WHO ALONE WILL OBJECT.

"None will be an enemy to this Freedom, which, indeed, is to do to another as a man would have another do to him, but Covetousness and Pride, the spirit of the old grudging, snapping Pharisees, who give God abundant of good words in their sermons, in their prayers, in their fasts, and in their thanksgivings, as though none should be more faithful servants to Him than they. Nay, they will shun the company, imprison, and kill every one that will not worship God, they are so zealous. Well now, God and Christ hath enacted an everlasting Law, which is Love, not only one another of your own mind, but love your enemies too, such as are not of your mind: and having food and raiment therewith be content. Now here is a trial for you, whether you will be faithful to God and Christ in obeying His Laws; or whether you will destroy the man-child of true Freedom, Righteousness and Peace, in his resurrection. And now thou wilt either give us the tricks of a Soldier, face about, and return to Egypt, and so declare thyself to be part of the Serpent's seed that must bruise the heel of Christ. Or else to be one of the plain-hearted Sons of Promise, or Members of Christ, who shall help to bruise the Serpent's head, which is Kingly Oppression, and so bring in everlasting Righteousness and Peace into the Earth. Well, the eye is now open."

"STOREHOUSES SHALL BE BUILT AND APPOINTED IN ALL PLACES AND BE THE COMMON STOCK.

"There shall be Storehouses in all places, both in the Country and in Cities, to which all the fruits of the Earth, and other works made by Tradesmen, shall be brought, and thence delivered out again to particular Families, and to every one as they want for their use; or else to be transplanted by ships to other Lands to exchange for those things which our Land will not or does not afford. For all the labors of Husbandmen and Tradesmen within the Land, or by Navigation to or from other Lands, shall be upon the Common Stock. And as everyone works to advance the Common Stock, so everyone shall have a free use of any commodity in the Storehouse for his pleasure and comfortable livelihood, without buying or selling or restraint from any. Having food and raiment, lodging, and the comfortable societies of his own kind, what can a man desire more in these days of his travel? Indeed, covetous, proud, and beastly minded men desire more, either to lay by them to look upon, or else to waste and spoil it upon their lusts, while other Bretheren live in straits for the want of the use thereof. But the Laws and Faithful Officers of a Free Commonwealth do regulate the irrational conduct of such men.

"THERE ARE TWO SORTS OF STOREHOUSES, GENERAL AND PARTICULAR.

"The general Storehouses are such houses as receive in all commodities in the gross.... And these general Storehouses shall be filled and preserved by the common labor and assistance of every Family, as is mentioned in the Office for Overseer for Trades. And from these Public Houses, which are the general stock of the Land, all particular Tradesmen may fetch materials for their particular work as they need, or to furnish their particular dwellings with any commodities.

"Secondly, There are particular Storehouses, or Shops, to which the Tradesmen shall bring their particular works; as all instruments of iron to the Iron-shops, hats to the shops appointed for them, and so on.... They shall receive in, as into a Storehouse, and deliver out again freely, as out of a Common Storehouse, when particular persons or families come for everything they need, as now they do by buying and selling under Kingly Government. For as particular Families and Tradesmen do make several works more than they can make use of ... and do carry their particular works to Storehouses; so it is all Reason and Equity that they should go to other Storehouses to fetch any other commodity which they want and cannot make. For as other men partake of their labors, so it is reason they should partake of other men's."

It should be scarcely necessary to pause to point out that what Winstanley here describes is exactly what is taking place, in his time as in our times, all the world over. Commodities of every description are continuously being produced, and being brought to the Storehouses, wholesale and retail, thence to be redistributed to those who require them. The Social Problem, of Winstanley's time and of our time, is how to secure to each co-operating worker his fair share of the returns to the labours of all. And manifestly this is impossible so long as some can command any share thereof without having in any way shared in the toil or rendered any equivalent counter-service. In 1905, as in 1652, an ever increasing portion and proportion of the wealth thus harvested and garnered constantly gravitates towards those who, under the prevailing "kingly laws," claim to control the use of the land, whence alone it can be derived. This was the basic social injustice, the parent source of innumerable other social ills and injustices, which Winstanley was one of the first clearly to apprehend, and to combat which he devoted his life.

Winstanley, moreover, fully and clearly realised that:

"THE KING'S OLD LAWS CANNOT SERVE A FREE COMMONWEALTH."

And this formed the heading of his next chapter, in which in a specially lively manner he first points out that the Laws of a Monarchy—which, being based upon inequality, necessarily tend to produce inequality, and whose main function is to legalise and to maintain privileges—are necessarily essentially different from those suitable to a Free Commonwealth—which, being based upon the recognition of the equality of rights, would necessarily tend to produce an equality of social conditions; and whose main function would be to establish and to legalise Justice, equal rights and equal duties, to maintain and to enforce the equal claims of all to the use of the earth, to life, to liberty, and to the pursuit of happiness. It commences as follows:

OF KINGLY LAWS.

"The King's Old Laws cannot govern in times of Bondage and in times of Freedom too. They have indeed served many masters, Papish and Protestant. They are like old Soldiers, who will but change their name, and turn about, and as they were. The Reason is because they are the prerogative will of those, under any Religion, who count it no Freedom to them unless they be Lords over the minds, persons and labors of their bretheren.

"They are called the King's Laws, because they are made by the King. If any say they were made by the Commoners, it is answered, They were not made by the Commoners as the Commoners of a Free Commonwealth are to make Laws. For in the days of the King none were to choose or be chosen Parliament Men, or Law Makers, but Lords of Manors, and Freeholders, such as held title to their Enclosures of Land, or Charters for their Liberties in Trades, under the King, who called the Land his, as he was the Conqueror or his successor. All inferior people were neither to choose nor be chosen. And the reason was because all Freeholders of Land and such as held their Liberties by Charter, were all of the King's interest; and the inferior people were successively of the rank of the conquered ones, and servants and slaves from the time of the Conquest.

"Further, when a Parliament was chosen in that manner, yet if any Parliament Man, in the uprightness of his heart, did endeavour to promote any freedom contrary to the King's will or former customs from the Conquest, he was either committed to prison by the King or by the House of Lords, who were his ancient Norman successive Council of War; or else the Parliament was dissolved and broke up by the King. So that the old Laws were made in times under Kingly Slavery, not under the liberty of Commonwealth's Freedom, because Parliament Men had to have regard to the King's prerogative interest to uphold his conquest, or else endanger themselves. As sometimes it is in these days, some Officers dare not speak against the minds of those men who are the chief in power, nor a Private Soldier against the mind of his Officer, lest they be cashiered their places and livelihood. And so long as the promoting of the King's will and prerogative was to be in the eye of the Law Makers, the oppressed Commoners could never enjoy Commonwealth's Freedom thereby. Yet by the wisdom, courage, faithfulness and industry of some Parliament Men, the Commoners have received here a line and there a line of freedom inserted into their Laws: as those good lines of freedom in Magna Charta were obtained by much hardship and industry.

"Secondly, They were the King's Laws, because the King's own creatures made the Laws: Lords of Manors, Freeholders, etc., were successors of the Norman soldiers from the Conquest, therefore they could do no other but maintain their own and the King's interest. Do we not see that all Laws were made in the days of the King to ease the rich Landlord? The poor laborers were left under bondage still; they were to have no freedom in the earth by those pharisaical Laws. For when Laws were made and Parliaments broke up, the poor oppressed Commoners had no relief; the power of Lords of Manors, withholding the free use of the Common-land from them, remained still. For none durst make any use of any Common-land but at the Lord's leave, according to the will and law of the Conqueror. Therefore the old Laws were called King's Laws."

OF COMMONWEALTH'S LAWS.

"These old Laws cannot govern a Free Commonwealth; because the Land is now to be set free from the slavery of the Norman Conquest, and the power of Lords of Manors and Norman Freeholders is to be taken away. Or else the Commoners are but where they were, if not fallen lower into straits than they were. The Old Laws cannot look with any other face than they did; though they be washed with Commonwealth's water, their countenance is still withered. Therefore it was not for nothing that the Kings would have all their Laws written in French and Latin, and not in English; partly in honor to the Norman Race, and partly to keep the Common People ignorant of their Creation Freedom lest they should rise to redeem themselves. And if those Laws should be writ in English, yet if the same Kingly Principles remain in them, the English language would not advantage us anything, but rather increase our sorrow by our knowledge of our bondage."

"WHAT IS LAW IN GENERAL?"

Winstanley then proceeds to consider the question, What is Law? and to emphasise the essential difference between customary, conventional or written Law and that unwritten Law, proceeding from the Inward Light of Reason, that inspires men, in action as in words, to do as they would be done unto. He first gives the following clear, rational and sufficient definition of Law:

"Law is a Rule, whereby men and other creatures are governed in their actions for the preservation of Common Peace."

Then follows a most philosophic consideration of the whole question, which seems to us to reveal that Winstanley was groping, and by no means so blindly as many who succeeded him, after some Natural Law, some unalterable and immutable principle, which should serve as a basis, as well as the test and touchstone, of all man-made customs, laws and institutions. He continues:

THE TWO-FOLD NATURE OF LAW.

"This Law is two-fold: First, it is the power of Life (called the Law of Nature within the Creatures) which doth move both man and beast in their actions, or that causes grass, trees, corn and all plants to grow in their several seasons. And whatsoever anybody does, he does it as he is moved by this inward Law. And this Law of Nature moves two-fold, viz., irrationally or rationally."

THE LAW OF THE FLESH.

"A man by this inward Law is guided to actions of present content, rashly, through a greedy self-love, without any consideration, like foolish children, or like the brute beasts. By reason whereof much hurt many times follows the body. And this may be called the Law of the Members warring against the Law of the Mind."

THE LAW OF THE MIND.

"Or where there is an inward watchful oversight of all motions to action, considering the end and effect of those actions, so that there be no excess in diet, in speech, or in action break forth, to the prejudice of a man's self or others: and this may be called the Light in Man, the Reasonable Power, or the Law of the Mind. And this rises up in the heart by an experimental observation of that peace or trouble which such and such words, thoughts and actions bring the man into. And this is called the Record on High; for it is a record in a man's heart above the former unreasonable power: and it may be called the witness or testimony of a man's own conscience: and this moderate watchfulness is still the Law of Nature, but in a higher resurrection than the former. It hath many terms, which for brevity sake I let pass."

THEIR STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY.

"This two-fold work of the Law within man strive to bring forth themselves in writing to beget numbers of bodies on their sides. That power which begets the bigger number always rules as King or Lord in the creature and in the Creation, till the other side overtop him: even as light and darkness strive in day and night to succeed each other. Or as it is said—"The strong man armed keeps the heart of man till a stronger than he came and cast him out."

THE WRITTEN LAW.

"This written Law, proceeding either from reason or unreasonableness, is called the Letter, whereby the creation of mankind, beasts and earth are governed, according to the will of that power which rules.... As for example, if the experienced, wise and strong man bears rule, then he writes down his mind to curb the unreasonable Law of Covetousness and Pride in inexperienced man, to preserve Peace in the Commonwealth. This is called the Historical or Traditional Law, because it is conveyed from one generation to another by writing: as the Laws of Israel's Commonwealth were writ in a book by Moses, and so conveyed to posterity. And this outward Law is a bridle to unreasonableness; or as Solomon writ, It is a whip for the fool's back, for whom only it was added."

ITS CORRUPTION.

"Secondly, Since Moses' time the power of unreasonable covetousness and pride hath sometimes risen up and corrupted that Traditional Law. For since the power of the sword rises up in Nations to conquer, the Written Law hath not been to advance Common Freedom and to beat down the unreasonable self-will in mankind, but it hath been framed to uphold the self-will of the Conqueror, right or wrong, not respecting the Freedom of the Commonwealth, but the Freedom of the Conqueror and his friends only. By reason whereof much slavery hath been laid on the backs of the plain-dealing men; and men of public spirit, as Moses was, have been crushed, and their spirits damped thereby: which hath bred first discontents, and then more wars in the Nations.... But hereby the true nature of a well-governed Commonwealth hath been ruined; the will of Kings set up for a Law; and the Law of Righteousness, the Law of Liberty, trod under foot and killed. This Traditional Law of Kings is that Letter at this day which kills true freedom and is the fomenter of wars and persecutions.

"This is the soldier who cut Christ's garments into pieces, which was to remain uncut and without seam. This law moves the people to fight one against the other for those pieces; viz., for the several enclosures of the Earth, who shall possess the Earth, and who shall be Rulers over others."

THE EVERLASTING LAW.

"But the true ancient Law of God is a Covenant of Peace to the whole of mankind. This sets the Earth free to all. This unites both Jew and Gentile into one Brotherhood, and rejects none. This makes Christ's garment whole again; and makes the Kingdoms of the World to become Commonwealths again. It is the Inward Power of Right Understanding, which is the True Law that teaches people in action, as well as in words, to do as they would be done unto."

Winstanley then contends that, as far as written laws are concerned—

"SHORT AND PITHY LAWS ARE BEST TO GOVERN A COMMONWEALTH,"

and defends this conclusion as follows:

"The Laws of Israel's Commonwealth were few, short and pithy; and the Government thereof was established in peace so long as Officers and People were obedient thereunto. But those many Laws in the days of the Kings of England, which were made some in times of Popery and some in times of Protestantism, and the proceedings of the Laws being in French and Latin, hath produced two great evils in England. First, it hath occasioned much ignorance among the people, and much contention. And the people have mightily erred through want of knowledge, and thereby they have run into great expense of money by suits of Law; or else many have been imprisoned, whipped, banished, lost their estates and lives by that Law which they were ignorant of till the scourge thereof was on their backs. This is a sore evil among the people.

"Secondly, The people's ignorance of the laws hath bred many sons of contention. For when any difference falls out between man and man, they neither of them know which offends the other; therefore, both of them thinking their cause is good, they delight to make use of the Law; and then they go and give a Lawyer money to tell them which of them was the offender. The Lawyer, being glad to maintain his own trade, sets them together by the ears till all their money be near spent; and then bids them refer the business to their neighbors to make them friends, which might have been done at the first. So that the course of the Law and Lawyers hath been a mere snare to entrap the people and to pull their estates from them by craft. For the Lawyers do uphold the Conqueror's Interest and the People's Slavery; so that the King, seeing this, did put all the affairs of Judicature into their hands: and all this must be called Justice, but it is a sore evil.

"But now if the Laws were few and short, and often read, it would prevent those evils. Everyone, knowing when they did well and when ill, would be very cautious of their words and actions, and thus would escape the Lawyer's craft. As Moses' Law in Israel's Commonwealth: 'The People did talk of them when they lay down and when they rose up, and as they walked by the way, and bound them as bracelets upon their hands:' so that they were an understanding people in the Laws wherein their peace did depend. But it is a sign that England is a blinded and snared generation; their Leaders, through pride and covetousness, have caused them to err, yea and perish too, for want of the knowledge of the Laws, which hath the Power of Life and Death, Freedom and Bondage in its hand. But I hope better things hereafter."

Winstanley, then, we regret to say, was ambitious enough to attempt to formulate a whole series of rigid artificial laws, which he evidently deemed adapted to promote the prosperity and preserve the happiness of his ideal Commonwealth: laws for the planting of the Earth, for Navigation, Trade, Marriage, etc. etc. The curious reader will find them almost in full in Appendix C. Many of them may seem to us unnecessary, but then we should remember that we have at our command a greater store of economic knowledge, and more accurate economic reasoning, than were available to Winstanley. Many of his laws will appear to us unnecessarily severe; but if we compare them with those prevailing for many, many years after his time, they will appear, by comparison, both mild and humane. As it seems to us, Winstanley intended to formulate suggestions rather than Laws in the accepted sense of the term: suggestions by following which the Earth could be planted and harvested, and all handicraft, trade, commerce and industries carried on, and the fruits of the united labours of all equitably distributed amongst all according to their needs, without having recourse to "the thieving art of buying and selling" either the Earth or the fruits thereof.

The pamphlet concludes with the following quaint and yet philosophic lines, with which our notice of it may also fittingly close:

"Here is the Righteous Law, Man wilt thou it maintain? It may be, as hath still, in the World been slain. Truth appears in Light, Falsehood rules in Power; To see these things to be, is cause of grief each hour. Knowledge, Why didst thou come, to wound and not to cure? I sent not for thee, thou didst me inlure. Where knowledge does increase, there sorrows multiply, To see the great deceit which in the World doth lie. Man saying one thing now, unsaying it anon, Breaking all Engagements, when deeds for him are done. O Power where art thou? thou must mend things amiss; Come, change the heart of Man, and make him Truth to kiss: O Death, where art thou? wilt thou not tidings send? I fear thee not, thou art my loving friend. Come take this body, and scatter it in the Four, That I may dwell in One, and rest in peace once more."



CHAPTER XVII

CONCLUDING REMARKS

"While God gave to man a capacity to labour, He also gave him a right to the object (the earth) on which that labour must be employed to produce the necessaries of life. This gift of God is to all men alike. No compact or consent or legislation on the part of one portion of the community, can ever justly deprive another portion of the community of their right of their share of the earth, and of its natural productions. No arrangement or agreement or legislation of men now dead, can justly deprive the present inhabitants of the earth, or any portion of those inhabitants, of their right to labour, and to labour for their own profit, on some portion of the earth which God has given to man."—PATRICK EDWARD DOVE, Elements of Political Science. 1854.

"Our postulates are the primary perceptions of human reason, the fundamental teachings of the Christian faith. We hold: That—This world is the creation of God. The men brought into it for the brief period of their earthly lives are the equal creatures of His bounty, the equal subjects of His provident care.... Being the equal creatures of the Creator, equally entitled under His providence to live their lives and satisfy their needs, men are equally entitled to the use of land, and any adjustment that denies this equal use of land is morally wrong."—HENRY GEORGE, An Open Letter to Pope Leo XIII. 1891.[228:1]

Here, then, we must bid farewell to Gerrard Winstanley. We are uncertain as to the place and year of his birth; we know not where he lived, nor where or when he died; yet his words still appeal to us, prompting us to cast off the blinding and distorting spectacles of convention and custom, to look the facts of social life fairly and squarely in the face, and boldly to proclaim whatever social truths reflection and study may reveal to us. Such are the lessons which his life and teachings seem to us to inculcate.

What Winstanley regarded, and what a steadily increasing number of earnest students to-day regard, as a fundamental social truth was revealed to him; and right well he gave expression, by words and deeds, to his strong and well-grounded conviction of the equal claim of all to the use of Mother Earth, to the use of the nation's natural home, workhouse and storehouse, whence, by labour, everything necessary to life and comfort can alone be derived. Winstanley realised, as they to-day realise, that to admit in the abstract the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man, to admit the equal claim of all to life, and yet to deny the equal claim of all to the use of God's Earth, to share in those blessings which the great Father of all men has lavished upon His children, and which form the only means by which life can be maintained, is but hypocrisy and cant. The "rights of property," the financial interests of the privileged classes, the Elder Brothers, the so-called "power of the capitalists," may be based on and involved in the recognition of the claim of the few to control the use of the Earth. But the rights of man, the material, moral and spiritual interests of the masses of mankind, their emancipation from the unjust economic conditions to-day enthralling and impoverishing them, narrowing and degrading their lives, depriving them of all real enjoyment of the present, as of all hope for the future, hindering the advance of the race to a nobler civilisation, to a higher plane of individual and social life, depend upon our recognising and enforcing the claim of all to the use of the Earth, and to share in the bounties of Nature, upon equitable terms. What Winstanley discovered and proclaimed in the Seventeenth Century, Henry George rediscovered and again proclaimed in the Nineteenth Century, and that in tones which are still reverberating and producing their effects on social thought throughout the length and breadth of the civilised world, promising ultimately to produce a change in social conditions compared with which the abolition of slavery sinks into comparative insignificance. It is no longer a question of the emancipation of a few chattel slaves, but of the whole human race.

Fundamental social laws and institutions, based upon inequality of rights, must necessarily produce inequality of conditions. And all who impartially consider the question will be forced to admit that both Winstanley and Henry George trace the prevailing social inequality, the debauching wealth of the few and the degrading poverty of the many, to its true cause. Nor can there be any doubt but that if Winstanley's practical and efficacious remedy had been adopted, if the use of the Common Land had been secured to the Common People on equitable terms, the economic condition of the masses of the generations which succeeded him, the whole subsequent economic, social and political history of the English People, would have been very different; and they would not now, in the Twentieth Century, be fighting for, or more often whispering with bated breath concerning, those very reforms he so strenuously advocated over two hundred and fifty years ago.

Winstanley's writings met with the fate that awaits all thought much in advance of the times in which it is given to the world. They have been ignored and forgotten; and till very recently even his memory had vanished from the minds of his fellow-countrymen, to whose emancipation he unstintedly devoted his life. Nor can we be surprised at this, when we consider the circumstances. There can be little doubt but that his earlier writings were the quiver whence the early Quakers derived many of their arrows, their most pointed and consequently by their opponents most hated doctrines. And yet the highly philosophic and rational attitude toward cosmological and theological speculations Winstanley attained to in his last pamphlet, placed before our readers in Chapter XVI., seems to us sufficiently to account for his having been ignored even by those who may have availed themselves of his earlier works, and hence that these, too, should have been gradually forgotten.

That the same fate should have befallen his political writings, his noble and yet simple and practical political ideals and aspirations, is also not surprising. After the Restoration, when, as we have already shown, Winstanley's bitter opponents, the old and new landholders, were in the saddle, and made unsparing, we had almost written unscrupulous, use of their opportunities, such doctrines as his were little likely to commend themselves to the privileged, cultured and educated classes. Prior to the Reformation, education, at least the knowledge of reading, writing and arithmetic, was undoubtedly more widely diffused amongst the masses of the people than it was subsequently—at all events, till very recent times. From the Restoration to within our own times, education, even the knowledge of reading, was as a very general rule only within the reach of the few, of the privileged classes and those more or less dependent on their favour, with whom such ideals as those voiced by Winstanley would naturally meet with but scant consideration. Moreover, though we may be accused of pessimism or cynicism for saying so, it seems to us that the main reason why teachings such as Winstanley's must necessarily remain specially unpalatable and unwelcome so long as social and political privileges are allowed to continue, is that they are too simple and direct, and the path toward their realisation too clearly indicated, to be acceptable or welcome to those who benefit, or think they benefit, by the continuance of social injustice. Winstanley's proposals, as the proposals of his great modern representative, Henry George, are, indeed, a test of sincerity. It is easy to express approval of Freedom, Justice, Honesty, Equality of Opportunities, Brotherhood, of the Equal Right of All to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, and so on, in the abstract, and to talk about the necessity for men, other men, dealing honestly, equitably and righteously one toward the other. It is difficult, though but a test of our own honesty and sincerity, to give practical support to unpopular doctrines and proposals which would tend to make these noble and elevating conceptions into real, living realities, and to enforce us to act honestly, equitably and righteously ourselves. Hence it is that even to-day those who advocate any such doctrines, any such social change, are either dismissed as impossible, utopian dreamers, or denounced as revolutionary demagogues, as "prophets of iniquity," "preachers of immorality," "advocates of villany," as enemies of society, and so on; and if this fails of its desired effects, other means are found by which their influence is undermined and their teachings discredited in the minds of those who more or less blindly follow in the wake of the "superior classes," the privileged few and their more or less direct dependents. Thus Society continues its troubled slumbers until—until the necessary changes denied to peaceful reformers, to the thinkers of the race, may be demanded, by revolutionary methods, by force, by those who know themselves injured and oppressed, though they may be ignorant of the means by which they are wronged.

It was, however, as a sincere and unswerving advocate of peaceful, practical reforms, as a courageous and unflinching opponent of the use of force, of the sword, even for righteous ends, that Winstanley appealed to his own generation, as Henry George, Ruskin and Tolstoy appeal to the present. Nor can there be any doubt but that his teachings found far more general acceptance than is to be gathered from modern histories of the troubled times in which his lot was cast. For not only was there sufficient demand to warrant the publication of at least two editions of The Law of Freedom, as of several of his other pamphlets, but additional testimony is to be gathered from the fact that his writings were immediately pirated and issued under new titles by other publishers:[232:1] than which no better evidence can be had of the popularity of any writer.

However this may be, new and less earnest and less strenuous generations arose which knew not Winstanley, and heeded not his teachings; and till very recent years both he and his teachings have remained utterly forgotten. And yet we write the closing lines of our work with the same conviction with which we commenced it some five years ago, that not only was Gerrard Winstanley a man worthy to be recalled to the memory of his fellow-countrymen, as one who deserved well of his day, of his generation and of his country, but that the intrinsic merits of his writings and teachings make them worthy of our most careful study, of our highest admiration, and of our most profound respect.

True, they have hitherto received but scant consideration; but this need neither surprise nor disturb us. The man in whose heart a new truth is born may be a benefactor of his species; but, as all history teaches us, if he have courage to proclaim it to the world, he must be prepared to meet the hatred, scoffing and abuse of the ignorant, the sneering contempt, if not bitter persecution, of the learned and highly placed upholders of already accepted beliefs and superstitions. More especially is this true of a social truth, of a truth which threatens the continuance of society in its accustomed paths, which threatens the continuance of some vested social wrong, of some deep-rooted and time-honoured social injustice, which, though it may be poisoning the springs of social life, necessarily finds favour in the eyes of those who are advantaged, or think they are advantaged, thereby. It was such a truth that meditation and reflection revealed to Gerrard Winstanley; and, as we have seen, he too met with the fate awaiting those who find themselves in advance of their times. As already pointed out, his memory has passed away, his teachings have remained unheeded. The seed he planted fell upon barren soil; but though so hardened by the withering frosts of ignorance, of that ignorance which is indeed "the curse of God," as to seem but as a dead stone, the vivifying sun of knowledge may yet stir its dormant potency, recalling it to life, to spring up and to develop into a stately tree, yielding its life-giving fruits, offering the welcome protection of its branches to all seeking rest and shelter beneath its shade. To-day the thought that inspired Winstanley has again been proclaimed by one greater than Winstanley, and is slowly but surely remoulding the social thought of the world. Thanks to the genius of Henry George, the more thoughtful and ethical-minded of our race are gradually coming to realise that, to use Winstanley's words—"True Commonwealth's Freedom lies in the free enjoyment of the Earth"; and that if they would remove those remediable social ills which harass, haunt and warp our advancing civilisation, the use of the Earth and a share in the bounties and blessings of Nature must be secured to each and all upon equitable terms and conditions. Hence it is that we feel impelled to close our notice of the great Apostle of Social Justice and Economic Freedom of the Seventeenth Century with the following eloquent and soul-stirring words of his still greater successor of the Nineteenth Century, words which almost seem but as an echo of his own, even though many of us even to-day may have yet to learn to appreciate their full force, meaning and truth:

"In our time, as in times before, creep on the insidious forces that, producing inequality, destroy Liberty. On the horizon the clouds begin to lower. Liberty calls to us again. We must follow her further; we must trust her fully. Either we must wholly accept her or she will not stay. It is not enough that men should vote; it is not enough that they should be theoretically equal before the law. They must have liberty to avail themselves of the opportunities and means of life; they must stand on equal terms with reference to the bounties of nature. Either this, or Liberty withdraws her light! Either this, or darkness comes on, and the very forces that progress has evolved turn to powers that work destruction. This is the universal law. This is the lesson of the centuries. Unless its foundations be laid in justice the social structure cannot stand."

END.

FOOTNOTES:

[228:1] Published under the title, The Condition of Labour (Swan, Sonnenschein & Co., London).

[232:1] The following are some of such pirated publications: Articles of High Treason. British Museum, Press Mark, E. 521. A Declaration for Freedom. E. 321. The Levellers Remonstrance. E. 652. 12.



APPENDIX A

THE FUNDAMENTAL AND JUST CHIEF ARTICLES OF ALL THE PEASANTRY AND VILLEINS BY WHICH THEY DEEM THEMSELVES OPPRESSED

INTRODUCTION.

To the Christian Reader, Peace and the Grace of God through Christ,—There are many Anti-Christians who now take occasion to libel the Gospel on account of the assembled peasantry, saying these be the fruits of the New Gospel, to obey none, to raise rebellion in all places, to rush to arms to reform, to root out, and perhaps to destroy all spiritual and temporal authority. All such godless and wicked judgements the Articles here written do answer; in the first place, so that the shame may be lifted off the word of God; in the second, to excuse in a Christian manner this uprising of the peasants.

In the first place, the Gospel is no cause of any uprising, seeing that it is the word of Christ, the promised Messiah, whose word and life teach naught save love, peace, patience and unity; so all who believe in this Christ should be loving, peaceful, patient and united. The object of all the Articles of the Peasants, when once clearly apprehended, is that they may hear the Gospel and live according to the Gospel. How then can Anti-Christians denounce the Gospel as a cause of rebellion and disobedience? But that Anti-Christians and Enemies of the Gospel should rise up against such requirements, of this the Gospel is not the cause, but the Devil, the most hurtful enemy of the Gospel, who arouses infidelity in his followers, so that the word of God, which teaches peace and unity, may be trodden down and taken away.

In the second place, the following show clearly that the peasants in their Articles demand the Gospel for teaching and for life; therefore they cannot be called disobedient or rebellious. But should God hear the peasants, who sincerely desire to live according to His word: Who will oppose the will of God? (Rom. xi.). Who will impeach His judgment? (Isa. xi.). Who dare resist His majesty? (Rom. viii.). Did He not hear the Children of Israel when they called on Him, and delivered them out of the hand of Pharaoh (II Moses 3. 7), and can He not to-day also save His own? Aye, He will save them, and that speedily (Luke xviii. 8). Therefore, Christian Reader, read the following Articles sedulously, and then judge.

FIRST ARTICLE.

It is our humble request and desire, as also our will and intention, that henceforth the community itself shall have power to choose their Pastor, as also to dismiss him should he be found unsuitable. The Pastor so chosen shall preach to us the Gospel clearly and purely, free from all man-made additions, teachings and ordinances. For whoever preaches to us the true Faith giveth us reason to pray to God for His mercy, and to call up within us and confirm us in the true Faith. For if we do not enjoy His grace, we remain mere flesh and blood, which profiteth not. It is clearly written in the Scriptures that it is only through the true Faith that we can come to God, and only through His mercy that we can be saved. Therefore it is that we require such a Pastor and Minister.

SECOND ARTICLE.

Secondly, As the just tithe was established in the Old Testament, and in the New covered all dues, so we will gladly furnish the just tithe of corn, but only in a seemly manner, according to which it should be given to God, and divided among His servants. It is the due of a Pastor, as the Word of God clearly proclaims. Therefore it is our will that the Church Overseers, such as are appointed by the Community, shall collect and receive this tithe, and therefrom shall give to the Pastor, who shall be chosen by the Community, suitable and sufficient subsistence for him and his, as the whole Community may deem just. The surplus shall be devoted to the use of the poor and needy, as we are instructed in the Holy Scriptures. And so that no general tax shall be levied on the poor, their share of such taxation shall be defrayed out of such surplus.

In villages where the right to the tithe has been sold, out of sheer necessity, the buyers shall lose nothing, but their rights shall be redeemed in a seemly manner. But those who have not bought the right to the tithe from the village, but who or whose fathers have simply usurped it to themselves, we will not and we should not give them anything. We owe such men nothing; but we are willing out of the proceeds of such tithe to support our chosen Pastor, and to relieve the needy as we are commanded in the Holy Scriptures.

The small tithe we will not give. For God the Lord hath created the beasts free to mankind (Gen. i.). It is only a mere human invention that we should pay tithe on them. Therefore we shall not pay such tithe for the future.

THIRD ARTICLE.

Thirdly, It has hitherto been the custom that we should be held as serfs, which is deplorable, since Christ redeemed us all with His precious blood, the shepherd as well as the noble, the lowest as well as the highest, none being excepted. Therefore it accords with Scripture that we should be free; and we will be free. Not that we are absolutely free, or desire to be free from all authority: this God does not teach us. We are to live according to His commandments, not according to the promptings of the flesh; but shall love God as our Master, and recognise Him as the one nearest to us. And everything He has commanded we shall do; and His commands do not instruct us to disobey the orders of the Authorities. On the contrary, not only before the Authorities, but before all men we are to be humble; so that in all matters fitting and Christian we shall gladly obey the orders of those who have been chosen or have been set up over us. And doubtless, as true and honest Christians, you will gladly abolish serfdom, or prove it to be in accordance with the Gospel.

FOURTH ARTICLE.

Fourthly, It has hitherto been the custom that no poor man should have any right to the game, the birds, or to the fish in the running waters. This seems to us unseemly and unbrotherly, and not to be in accordance with the Word of God. Moreover, in some places the authorities let the game increase to our injury and mighty undoing, since we have to permit that which God has caused to grow for the use of man to be unavailingly devoured by the beasts; and we have to hold our peace concerning this, which is against God and our neighbours. When our Lord God created mankind, He gave him power over all creatures, over the birds in the air and the fish in the waters. Therefore as regards those who control the running waters, and who can show us documents to prove that they purchased it with money, we do not desire to take it away from such men by force, but to come to some Christian agreement with them in brotherly love. Those who have no such documents shall share with the community in a seemly manner.

FIFTH ARTICLE.

Fifthly, We find ourselves oppressed as regards the woods. For our Lords have taken to themselves all the woods; and when poor men require any wood, they have to buy it with money. Our view is that such woods, whether claimed by spiritual or by temporal Lords, as have not been purchased, should return to the community, and be free to all in a seemly manner. So that those who require wood for firing shall be free to take same without payment, as also if they require any for carpentering: but, of course, always with the knowledge of the chosen Authorities of the community. But where there are no woods save those as have been honestly purchased, with such we will arrange the matter in a brotherly and Christian spirit. And in cases where the land was first appropriated and afterwards sold, we will also come to an agreement with the buyers according to the circumstances of the case, and with regard to brotherly love and the Holy Writings.

SIXTH ARTICLE.

Sixthly, The burden of service presses heavily upon us, and is daily increased. We desire that this matter shall be looked into, and that we be not so heavily burdened, but shall be mercifully dealt with herein; that we should serve but as our fathers have served, but only according to the Word of God.

SEVENTH ARTICLE.

Seventhly, Henceforth we will no longer allow ourselves to be oppressed by the Lords, but according as a Lord hath granted the land, so shall it be held, according to the agreement between the Lord and the peasant. The Lord shall not force him to render more service for naught; so that the peasant shall enjoy his holding in peace and unoppressed. But if the Lord hath need of service, the peasant shall be willing and obedient to him before others; but it shall be at the hour and the time when it shall not injure the peasant, and at a proper remuneration.

EIGHTH ARTICLE.

Eighthly, Many of us are oppressed in that we hold lands that will not bear the price placed on them, so that the peasant thereby is ruined and undone. Our desire is that the Lord shall allow such land to be seen by honourable men, so that the price shall be fixed in such a manner that the peasant shall not have his labour in vain: for every labourer is worthy of his hire (Matt. x.).

NINTH ARTICLE.

Ninthly, We suffer greatly because of the new punishments that are continually laid upon us. Not that they punish us according to the circumstances of the case, but at times spitefully and at other times favourably. We would be punished according to the old written punishments, and not arbitrarily.

TENTH ARTICLE.

Tenthly, We suffer in that some have taken to themselves meadows and arable land that belong to the community. Such land we would take once more into the hands of our communities wheresoever they have not been honestly purchased. But where they have been purchased, then shall the case be agreed upon in peace and brotherly love, according to the circumstances of the case.

ELEVENTH ARTICLE.

Eleventhly, We would have the custom called the death-due entirely abolished. We will never suffer nor permit that widows and orphans shall be disgraced and robbed of their own, contrary to God and honour, as has happened in many cases and in many ways. Those who would protect and shelter them, they have abused and injured, and when these have had some little property, even this they have taken. Such things God will no longer suffer, they shall be abolished. For such things no man shall henceforth be compelled to give aught, be it little or much.

TWELFTH ARTICLE.

Twelfthly, It is our resolve and final decision that if any of the Articles here set forth be not according to the Word of God, we will, whenever they are shown to be against the Word of God, at once withdraw therefrom. Yea, even though certain articles were now granted and it should hereafter be found that they are unjust, from that hour they shall be null and void and of no effect. The same shall happen if there should with truth be found in the Scriptures yet more Articles which were held to be against God and a stumbling-block to our neighbours, even though we should have determined to preserve such for ourselves. For we have determined and resolved to practice ourselves in all Christian doctrines. Therefore we pray God the Lord who can grant us the same, and none other. The Peace of Christ be with you all. Amen.



APPENDIX B

TOLERATION

The statement that toleration was the one leading principle of Cromwell's life, may seem somewhat exaggerated to those who have not carefully studied his career. By his own words let him be judged. Writing to Major Crawford as early as March 1643 (1644) he plainly tells him—"Sir, the State, in choosing men to serve it, takes no notice of their opinions; if they be willing faithfully to serve it, that satisfies." After Naseby, under date June 14th, 1645, in his dispatch to the Speaker, he tells the Presbyterian House of Commons—"Honest men served you faithfully in this action. Sir, they are trusty; I beseech you in the name of God not to discourage them.... He that ventures his life for the liberty of the country, I wish he trust God for the liberty of his conscience, and you for the liberty he fights for." The meaning of these words was not lost to the House, so when sending his dispatch to the press, they carefully omitted this paragraph.

After the siege of Bristol, Cromwell is still more outspoken. Under date September 14th, 1645, he writes to the Speaker as follows—"Presbyterians, Independents, all have here the same spirit of faith and prayer; the same presence and answer; they agree here, have no names of difference; pity it should be otherwise anywhere—for, bretheren, in things of the mind we look for no compulsion but that of light and reason." This dispatch, too, the House of Commons took care to mutilate before sending it to the press.

As he advanced in his career, Cromwell became still more outspoken. In his opening speech to his first Parliament, after having given expression to his view that the Lord had given them the victory for the common good of all, "for the good of the whole flock," he continues—"Therefore I beseech you—but I think I need not—have a care of the whole flock! Love the sheep, love the lambs; love all, tender all, cherish and countenance all, in all things that are good. And if the poorest Christian, the most mistaken Christian, shall desire to live peaceably and quietly under you—I say, if any shall desire but to lead a life of godliness and honesty, let him be protected."

Again, when dissolving his first Parliament (Speech IV.), he expresses the same thought in the following words—"Is there not yet upon the spirits of men a strange itch? Nothing will satisfy them unless they can press their finger upon their bretheren's consciences, to pinch them there. To do this was no part of the contest we had with the common adversary. For religion was not the thing at first contended for, but God brought it to that issue at last; and gave it unto us by way of redundancy; and at last it proved to be that which was most dear to us. And wherein consisted this more than in obtaining that liberty from the tyranny of the Bishops to all species of Protestants to worship God according to their own light and consciences? ... And was it fit for them to sit heavy upon others? Is it ingenuous to ask liberty and not to give it? What greater hypocrisy than for those who were oppressed by the Bishops to become the greatest oppressors themselves, so soon as their yoke was removed? I could wish that they who call for liberty now also had not too much of that spirit, if the power were in their hands."

Cromwell, in short, had no deep-rooted objection either to a moderate Episcopacy or to a tolerant Presbyterianism, though, as he somewhere says, "both are a hard choice," provided only there was sufficient consideration for those who could not reconcile their consciences to the demands of the established State Church. His great desire was "for union and right understanding" between Protestants of all shades, in fact between "godley" (religious or moral) people of all races, countries and denominations, "Scots, English, Jews, Gentiles, Presbyterians, Independents, Anabaptists, and all." (See his letter to Hammond, Clarke Papers, vol. ii. p. 49.) His aim was to reconcile, or rather to stand as mediator between all the opposing sects. "Fain," he writes to one of his most devoted adherent (see Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, Carlyle, part vii. p. 363), "would I have my service accepted of the Saints, if the Lord will;—but it is not so. Being of different judgements, and those of each sort seeking most to propagate their own, that spirit of kindness that is to them all is hardly accepted of any. I hope I can say it, My life has been a willing sacrifice,—and I hope—for them all. Yet it much falls out as when the two Hebrews were rebuked: you know upon whom they turned their displeasure."

In short, Cromwell's attitude toward all honest, sincere, "godley" men was the same as his attitude toward George Fox. "Come again to my house," he said, when dismissing the sturdy Quaker, "for if thou and I were but an hour a day together we should be nearer one to the other. I wish you no more ill than I do to my own soul."

On November 17th, 1645, "the Dissenting Bretheren," the representatives of the Independents in the Westminster Assembly, declared for a full liberty of conscience. "They expressed themselves," as Baillie, the Scotch Presbyterian commissioner, wrote sadly, "for toleration, not only to themselves, but to all sects." In February of the same year, the Oxford Clergy, who had been consulted by the King as to the limits of possible concession, gave strong evidence that the pressure of events were forcing them to move, even though slowly, in the same direction. (See Gardiner, History of the Civil War, vol. ii. pp. 125-126.)



APPENDIX C

WHAT MAY BE THOSE PARTICULAR LAWS, OR SUCH A METHOD OF LAWS, WHEREBY A COMMONWEALTH MAY BE GOVERNED?

1. The bare letter of the Law established by Act of Parliament shall be the Rule for Officers and People, and the chief Judge of all actions.

2. He or they who add or diminish from the Law, excepting in the Court of Parliament, shall be cashiered his Office, and never bear Office more.

3. No man shall administer the Law for Money or Reward. He that doth shall die as a Traitor to the Commonwealth. For when Money must buy and sell Justice, and bear all the sway, there is nothing but Oppression to be expected.

[Here, as also in other Laws yet to follow, Winstanley, and as it seems to us without sufficient grounds, gives up the position taken up in The New Law of Righteousness, that capital punishment was absolutely unjustifiable.]

4. The Laws shall be read by the Minister to the People four times in the year, viz., every quarter; that everyone may know whereunto they are to yield obedience, that none may die for want of knowledge.

5. No accusation shall be taken against any man unless it be proved by two or three witnesses, or his own confession.

6. No man shall suffer any punishment but for matter of fact or reviling words. But no man shall be troubled for his judgement or practice in the things of his God, so he live quiet in the Land.

7. The accuser and the accused shall always appear face to face before any Officer; that both sides may be heard, and no wrong to either party.

8. If any Judge execute his own will contrary to the Law, or where there is no Law to warrant him in, he shall be cashiered, and never bear Office more.

9. He who raises an accusation against any man, and cannot prove it, shall suffer the same punishment as the other should, if proved. An accusation is, when one man complains of another to an Officer, all other accusations the Law takes no notice of.

10. He who strikes his neighbor shall be struck himself by the executioner, blow for blow, and shall lose eye for eye, tooth for tooth, limb for limb, life for life. And the reason is that men should be tender of one another's bodies, doing as they would be done by.

11. If any man strike an Officer, he shall be made a servant under the Task-master for a whole year.

12. He who endeavours to stir up contention among neighbors, by tale-bearing or false reports, shall the first time be reproved openly by the Overseers among the people. The second time he shall be whipped. The third time he shall be a servant under the Task-master for three months. And if he continue, he shall be a servant for ever, and lose his Freedom in the Commonwealth.

13. If any give reviling or provoking words, whereby his neighbor's spirit is burdened, if complaint be made to the Overseers, they shall admonish the offender privately to forbear. If he continue to offend his neighbor, the next time he shall be openly reproved and admonished before the Congregation when met together. If he continue, the third time he shall be whipped; the fourth time, if proof be made by witnesses, he shall be a servant under the Task-master for twelve months.

14. He who will rule as a Lord over his Brother, unless he be an Officer commanding obedience to the Law, he shall be admonished as aforesaid, and receive like punishment, if he continue.

LAWS FOR THE PLANTING OF THE EARTH.

15. Every household shall keep all instruments and tools fit for the tillage of the Earth, either for planting, reaping or threshing. Some households, which have many men in them, shall keep ploughs, carts, harrows, and such like. Other households shall keep spades, pick-axes, pruning hooks, and such like, according as every family is furnished with men to work therewith. And if any Master or Father of a Family be negligent herein, the Overseer for that Circuit shall admonish him between them two. If he continue negligent, the Overseer shall reprove him before all the people. And if he utterly refuse, then the ordering of that Family shall be given to another, and he shall be Servant under the Task-master till he reform.

16. Every Family shall come into the field with sufficient assistance at seed time, to plough, dig and plant, and at harvest time to reap the fruits of the Earth, and to carry them into the Storehouses, as the Overseers order the work and the number of workmen. If any refuse to assist in the work, the Overseer shall ask the reason; and if it be sickness or any distemper that hinders them, they are freed from such service; if mere idleness keep them back, they are to suffer punishment according to the Laws against Idleness.

LAWS AGAINST IDLENESS.

17. If any refuse to learn a trade, or refuse to work in seed-time, or refuse to be a waiter in storehouses, and yet will feed and clothe himself with other men's labors, the Overseer shall first admonish him privately. If he continue idle, he shall be reproved openly before all the people by the Overseer, and shall be forbore with a month after this reproof. If he still continue idle, he shall be whipped, and let go at liberty for a month longer. If still he continue idle, he shall be delivered into the Task-master's hand, who shall set him to work for twelve months, or till he submit to right order. The reason why every young man shall be trained up in some work or other, is to prevent pride and contention; it is for the health of their bodies; it is a pleasure to the mind to be free in labors one with another; and it provides plenty of food and all necessaries for the Commonwealth.

LAWS FOR STOREHOUSES.

18. In every Town and City shall be appointed Storehouses for flax, wood, leather, cloth, and for all such commodities as come from beyond seas. These shall be called General Storehouses, whence every particular Family may fetch such commodities as they want, either for their own use in their house, or for to work in their trades, or to carry into the Country Storehouses.

19. Every particular house and shop in a town or city shall be a particular Storehouse or Shop, as now they be. And these shops shall either be furnished by the particular labor of that family according to the trade that family is of, or by the labor of other lesser families of the same trade, as all shops in every town are now furnished.

20. The waiters in Storehouses shall deliver the goods in their charge without receiving any money, as they shall receive in their goods without paying any money.

21. If any waiter in a Storehouse neglect his Office, upon a just complaint, the Overseers shall acquaint the Judge's Court therewith; and from thence he shall receive his sentence, to be discharged that house and office, to be appointed some other work under the Task-master; and another shall have his place. For he who may live in Freedom and will not, is to taste of servitude.

LAWS FOR OVERSEERS.

22. The only work of every Overseer is to see the Laws executed. For the Law is the True Magistracy of the land.

23. If any Overseer favour any in their idleness and neglect the execution of the Laws, he shall be reproved, the first time by the Judge's Court; the second time cashiered his Office, and shall never bear Office more, but fall back into the ranks of young people and servants to be a worker.

24. New Overseers, at their first entrance into their office, shall look back upon the actions of the Old Overseers of the last year, to see if they have been faithful in their places, and consented to no breach of Law, whereby Kingly Bondage should in any way be brought in.

25. The Overseers for Trades shall see every Family to lend assistance to plant and reap the fruits of the Earth, to work in their Trades, and to furnish the Storehouses. And to see that the Waiters in Storehouses be diligent to receive in and deliver out any goods, without buying and selling, to any man whatsoever.

26. While any Overseer is in performance of his place, every one shall assist him, upon pain of open reproof (or cashiered if he be another Officer) or forfeiture of freedom, according to the nature of the business in hand, in which he refused his assistance.

LAWS AGAINST BUYING AND SELLING.

27. If any man entice another to buy and sell, and he who is enticed does not yield, but makes it known to the Overseer, the enticer shall lose his freedom for twelve months, and the Overseer shall give words of commendation of him that refused the enticement before all the Congregation, for his faithfulness to the Commonwealth's Peace.

THE UNPARDONABLE SIN!

28. If any do buy and sell the Earth, or the fruits thereof, unless it be to or with strangers of another Nation, according to the Law of Navigation, they shall be both put to death as Traitors to the Peace of the Commonwealth. Because it brings in Kingly Bondage again, and is the occasion of all quarrels and oppressions.

29. He, or she, who calls the Earth his, and not his brother's, shall be set upon a stool, with those words written in his forehead, before all the Congregation, and afterwards be made a Servant for twelve months under the Task-master. If he quarrel, or seek by secret persuasion or open rising in arms to set up such a Kingly Propriety, he shall be put to death.

30. The Storehouses shall be every man's subsistence, and not any ones.

31. No man shall either give hire or take hire for his work; for this brings in Kingly Bondage. If any Freeman want help, there are young people, or such as are common servants, to do it by the Overseer's appointment. He that gives and he that hires for work, shall both lose their freedom and become Servants for twelve months under the Task-master.

LAWS FOR NAVIGATION.

32. Because other Nations as yet own Monarchy, and will buy and sell, therefore it is convenient for the peace of our Commonwealth, that our ships do transport our English goods and exchange for theirs, and conform to the customs of other Nations in buying and selling: Always provided that what goods our ships carry out, they shall be the Commonwealth's goods; and all their trading with other Nations shall be upon the Common Stock, to enrich the Storehouses.

LAWS FOR SILVER AND GOLD.

33. As Silver and Gold is either found out in mines in our own Land, or brought by shipping from beyond Sea, it shall not be coined with a Conqueror's stamp upon it, to set up buying and selling under his name, or by his leave. For there shall be no other use for it in the Commonwealth than to make dishes and other necessaries for the ornament of houses, as now there is use made of brass, pewter and iron, or any other metal in their use. But in case other Nations whose commodities we want, will not exchange with us unless we give them money, then pieces of silver and gold may be stamped with the Commonwealth's Arms upon them, for the same use and no otherwise.

For where money bears all the sway, there is no regard of that Golden Rule, "Do as you would be done by." Justice is bought and sold; nay, Injustice is sometimes bought for money; and it is the cause of all wars and oppressions. Certainly the Righteous Spirit of the Whole Creation did never enact a Law that his weak and simple men should go from England to the East Indies and fetch silver and gold to bring in their hands to their bretheren, and give it them for their good-will to let them plant the Earth, and live and enjoy their livelihood therein.

LAWS TO CHOOSE OFFICERS.

34. All Overseers and State Officers shall be chosen new every year, to prevent the rise of Ambition and Covetousness. For the Nations have smarted sufficiently by suffering Officers to continue long in an Office, or to remain in an Office by hereditary succession.

35. A man who is of a turbulent spirit, given to quarrelling and provoking words to his neighbor, shall not be chosen any Officer while he so continues.

36. All men of twenty years of age upwards shall have freedom of voice to choose Officers, unless they be such as lie under sentence of the Law.

37. Such shall be chosen Officers as are rational men of moderate conversation, and who have experience in the Laws of the Commonwealth.

38. All men from forty years of age upwards shall be capable to be chosen State Officers, and none younger, unless any one by his industry and moderate conversation doth move the people to choose him.

39. If any man make suit to move the people to choose him an Officer, that man shall not be chosen at all that time. If another man shall persuade the people to choose him that made suit for himself, they shall both loose their freedom at that time, viz., they shall neither have a voice to choose another, nor be chosen themselves.

LAWS AGAINST TREACHERY.

40. He who professes the service of a righteous God by preaching and prayer, and makes a trade to get the possessions of the Earth, shall be put to death for a Witch and a Cheater.

41. He who pretends one thing in words, and his actions declare his intent was another thing, shall never bear Office in the Commonwealth.

WHAT IS FREEDOM?

Every Freeman shall have a Freedom in the Earth, to plant or build, to fetch from the Storehouses anything he wants, and shall enjoy the fruits of his labor without restraint from any. He shall not pay Rent to any Landlord. He shall be capable of being chosen Officer, so he be above forty years of age, and he shall have a voice to choose Officers though he be under forty years of age. If he want any young men to be assistants to him in his trade or household employment, the Overseers shall appoint him young men or maids to be his servants in his family.

LAWS FOR SUCH AS HAVE LOST THEIR FREEDOM.

42. All those who have lost their freedom shall be clothed in white woollen cloth, that they may be distinguished from others.

43. They shall be under the government of a Task-master, who shall appoint them to be porters or laborers, to do any work that any Freeman wants to be done.

44. They shall do all kinds of labor without exception, but their constant work shall be carriers or carters, to carry corn or other provision from Storehouse to Storehouse, from Country to Cities, and thence to Countries.

45. If any of these refuse to do such work, the Task-master shall see them whipped, and shall feed them with coarse diet. And what hardship is this? For Freemen work the easiest work, and these shall work the hardest work. And to what end is this but to kill their Pride and Unreasonableness, that they may become useful men in the Commonwealth?

46. The wife or children of such as have lost their Freedom shall not be as slaves till they have lost their Freedom as their parents and husbands have done.

47. He who breaks any laws shall be the first time reproved in words in private or in public, as is shown before; the next time whipped; the third time lose his Freedom, either for a short time or for ever, and not to be any Officer.

48. He who hath lost his Freedom shall be a common servant to any Freeman who comes to the Task-master and requires one to do any work for him. Always provided, that after one Freeman hath by the consent of the Task-master appointed him his work, another Freeman shall not call him thence till that work be done.

49. If any of these offenders revile the Laws by words, they shall be soundly whipped and fed with coarse diet. If they raise weapons against the Laws, they shall die as Traitors.

LAWS TO RESTORE SLAVES TO FREEDOM.

50. When any Slaves [i.e. those who have lost their Freedom] give open testimony of their humility and diligence, and of their care to observe the Laws of the Commonwealth, they are then capable to be restored to their Freedom, when the time of servitude has expired, according to the Judge's sentence. But if they continue opposite to the Laws, they shall continue slaves for another term of time.

51. None shall be restored to Freedom till they have been a twelve month laboring servants to the Commonwealth; for they shall winter and summer in that condition.

52. When any is restored to Freedom, the Judge at the Senator's Court shall pronounce his Freedom, and give liberty to him to be clothed in what other coloured garments he will.

53. If any person be sick or wounded, the Chyrurgeons, who are trained up in the knowledge of Herbs and Minerals, and know how to apply plasters or physick, shall go when they are sent for to any who need their help, but require no reward, because the Common Stock is the public pay for every man's labor.

54. When a dead person is to be buried, the Officers of the Parish and neighbors shall go along with the corpse to the grave, and see it laid therein in a civil manner; but the public Minister nor any other shall have any hand in reading or exhortation.

[Whatever we may think of this latter proviso, certain it is that it would put an end to many unseemly squabblings at a time when they are specially to be avoided.]

55. When a man hath learned his Trade, and the time of his seven years Apprenticeship has expired, he shall have his Freedom to become Master of a Family, and the Overseers shall appoint him such young people to be his servants as they think fit, whether he marry or live a single life.

LAWS FOR MARRIAGE.

56. Every man and woman shall have the free liberty to marry whom they love, if they can obtain the love and liking of that party whom they would marry, and neither birth nor portion shall hinder the match. For we are all of one blood, mankind, and for portion, the Common Storehouses are every man and maid's portion, as free to one as to another.

57. If any man lie with a maid and beget a child, he shall marry her.

58. If a man lie with a woman forcibly, and she cry out and give no consent; if this be proved by two witnesses, or the man's confession, he shall be put to death, and the woman let go free: it is robbery of a woman's bodily freedom.

59. If any man by violence endeavour to take another man's wife, the first time of such violent offer he shall be reproved before the Congregation by the Peacemaker; the second time he shall be made a Servant under the Task-master for twelve months; and if he forcibly lie with another man's wife, and she cry out, as is the case when, a maid is forced, the man shall be put to death.

60. When any man or woman have consented to live together in marriage, they shall acquaint all the Overseers in the Circuit therewith, and some other neighbors. And being all met together, the man shall declare with his own mouth before them all that he takes that woman to be his wife, and the woman shall say the same, and desire the Overseers to be witnesses.

LAWS TO SECURE ECONOMY.

61. No Master of a Family shall suffer more meat to be dressed at a dinner or supper than will be spent and eaten by his household or company present, or within such a time after before it be spoilt. If there be any spoil constantly made in a family of the food of man, the Overseer shall reprove the Master for it privately; if that abuse be continued in his family, through his neglect of family government, he shall be openly reproved by the Peacemaker before all the people, and ashamed for his folly; the third time he shall be made a servant for twelve months under the Task-master, so that he may know what it is to get food, and another shall have the oversight of his house for the time.

62. No man shall be suffered to keep house and have servants under him till he hath served seven years under command to a Master himself. The reason is that a man may be of age and of rational carriage before he be made a Governor of a Family, that the peace of the Commonwealth may be preserved.



BIBLIOGRAPHY

COMPLETE LIST OF "DIGGER" PUBLICATIONS.

WINSTANLEY, The Mystery of God concerning the Whole Creation, Mankind.—April 1648. (British Museum, Press Mark, 4377, a. 1.)

" The Breaking of the Day of God.—May 1648. (British Museum, P. M., 4377, a. 2.)

" The Saints' Paradise: Or the Father's Teaching the Only Satisfaction to Waiting Souls.—August or September 1648. (British Museum, P. M., E. 2137.)

" Truth Lifting up its Head above Scandals.—October 1648. (British Museum, P. M., 4372, a.a. 17.)

" (?) Light Shining in Buckinghamshire.—December 1648. (British Museum, P. M., E. 475 (11).)

" (?) More Light Shining in Buckinghamshire.—March 1649. (British Museum, P. M., E. 548 (33).)

" (?) A Declaration from the Well Affected in the County of Buckinghamshire.—May 1649. (British Museum, P. M., E. 555.)

" The New Law of Righteousness.—January 1649. (Jesus College Library, Oxford.)

" Fire in the Bush: The Spirit burning, not consuming but purging, Mankind.—March 1649. (Bodleian Library.)

" A Declaration from the Poor Oppressed People of England.—March 1649. (British Museum, Press Mark, 1027, i. 16 (3).)

" The True Levellers' Standard Advanced: Or the State of Community opened and presented to the Sons of Men.—April 1649. (British Museum, P. M., E. 552.)

" A Declaration of the Bloody and Unchristian Acting of William Star and John Taylor of Walton, with diverse men in women's apparel, in opposition to those that dig upon St. Georges Hill.—June 1649. (British Museum, Press Mark, E. 561.)

" A Letter to Lord Fairfax and his Council of War.—June 1649. (British Museum, P. M., E. 560 (1).)

" An Appeal to the House of Commons.—July 1649. (British Museum, P. M., E. 564. Also at the Guildhall Library.)

" A Watchword to the City of London.—August 1649. (British Museum, P. M., E. 573. Also at the Guildhall Library.)

" A Second Letter to Lord Fairfax.—December 1649. (Clarke Papers, vol. ii. pp. 217-220.)

COSTER, ROBERT, A Mite cast into the Common Treasury.—December 1649. (British Museum, P. M., E. 585.)

" The Diggers' Mirth. (British Museum, P. M., E. 1365.)

" The Diggers' Song. (Clarke Papers, vol. ii. p. 218.)

WINSTANLEY, A New Year's Gift for the Parliament and Army.—January 1650. (British Museum, P. M., E. 587.)

" A Vindication of Those whose Endeavour it is only to make the Earth a Common Treasury, called Diggers.—February 1650. (British Museum, P. M., E. 1365.)

" An Appeal for Money.—April 1650. (See "A Perfect Diurnal," British Museum, P. M., E. 534.)

" A Declaration from Wellingborrow, in the County of Northampton.— March 1650. (British Museum, under Wellinborrow, P. M., S. Sh. fol. 669 f., 15. 21.)

" An Appeal to all Englishmen to Judge between Bondage and Freedom.—March 1650. (British Museum, P. M., S. Sh. fol. 669 f., 15. 23.)

" An Humble Request to the Ministers of Both Universities and to all Lawyers of every Inns-a-Court.—April 1650. (Dyce and Forster's Library, South Kensington Museum.)

" The Law of Freedom in a Platform: Or True Magistracie Restored.—February 1652. (British Museum, P. M., E. 655. Also at the Guildhall and Bodleian Libraries.)



INDEX

Agreement of the People, 29, 32, 87, 103.

Anabaptists, 15, 18.

Army, the Model, Views of, 29; Declaration of (1647), 93 (note).

Army Council, Resolution of, 33; Debate of, 103, 108.

Baptism, Winstanley on, 64.

Barclay (Apology), quoted, 58, 60, 65.

Baxter (Thos.), quoted, 50 (note).

Beard (Hibbert Lectures, 1883), quoted, 4, 10, 15, 18.

Buckle, quoted, 1, 21, 22.

Capital Punishment, Winstanley on, 69.

Carlyle, quoted, 38, 165, 166, 168, 170.

Cartwright, Thos., quoted, 20.

Chalmers, John, quoted, 63.

Chillingworth, quoted, 21.

Clarke Papers, quoted, 29, 34, 35, 36, 53, 103, 106, 108, 122, 124, 130.

Clergy, Winstanley on, 62, 167, 189.

Coomber, Thos., quoted, 49.

Coster, Robert, 126.

Council of State, Letter to Fairfax, 35; to Mr. Pentlow, 159.

Croese, Gerrard, quoted, 49 (note).

Cromwell, Oliver, quoted, 32, 33, 53, 165, 166, 168, 170; Open Letter to, 164.

Diggers, Information against, 34; Fairfax's visit to, 39; Mirth, 129; Declaration of, 91; Sufferings of, 143; Travels, 150.

Dispensations, Winstanley on, 53; Cromwell on, 53.

Doctrines, Family of Love, 16, 18; Presbyterian, 20, 32; Model Army, 29; Independent, 31, 32; Children of Light, 52, 65; Anabaptists, 15, 18.

Dove, Patrick Edward, quoted, 228.

Earth, Right to use of, Winstanley on, 70, 74, 76, 80, 83, 90, 96, 104, 118, 132, 170, 180, 213.

England, Reformation in, 12; Church of, 13.

Erasmus, quoted, 15, 18.

Everard, 36, 38.

Fairfax, Lord, Council of State to, 35; Gladman to, 39; Visit to Diggers, 39; Winstanley's letters to, 100, 124.

Fall, the, Winstanley on, 44, 53, 70.

Family of Love, History of, 15; Doctrines of, 16, 18.

Freedom, Winstanley on, 100, 112, 114, 179.

Fuller on Family of Love, 16.

Gardiner, quoted, 25, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 87, 163.

George, Henry, quoted, 146, 205, 228, 234.

Golden Rule, Winstanley on the, 39, 56, 80, 81, 86, 141, 154, 171, 190, 217, 225.

Government, Winstanley on, 68, 101, 177; Definition of, 181.

Hallam, quoted, 24.

Hare's pamphlets, 38.

Hooker, quoted, 21, 23.

House of Commons, Apology of, 25; Remonstrance of, 27; Officers' Petition to, 86; Appeal to, 105.

Independents, Origin of, 14; Growth of, 33; Doctrines of, 31.

Ireton, quoted, 106 (note).

Israel's Commonwealth, Winstanley on, 82, 93, 225.

Kingly Power, Winstanley on, 34, 100, 130, 168, 177, 202, 220.

Land Question, Winstanley on the, 70, 71, 124, 138, 156, 171, 175, 180.

Law, Winstanley on, 102, 136, 141, 168, 171, 183, 192, 197, 220; Definition of, 222.

Lawyers, Questions to, 102; Power of, 168, 225.

Light, The Inward, 45, 46, 52, 57, 59, 60, 63, 66, 77, 141, 183, 225; Children of, 17, 49, 54.

Locke, John, quoted, 74, 179, 197 (note), 200 (note).

Lockyer, Execution and burial of, 87.

Love, The Everlasting Law of, 217; Family of, 15, 16, 18.

Luther, quoted, 4, 10.

Macaulay, quoted, 23, 24, 28.

Mackay, Charles, quoted, 207.

Mather, Cotton, on origin of Quakers, 48.

Melanchthon, quoted, 9.

Ministry, Winstanley on the work of, 207.

Officers, Petition of, 86; Winstanley on functions of, 184.

Parliament, The Short and Long, 26; Winstanley on work of, 194, 197.

Peasantry, Demands of German, 8; Condition of English, 126, 141, 151, 159.

Penn, William, on Quaker Doctrines, 48 (note).

People, Agreement of, 29, 32, 87, 103; Condition of, 126, 141, 151, 159.

Politics, Influence of religion on, 8.

Prayer, Winstanley on, 63, 65.

Presbyterianism, Doctrines of, 20, 32.

Quakers, Doctrines of, 47 (note); Coomber on origin of, 49; Cotton Mather on, 48 (note); Thos. Bennet on, 49 (note); a Declaration from, 54 (note); Appeal of Army, 85 (note).

Rainborrow, Colonel, Views of, 103, 108.

Ranters, Winstanley on the, 147.

Reason, Luther on, 4; Hooker on, 21; Winstanley on, 44, 48, 59, 76.

Reformation, influence of the, 3, 10, 12.

Religion, Dual nature of, 6; Winstanley, Definition of, 139.

Restoration, the, Legislation of, 110.

Resurrection, the, Winstanley on, 47, 60, 66.

Revolt, The Peasants', 6, Appendix A.

Riches, Winstanley on, 173.

Rogers, Thorold, quoted, 7, 89, 109, 110.

Rowntree, J. S., quoted, 48, 58.

Ruskin, John, quoted, 61 (note).

Sexby, Edward, Views of, 103.

Shelley, quoted, 162, 178, 179.

Silence, the Law of, Winstanley on, 65.

Teachings, Human and divine, 52, 57, 59, 209, 211.

Tithes, 85, 167, 173.

Toleration, 13, 19, 31, 32, Appendix B.

Vagrants, Laws against, 109.

Wellingborrow, declaration from, 150.

Whitelocke, quoted, 37, 86, 87, 152, 159.

Wyclif, teachings of, 6, 13.

Winstanley, on Baptism, 64; Capital Punishment, 69; Clergy, 62, 167, 189; Dispensations, 53; Earth, rights to use of, 70, 74, 76, 80, 83, 90, 96, 104, 118, 132, 170, 180, 213; Ecclesiastical Power, 55; Education, 214; Fall, the, 44, 53, 70; Freedom, 100, 112, 114, 179; Golden Rule, the, 39, 56, 80, 81, 86, 141, 154, 171, 190, 217, 225; Government, 68, 101, 177, 181; Israel's Commonwealth, 82, 93, 225; Kingdom of Heaven, 47, 48, 61, 66, 211; Kingly Power, 34, 100, 133, 168, 177, 202, 220; Land Question, 70, 71, 124, 138, 156, 171, 175, 180; Law, 102, 136, 141, 168, 171, 183, 192, 197, 220, 222; Lawyers, questions to, 102; power of, 168, 225; Light, the Inward, 45, 46, 52, 57, 60, 63, 66, 77, 141, 183, 225; Love, the Law of, 217; Ministry, work of a, 207; Officers, work of, 184; Parliament, work of, 194, 197; Prayer, 63, 65; Reason, 44, 48, 59, 76; Religion, 137; Resurrection, the, 47, 60, 66; Riches, 173; Silence, the Law of, 65; Teachings, human and divine, 52, 57, 59, 209, 211; Tithes, 167, 173; Titles of Honour, 173.



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