The DESPOTISM prevailing in Britain now,,,,,

When despotism has established itself for ages in a country, as in France, it is not in the person of the King only that it resides. It has the appearance of doing so in show, and in nominal authority; but it is not so in practise, and in fact. It has it’s standards everywhere. Every office and department has it’s despotism, founded upon custom and usage. Every place has it’s Bastille, and every Bastille it’s despot. The original hereditary despotism resident in the person of the King, divides and subdivides itself into a thousand shapes and forms, till at last the whole of it is acted by deputation. This was the case in France; and against this species of despotism, proceeding on through an endless labyrinth of office till the source of it is scarcely perceptible, there is no mode of redress. It strengthens itself by assuming the appearance of duty, and tyrannizes under the pretence of obeying.

 

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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 as a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart.

O! receive the fugitive and prepare in time an asylum for mankind!

 

Thomas Paine       “RIGHTS OF MAN”    (published in England 1791)