in simple convincing language, it was read everywhere, and the open movement to independence dates from its publication. Washington said that it “worked a powerful change in the minds of many men.” Leaders in the New York Provincial Congress considered the advisability of answering it, but came to the conclusion that it was unanswerable. When war was declared, and fortune at first went against the colonists, Paine, who was then serving with General Greene as volunteer aide-de-camp, wrote the first of a series of influential tracts called The Crisis, of which the opening words, “These are the times that try men’s souls,” became a battle-cry. Paine’s services were recognized by an appointment to be secretary of the commission sent by Congress to treat with the Indians, and a few months later to be secretary of the Congressional committee of foreign affairs. In 1779, however, he committed an indiscretion that brought him into trouble. He published information gained from his official position, and was compelled to resign. He was afterwards clerk of the Pennsylvania legislature, and accompanied John Laurens during his mission to France. His services were eventually recognized by the state of New York by a grant of an estate at New Rochelle, and from Pennsylvania and, at Washington’s suggestion, from Congress he received considerable gifts of money.
In 1787 he sailed for Europe with the model of an iron bridge he had designed. This was publicly exhibited in Paris and London, and attracted great crowds. In England he determined to “open the eyes of the people to the madness and stupidity of the government.” His first efforts in the Prospects on the Rubicon (1787) were directed against Pitt’s war policy, and towards securing friendly relations with France. When Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France appeared, in 1790, Paine at once wrote his answer, The Rights of Man. The first part appeared on the 13th of March 1791, and had an enormous circulation before the government took alarm and endeavoured to suppress it, thereby exciting intense curiosity to see it, even at the risk of heavy penalties. Those who know the book only by hearsay as the work of a furious incendiary will be surprised at the dignity, force and temperance of the style; it was the circumstances that made it inflammatory. Pitt “used to say,” according to Lady Hester Stanhope, “that Tom Paine was quite in the right, but then he would add, ‘What am I to do? As things are, if I were to encourage Tom Paine’s opinions we should have a bloody revolution.’ ” Paine was indicted for treason in May 1792, but before the trial came off he was elected by the department of Calais to the French convention, and escaped into France, followed by a sentence of outlawry. The first years that he spent in France form a curious episode in his life. He was enthusiastically received, but as he knew little of the language translations of his speeches had to be read for him. He was bold enough to speak and vote for the “detention of Louis during the war and his perpetual banishment afterwards,” and he pointed out that the execution of the king would alienate American sympathy. He incurred the suspicion of Robespierre, was thrown into prison, and escaped the guillotine by an accident. Before his arrest he had completed the first part of the Age of Reason, the publication of which made an instant change in his position on both sides of the Atlantic, the indignation in the United States being as strong as in England. The Age of Reason can now be estimated calmly. It was written from the point of view of a Quaker who did not believe in revealed religion, but who held that “all religions are in their nature mild and benign” when not associated with political systems. Intermixed with the coarse unceremonious ridicule of what he considered superstition and bad faith are many passages of earnest and even lofty eloquence in favour of a pure morality founded on natural religion. The work in short—a second part, written during his ten months’ imprisonment, was published after his release—represents the deism of the 18th century in the hands of a rough, ready, passionate controversialist.
At the downfall of Robespierre Paine was restored to his seat in the convention, and served until it adjourned in October 1795. In 1796 he published a long letter to Washington, attacking his military reputation and his presidential policy with inexcusable bitterness. In 1802 Paine sailed for America, but while his services in behalf of the colonies were gratefully remembered, his Age of Reason and his attack on Washington had alienated many of his friends. He died in New York on the 8th of June 1809, and was buried at New Rochelle, but his body was in 1819 removed to England by William Cobbett.
See the biography by Moncure D. Conway (1892).
PAINESVILLE, a city and the county-seat of Lake county, Ohio, U.S.A., on the Grand River, 3 m. S. of Lake Erie and about 30 m. N.E. of Cleveland. Pop. (1900) 5024, of whom 499 were foreign-born and 179 negroes; (1910) 5501. It is served by
the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, the New York, Chicago &
St Louis and the Baltimore & Ohio railways, and by electric
lines to Cleveland, Fairport and Ashtabula. It is the seat of
Lake Erie College (non-sectarian, for women), the successor of
Willoughby Seminary (1847), whose buildings at Willoughby,
Ohio, were burned in 1856; the college was opened as the Lake
Erie Female Seminary in 1859, and became Lake Erie College and
Seminary in 1898 and Lake Erie College in 1908. Painesville
is situated in a farming and fruit-growing country, and also has
some manufactures. Three miles north, on Lake Erie, is the
village of Fairport (pop. in 1900, 2073), with a good harbour and
coal and ore docks. The municipality owns and operates its
waterworks and street-lighting plants. Painesville was founded
in 1800–1802 by settlers from Connecticut and New York,
conspicuous among whom was General Edward Paine (1746–1841),
an officer from Connecticut in the War of Independence;
it was incorporated as a village in 1832, and became a city in 1902
under the new Ohio municipal code.
PAINTER-WORK, in the building trade. When work is
painted one or both of two distinct ends is achieved, namely
the preservation and the coloration of the material painted.
The compounds used for painting—taking the word as meaning
a thin protective or decorative coat—are very numerous, including
oil-paint of many kinds, distemper, whitewash, tar; but the
word “paint” is usually confined to a mixture of oil and pigment,
together with other materials which possess properties necessary
to enable the paint to dry hard and opaque. Oil paints are
made up of four parts—the base, the vehicle, the solvent and
the driers. Pigment may be added to these to obtain a paint of
any desired colour.
There are several bases for oil paint, those most commonly used for building work being white lead, red lead, zinc white and oxide of iron. White lead is by far the commonest of bases for paint. When pure it consists of about 75% carbonate of lead and about 25% of lead hydrate. It is mixed with 6 or 7% by weight of pure linseed oil, and in this form is supplied to the painter. Sulphate of baryta is the chief adulterant used in the manufacture of white lead. White lead has greater covering properties and is more durable than the other bases. It should therefore always be used in external painting. Paints having white lead for a base darken with age, and become discoloured when exposed to the fumes of sulphuretted hydrogen, which exists to a greater or less extent in the air of all large towns. Zinc white, an oxide of zinc, is of a purer white colour than white lead. It is lighter, and does not possess the same durability or covering power. It is, however, useful in internal decoration, as it retains its colour well, even when subjected to the action of gases. Red lead is a lead oxide. It is used chiefly in the priming coat and as a base for some red paints. Like white lead, it is injured if exposed to acids or impure air, which cause discoloration and decay. Oxide of iron is used chiefly as a base in paints used for covering iron-work, the theory being that no destructive galvanic action can be set up, as might be the case with lead paint when used on iron. A variety of red pigments are made from oxide of iron, varying in hue from a pale to a deep brownish-red. They are quite permanent, and may be used under any conditions.
The vehicle is a liquid in which the particles of the base are held in suspension, enabling a thin coat of paint to be formed, uniform in colour and consistency, and which on drying forms
