had transferred itself into politics; the tribunals, styled
Revolutionary, supplied the place of the Inquisition; and the
Guillotine of the State outdid the Fire and Faggot of the Church."
The rogue who copied this little knew the care with which Paine
weighed words, and that he would never call persecution "religious,"
nor connect the guillotine with the "State," nor concede that with
all its horrors it had outdone the history of fire and faggot. What
Paine wrote was: "The intolerant spirit of church persecution had
transferred itself into politics; the tribunals, styled
Revolutionary, supplied the place of an Inquisition and the
Guillotine, of the Stake."

An original letter of Paine, in the possession of Joseph Cowen,
ex-M.P., which that gentleman permits me to bring to light, besides
being one of general interest makes clear the circumstances of the
original publication. Although the name of the correspondent does not
appear on the letter, it was certainly written to Col. John Fellows
of New York, who copyrighted Part I. of the "Age of Reason." He
published the pamphlets of Joel Barlow, to whom Paine confided his
manuscript on his way to prison. Fellows was afterwards Paine's
intimate friend in New York, and it was chiefly due to him that some
portions of the author's writings, left in manuscript to Madame
Bonneville while she was a freethinker were rescued from her devout
destructiveness after her return to Catholicism. The letter which Mr.
Cowen sends me, is dated at Paris, January 20, 1797.

"SIR, -- Your friend Mr. Caritat being on the point of his departure
for America, I make it the opportunity of writing to you. I received
two letters from you with some pamphlets a considerable time past, in
which you inform me of your entering a copyright of the first part of