The Digger Movement in the Days of the Commonwealth Part 7

FOOTNOTES:

[68:1] The full t.i.tle reads--"_The New Law of Righteousness_: Budding forth to restore the whole Creation from the Bondage or the Curse. Or a glympse of the new Heaven and the new Earth, wherein dwells Righteousness. Giving an Alarm to silence all that preach or speak from hearsay or imagination." This pamphlet is very scarce. There is no copy in the British Museum or in any other of the London Public Libraries, nor in the Bodleian. The Jesus College Library, Oxford, however, is fortunate enough to possess a copy, which, to judge from its marginal notes, was once in the possession of one of Winstanley's followers or admirers, and which was courteously placed at our disposal by the librarian, Mr. Hazell, to whom we here desire to convey our grateful acknowledgement.

[71:1] See his chapter "Of Property" in his cla.s.sical work on _Civil Government_, a chapter which, as the conservative Hallam observes, "would be sufficient, if all Locke's other writings had perished, to leave him a high name in philosophy."

[71:2] For a short account of the writings of Thomas Spence and Patrick Edward Dove, see J. Morrison Davidson's _Four Precursors of Henry George_. (Publisher, F. Henderson, London.)

[71:3] See his _Agrarian Justice_.

[74:1] "As much land as a man tills, plants, improves, cultivates, and can use the product of, so much is his property."--JOHN LOCKE, _Civil Government_. (Of Property.)

[78:1] "_Fire in the Bush_: The Spirit burning, not consuming, but purging mankind." Published by Giles Calvert. This pamphlet, too, is very scarce. There is no copy in the British Museum, but a copy is to be found in the Bodleian Library.

CHAPTER VIII

LIGHT SHINING IN BUCKINGHAMSHIRE

"O England, England! wouldst thou have thy government sound and healthful? Then cast about and see and search diligently to find out all those burthens that came in by Kings, and remove them; and then will thy Commonwealth's Government arise from under the clods under which as yet it is buried and covered with deformity."--WINSTANLEY, _The Law of Freedom_.

The place in the country to which our hero had retired was, we believe, the little town of Colnbrook, in the extreme southern end of the county of Buckinghamshire, on the borders of Middles.e.x, and within seven miles of St. George's Hill in Surrey. On December 5th, 1648, about a month prior to the date attached to the opening epistle of _The New Law of Righteousness_, there issued from the press a short pamphlet,[79:1]

which, seeing that a second edition was printed the following March, appears to have had a considerable sale, and the t.i.tle-page of which ran as follows:

"LIGHT SHINING IN BUCKINGHAMSHIRE:

OR

A Discovery of the Main Ground, Original Cause of all the Slavery in the World, but chiefly in England. Presented by way of a Declaration of many of the Well-Affected in that County, to all their poor oppressed Countrymen of England. And also to the consideration of the present Army under the conduct of the Lord Fairfax.

Arise, O G.o.d, judge thou the Earth.

Printed in the year 1648."

It opens as follows:

"Jehovah Ellohim created man after his own likeness and image, which image is his son Jesus (Heb. 1. v. 3), who is the image of the invisible G.o.d. Now man being made after G.o.d's image or likeness, and created by the word of G.o.d, which word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us, which word was life, and that life the light of man (John 1. v. 1-4). This light I take to be that pure Spirit in man we call Reason, which we call Conscience. From all which there issued out that Golden Rule or Law, which we call Equity: the sum of which is, saith Jesus, _Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do to them: this is the Law and the Prophets._ James calls it the Royal Law; and to live from this principle is called a good conscience."

It then points out the cause why men are disinclined to follow this sound principle of harmonious social union, and the consequences thereof, as manifested in the prevailing conditions, in the following words:

"But man following his own sensuality became a devourer of the creatures and an encloser, not content that another should enjoy the same privilege as himself, but encloseth all from his brother; so that all the land, trees, beasts, fish, fowl, etc., are enclosed into a few mercenary hands, and all the rest deprived and made their slaves. So if they cut a tree for fire, they are to be punished, or hunt a fowl, it is imprisonment, because it is gentlemen's game, as they say. Neither must they keep cattle, or set up a house, all ground being enclosed, without hiring leave for the one or buying room for the other of the chief encloser, called the Lord of the Manor, or some other wretch as cruel as he.... Now all this slavery of the one and tyranny of the other was at first by murder and cruelty one against the other. And that they might strengthen themselves in their villany against G.o.d's Ordinances and their Brother's Freedom and Rights, they had always a Commander-in-Chief, and he became their King."

After emphasising at some length that all special privileges of the few and disabilities of the many came in and are maintained by kings, it continues:

"So that observe the king is made by you your G.o.d on Earth, as G.o.d is the G.o.d of Heaven, saith the Lawyers.... Now, Friends, what have we to do with any of these unfruitful works of darkness? Let us take Peter's advice (1 Pet. iv. 3)--_The time past of our lives may suffice that we have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lascivious l.u.s.ts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetting, and abominable idolatry._ And let us not receive the Beast's mark lest that the doom in Revelation (xiv. 9-10) befall us: but let us oppose the Beast's power, and follow the Lamb withersoever he goeth."

The pamphlet then dwells on the chief causes impelling "wicked men," the privileged cla.s.ses and their parasites, to stand up for a king:

"Rich men cry for a king, so that the Poor should not claim his right, which is his by G.o.d's gift.

"The horseleech Lawyer cries for a king, because else the supreme power will come into the People's representatives lawfully elected....

"The things, Lords, Barons, etc., cry for a king, else their tyrannical House of Peers falls down, and all their rotten honour, and all Patents and Corporations: their power being derived from him; if he go down, all their tyranny falls too."

But now, it continues:

"The honest man that would have liberty cries down all interests [or special privileges, as they would be termed to-day] whatsoever; and to this end he desires Common Rights and Equity: which consist of these particulars following:

"1. A just portion for each man to live, that so none need to beg or steal for want, but everyone may live comfortably.

"2. A just Rule for each man to go by, which Rule is to be found in Scripture.

"3. All men alike under the said Rule, which Rule is, to do to one another as another should do to him....

"4. The government to be by Judges, called Elders, men fearing G.o.d and hating Covetousness, to be chosen by the people, and to end all controversies in every town or hamlet, without any other or further trouble or charge."

These, then, were the four points of the People's Charter of 1648; the four fundamental reforms which Winstanley, if Winstanley be the author of this pamphlet, as we believe, deemed necessary to secure the peace and well-being of the ma.s.ses of the people. The pamphlet then indicates where the people are to look for their model, in the following words:

"And in the Scriptures the Israelite's Common-wealth is an excellent pattern.... Now in Israel if a man were poor, then a public maintenance and stock were to be provided to raise him again. So would all Bishops Lands, Forest Lands, and Crown Lands do in your Land, which the apostate Parliament men give one to another, and to maintain the needless thing called a king. And every seven years the whole Land was for the poor, the fatherless, widows, and strangers, and at every crop a portion allowed them.

"Mark this, poor people, what the Levellers would do for you. Oh why are you so mad as to cry up a king? It is he and his Court and Patentee-men, as Majors Aldermen, and such creatures, that like cormorants devour what you should enjoy, and set up Whipping-posts and Correcting-houses to enslave you. 'Tis rich men that oppress you, saith James.

"Now in this right Common-wealth he that had least had no want.

Therefore the Scriptures call them a Family or Household of Israel.

And amongst those who received the Gospel, they were gathered into a Family, and had all things common (Acts 2. 44); yet so that each one was to labor and get his own bread. And this is Equity as aforesaid. For it is not lawful nor fit for some to work and the others to play; for it's G.o.d's command that all work, let all eat.

And if all work alike, is it not fit for all to eat alike, have alike, and enjoy alike privileges and freedoms? And he that doth not like this, is not fit to live in a Common-wealth. Therefore weep and howl, ye rich men, by what vain name or t.i.tle soever, G.o.d will visit you for all your oppressions. You live upon other men's labors, giving them bran to eat, extorting extreme rents and taxes from your fellow-creatures. But now what will you do? for the people will no longer be enslaved by you, for the knowledge of the Lord shall enlighten them."

The pamphlet then details the doings of William the Conqueror, contends that the n.o.bility and Gentry owe all their special privileges to his innovations, that "their rise was the Country's ruin, and the putting them down will be the rest.i.tution of our rights again." The very existence of Parliaments is attributed to the uprisings of their forefathers; and after emphasising the manner in which all power was still secured to the King and the House of Peers, it concludes with the following exhortation: "So when all Israel saw that the King hearkened not unto them, the people answered the King, saying, What portion have we in David; neither have we inheritance in the Son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel."

Within a few days of the publication of the second edition of the above pamphlet, its author was ready with the second part, which appeared on March 30th (1649), and was ent.i.tled:

"MORE LIGHT SHINING IN BUCKINGHAMSHIRE:[83:1]

Being a Declaration of the State and Condition that all Men are in by Right. Likewise the Slavery all the World are in by their own kind, and this Nation in particular, and by whom. Likewise the Remedies, as Take away the Cause and the Effect will cease.

Being a Representation unto all the People of England, and to the soldiery under the Lord General Fairfax.

THE SECOND PART.

'Whatsoever doth manifest, is Light.'--EPH. v. 13."

As this pamphlet covers much the same ground as the former, our notice of it will be but brief. After emphasising the importance of the observance of the Golden Rule, it declares that "All men by G.o.d's donation are alike free by birth, and have alike privileges by virtue of His grant." "So that for any to enclose the creation wholly from his kind, to his own use, to the impoverishment of his fellow-creatures, whereby they are made his slaves, is altogether unlawful. And it is the cause of all oppressions, whereby many thousands are deprived of their rights which G.o.d hath invested them withal, whereby they are forced to beg or steal for want." It then details the various means taken to this end, and declares them, as well as the kingly power which its author holds, to be their source and origin, to be opposed to the direct command of G.o.d as expressed in the Holy Scriptures. Hence it denounces the oppressing privileged cla.s.ses as "rebels against G.o.d's commands,"

and as "traitors against G.o.d's Annointed, Jesus Christ, who alone is Lord and King over men, and all men are equal." The writer contends that with the fall of the King, all the special privileges, grants, patents, monopolies, etc., created by him, should have fallen also. But since "it is apparent that the Grandees of the Parliament intend still to uphold them, and to take a large share thereof unto themselves," he finds himself forced to appeal "to all our dear Brethren in England and to the Soldiers in the Army to stand everyone in his place to oppose all Tyranny whatsoever and by whomsoever intended against us."

At the foot of this pamphlet we find the following notice: "Reader, You may expect in the Third Part to have an Anatomising of all Powers that now are, etc. And in the Fourth Part, the Grounds and Rules that all men are to go by. Farewell." Whether these notices refer to some of Winstanley's pamphlets, the second seems to point to _The New Law of Righteousness_, or not, we have no means of knowing. Nor, indeed, whether the above pamphlets were from his pen, though we strongly believe them to have been so. In any case they seem to us to have sufficient bearing on the Digger Movement to justify our noticing them here.