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Thomas Paine

* The preceding two sentences were omitted from the first English edition of 1797.Editor to the 1925 Patriot edition

**An expression used by Bishop Horsley in the Parliament of England--Author

Editor's Notes

THIS tract, as Paine calls it, is identified with the Theophilanthropic movement which Paine started in Paris, in 1786-7,and later introduced in America. It is important as being a precursor of the single tax movement, popularized by Henry George, in his "Progress and Poverty," a century later.

Paine issued this pamphlet as a proposal to the French Government, at a time when readjustment of landed property had become necessary through the Revolution.

It was suggested to him by a sermon published by the Bishop of Llandaff, on "The Wisdom and Goodness of God in having made both rich and poor." Paine denies that God made rich and poor, declaring "He made only male and female, and gave them the earth for their inheritance."

IN THE same year (1797) that the pamphlet on "Agrarian Justice" was printed in English, by W. Adlard in Paris, an edition was brought out in London by Thomas Williams, who was prosecuted by the Crown for publishing Paine's "Age of Reason." Paine's preface to the London edition contained some sentences which the publisher suppressed under asterisks. Two sentences in particular were omitted from the pamphlet which are here given from the first Paris edition: "It is not charity but a right, not bounty but justice, that I am pleading for. The present state of civilization is as odious as it is unjust."

The English title adds a brief resumé of Paine's scheme to the caption--"Agrarian Justice opposed to Agrarian Law and to Agrarian Monopoly."

Editor's notes prefacing the main body

AS THE author says, "Equality of natural property is the subject of this essay." It was written while Paine was a guest of the Monroes, following his release from a Luxumbourg prison, and a year later (1797) was first published in Paris. A prefatory note to the first edition states that "The sudden departure of Thomas Paine has prevented his supervising the translation of this work, to which he attatches great value. He has entrusted it to a friend. . . ."

Paine had left Paris early in May of 1797, planning to accompany James Monroe and his wife to America, but reaching Havre, and suspecting danger of capture by an English warship should he sail, discreetly remained in France.

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