From Monroe's departure until the year 1802, little is known of Paine. He is said to have lived in humble lodgings with one Bonneville, a printer, editor of the "Bouche de Fer" in the good early days of the Revolution. He must have kept up some acquaintance with respectable society; for we find his name on the lists of the _Cercle Constitutionnel_, a club to which belonged Talleyrand, Benjamin Constant, and conservatives of that class who were opposed to both the _bonnet-rouge_ and the _fleur-de-lis_. Occasionally he appears above the surface with a pamphlet. Politics were his passion, and to write a necessity of his nature. If public matters interested him, an essay of some kind made its way into print. When Baboeuf's agrarian conspiracy was crushed, Paine gave the world his views on "Agrarian Justice." Every man has a natural right to a share in the land; but it is impossible that every man should exercise this right. To compensate him for this loss, be should receive at the age of twenty-one fifteen pounds sterling; and if he survive his fiftieth year, ten pounds _per annum_ during the rest of his life. The funds for these payments to be furnished by a tax on inheritances.
Camille Jourdain made a report to the Five Hundred on priests and public worship, in which he recommended, _inter alia_, that the use of church-bells and the erection of crosses be again permitted by law. This reactionary measure excited Paine's liberal bigotry. He published a letter to Jourdain, telling him that priests were useless and bells public nuisances. Another letter may be seen, offering his subscription of one hundred francs to a fund for the invasion of England,--a favorite project of the Directory, and the dearest wish of Paine's heart. He added to his mite an offer of any personal service he could render to the invading army. When Carnot, Barthélémy, and Pichegru were expelled from power by the _coup d'état_ of the 18th Fructidor,--a military demonstration against the Republic,--Paine wrote an address to the people of France and to the French armies, heartily approving of the summary method that had been adopted with these reactionists, who must have their bells and their priests. He did not then perceive the real significance of the movement.