Trial of Thomas Paine

The trial of Thomas Paine for seditious libel was held on 18 December 1792 in response to his publication of the second part of the Rights of Man. The government of William Pitt, worried by the possibility that the French Revolution might spread to England, had begun suppressing works that espoused radical philosophies.

Paine's work, which advocated the right of the people to overthrow their government, was duly targeted, with a writ for his arrest issued on 21 May. Paine fled to France in September since he had been elected a member of the National Convention in France. He was instead represented in absentia by Thomas Erskine, a noted lawyer and orator who was severely criticised by government supporters in the months leading up to the trial.

At the trial, Archibald Macdonald, representing the prosecution, argued that Paine's work served only to inflame the populace and distribute radical ideas to those without the experience to understand them in context. Erskine's reply opened with a defence of the freedom of lawyers to represent whichever clients came to them, and it followed with an exposition of his views on the nature of the freedom of the press that argued that the publication of radical tracts served only to improve the government by highlighting its weaknesses and could not be seditious if published in good faith. Despite Erskine's speech later receiving a rapturous response, Paine was found guilty before Macdonald replied.

The verdict was seen by the government as legitimising their repression of radicalism, and paved the way for the 1794 Treason Trials, in which Erskine played a prominent role.