It is not the farcical benedictions of a bishop, nor the cringing hypocrisy of a court of chaplains, nor the formality of an act of Parliament, that can change guilt into innocence, or make the punishment one pang the less.
Paine critiques the power of religious and political institutions, asserting they cannot alter the moral reality of guilt or mitigate its consequences.
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But from such opposition the French Revolution, instead of suffering, receives an homage.
The argument changes from hereditary rights to hereditary wisdom; and the question is, Who is the wisest man?
The aristocracy has screened itself too much, and this serves to restore a part of the lost equilibrium.
Whether robbery shall be banished from courts, and wretchedness from countries?