As Paine's contribution to the body of democratic belief in the "Rights of Man" was submerged in the discussion on his religious opinions, so was his early plea for what he called "Agrarian Justice." On his release from a prison cell in the Luxembourg, in 1795, Paine published his "Plan for a National Fund." This plan was an anticipation of our modern proposals for Land Reform.

Paine urged the taxation of land values--the payment to the community of a ground-rent--and argued for death duties as "the least troublesome method" of raising revenue.

It was in the preface to this pamphlet on "Agrarian Justice" that Paine replied to Bishop Watson's sermon on "The Wisdom and Goodness of God in having made both Rich and Poor." "It is wrong," wrote Paine, "to say God made rich and poor; He made only male and female, and gave them the earth for their inheritance." Napoleon organised the plebiscite, which conferred on him the Consulate for life, in 1802, and the French Revolution and Constitution making having yielded to a military dictatorship, Paine returned to America, and died in New York in 1809.
MAJOR CARTWRIGHT AND THE "RADICAL REFORMERS" John Cartwright, the "Father of Reform," is notable as the first of the English "Radical Reformers." His direct influence on politics was small--none of his writings had the success of the "Rights of Man"-- but, like Paine, he laboured to turn England by public opinion from aristocracy to democracy, and for more than forty years Cartwright was to the fore with his programme of Radical reform.

The problem for Cartwright and the Radical reformers was how to get the changes made which would give political power to the people--with whom was the sovereignty, as they had learnt from Locke--and make Parliament the instrument of democracy.

A hundred years and more have not sufficed to get this problem answered to everybody's satisfaction, but in the latter part of the eighteenth century, to the minds of simple, honest men, it seemed enough that the argument should be stated plainly and reasonably; it would follow that all mankind would be speedily convinced; so great was the faith in the power of reason.
What neither Cartwright nor Paine understood was, that it was not the reasonableness of a proposed reform but the strength of the demand that carried the day.