"Ye guardian angels watch around, From harm protect the new-born State; And all ye friendly, ye friendly nations join, And thus salute the Child of Fate. Be thou forever, forever great and free, The Land of Love and Liberty!" Notwithstanding royal tremors these gentlemen were genuinely loyal in singing the old anthem with new words: "God save the Rights of Man! Give him a heart to scan Blessings so dear; Let them be spread around, Wherever Man is found, And with the welcome sound Ravish his ear!" No report is preserved of Paine's speech, but we may feel sure that in giving his sentiment "The Revolution of the World" he set forth his favorite theme--that revolutions of nations should be as quiet, lawful, and fruitful as the revolutions of the earth. {1792} CHAPTER XXII. THE RIGHT OF EVOLUTION The Abbé Sieyès did not escape by declining to stand by his challenge of the republicans. In the second part of "The Rights of Man" Paine considers the position of that gentleman, namely, that hereditary monarchy is an evil, but the elective mode historically proven worse. That both are bad Paine agrees, but "such a mode of reasoning on such a subject is inadmissible, because it finally amounts to an accusation of providence, as if she had left to man no other choice with respect to government than between two evils." Every now and then this Quaker Antæus touches his mother earth--the theocratic principle--in this way; the invigoration is recognizable in a religious seriousness, which, however, makes no allowance for the merely ornamental parts of government, always so popular. "The splendor of a throne is the corruption of a state." However, the time was too serious for the utility of bagatelles to be much considered by any. Paine engages Sieyès on his own ground, and brings historic evidence to prove that the wars of succession, civil and foreign, show hereditary a worse evil than elective headship, as illustrated by Poland, Holland, and America. But he does not defend the method of either of these countries, and clearly shows that he is, as Sieyès said, a "poly-crat," so far as the numerical composition of the Executive is concerned.* He affirms, however, that governing is no function of a republican Executive. The law alone governs. "The sovereign authority in any country is the power of making laws, and everything else is an official department." *"I have always been opposed to the mode of refining government up to an individual, or what is called a single Executive. Such a man will always be the chief of a party. A plurality is far better. It combines the mass of a nation better together. And besides this, it is necessary to the manly mind of a republic that it lose the debasing idea of obeying an individual."--Paine MS.