WHERE DID TOM PAINE DIE?

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 46, 19 November 1918, Page 6

WHERE DID TOM PAINE DIE?

Sir,— "Liber.y in his notes on Tom Paine, explicitly states that he died a pauper in Paris, and he implicitly states that he was buried there. Both statements are erroneous. The Encyclopaedia Britannica," in its article on Paine, sums up u strange story in tuo following sentence: "Paine died in York on June 8, ISO 9, and was buried at New Kocholle, but his body was in 1819, removed to England by Williain. Cobbett." In the "Life of William Cobbett" by E. I. Garlyle the story is fully told. When'Paine, who was of Quaker descent, died, he was refused burial in a Quaker cemetery, and his body wa» buried in a piece of waste land. Cobbett, who in bis earlier days bad written down Paine as a "Ragamuffin Deist," became an admirer of Paine, and resolved to get Paine's memory respected by having jus bodv removed to London and buried with honour. In 1819 be brought tbe'bones of Paine to England, and was welcomed with shouts of derision. He was lampooned and caricatured without mercy. Lord Byron was one of C'obbett's tormentors, ,and wrote: ■ * In digging up your bones, Tom Paine, Will Cobbett has done well; - . You visit him on earth again. He'll vißit you in hell. Paine's bones were never buried. In 183G, when Cobbett's effects were put ,in sale alter his death, Paine's bones woro part of the properties to be sold to pay Cobbett's debts, but the auctioneer refused to put them up. They remained in the Receiver's office until 1841, when .they were handed over to a Sir. Tilly, and since their the world has known nothing; of the bones of Tom Paine. Probably .some other distinguished writer died a, pauper in Paris and was buried there, but it was not so with Thomas Paine. Tbero was no peace for" the ashes of the author of the "The Age of Reason and "The Rights of Man."-I am, etc., /

Wellington, November 18,