8965 — A Paris, Chez F. Buisson, (Chez F. Buisson et Testu for the second volume), 1793-1792. 2 volumes. (4), 239, (1) pp.; (4), 16, 224 pp. 8vo. Modern half red morocco, marbled boards, gilt lettering. PMM 241 (English edition); Gimbel collection 48F (p. 95); not in Sabin; Fay 30 (2nd part only); Echeverria & Wilkie 793/91 & 792/78. Second edition of first volume, first edition of second volume. The first volume was originally published in 1791 of which edition several different issues exist. The second volume was published in 1792. The translation was done by Francois Soules. The work is a defense of the French Revolution and a statement of the principles of 1776 and 1789 and, of course, the famous counterblast to Burke's Reflexions on the Revolution in France. It is also an exposition of the principles of government underlying the American and French revolutions. For an elaborate analysis of the work see: John Keane, Tom Paine, a Political Life.'The Rights of Man, published in 1791 and 1792, was written after his return to England in 1787 in response to Edmund Burke's attack on the French revolution. This pamphlet stimulated the radical reform movement in England and the Jeffersonian Republican party in the United States and led to the prosecution of Paine in England for sedition and to his election to the French National Assembly. In England, the Rights of Man became a foundation text of the English working class movement until about 1880' (IESS, xi, pp. 364-5).Thomas Paine "symbolisé, de 1776 à 1793, l'élan révolutionnaire, tant en Amérique qu'en France" (Dictionnaire historique de révolution française, p. 808)The second volume includes propositions for schemes of taxation, including one for the abolition of the poor-rate. Since 1792 the work was adopted as the manifesto of the party which sympathised with the French Revolution. The title-page of the second volume reads: Droits de l'Homme, Seconde Partie, réunissant les principes et la pratique; ........ Traduit de l'Anglois sur la troisième édition.
