Introduction
In 1791 Norfolk-born Thomas Paine (lately of the USA), a vocal enthusiast of the French revolution, published a withering denunciation of the British constitution entitled The Rights of Man. Surveyor Thomas Telford, who was living in Shrewsbury Castle as a guest of the local MP, Sir William Pulteney, was swept away by it, and began recommending it to his friends back home in Galloway.
IN the spring of 1791 the first part of Paine’s ‘Rights of Man’ appeared, and Telford, like many others, read it, and was at once carried away by it. Only a short time before, he had admitted with truth that he knew nothing of politics; but no sooner had he read Paine than he felt completely enlightened. He now suddenly discovered how much reason he and everybody else in England had for being miserable. [...]
If Telford could not offer an opinion on politics before, because he “knew nothing about them,” he had now no such difficulty. Had his advice been asked about the foundations of a bridge, or the security of an arch, he would have read and studied much before giving it; he would have carefully inquired into the chemical qualities of different kinds of lime — into the mechanical principles of weight and resistance, and such like; but he had no such hesitation in giving an opinion about the foundations of a constitution of more than a thousand years’ growth. Here, like other young politicians, with Paine’s book before him, he felt competent to pronounce a decisive judgment at once.
Précis
When Thomas Telford read Tom Paine’s Rights of Man in 1791, amid the French Revolution, he at once became anxious and angry about the state of the country’s finances. Fellow-Scot Samuel Smiles observed that the great engineer would hardly have allowed anyone to pronounce on bridge-building after reading a single book on the subject. (54 / 60 words)
When Thomas Telford read Tom Paine’s Rights of Man in 1791, amid the French Revolution, he at once became anxious and angry about the state of the country’s finances. Fellow-Scot Samuel Smiles observed that the great engineer would hardly have allowed anyone to pronounce on bridge-building after reading a single book on the subject.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 60 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 50 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: because, besides, may, must, or, otherwise, unless, whereas.
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