Quiz: Rights of Man

All 40 questions. A perfect score earns the gold medal; 80% earns silver.

1. 1. What did the National Assembly’s members do when they found their chamber shut and guarded?

   They marched to Paris and put themselves under the protection of the citizens at the Hôtel de Ville They met at a tennis-ground near Versailles and swore not to separate until they had a constitution They met in a nearby church and swore to obey the king if he would recall Necker to the ministry They dissolved themselves in protest and went home to explain the king’s conduct to their own provinces
2. 2. What occasion did Dr. Price’s sermon mark?

   The opening of the Estates-General at Versailles The anniversary of the Revolution of 1688 The anniversary of American independence in 1776 The fall of the Bastille in the summer of 1789
3. 3. On what, according to Paine, does the so-called credit of the English funding system really rest?

   The confidence of foreign merchants and Dutch lenders in the honesty of the English government The people’s willingness to pay the tax The landed estates of the nobility, pledged by Parliament as security for the debt The gold and silver held by the Bank of England against the notes it has issued
4. 4. What condition does Paine attach to the allowance of four pounds a year for each poor child?

   The child must be sent to school The family must enter the parish workhouse The parents must be married members of the Church of England and resident in their parish The child must be apprenticed to a trade by the age of ten
5. 5. Which ancient government does Paine single out as deserving more admiration than any other?

   The Roman republic The democracy of Athens The Persian monarchy The laws of Sparta
6. 6. Which town does Paine say sends no members to Parliament although it has over sixty thousand inhabitants?

   Manchester The city of Bristol Westminster The borough of Old Sarum
7. 7. What does Paine say is the moving power of mixed government?

   Honour Fear Corruption Public opinion
8. 8. How does Paine describe the relation of war to governments and nations?

   War is the gaming table of governments, and nations the dupes of the game War is the punishment that heaven sends on idle, luxurious and corrupt nations War is a necessary evil that every nation consents to through its representatives War is the school in which nations learn liberty and courage
9. 9. According to article I of the Declaration, on what can civil distinctions be founded?

   On birth and ancient title Only on public utility On property and the payment of taxes On the will of the king
10. 10. How did Calonne try to control the Assembly of the Notables?

    He packed it with tax farmers and court pensioners, so the new taxes could pass without any debate He split it into seven committees and voted by committee, so forty-four members could carry a question He required a two-thirds majority to reject any tax, so a third of the members could block refusal He let the king cast the votes of absent members, so the crown always held a majority in the hall
11. 11. What English example does Paine give to show where the Paris crowd learned to carry heads on spikes?

    Heads displayed for years on Temple Bar The beheading of Charles I Hangings and quarterings at Tyburn The burning of Newgate in the riots of 1780
12. 12. To whom does Paine address his chapter on the old and new systems of government?

    Edmund Burke General Washington The Abbé Sieyès M. de la Fayette
13. 13. Which is not one of Paine’s three sources of government?

    The common interest of society and the common rights of man Power Superstition Inheritance
14. 14. According to Paine, what provoked the march to Versailles in October 1789?

    The Garde du Corps trampling the national cockade at an entertainment The dismissal of Necker and the massing of troops around Paris The arrest of the Duke of Orleans by officers of the royal bodyguard The closing of the Assembly’s hall and the guards posted at its doors
15. 15. Against what, according to Paine, did the French nation revolt?

    The power of the Catholic Church and its tithes, not the throne itself The personal cruelty and extravagance of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette The foreign troops in French pay, not the government that hired them The despotic principles of the government, not Louis XVI
16. 16. According to Paine, how often did the Pennsylvania constitution provide for a convention to revise it?

    Once in every three years Once in every year Every seven years Never; it could not be altered
17. 17. In the preface to the French edition, how does Paine refer to George III?

    As the heir of William the Conqueror and his banditti of Normandy As the Elector of Hanover, sometimes called the King of England As the fountain of honour As the first magistrate of the English nation, chosen by it
18. 18. Where, according to the French preface, is the English government looking for a new enemy?

    Holland Spain Russia America
19. 19. What scene does Paine say he witnessed himself in Paris?

    The procession of the women of Paris setting out on foot to fetch the king from Versailles The storming of the Bastille, which he watched from a window in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine nearby The deputies of the Third Estate swearing their oath in the tennis-court at Versailles The Count d’Artois meeting a hostile crowd at the Parliament
20. 20. How does Paine compare taxation per head in France and England?

    Under thirteen shillings in France, against forty-eight and sixpence in England Higher in France than in England, because of the tithes and feudal dues Five shillings in France, against seventeen and sixpence in England About equal in both countries
21. 21. What youthful adventure does Paine recall in the chapter on ways and means?

    Running away from Thetford to join the army in Flanders Working his passage to America as a cabin boy Sailing with Captain Cook to the South Seas as a ship’s boy Signing on to a privateer, the Terrible, under Captain Death
22. 22. How does Paine explain the apparently sudden outbreak of the French Revolution?

    The nation’s mind had changed beforehand; the new order of things followed the new order of thoughts The king himself planned the Revolution in order to weaken the nobility English agents and English money, sent by Pitt, stirred up the French people against their court A sudden famine drove the starving people of Paris and the provinces to revolt
23. 23. To whom did Paine dedicate Part I of Rights of Man?

    Thomas Jefferson the Marquis de Lafayette George Washington Dr. Benjamin Franklin
24. 24. How does Paine answer members who wanted a Declaration of Duties alongside the Declaration of Rights?

    A declaration of duties should follow once the whole of the Constitution was complete and accepted by the king A declaration of rights is one of duties too: whatever is my right is another’s, and I must guarantee it Duties should be left to the Church and the clergy of each parish to declare Citizens of a free nation owe no duties to the state, only to one another
25. 25. Who, according to Paine, told him that in his country “if the prince says eat straw, we eat straw”?

    A Hanoverian minister of George III A Brunswick soldier taken prisoner by the Americans A French peasant he talked with at Versailles A Hessian officer he met in London
26. 26. What did Paine leave with Burke about three years before writing?

    A draft of the French declaration of rights, sent to him by Lafayette for Burke’s comment A letter from a French minister’s secretary urging better relations A pamphlet of his own urging Parliament to make a lasting peace with the thirteen American states A copy of Dr. Price’s sermon, with a request that Burke should answer it publicly
27. 27. What provision does Paine propose for the aged poor?

    A single grant of one hundred pounds on reaching the age of sixty-five Five shillings a week from the age of seventy, subject to a test of means and character £6 a year from fifty to sixty, then £10 a year for life Admission to a national almshouse at seventy, with a small weekly allowance
28. 28. With what did the Parisians first attack the Prince de Lambesc’s cavalry?

    Paving stones torn from the boulevards Muskets seized from the Invalides Cannon taken from the Bastille Stones collected for building a new bridge
29. 29. What creature does Paine imagine as indispensable to a government, to ridicule dependence on a king?

    A parrot A lion in the Tower A goose or a gander A horse at nurse
30. 30. How does Paine describe toleration?

    As the special virtue of the English church As the counterfeit of intolerance, since both are despotisms As the first step towards full liberty of conscience for all sects As a right of the state that France has wisely kept for itself
31. 31. Why, according to Paine, does the tax on beer brewed for sale not touch the aristocracy?

    They drink only imported wine They brew their own beer, which is free of the duty Peers are legally exempt from all excise duties on drink The tax is refunded to landowners through the land-tax
32. 32. What does Paine call “the most ridiculous and insolent of all tyrannies”?

    Government by priestcraft and superstition The vanity and presumption of governing beyond the grave The rule of a lawful monarch over a loyal people The tyranny of the majority over the minority
33. 33. What American example does Paine give to show that society can keep order without formal government?

    Pennsylvania under the Quakers kept order for decades without a governor or a soldier The western settlers lived for a generation without laws, courts or magistrates of any kind For over two years after the war began, several states had no settled government, yet kept order Congress was suspended for ten years after the peace, yet commerce and order went on as before
34. 34. On what condition does Paine promise to reply to an answer to Rights of Man?

    If it sells half, or even a quarter, as many copies If it is translated into French and read before the National Assembly If Burke himself writes it, or a member of the House of Commons puts his name to it If it is approved by Parliament and circulated at the public expense
35. 35. What had the printer offered Paine before he suddenly stopped printing Part II?

    A partnership in his London printing business Free printing of a cheap sixpenny edition for the poor A seat in Parliament for one of his boroughs £1,000 for the copyright of both parts
36. 36. To what does Paine compare an hereditary governor?

    An hereditary general An hereditary shepherd An hereditary judge An hereditary author
37. 37. What does Paine give as the whole annual expense of the American federal government?

    Seventeen million pounds sterling, as in England Ten thousand pounds sterling a year One million pounds sterling a year Six hundred thousand dollars
38. 38. What does Paine say is the most that the service of any individual in public office can be worth?

    Whatever the nation chooses to vote £10,000 a year Five hundred pounds a year One million pounds a year
39. 39. Paine accepts Burke’s definition of government as “a contrivance of human wisdom”. What does he conclude from it?

    Government should be entrusted to philosophers elected by the learned societies Only the House of Lords, trained to govern from birth, should govern Hereditary succession can be no part of government, since wisdom cannot be inherited Burke is right that the people have no right to cashier their rulers
40. 40. Complete Paine’s judgment of Burke: “He pities the plumage, but…”

    fears the eagle despises the humble nest forgets the dying bird admires the gilded cage