opposition members that two thousand pounds could be raised by voluntary contribution. At first they refused to believe it-two thousand pounds was a very great sum of money. Then he proposed that they should make their grant conditional upon the subscription of that sum by the citizens. They seized upon the idea, and willing to gain the credit of charity without expense, no longer hesitated to vote for the bill.

Dr. Franklin says in his memoirs that he remembers none of his political manœuvres which at the time gave him more pleasure, or in which, after thinking of it, he more easily excused himself for a little indirectness.

No sooner was this Act published than its influence was felt in a great increase of the subscription list, and in a short time considerably more than the amount required by the charter having been subscribed, a meeting of the contributors was held at the State House to choose a Board of Managers. Benjamin Franklin and eleven others were chosen out of the contributors, as managers. Very soon after the election, the managers transmitted to England, to Thomas and Richard Penn, the Proprietaries of the province, an address narrating what had been done, and suggesting that as the Assembly had granted a charter and a sum of money for the erection of a building, and the people had subscribed and were still subscribing largely towards a permanent fund, it might please the Proprietaries to grant a plot of ground to build on, so that all in the province might participate in the honor of so good a work. In the mean time, in order to carry on the benevolent desire, a private house on the south side of Market street, west of Fifth street, was hired; (formerly the mansion of Judge J. Kinsey.) Its grounds occupied nearly one-third of the square; the rent paid by the managers was forty pounds a year. In December, 1754, the whole square on which the hospital now stands, except a depth of sixty feet on Spruce street, was purchased for five hundred pounds. The next object was to erect a suitable building, and a plan was prepared, and so arranged that a part sufficient for immediate wants might be built at once, and additions afterwards made, as occasion might require. The corner-stone was laid on the 28th of May, 1755, which is chiseled out in a stone over the entrance in the centre of the hospital, facing on Eighth street. At that time the population of the city was less than thirty thousand. A subscription of two hundred and fifty pounds was made by William Allen, Chief Justice of the province. The rich widows. and other single women raised money to pay for drugs, which had

been imported from London, which in the aggregate amounted to one hundred and forty pounds. At the suggestion of Franklin, twelve tin boxes were provided, marked with the words "Charity for the Hospital," in gold letters, one of which was kept in the house of each of the managers.

The fact is curious as marking a characteristic trait of our great philosopher, statesman and economist, with a mind powerful enough to grasp the lightnings and to control the fate of an empire with the aid and the pen of Thomas Paine. Dr. Rush says when Paine's "Common Sense" burst forth from the press, it had an effect which has been rarely produced by types and paper in any age or country. When completed, it was shown to Dr. Franklin, Samuel Adams and Judge Wilson, and they approving of it, it was printed by Robert Bell, a Scotchman. As the pioneers of the revolution, we owe everlasting gratitude to their names and memory.

He

Thomas Paine was born in England, January 29th, 1737, of Quaker parents; he held a place in the Excise Office for a number of years, up to 1774. Doctor Franklin was then in London. furnished Mr. Paine with a letter of introduction to one of his most intimate friends in the British Colonies. Under Dr. Franklin's direction, he sailed for America, and arrived in Philadelphia in 1775 On the 1st of January, 1776, the first number of Paine's Common Sense was put forth. This book was the most important cause of the separation from the mother country. In this book was written for the first time, "the Free and Independent States of America." Jefferson, Franklin and Madison confessed that the cannon of Washington was not more formidable to the British than the pen of the author of "Common Sense." Paine was employed by Mr. Atkinson, a book-seller on Second street, and as editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine. Dr. Rush says he received for his services $125 per annum.

In the meantime, Dr. Franklin arrived in Philadelphia, from England, and took charge of the editorship of the Magazine. In 1776, Paine accompanied the army with General Washington in his retreat from the Hudson river to the Delaware river. He continued at intervals to write his "Common Sense" numbers for publication while with Washington's army, until, unknown to him, in 1777 Congress unanimously appointed him Secretary of the Foreign Department. His uprightness did not prevent intrigue between Congress and him, in relation to one of their Commissioners (Silas Dean) in Europe. Paine resigned his Secretaryship on the 8th of January, 1779, and refused to receive any pay from Congress for

his services. In 1780, Congress was in want of pecuniary means, and proposed that a loan should be negotiated with France, and that Colonel Laurens, with Mr. Paine, should proceed to Paris. Previous to going, (the finances of the country were in their worst possible state, and Washington feared the immediate dissolution of the army for want of pay,) Paine headed a subscription list with $500-all the money he could raise. This increased to $1,500,000, which supplied the immediate distresses of the Government. They sailed in February, 1781, and obtained six millions of livres as a present, and ten millions as a loan, in all, two millions and a half of silver, with which they arrived safely at Boston, in August; also a ship and brig, with military stores. This was carted through the woods to Philadelphia, without delay, by teams of oxen.

After the establishment of the independence of the United States of America, Paine's glorious object was accomplished, and feeling his exertions no longer requisite here, he embarked for France, and arrived at Paris in 1787. After remaining in Paris a short time, he left for England, arriving there on the 3d of September, just thirteen years after his departure for Philadelphia. He then hastened to Thetford, to visit his mother, on whom he had settled a comfortable allowance to maintain her. The merchant in whom the trust was vested had become a bankrupt. Paine had to make other provision for her support.

While Paine was in Paris, the Marquis Lafayette came into his bedroom one morning before he had risen, and announced the flight of the king, saying, "the birds are flying." To which Paine replied, "'tis well; I hope there will be no attempt to recall them." In a conversation with Franklin, before leaving America, Franklin said to Paine, "Where liberty is, that is my country." Paine replied, "Where liberty is not, that is my country," in reference to his exertions for liberty in the United States, England and France. Paine was always charitable to the poor beyond his means, a sure protector and friend to all Americans in distress that he found in foreign countries. When Bonaparte returned from Italy, he called on Mr. Paine, and invited him to dine with him, and in the course of his conversation he declared that a statue of gold ought to be erected to him in every city of the universe, assuring him that he always slept with his book ("Rights of Man") under his pillow, and conjured him to honor him (Bonaparte) with his correspondence and advice. Paine associated with none but those of intelligence and respectability. He was honest in all his transactions in public or private life. The intelligent and far-seeing mind was

looked upon by those in favor of liberty and a change in the distracted condition of affairs as a good adviser. His boldness and determination in exposing the wrongs of governments made him unpopular among the crowned heads of Europe.

Paine, with his pen, made England lose her Colonies in America. No one can wonder why old England passed an act that his book (Rights of Man) should be burned by the common hangman. They kept a number of vessels of war constantly on the watch for him, to prevent his crossing the Atlantic to France, his influence was so much dreaded. No human being's efforts have done more for liberty. He had from his youth a strong resolution and constant temper, and adopted the opinions he promulgated in his manhood. His language was simple and easy to be understood.

In 1792, Paine arrived in Paris, where he found Robespierre dictator. He had not long been there, before he was arrested by the order of Robespierre as a foreigner, with others, and imprisoned eleven months. Robespierre had issued a decree that all foreigners should be beheaded. Paine was to have been one. It is remarkable how he escaped. On the day before the execution Robespierre was dethroned, and supplied Paine's place at the guillotine block. Affairs took a different direction. Paine did not immediately regain his liberty. Mr. Monroe, the American Minister, had him eventually released, on November 4th, 1794. Mr. Monroe kindly invited him to his house, where he remained eighteen. months.

In Thomas Paine's Crisis, No. 1, he begins-O, ye that love mankind! ye that dare oppose not only tyranny, but the tyrant ! stand forth! Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the globe-Asia and Africa have long expelled her; Europe regards her like a stranger; and England hath given her warning to depart. O! America, receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind! These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this crisis shrink from the service · of his country; but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly. The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. A noted Tory, a tavern keeper at Amboy, was standing at his door with his child, speaking his mind, said he, "Well, give me peace in my day." A generous parent should have said, if there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace. Not a place upon earth might be so happy as America. The world is my country; to do good is my religion.

Here is a copy of a letter of Thomas Paine to a friend:

"A thousand years hence-for I must indulge a few thoughtsperhaps in less, America may be what England now is. The innocence of her character, that won the hearts of all nations in her favor, may sound like a romance, and her illimitable virtue as if it had never been. The ruins of that liberty which thousands bled to obtain, may just furnish materials for a village tale, or extort a sigh from rustic sensibility, while the fashionable of the day envel oped in dissipation shall deride the principle and deny the fact.

"When we contemplate the fall of empires and the extinction of the nations of the ancient world, we see but little more to excite our regret than the mouldering ruins of pompous palaces, magnificent monuments, lofty pyramids, and walls and towers of the most costly workmanship, but when the empire of America shall fall, the subject for contemplative sorrow will be infinitely greater than crumbling brass or marble can inspire.

"It will not then be said, here stood a temple of vast antiquity, here rose a Babel of invisible height, or there a palace of sumptuous magnificence; but here, ah! painful thought, the noblest work of human wisdom, the greatest scene of human glory, the fair cause of freedom rose and fell."

A letter from Thomas Jefferson will not be out of place here. In July, 1802, while Jefferson was President, he addressed a letter to Thomas Paine, in which he thus expresses himself:

You express a wish in your letter to return to America by a national ship. Mr. Dawson, who brings over the treaty, and who will present you this letter, is charged with orders to the captain of the Maryland, to receive and accommodate you back, if you can be ready to return at such a short warning. You will in general find us returned to sentiments worthy of former times; in these it will be your glory to have steadily labored, and with as much effect as any man living. That you may live long to continue your useful labors, and reap the reward in the thankfulness of nations is my sincere prayer. Accept the assurance of my high esteem and affectionate attachment.

THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Thomas Paine embarked from Havre, in France, on the 1st of September, and landed in Baltimore on the 30th of October, 1802. On his arrival you can have no idea of the agitation it produced on that occasion. From New Hampshire to Georgia, (an extent of fifteen hundred miles,) every newspaper was filled with applause