Address to the Great Thomas Paine Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Cleary, Scott M., ed. Claeys, Gregory, gen. ed. Thomas Paine Collected Writings. Vol. II. Part 2: Poetry. Princeton Princeton UP 2026 pp. []-[]. 5 Volumes.

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Address to the Great
To the Editor of the Lewes Journal , Sir ,

If you give the following a Place in your useful Paper , you’ll oblige your constant Reader and Customer ,

Senius .
If I by Pen , or Counsel could Contribute ought unto The Nation’s good , I gladly would A Work like that pursue : But what , alas ! will it avail , What I can do or say , My wish’d for End must surely fail , While int’rest bears the Sway . While Men of Rank , and Incomes great , Have int’rest so in View ; Who have in yonder House a Seat , Like Slaves , want Wages too . Oh ! Cruelty , beyond Compare ! That from th ’ poor Man’s Labour One Half must go ( tho ’ nought to spare ) To th ’ rich ’Squire his Neighbour . ’Twas once a Law the rich should keep , Support , maintain the Poor : Blush now ye great ! consider , weep ! And don’t increase your Store By aught forc’d from the lower Sort , But vote some Taxes down , Which may bring Credit to the court , And Safety to the Crown .