ppressive, _is the particular writing alluded to in
the said publication_; I request the Sheriff, or in his absence, whoever
shall preside at the meeting, or any other person, to read this letter
publicly to the company who shall assemble in consequence of that
advertisement.

Gentlemen--It is now upwards of eighteen years since I was a resident
inhabitant of the town of Lewes. My situation among you, as an officer
of the revenue, for more than six years, enabled me to see into the
numerous and various distresses which the weight of taxes even at that
time of day occasioned; and feeling, as I then did, and as it is natural
for me to do, for the hard condition of others, it is with pleasure I
can declare, and every person then under my survey, and now living, can
witness, the exceeding candour, and even tenderness, with which that
part of the duty that fell to my share was executed. The name of _Thomas
Paine_ is not to be found in the records of the Lewes' justices, in any
one act of contention with, or severity of any kind whatever towards,
the persons whom he surveyed, either in the town, or in the country;
of this, _Mr. Fuller_ and _Mr. Shelley_, who will probably attend the
meeting, can, if they please, give full testimony. It is, however, not
in their power to contradict it.

Having thus indulged myself in recollecting a place where I formerly
had, and even now have, many friends, rich and poor, and most probably
some enemies, I proceed to the more important purport of my letter.

Since my departure from Lewes, fortune or providence has thrown me
into a line of action, which my first setting out into life could not
possibly have suggested to me.

I have seen the fine and fertile country of America ravaged and deluged
in blood, and the taxes of England enormously increased and multiplied
in consequence thereof; and this, in a great measure, by the instigation
of the same class of placemen, pensioners, and Court dependants, who
are now promoting addresses throughout England, on the present
_unintelligible_ Proclamation.

I have also seen a system of Government rise up in that country, free
from corruption, and now administered over an extent of territory ten
times as large as England, _for less expence than the pensions alone in
England amount to_; and under which more freedom is enjoyed, and a more
happy state of society is preserved, and a more general prosperity is
promoted, than under any other system of Gove