Chapter A VINDICATION; A DECLARATION; AND AN APPEAL

CHAPTER XIII

A VINDICATION; A DECLARATION; AND AN APPEAL

 「There is but one way to remove an evil--and that is to remove its
 cause. Poverty deepens as wealth increases, and wages are forced
 down while productive power grows, because land, which is the
 source of all wealth and the field of all labour, is monopolised.
 To extirpate poverty, to make wages what justice demands they
 should be, the full earnings of the labourer, we must therefore
 substitute for the individual ownership of land a common ownership.
 Nothing else will go to the cause of the evil--in nothing else is
 there the slightest hope.「--HENRY GEORGE, 1877-1878.

In the pamphlet we have considered in the previous chapter we heard that 「there have some come among the Diggers that have caused scandal,「 and whose ways were disowned by Winstanley and his associates. A few weeks subsequent to its publication, Winstanley judged it necessary publicly and formally to dissociate himself and his companions from them, which he did, in a manner quite in accordance with his own principles, in a small pamphlet of some eight pages, which was published under the title:

 「A VINDICATION OF THOSE WHOSE ENDEAVOURS IS ONLY TO MAKE THE EARTH
     A COMMON TREASURY, CALLED DIGGERS: Or Some Reasons given by
     them against the immoderate use of creatures, or the excessive
     community of women, called Ranting or rather Renting,「[146:1]

which, after a long condemnation of 「the Ranting Practice,「 runs as follows:

 「There are only two things I must speak as an advice in Love.

 「First, Let everyone that intends to live in peace set themselves
 with diligent labour to till, dig and plow the common and barren
 land, to get them bread with righteous, moderate working, among a
 moderate-minded people; this prevents the evil of idleness, and the
 danger of the Ranting power.

 「Secondly, Let none go about to suppress that Ranting power by the
 punishing hand; for it is the work of the Righteous and Rational
 Spirit within, not thy hand without, that must suppress it. But if
 thou wilt need be punishing, then see thou be without sin thyself,
 and then cast the first stone at the Ranter. Let not sinners punish
 others for sin, but let the power of thy reason and righteous
 action shame and so beat down their unrational actings. Wouldst
 thou live in peace, then look to thy own ways, mind thy own Kingdom
 within.... Let everyone alone to stand or fall their own Master;
 for thou being a sinner and striving to suppress sinners by force,
 thou wilt thereby but increase their rage and thine own trouble.
 But do thou keep close to the Law of Righteous Reason, and thou
 shalt presently see a return of the Ranters: for that Spirit within
 must shame them and turn them and pull them out of darkness.「

After emphasising the fact that such evil actions must necessarily bring evil on those who indulge in them, the pamphlet concludes with the following words:

 「This I was made to write as a Vindication of the Diggers, who are
 slandered with the Ranting action. My end is only to advance the
 Kingdom of Peace in and among mankind, which is and will be torn in
 pieces by the Ranting power, if Reason do not kill this
 fine-hearted or sensitive Beast. All you that are merely civil and
 that are of a loving and flexible disposition, wanting the strength
 of Reason, and the Life of Universal Love, leading you forth to
 seek the peace and preservation of every single body as of one's
 self, you are the people that are likely to be tempted, and set
 upon and torn into pieces by this devouring Beast, the Ranting
 Power.
                                         「GERRARD WINSTANLEY.
「_Feb. this 20, 1649 (1650)._「

On March 4th he adds the following interesting postscript:

 「I am told there are some people going up and down the country
 among such as are friends to the Diggers, gathering monies in
 their name. And they have a note wherein my name and divers others
 are subscribed. This is to certify that I never subscribed my name
 to any such note. Neither have we that are called Diggers received
 any money by any such collections. Therefore to prevent this cheat,
 we desire, if any are willing to cast a gift in to further our work
 of digging upon the Commons, that they would send it to our own
 hands by some trusty friends of their own.「

If others could get monies in their name, the Diggers evidently thought that they might themselves take advantage of the same means to maintain the public work on which they were engaged. For we gather the following from a contemporary news-sheet,[148:1] A Perfect Diurnal, April 1-8:

 「_April 4 (Thursday)._--THE TRUE COPY OF A LETTER taken at
     Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, with some men that were there
     apprehended for going about to incite people to Digging, and
     under such pretence gathered money of the well-affected for
     their assistance.

 「These are to certify all that are Friends to Universal Freedom,
 and that look upon the Digging and Planting of the Commons to be
 the first springing up of Freedom: To make the Earth a Common
 Treasury that everyone may enjoy food and raiment freely by his
 labour upon the Earth, without paying Rents or Homage to any
 Fellow-creature of his own kind; that everyone may be delivered
 from the Tyranny of the Conquering Power, and to rise up out of
 that Bondage to enjoy the benefit of his Creation: This, I say, is
 to certify all such that those Men that have begun to lay the First
 Stone in the Foundation of this Freedom (by digging upon Georges
 Hill on the Common called Little Heath in Cobham) in regard of the
 great opposition hitherto from the Enemy, by reason whereof they
 lost the last Summer's work, yet, through inward faithfulness to
 advance Freedom, they keep the field still, ... but in regard to
 poverty their work is like to flag and drop: Therefore if the
 hearts of any be stirred up to drop anything into this Treasury, to
 buy victuals to keep the men alive, and to buy Corn to cast into
 the ground, it will keep alive the Spirit of Public Freedom to the
 whole Land, which otherwise is ready to die again for want of help.
 And if you hear hereafter that there was a people appeared to stand
 up to advance Public Freedom, and struggled with the Opposing Power
 of the Land, for that they begin to let them alone, and yet these
 men and their public work were crushed, because they wanted
 assistance of food and corn to keep them alive: I say, if you hear
 this, it will be trouble to you when it is too late, that you had
 monies in your hand, and would not part with any of it to purchase
 Freedom, therefore you deservedly groan under Tyranny, and no
 Saviour appears. But let your Reason weigh the excellency of this
 work, and I am sure you will cast in something.

 「And because there were some treacherous persons drew up a note and
 subscribed our names to it, and by that moved some friends to give
 money to this work of ours, when as we know of no such note, nor
 subscribed our names to any, nor ever received any money from such
 collection. Therefore to prevent such a cheat, I have mentioned a
 word or two in the end of a printed book against that treachery,
 that neither we nor our friends may be cheated. And I desire if any
 be willing to communicate of their substance unto our work, that
 they would make a collection among themselves, and send that money
 to Cobham to the Diggers' own hands, by some trusty friend of your
 own, and so neither you nor we shall be cheated.

 「The Bearers hereof, Thomas Haydon and Adam Knight, can relate by
 word of mouth more largely the condition of the Diggers and their
 work, and so we leave this to you to do as you are moved.

 「Jacob Heard, Jo. South junior, Henry Barton, Tho. Barnard, Tho.
 Adams, Will Hitchcocke, Anthony Wren, Robert Draper, William Smith,
 Robert Coster, Gerrard Winstanley, Jo. South, Tho. Heydon, Jo.
 Palmer, Tho. South, Henry Handcocke, Jo. Batt, Dan Ireland, Jo.
 Hayman, Robert Sawyer, Tho. Starre, Tho. Edcer, besides their wives
 and families, and many more if there were food for them.「

Then follows this detailed account of their travels:

 「A COPY OF THEIR TRAVELS, that was taken with the four men at
     Wellingborow.

 「Out of Buckinghamshire into Surrey; from Surrey to Middlesex, from
 thence to Hartfordshire, to Bedfordshire, again to Buckinghamshire,
 so to Berkshire, and then to Surrey, thence to Middlesex, and so to
 Hartfordshire, and to Bedfordshire, thence into Huntingdonshire,
 from thence to Bedfordshire, and so into Northamptonshire, and
 there they were apprehended.

 「They visited these towns to promote the business: Colebrook,
 Hanworth, Hounslow, Harrowhill, Watford, Redburn, Dunstable,
 Barton, Amersley, Bedford, Kempson, North Crawley, Cranfield,
 Newport, Stony Stratford, Winslow, Wendover, Wickham, Windsor,
 Cobham, London, Whetston, Mine, Wellin, Dunton, Putney, Royston,
 St. Needs, Godmanchester, Wetne, Stanton, Warbays, Kimolton, from
 Kimolton to Wellingborrow.「

Before this date, however, some of the inhabitants of Wellingborrow had followed the example of their brothers in Surrey. From a beautifully printed broadsheet,[150:1] bearing date March 12th, 1649 (1650), and issued by Giles Calvert, we find the following account of their doings, which incidentally reveals the terrible state of the rural working population at the time it was written:

 「A DECLARATION OF THE GROUNDS AND REASONS why we the poor
     inhabitants of the Town of Wellinborrow, in the County of
     Northampton, have begun and give consent to dig up, manure and
     sow corn upon the Commons and Waste Ground called Bareshanke,
     belonging to the inhabitants of Wellinborrow, by those that
     have subscribed and hundreds more that give consent.

 「1. We find in the word of God that God made the Earth for the use
 and comfort of all mankind, and sat him in it to till and dress it,
 and said, That in the sweat of his brow he should eat his bread.
 And also we find that God never gave it to any sort of people that
 they should have it all to themselves, and shut out all the rest,
 but He saith, The Earth hath He given to the children of men, which
 is every man.

 「2. We find that no creature that ever God made was ever deprived
 of the benefit of the Earth, but Mankind; and that it is nothing
 but covetousness, pride and hardness of heart that hath caused man
 so far to degenerate.

 「3. We find in the Scriptures, that the Prophets and Apostles have
 left it upon record, That in the last day the oppressor and proud
 man shall cease, and God will restore the waste places of the Earth
 to the use and comfort of man, and that none shall hurt nor destroy
 in all His Holy Mountain.

 「4. We have great encouragement from these two righteous Acts,
 which the Parliament of England have set forth, the one against
 Kingly Power and the other to make England a Free Common-wealth.

 「5. We are necessitated from our present necessity to do this, and
 we hope that our actions will justify us in the gate, when all men
 shall know the truth of our necessity:

 「We are in Wellinborrow in one parish 1169 persons that receive
 alms, as the Officers have made it appear at the Quarter Sessions
 last. We have made our case known to the Justices; the Justices
 have given order that the Town should raise a stock to set us on
 work, and that the Hundred should be enjoyned to assist them. But
 as yet we see nothing is done, nor any man that goeth about it. We
 have spent all we have; our trading is decayed; our wives and
 children cry for bread; our lives are a burden to us, divers of us
 having 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 in family, and we cannot get bread for one of
 them by our labor. Rich men's hearts are hardened; they will not
 give us if we beg at their doors. If we steal, the Law will end our
 lives. Divers of the poor are starved to death already; and it were
 better for us that are living to die by the Sword than by the
 Famine. And now we consider that the Earth is our Mother; and that
 God hath given it to the children of men; and that the Common and
 Waste Grounds belong to the poor; and that we have a right to the
 common ground both from the Law of the Land, Reason and Scriptures.
 Therefore we have begun to bestow our righteous labor upon it, and
 we shall trust the Spirit for a blessing upon our labor, resolving
 not to dig up any man's propriety until they freely give us it. And
 truly we have great comfort already through the goodness of our
 God, that some of those rich men amongst us that have had the
 greatest profit upon the Common have freely given us their share
 in it ... and the country farmers have profered, divers of them, to
 give us seed to sow it; and so we find that God is persuading
 Japhet to dwell in the tents of Shem. And truly those that we find
 most against us are such as have been constant enemies to the
 Parliament Cause from first to last.

 「Now at last our desire is, That some that approve of this work of
 Righteousness would but spread this our Declaration before the
 great Council of the Land; that so they may be pleased to give us
 more encouragement to go on; that so they may be found amongst the
 small number of those that consider the poor and needy; that so the
 Lord may deliver them in the time of their troubles ... and our
 lives shall bless them, so shall good men stand by them, and evil
 men shall be afraid of them, and they shall be counted the
 Repairers of our Breaches, and the Restorers of our Paths to dwell
 in. And thus we have declared the truth of our necessity, and
 whosoever will come in to labor with us, shall have part with us,
 and we with them, and we shall all of us endeavour to walk
 righteously and peaceably in the Land of our Nativity.

                   「Richard Smith, John Avery, Thomas Fardin,
                   Richard Pendred, James Pitman, Roger Tuis,
                   Joseph Hitchcock, John Pye, Edward Turner.

 _March 12th, 1649 (1650)._「

By some means or other this Declaration seems to have reached the Council of State; for we find the following reference to it in Whitelocke, p. 448, under date April:

 「A Letter sent from the Diggers and Planters of Commons for
 Universal Freedom, to make the Earth a Common Treasury, that
 everyone may enjoy food and raiment freely by his labor upon the
 Earth, without paying Rents or Homage to any Fellow Creature of his
 own kind, that everyone may be delivered from the Tyranny of the
 Conquering Power, and so rise up out of that Bondage to enjoy the
 Benefit of his Creation.

 「The Letters were to get money to buy food for them, and corn to
 sow the land which they had digged.「

Presently we shall lay some evidence before our readers of the view the Council of State, influenced as it was by men who had recently enriched themselves by land-grabbing, took of such proceedings, the trend of which they fully recognised. However, whatever view the Council of State were likely to take of this touching Declaration, there can be little doubt but that it appealed most strongly to Winstanley, who within a fortnight of its issue, on March 26th, replied to it in the following high-spirited, almost triumphal, address, which also appeared in the form of a broadsheet:[153:1]

 「AN APPEAL TO ALL ENGLISHMEN TO JUDGE BETWEEN BONDAGE AND FREEDOM:
     Sent from those that began to dig upon George Hill in Surrey,
     but now are carrying on that public work upon the little heath
     in the Parish of Cobham, near unto George Hill, wherein it
     appears that the work of Digging upon the Commons is not only
     warranted by Scripture, but by the Law of the Common-wealth of
     England likewise.

 「Behold, behold all Englishmen, The Land of England now is your
 free inheritance: all Kingly and Lordly entanglements are declared
 against by our Army and Parliament. The Norman Power is beaten in
 the field, and his head is cut off. And that oppressing Conquest,
 that hath reigned over you by King and House of Lords, for about
 600 years past, is now cast out by the Armies' Swords, the
 Parliament's Acts and Laws, and the Common-wealth's Engagement.

 「Therefore let not sottish covetousness in the Gentry deny the poor
 or younger bretheren their just Freedom to build and plant corn
 upon the common waste land; nor let slavish fear possess the heart
 of the poor to stand in fear of the Norman yoke any longer, seeing
 that it is broke. Come, those that are free within, turn your
 Swords into Ploughshares, and Spears into Pruning Hooks, and take
 Plow and Spade, and break up the Common Land, build your houses,
 sow corn and take possession of your own Land, which you have
 recovered out of the hands of the Norman oppressor.

 「The common Land hath laid unmanured all the days of his Kingly and
 Lordly power over you, by reason whereof both you and your fathers
 (many of you) have been burthened with poverty. And that land which
 would have been fruitful with corn, hath brought forth nothing but
 heath, moss, turfeys, and the curse, according to the words of the
 Scriptures: A fruitful land is made barren because of the
 unrighteousness of the people that ruled therein, and would not
 suffer it to be planted, because they would keep the poor under
 bondage, to maintain their own Lordly Power and conquering
 covetousness.

 「But what hinders you now? Will you be Slaves and Beggars still
 when you may be Freemen? Will you live in straits and die in
 poverty when you may live comfortably? Will you always make a
 profession of the words of Christ and Scripture, the sum whereof is
 this--Do as you would be done unto, and live in love? And now it is
 come to the point of fulfilling that Righteous Law, will you not
 rise up and act? I do not mean act by the Sword, for that must be
 left. But come, take plow and spade, build and plant, and make the
 waste land fruitful, that there may be no beggar or idle person
 among you. For if the waste land of England were manured by her
 children, it would become in a few years the richest, the
 strongest, and the most flourishing Land in the world, and all
 Englishmen would live in peace and comfort. And this Freedom is
 hindered by such as yet are full of the Norman base blood, who
 would be Free-men themselves, but would have all others bond-men
 and servants, nay Slaves to them....

 「Well Englishmen, the Law of the Scriptures gives you a free and
 full warrant to plant the Earth, and to live comfortably and in
 love, doing as you would be done by, and condemns that covetous
 kingly and lordly power of darkness in men, that makes some men
 seek their freedom in the Earth and deny others that freedom. And
 the Scriptures do establish this Law, to cast out kingly and lordly
 self-willed and oppressing power, and to make every Nation in the
 World a Free Common-wealth. So that you have the Scriptures to
 protect you in making the Earth a Common Treasury for the
 comfortable livelihood of your bodies, while you live upon Earth.

 「Secondly, you have both what the Army and the Parliament have done
 to protect you.... Our Common-wealth's Army have fought against the
 Norman Conquest, and have cast him out, and keeps the field.... And
 by this victory England is made a Free Common-wealth; and the
 common land belongs to the younger brother, as the enclosures to
 the elder brother, without restraint.... The Parliament since this
 victory have made an Act or Law to make England a Free
 Common-wealth. And by this Act they have set the people free from
 King and House of Lords that ruled as conquerors over them, and
 have abolished their self-will and murdering Laws with them that
 made them. Likewise they have made another Act or Law, to cast out
 Kingly Power, wherein they free the people from yielding obedience
 to the King, or to any that holds claiming under the King. Now all
 Lords of Manors, Tything Priests and Impropriators hold claiming or
 title under the King, but by this Act of Parliament we are freed
 from their power.

 「Then, lastly, the Parliament have made an engagement to maintain
 this present Common-wealth's government comprised within those Acts
 or Laws against King and House of Lords. And called upon all
 officers, tenants, and all sort of people to subscribe to it,
 declaring that those that refuse to subscribe shall have no
 privilege in the Common-wealth of England, nor protection from the
 Law.

 「Now behold all Englishmen, that by virtue of these two Laws and
 the Engagement, the Tenants of Copyhold are free from obedience to
 their Lords of Manors, and all poor people may build upon and plant
 the Commons, and Lords of Manors break the Laws of the Land, and
 still uphold the Kingly and Lordly Norman Power, if they hinder
 them, or seek to beat them off from planting the Commons. Nor can
 the Lords of Manors compel their Tenants of Copyholds to come to
 their Court Barons, nor to be of their Juries, nor to take an oath
 to be true to them, nor to pay fines, heriots, quit-rents, nor any
 homage as formerly while the Kings and Lords were in their power.
 And if the Tenants stand up to maintain their freedom against their
 Lords' oppressing power, the Tenants forfeit nothing, but are
 protected by the Laws and Engagement of the Land.

 「And if so be that any poor men build them houses and sow corn upon
 the Commons, the Lords of Manors cannot compel their Tenants to
 beat them off: and if the Tenants refuse to beat them off, they
 forfeit nothing, but are protected by the Laws and Engagement of
 the Land. But if so be that any fearful or covetous Tenant do obey
 their Court Barons, and will be of their Jury, and will still pay
 fines, heriots, quit-rents, or any homage as formerly, or take new
 oaths to be true to their Lords, or at the command of their Lords
 do beat the poor men off from planting the Commons, then they have
 broke the Engagement and Law of the Land, and both Lords and
 Tenants are conspiring to uphold or bring in the Kingly or Lordly
 Power again, and declare themselves to the Army, and to the
 Parliament, and are Traitors to the Commonwealth of England. And if
 so be that they are to have no protection of the Law that refused
 to take the Engagement, surely they have lost their protection by
 breaking their Engagement, and stand liable to answer for this
 their offence to their great charge and trouble if any will
 prosecute against them.

 「Therefore you Englishmen, whether Tenants or Labouring-men, do not
 enter into a new bond of slavery, now you are come to the point
 that you may be free, if you will but stand up for freedom. For the
 Army hath purchased your freedom. The Parliament hath declared for
 your freedom. And all the Laws of the Commonwealth are your
 protection. So that nothing is wanting on your part but courage and
 faithfulness to put those Laws in execution, and so take possession
 of your own Land, which the Norman power took from you and hath
 kept from you about 600 years, and which you have now recovered out
 of his hand.

 「And if any say that the old Laws and Customs of the Land are
 against the Tenant and the poor, and entitle the land only to Lords
 of Manors still, I answer, all the old Laws are of no force, for
 they were abolished when the King and House of Lords were cast out.
 And if any say, I, but the Parliament made an Act to establish the
 old Laws, I answer, this was to prevent a sudden rising upon the
 cutting off the King's head; but afterwards they made these two
 Laws, to cast out the Kingly Power, and to make England a
 Common-wealth. And they have confirmed these two by the Engagement,
 which the people now generally do own and subscribe: Therefore by
 these Acts of Freedom they have abolished that Act that held up
 bondage.

 「Well, by these you may see your freedom; and we hope the Gentry
 hereafter will cheat the poor no longer of their Land; and we hope
 the Ministers hereafter will not tell the poor they have no right
 to the Land. For now the Land of England is and ought to be a
 Common Treasury to all Englishmen, as the several portions of the
 Land of Canaan were the common livelihood to such and such a Tribe,
 both to elder and younger Brother, without respect of persons. If
 you do deny this, you deny the Scriptures. And now we shall give
 you some few encouragements out of many to move you to stand up for
 your freedom in the Land by acting with plow and spade upon the
 Commons:

 「(1) By this means, within a short time, there will be no beggar
 or idle person in England, which will be the glory of England, and
 the glory of that Gospel which England seems to profess in words.

 「(2) The waste and common land being improved will bring in plenty
 of all commodities, and prevent famine, and pull down the price of
 corn, to 12d. a bushel, or less.

 「(3) It will prove England to be the first of Nations which falls
 off from the covetous beastly government first; and that sets the
 Crown of Freedom on Christ's head, to rule over the Nations of the
 World, and to declare him to be the joy and blessing of all
 Nations. This should move all Governors to strive who shall be the
 first that shall cast down their Crowns, Sceptres and Government at
 Christ's feet: and they that will not give Christ his own glory
 shall be shamed.

 「(4) This Commonwealth's Freedom will unite the hearts of
 Englishmen together in love; so that if a foreign enemy endeavour
 to come in, we shall all with joint consent rise up together to
 defend our inheritance, and shall be true one to another. Whereas
 now the poor see if they fight and should conquer the enemy, yet
 either they or their children are like to be slaves still, for the
 Gentry will have all. And this is the cause why many run away and
 fail our Armies in the time of need. And so through the Gentry's
 hardness of heart against the Poor, the Land may be left to a
 foreign enemy for want of the Poor's love sticking to them. For say
 they, we can as well live under a foreign enemy, working for day
 wages, as under our own bretheren, with whom we ought to have equal
 freedom by the Law of Righteousness.

 「(5) This freedom in planting the common land will prevent robbing,
 stealing and murdering, and prisons will not so mightily be filled
 with prisoners; and thereby we shall prevent that heart-breaking
 spectacle of seeing so many hanged every Session as there are. And
 surely this imprisoning and hanging of men is the Norman Power
 still, and cannot stand with the freedom of the Commonwealth, nor
 warranted by the Engagement. For by the Laws and Engagement of the
 Commonwealth, none ought to be hanged nor put to death, for other
 punishment may be found out. And those that do hang or put to death
 their fellow Englishmen, under colour of Laws, do break the Laws
 and Engagements by so doing, and cast themselves from under the
 protection of the Commonwealth, and are Traitors to England's
 Freedom, and upholders of the kingly, murdering power.

 「(6) This Freedom in the Common Earth is the Poor's Right by the
 Law of Creation and Equity of the Scriptures. For the Earth was not
 made for a few, but for whole mankind; for God is no respecter of
 persons.「

Winstanley then concludes as follows:

 「Now these few considerations we offer to all England, and we
 appeal to the judgement of all rational and righteous men whether
 this we speak be not that substantial truth brought forth into
 action, which Ministers have preached up, and all Religious Men
 have made profession of. For certainly God, who is the King of
 Righteousness, is not a God of words only, but of deeds; for it is
 the badge of hypocrisy for man to say and not to do. Therefore we
 leave this with you all, having peace in our hearts by declaring
 faithfully to you this Light that is in us, and which we do not
 only speak and write, but which we do easily act and practice.

 「Likewise we write it as a letter of congratulation and
 encouragement to our dear Fellow Englishmen that have begun to dig
 upon the Commons, thereby taking possession of their Freedom, in
 Wellinborow in Northamptonshire, and at Cox Hall in Kent, waiting
 to see the chains of slavish fear to break and fall off from the
 hearts of others in other countries till at last the whole Land is
 filled with the knowledge and righteousness of the Restoring Power,
 which is Christ Himself, Abraham's seed, who will spread Himself
 till He become the joy of all Nations.

 「Jerrard Winstanley, Richard Maidley, Thomas James, John Dickins,
 John Palmer, John South, _Elder_, Nathaniel Halcomb, Thomas Edcer,
 Henry Barton, John Smith, Jacob Heard, Thomas Barnet, Anthony Wren,
 John Hayman, William Hitchcock, Henry Hancocke, John Batty, Thomas
 Starre, Thomas Adams, John Coulton, Thomas South, Robert Sawyer,
 Daniel Ireland, Robert Draper, Robert Coster, and divers others
 that were not present when this went to the Presse.

 「_March 26th, 1650._「

We are afraid that the enterprise at Wellinborrow did not have a very long life; for in the Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, Green, p. 106, under date April 15th, 1650, we note the following letter, which seems to us to show that the Rulers of England were fully alive to 「the mischief these designs tend to,「 and to prove that it was the theories of the Diggers, not their actions, that filled the breasts of the privileged classes with the determination to nip their enterprise in the bud, before it had time to influence the life and thought of the Nation:

 「COUNCIL OF STATE to Mr. PENTLOW, Justice of Peace for County
     Northampton.

 「We approve your proceedings with the Levellers in those parts, and
 doubt not you are sensible of the mischief those designs tend to,
 and of the necessity to proceed effectually against them. If the
 laws in force against those who intrude upon other men's
 properties, and that forbid and direct the punishing of all riotous
 assemblies and seditious and tumultuous meetings, be put in
 execution, there will not want means to preserve the public peace
 against the attempts of this sort of people. Let those men be
 effectually proceeded against at the next Sessions, _and if any
 that ought to be instrumental to bring them to punishment fail in
 their duty, signify the same to us_, that we may require of them an
 account of their neglect; but till we find the ordinary means
 unable to preserve the peace, we would not have recourse to any
 other.「

The sentence we have italicised seems to show that even amongst the Justices of the Peace and Officers of the Land the doctrines of the Diggers had found sympathisers, who were unwilling that they should be proceeded against. Nor can we be surprised at this when we bear in mind the terrible state of the rural population of the 「meaner sort「 at the time. Some idea of same may be gathered in the Declaration from Wellinborrow, which is more than fully confirmed in the pages of Whitelocke, from which we take the following brief entries:

 (P. 398.) Under date April 30th, 1649:

 「Letters from Lancashire of their want of bread, so that many
 families were starved.「

 (P. 399.) Under date May 1649:

 「Letters from Newcastle that many in Cumberland and Westmoreland
 died in the Highways for want of bread, and divers left their
 habitations, travelling with their wives and children to other
 parts to get Relief, but could have none. That the Committees and
 Justices of the Peace of Cumberland signed a certificate, that
 there were Thirty Thousand Families that had neither seed nor bread
 corn, nor money to buy either, and they desired a collection for
 them, which was made, but much too little to relieve so great a
 multitude.「

 (P. 404.) Under date May 1649:

 「Letters from Lancashire of great scarcity of corn, and that the
 famine was sore among them, after which the plague overspread
 itself in many parts of the country, taking away whole families
 together, and few escaped where any house was visited, and that the
 Levellers got into arms, but were suppressed speedily by the
 Governor.「

 (P. 421.) Under date August 1649:

 「Letters of great complaints of the taxes in Lancashire: and that
 the meaner sort threaten to leave their habitations, and their
 wives and children to be maintained by the Gentry; that they can no
 longer bear the oppression, to have the bread taken out of the
 mouths of their wives and children by taxes; and that if an army of
 the Turks came to relieve them, they will join them.「

Under such circumstances we cannot be surprised that Winstanley's revolutionary, though to our mind eternally true, doctrines, upholding the equal claim of all to the use of the land, proclaimed as they were with all the eloquence, zeal and fire of his noble spirit, should have awakened an echo in the hearts of the more thoughtful, as well as of the more necessitous, of his fellow-citizens. But all in vain. In his time, as in our time, the Inward Light could not overcome the Outward Darkness, nor Universal Love, which is Justice and Righteousness, overcome Self Love, which is Covetousness. Then, as now, the Spirit of Equity, of Reason and of Love was impotent when opposed by the power of the Sword, of Force. And yet, and yet--more especially in view of the thought to-day stirring advanced political circles in every constitutionally governed country in the world--who dare maintain that Winstanley lived in vain!

About a fortnight after the publication of his Appeal to all Englishmen, Winstanley issued yet another pamphlet, of which, as it contains nothing save what he had already better expressed in his other writings, we need only quote the suggestive title-page, with which this chapter may fittingly close: it reads as follows:

 「AN HUMBLE REQUEST TO THE MINISTERS OF BOTH UNIVERSITIES, AND TO
     ALL LAWYERS OF EVERY INNS-A-COURT:[161:1] to consider of the
     Scriptures and Points of Law herein mentioned, and to give a
     rational and Christian answer, whereby the difference may be
     composed in peace, between the Poor Men in England who have
     begun to dig, plow and build upon the Common Land, claiming it
     their own by right of Creation,

 AND

 The Lords of Manors that trouble them, who have no other claimings
     to Commons than from the King's will, or from the Power of the
     Conquest,

 AND

 If neither Minister nor Lawyer will undertake a Reconciliation in
     this case. Then we appeal to the Stone, Timber and Dust of the
     Earth you tread upon, to hold forth the light of this business,
     questioning not but that Power that dwells everywhere will
     cause Light to spring out of Darkness, and Freedom out of
     Bondage.「

FOOTNOTES:

[146:1] King's Pamphlets. British Museum, Press Mark, E. 1365.

[148:1] King's Pamphlets. British Museum, Press Mark, E. 534. We have to thank the late Rev. Thomas Hancock, of Harrow on the Hill, for this reference. Mr. Hancock's profound knowledge of the Commonwealth times was well known to every student of the period, at whose disposal he gladly placed the wonderful store of information he had collected. We would here acknowledge our indebtedness to him for this and other information.

[150:1] British Museum, under Wellingborrow, Press Mark, S. Sh. fol. 669 f., 15 (21).

[153:1] British Museum, Press Mark, S. Sh. fol. 669 f., 15 (23).

[161:1] There is no copy of this pamphlet at the British Museum, nor in the Bodleian; but a copy is to be found in the Dyce and Forster Library, South Kensington Museum, London, W.