ABSTRACT
After an active revolutionary career, Paine used the subsequent peace to develop his scientific and mechanical interests. Alternating between Britain and France while advancing work on a model of his bridge, he became closely involved with the early phase of the French Revolution. To understand the significance of Paine's work, the basis for his interpretation of America and the impact of his thinking in both Britain and France, author's need first to recognize the prevailing, largely hostile understanding of democracy and America held in Britain at this time. In his assessment Mably prefers the legislation of Massachusetts to all the rest, as fixing stricter limits to democracy, and preparing the inevitable passage of the republic to aristocracy'. Moreover, while the first part of Rights of Man kept the American example in the background while Paine defended the French Constitution of 1789, it became openly central to his case in part two, published in 1792.
