The Rights of Man

In this chapter, Paine argues that hereditary governments have been the driving force behind human misery, both domestically and internationally. Now, in light of the American and French Revolutions, the people of Britain have an opportunity to reform their government and thereby put an end to both war and extreme poverty. Paine laments the nation’s enormous prison population, asks why “scarcely any are executed but the poor” (151) and suggests that “millions that are superfluously wasted on governments [which could] benefit the condition of every man in a nation” (151-52). Paine is therefore preoccupied with how government reforms could benefit the common people of England. 

To this end, the chapter features 20 separate lists or tables complete with calculations derived from official statistics, as Paine argues that revolutionary reform would bring economic, as well as political, benefits to the population. Paine’s analysis of these numbers shows that since the Hanoverian succession in 1714, “nearly thirteen millions annually of new taxes have been thrown upon consumption,” resulting in a “constant increase in the number and wretchedness of the poor” (157). Here, again, Paine connects the decline in Britons’ material well-being to the corruption in the British government, which, as he argues in previous chapters, intensified after 1714.

Paine’s numbers show that taxation is nearly 10 times greater in 1791 than it was a century earlier, from which Paine concludes that “it appears impossible to account for the enormous increase in expenditure, on any other ground, than extravagance, corruption, and intrigue” (162, emphasis added). In addition to senseless foreign wars, these taxes have paid for the luxurious lifestyles of the royal family, the aristocracy, and the legion of sycophants attached to both. From his analysis of taxation and its objects, Paine identifies an enormous amount of excess revenue that would accrue to the nation were it to eliminate hereditary government. 

Paine brings together all of his arguments in the service of a truly revolutionary proposal. Since all human beings are born with natural rights, it follows that none are born better than others, in which case the people are sovereign. As the sovereign and only source of legitimate power, the people deserve to have representation through a republican system. As the French and American revolutionary examples prove, the abandonment of hereditary principles in government produces peace and prosperity. The British people have been told that they have the best constitution in the world, but they have no constitution at all. Instead, they have a government born out of conquest and steeped in unjust hierarchy and corruption.

Paine argues that the British people have the power to make their own constitution and change their form of government to align with the principles of the American and French Revolutions. In Chapter 5, he shows exactly how a revolution in the British government would improve Britons’ material lives, reinforcing his view that a legitimate government should seek to benefit the many instead of the few. In proposing that surplus revenue should be funneled into social initiatives that alleviate poverty and support the common man, Paine goes one step further in advocating for a system that will explicitly attempt to promote greater social equality and social mobility.

Finally, he advocates for a peaceful revolution, for “it would not only be wrong, but bad policy, to attempt by force what ought to be accomplished by reason” (189, emphasis added). In stressing the importance of using “reason” over “force” in effecting radical change, Paine once more aligns himself with the beliefs of the Enlightenment philosophers, presenting an optimistic view of both human nature and the processes of revolutionary change.