Chalmers’s life of Paine, written in 1792, had merits of its own, which suited the violent and depraved taste of the times. It speedily ran through many editions; and no one contributed more to its circulation than Peter Porcupine, who reprinted it in his _Censor_ of September, 1796, “interspersed with remarks and reflections.” But a neophyte writer, ardent in cotemporary loyalism, reading and greedily sucking-in the venomous plausibilities of Chalmers, is one thing: the same person coming to read, in his days of maturity, Paine’s eloquent pleadings against oppression and misrule, is another; especially if maturity of strength and wisdom has brought with it a full admission of old weaknesses: renunciation of ignorance and folly. So Mr. Cobbett found that Thomas Paine was not such a blackguard: not so deserving of the abuse which he had helped to pour upon him; and proceeded, accordingly, to make reparation, by extolling Paine’s merits as a writer (whilst, however, condemning his theology), and recommending the writings to his friends, whenever opportunity served. That which had led him to study Paine for himself was “The Decline and Fall of the English System of Finance,” a pamphlet in which Paine had distinctly foretold the bursting of the paper-money bubble; and the reader will understand Cobbett’s great enthusiasm, upon the discovery that Paine’s elucidations furnished him with a key to what he considered the leading peril of the nation. All this, however, might have casually passed into the catalogue of Mr. Cobbett’s “inconsistencies,” without attracting special notice, but for the following circumstances:-- Paine had wished to be buried in the Quaker burial-ground of New York; but the request was denied--the principal alleged reason being that many persons had already accused the sect of Deism, and that, if they allowed this interment, the accusation would have a circumstance to rest upon. Mr. Paine was, therefore, buried in the corner of one of his own fields. In September or October, 1819, the land having been previously sold, with a reservation of that particular spot, the person, whose business it was to take care of that little corner, was so sensible of the risk of disturbance to Paine’s ashes that he commenced a negotiation for the purpose of having them transferred to a New York churchyard. The utmost that could be obtained was “leave to put them in the ground in a refuse place, where strangers and soldiers and other friendless persons were usually buried.” Under these circumstances, Mr. Cobbett (whose farm lay only a few miles off from New Rochelle) resolved that Paine’s bones should “really have honourable burial!”