Rights of Man... by PAINE, Thomas - 1791; 1792; 1791; 1791; 1791; 17: Fourth edition; [bound with:] Rights of Man. Part the Second... Second Edition; [and:] Thoughts on the Peace, and the Probable Advantages Thereof to the United States of America. A New Edition; [and:] Common Sense... A New Edition; [and:] ROUS, George. A

London: Printed for J. S. Jordan [Paine works]; Printed for J. Debrett [Rous works],, 1791; 1792; 1791; 1791; 1791; 1791. Paine defends the French Revolution A contemporary collection including both parts of Paine's great defence of the French Revolution, the Rights of Man, together with Common Sense, his earlier defence of the American Revolution, gathered together in the revolutionary period alongside the tracts of George Rous, offering a more moderate defence of revolutionary ideals in response to Edmund Burke's conservatism. The Rights of Man, Paine's great defense of the inalienable rights of the people, and their right to revolution when governments do not uphold these rights, went through many printings in quick succession and met a wide readership, despite the Pitt government's attempts at censorship. Written in response to Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France, the founding text of modern conservative thought, Paine defends the French Revolution and proposes reforms to Britain's own system. The present editions were published in their year of first publication, 1791 and 1792 respectively. Common Sense, first published in 1776, made an impassioned case for American independence. Its impact was immense, with the pamphlet read or heard by the majority of the population of the colonies. Paine has some claim to be an unofficial Founding Father - John Adams said that "without the pen of the author of Common Sense, the sword of Washington would have been in vain" (cited in Harmer, p. 34). The third Paine work, Thoughts on the Peace, was originally published in 1783 as the final number of the American Crisis. In it Paine reflected on the successful conclusion of the American Revolution, and the need to vigilantly maintain the revolutionary spirit. The Paine works are bound preceding those of George Rous. Rous also wrote in response to Edmund Burke's enormously popular Reflections on the Revolution in France. Rous was far more moderate than Paine, but in his Letter to the Right Honourable Edmund Burke he still criticized Burke's views as an older form of despotic Toryism, as prevalent in Britain before the Glorious Revolution. Rous took these ideas further in his Thoughts on Government, defending the French Revolution by linking it to the principle that sovereign power must rest on popular approbation, the principle established in 1688, theorized by John Locke, and reiterated by the French revolutionists. The latter work was first published in 1790, this fourth edition following in 1791. 6 works bound in 1 volume, octavo (202 x 131 mm). Contemporary half sheep, later spine label, marbled sides. Contemporary and later signature to initial binder's blank; 3 pages of contemporary transcript of Edmund Burke to terminal blanks; cropped signature to title page of Rights of Man, part 1; ownership signature and note of author to Thoughts on the Peace. Wear to edges, light spotting to contents. Complete with all half-titles and advertisements aside from terminal advertisement in Letter to the Right Honourable Edmund Burke. Very good. ESTC T5868; T5881; N26063; T5814; T108716; T13528. Harry Harmer, Thomas Paine: The Life of a Revolutionary, 2006.