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Paine (THOMAS an American political)

THOMAS, an American political writer; born in England, in 1737. At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War he, in 1774, emigrated to the United States; became editor of the "Pennsylvania Magazine," and gave an impulse to the Revolution by his famous pamphlet called "Common Sense," in which he advocated the policy of separation and independence. He went to Paris in 1789, and published, in 1791, his "Rights of Man," in reply to Burke's speech on the French Revolution. In September, 1792, he was elected a member of the French National Convention, acted with the Girondists, narrowly escaped death in the Reign of Terror, and brought out, in 1795, his celebrated deistical work entitled, "The Age of Reason." He returned to the United States in 1802, and died in New York, June 8, 1809.

PAINLEVÉ, PAUL, French statesman, born in Paris, 1863; educated in the Ecole Normale Supérieure, where he especially distinguished himself in mathematics. After graduating, in 1886, he was sent by the Government on a confidential mission to Germany. On his return, the following year, he taught mechanics in the University of Lille, PAINTING where he remained until 1892. During the latter part of this period, and later, he lectured at the Sorbonne, a distinction accorded only to men of the highest degree of learning. In 1895 he began teaching mathematics at the Ecole Normale, and in 1903 he became Professor of mathematics at the University of Paris. In 1900 he was elected a member THOMAS PAINE of the Institute. In 1915 he was appointed Minister of Public Instruction and Inventions Connected with National Defense, and in 1917 he assumed the post of War Minister. vit