reconciliation. Bad as I believed the Ministry to be, I never conceived them capable of a measure so rash and wicked as the commencing of hostilities; much less did I imagine the Nation would encourage it. I viewed the dispute as a kind of law-suit, in which I supposed the parties would find a way either to decide or settle it. I had no thoughts of independence or of arms. The world could not then have persuaded me that I should be either a soldier or an author. If I had any talents for either they were buried in me, and might ever have continued so had not the necessity of the times dragged and driven them into action. I had formed my plan of life, and conceiving myself happy wished everybody else so. But when the country, into which I had just set my foot, was set on fire about my ears, it was time to stir. It was time for every man to stir."*