About the same time the Convention decreed that all Englishmen living in France should be put under arrest. No allowance was made for English democrats or political refugees who had come voluntarily to the land of promise. Poor optimistic Tom Paine, scarcely more appreciated by Revolutionists than by Tories, busy composing his Age of Reason, was among those menaced by the law against Englishmen, though his membership in the Convention kept him out of prison until the end of the year.
