The Life Of Thomas Paine, Vol. 2. (of 2): With A History of His Literary, Political and Religious Career in America France, and EnglandConway, Moncure Daniel
History
The Life Of Thomas Paine, Vol. 2. (of 2): With A History of His Literary, Political and Religious Career in America France, and England
Conway, Moncure Daniel
Paine, Thomas, 1737-1809
indicated, which I have found, and omitting a few letters, extracts,
etc., already printed in the body of this work, where unaccompanied by
any comment or addition from either Cobbett or the Bonnevilles.
At the time when this Cobbett-Bonneville sketch was written New York was
still a provincial place. Nicolas Bonneville, as Irving describes him,
seated under trees at the Battery, absorbed in his classics, might have
been regarded with suspicion had it been known that his long separation
from his family was due to detention by the police. Madame Bonneville is
reserved on that point. The following incident, besides illustrating the
characters of Paine and Bonneville, may suggest a cause for the rigor
of Bonneville's surveillance. In 1797, while Paine and Bonneville were
editing the _Bien Informe_, a "suspect" sought asylum with them. This
was Count Barruel-Beauvert, an author whose writings alone had caused
his denunciation as a royalist. He had escaped from the Terror, and now
wandered back in disguise, a pauper Count, who knew well the magnanimity
of the two men whose protection he asked. He remained, as proof-reader,
in the Bonneville house for some time, safely; but when the conspiracy
of 18 Fructidor (September 4, 1797) exasperated the Republic against
royalists, the Count feared that he might be the means of compromising
his benefactors, and disappeared. When the royalist conspiracy against
Bonaparte was discovered, Barruel-Beauvert was again hunted, and
arrested (1802). His trial probably brought to the knowledge of the
police his former sojourn with Paine and Bonneville. Bonaparte sent by
Fouché a warning to Paine that the eye of the police was upon him,
and that "on the first complaint he would be sent to his own country,
America." Whether this, and the closer surveillance on Bonneville, were
connected with the Count, who also suffered for a time, or whether due
to their anti-slavery writings on Domingo, remains conjectural. Towards
the close of life Bonneville received a pension, which was continued to
his widow. So much even a monarchy with an established church could do
for a republican author, and a freethinker; for Bonneville had published
heresies like those of Paine.
THOMAS PAINE, A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE AND CHARACTER.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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