A careful tract of 1793 estimates the sales of "The Rights of Man" up to that year at 200,000 copies.** In the opinion of the famous publisher of such literature, Richard Carlile, the kings proclamation seriously impeded the sale. "One part of the community is afraid to sell, and another to purchase, under such conditions. It is not too much to say that, if 'Rights of Man' had obtained two or three years' free circulation in England and Scotland, it would have produced a similar effect to that which 'Common Sense' did in the United States." However, the reign of terror had not yet begun in France, nor the consequent reign of panic in England. * The Argus, July 6, 1792. See "Biographia Addenda," No. Til., London, 1792. To the same society Paine had given the right to publish his "Letter to Dundas," "Common Sense," and "Letter to Raynal" in new editions. ** "Impartial Memoirs of the Life of Thomas Paine," London, 1793. There were numbers of small "Lives" of Paine printed in these years, but most of them were mere stealings from "Oldys." CHAPTER XXIII. THE DEPUTY FOR CALAIS IN THE CONVENTION The prosecution of Paine in England had its counterpart in a shrine across the channel. The _Moniteur_, June 17, 1792, announces the burning of Paine's works at "Excester," and the expulsion from Manchester of a man pointed out as Paine. Since April 16th his "Rights of Man," sympathetically translated by M. Lanthenas, had been in every French home. Paine's portrait, just painted in England by Romney and engraved by Sharpe, was in every cottage, framed in immortelles. In this book the philosophy of visionary reformers took practical shape. From the ashes of Rousseau's "Contrat Social," burnt in Paris, rose "The Rights of Man," no phoenix, but an eagle of the new world, with eye not blinded by any royal sun.* * L'Esprit da Contrat Social; suivi de l'Esprit de Sens Commun do Thomas Paine. Present a la Convention. Par le Citoyen Boinvilliers, Instituteur et ci-devant Membre de plusieurs Soci&es Litteraires. L'an second. It comes to tell how by union of France and America--of Lafayette and Washington--the "Contrat Social" was framed into the Constitution of a happy and glorious new earth, over it a new heaven unclouded by priestly power or superstitions. By that book of Paine's (Part I), the idea of a national convention was made the purpose of the French leaders who were really inspired by an "enthusiasm of humanity." In December, 1791, when the legislature sits paralyzed under royal vetoes, Paine's panacea is proposed.*