III.

British Interlude

Paine returned to Great Britain in 1787, and in 1791-1792 he published The Rights of Man, in two parts. The most famous of all replies to the condemnatory Reflections Upon the French Revolution by the British statesman Edmund Burke, it was also an analysis of the weaknesses of European society, proposing such remedies as republican government and progressive income taxes; a million and a half copies were sold in Britain alone. The British government indicted Paine for treason, and he fled to France.