ublic tranquillity, and places the denouncer under protection of the
parish. The inhabitants of London are now placed under a new kind of
_Test_, and those who refuse it will undoubtedly be persecuted. Meantime
these papers are carried from house to house to be signed, especially by
those lodging as strangers. This _Test_ causes murmurs, and some try to
evade signature, but the number is few. The example of the capital is
generally followed. The trial of Payne, which at one time seemed likely
to cause events, has ended in the most peaceful way. Erskine has been
borne to his house by people shouting _God Save the King! Erskine
forever!_ The friends of liberty generally are much dissatisfied with
the way in which he has defended his client. They find that he threw
himself into commonplaces which could make his eloquence shine, but
guarded himself well from going to the bottom of the question. Vane
especially, a distinguished advocate and zealous democrat, is furious
against Erskine. It is now for Payne to defend himself. But whatever
he does, he will have trouble enough to reverse the opinion. The Jury's
verdict is generally applauded: a mortal blow is dealt to freedom of
thought. People sing in the streets, even at midnight, _God save the
King and damn Tom Payne!_" (1)

1 The despatches from which these translations are made are
in the Archives of the Department of State at Paris, series
marked _Angleterre_ vol. 581.

The student of that period will find some instruction in a collection,
now in the British Museum, of coins and medals mostly struck after the
trial and outlawry of Paine. A halfpenny, January 21,1793: _obverse_,
a man hanging on a gibbet, with church in the distance; motto "End of
Pain"; _reverse_, open book inscribed "The Wrongs of Man." A token: bust
of Paine, with his name; _reverse_, "The Mountain in Labour, 1793."
Farthing: Paine gibbeted; _reverse_, breeches burning, legend,
"Pandora's breeches"; beneath, serpent decapitated by a dagger,
the severed head that of Paine. Similar farthing, but _reverse_,
combustibles intermixed with labels issuing from a globe marked
"Fraternity"; the labels inscribed "Regicide," "Robbery," "Falsity,"
"Requisition"; legend, "French Reforms, 1797"; near by, a church with
flag, on it a cross. Half-penny without date, but no doubt struck in
1794, when a rumor reached London that Paine had been guillotined:
Paine gibbeted; above, devil smoking a pipe; _revers