Had France acted towards her colonies as you have done, you would have branded her with every epithet of abhorrence; and had you, like her, stepped in to succor a struggling people, all Europe must have echoed with your own applauses.
From "The American Crisis," Paine criticizes Britain's colonial policy by imagining a reversal of roles with France.
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When it becomes necessary to do anything, the whole heart and soul should go into the measure, or not attempt it.
The Parliaments on their part insisted that they had not only a right to remonstrate, but to reject; and on this ground they were always supported by the nation.
A knowledge of the practice was then joined to the theory; and all that was wanting to give it real existence was opportunity.