least
troublesome method" of raising revenue. It was in the preface to this
pamphlet on "Agrarian Justice" that Paine replied to Bishop Watson's sermon
on "The Wisdom and Goodness of God in having made both Rich and Poor." "It
is wrong," wrote Paine, "to say God made rich and poor; He made only male
and female, and gave them the earth for their inheritance."

Napoleon organised the plebiscite, which conferred on him the Consulate for
life, in 1802, and the French Revolution and Constitution making having
yielded to a military dictatorship, Paine returned to America, and died in
New York in 1809.

MAJOR CARTWRIGHT AND THE "RADICAL REFORMERS"

John Cartwright, the "Father of Reform," is notable as the first of the
English "Radical Reformers." His direct influence on politics was
small--none of his writings had the success of the "Rights of Man"--but,
like Paine, he laboured to turn England by public opinion from aristocracy
to democracy, and for more than forty years Cartwright was to the fore with
his programme of Radical reform. The problem for Cartwright and the Radical
reformers was how to get the changes made which would give political power
to the people--with whom was the sovereignty, as they had learnt from
Locke--and make Parliament the instrument of democracy. A hundred years and
more have not sufficed to get this problem answered to everybody's
satisfaction, but in the latter part of the eighteenth century, to the
minds of simple, honest men, it seemed enough that the argument should be
stated plainly and reasonably; it would follow that all mankind would be
speedily convinced; so great was the faith in the power of reason.

What neither Cartwright nor Paine understood was, that it was not the
reasonableness of a proposed reform but the strength of the demand that
carried the day. The revolt and independence of the American Colonies were
not due to a political preference for a republic, but were the work of
public opinion driven by misgovernment to protest. The difficulty in
England was that the mass of people might be in great wretchedness, badly
housed, ill-fed, and generally neglected, but they were not conscious of
any desire for democracy. They were against the government, doubtless, and
willing enough, in London, to shout for "Wilkes and Liberty," but the time
had not yet come for the working class to believe that enfranchisement was
a remedy for the ills they endured.

Major Cartwright was an exceed