Paine and Common Sense

If I weren't teaching "Chivalry" as a fourth-year seminar, I'd likely be teaching "Democracy and Representative Government in the 18th Century." And if I were, I'd be quoting this profound line from Thomas Paine's Common Sense:

...the plain truth is that it is wholly owing to the constitution of the people, and not to the constitution of the government, that the crown is not as oppressive in England as in Turkey.