Part 11 (1/2)
[103:1] Others, in far more influential positions than Winstanley and his comrades, gave forcible expression to much the same views. In the debates of the Army Council on the Agreement of the People, on November 1647, Edward s.e.xby, the Agitator or Representative of the private soldiers, an able, daring, and energetic man, replying to Ireton, on the question of the right to vote, said: ”We have engaged in this kingdom and ventured our lives, and it was all for this: to recover our birthrights and privileges as Englishmen; and by the arguments urged, there are none. There are many thousands of us soldiers that have ventured our lives, we have had little propriety in the kingdom as to our estates, yet we have had a birthright. But it seems now that except a man hath a fixed estate in this kingdom, he hath no right in this kingdom. I wonder we were so deceived. If we had not a right to the kingdom, we were mere mercenary soldiers. There are men in my position, it may be little estate they have at present, and yet they have as much a birthright as those two who are their law-givers, or as any in this place.” During the same debate Colonel Rainborrow said: ”I think that the poorest he that is in England hath a life to live as the greatest he.” And, also in reply to Ireton, he subsequently declared: ”Sir, I see that it is impossible to have liberty but all property must be taken away.... If you will say it, it must be so. But I would fain know what the soldier hath fought for all this while? He hath fought to enslave himself, to give power to men of riches, to men of estate, and to make himself a perpetual slave.”--See _Clarke Papers_, vol. i. pp. 322-323, 325.
[105:1] King's Pamphlets. British Museum, Press Mark, E. 564. Also at the Guildhall Library. The Ralph Verney mentioned is the hero of _The Verney Memoirs_: there is, however, no mention of this incident therein.
[106:1] This argument would scarcely have appealed to Ireton, who during the debate of the Army Council frankly declared that in his opinion--”It was not the business of Jesus Christ, when he came into the world, to create Kingdoms of the World, and Magistracies and Monarchies, or to give the rule of them, positive or negative.”--See _Clarke Papers_, vol.
ii. p. 101.
[108:1] Colonel Rainborrow, who with s.e.xby and Wildman represented on the Army Council the private soldiers of the Model Army, during the debate on the right of voting, gave expression to the view that some fundamental changes in the laws of the Land were both necessary and justifiable, in the following words: ”I hear it said, 'It's a huge alteration it's a bringing in of new laws.' ... If writings be true, there hath been many scuttlings between the honest men of England and those that have tyrannised over them. And if what I have read be true, there is none of those just and equitable laws that the people of England are born to, but were once intrenchments [but were once innovations]. But if they [the existing laws] were those which the people have been always under, if the people find that they are not suitable to freeman, I know no reason that should deter me, either in what I must answer before G.o.d or the world, from endeavouring by all means to gain anything that might be of more advantage to them than the government under which they live.”--_Clarke Papers_, vol. i. p. 247.
[109:1] _Economic Interpretation of History_, p. 138.
[110:1] _Economic Interpretation of History_, p. 241.
[110:2] _Six Centuries of Work and Wages_, pp. 432-433.
CHAPTER XI
A WATCHWORD TO THE CITY OF LONDON, ETC.
”All men have stood for Freedom; thou hast kept fasting-days and prayed in the morning exercises for Freedom; thou hast given thanks for victories because hopes of Freedom; plenty of Pet.i.tions and Promises thereupon have been made for Freedom. But now the common enemy is gone, you are all like men in a mist seeking for Freedom, but know not where nor what it is.... a.s.sure yourselves, if you pitch not now upon the right point of Freedom in action, as your Covenant hath it in words, you will wrap up your children in greater slavery than ever you were in.”--WINSTANLEY, _A Watchword to the City of London_.
The House of Commons, as we have seen, took no notice of Winstanley's dignified appeal, hence, within a week of its publication in pamphlet form, Winstanley, on August 26th, 1649, addressed himself to the City of London, at that time the stronghold of advanced political and religious thought. The pamphlet, which is one of the most interesting he ever wrote, appeared the following month: the t.i.tle-page reads as follows:
”A WATCHWORD TO THE CITY OF LONDON AND THE ARMY:[112:1]
Wherein you may see that England's Freedom, which should be the result of all our Victories, is sinking deeper under the Norman Power, as appears by this Relation of the unrighteous proceedings of Kingston Court against some of the Diggers at George Hill, under colour of law; but yet thereby the cause of the Diggers is more brightened and strengthened, so that every one singly may truly say what his Freedom is and where it lies.
BY JERRARD WINSTANLEY.
When these clay bodies are in grave, and children stand in place, This shows we stood for truth and peace and freedom in our days; And true-born sons we shall appear of England that's our Mother, No Priests nor Lawyers wiles t'embrace, their slavery we'll discover.”
This pamphlet, too, commences with a Dedicatory Letter, which opens as follows:
”TO THE CITY OF LONDON,--Freedom and Peace desired,--{6}Thou City of London, I am one of thy sons by freedom, and I do truly love thy peace. While I had an estate in thee, I was free to offer my Mite into thy Public Treasury, Guildhall, for a preservation to thee and to the whole Land. But by thy cheating sons in the thieving art of buying and selling, and by the burdens of and for the soldiery in the beginning of the War, I was beaten out of both estate and trade, and forced to accept of the good-will of friends, crediting of me, to live a Country life. There likewise by the burthen of Taxes and much Free Quarter my weak back found the burthen heavier than I could bear. Yet in all the pa.s.sages of these eight years troubles, I have been willing to lay out what my talent was, to procure England's peace inward and outward; and yet all along I have found such as in words have professed the same cause to be enemies to me.”
It then briefly summarises Winstanley's past actions, as well as the causes that inspired them, and the position in which he finds himself in consequence thereof, as follows:
”Not a full year since, being quiet at my work, my heart was filled with sweet thoughts, and many things were revealed to me which I never read in books, nor heard from the mouth of any flesh. When I began to speak of them some people could not bear my words. Amongst these revelations this was one, _That the Earth shall be made a Common Treasury of Livelihood to whole mankind without respect of persons._
”And I had a voice within me that bade me declare it by word all abroad, which I did obey, for I declared it by word of mouth wheresoever I came. Then I was made to write a little book called the New Law of Righteousness, and therein I declared it. Yet my mind was not at rest, because nothing was acted; and thoughts ran in me that words and writings were all nothing and must die; for action is the life of all, and if thou dost not act, thou dost nothing.
”Within a little time I was made obedient to the word in that particular likewise. For I took my spade and went and broke the ground upon George Hill in Surrey, thereby declaring Freedom to the Creation, and that the Earth must be set free from entanglement of Lords and Land Lords, and that it shall become a Common Treasury to all, as it was first made and given to the sons of men.
”For which doing ... the old Norman Prerogative Lord of that Manor caused me to be arrested for a trespa.s.s against him in digging upon that barren Heath. And the unrighteous proceedings of Kingston Court I have declared to thee and to the whole Land that you may consider the case England is in.”
The Dedicatory Letter concludes as follows:
”I have declared this truth to the Army and Parliament, and now I have declared it to thee likewise, that none of you that are the fleshy strength of this Land may be left without excuse: for now you have been all spoken to. And because I have obeyed the voice of the Lord in this thing, therefore do the Freeholders and Lords of Manors seek to oppress me in the outward livelihood of the world, but I am in peace. And London, nay England, look to thy Freedom. I a.s.sure you thou art very near to be cheated of it, and if thou lose it now after all thy boasting, truly thy posterity will curse thee for thy unfaithfulness to them. Everyone talks of Freedom, but there are but few that act for Freedom, and the actors for Freedom are oppressed by the talkers and verbal professors of Freedom. If thou wouldst know what true Freedom is, read over this and other of my writings, and thou shalt see it lies in the Community in Spirit and Community in the Earthly Treasury; and this is Christ, the true manchild, spread abroad in the Creation, restoring all things unto himself. And so I leave thee, Being a free Denizon of thee, and a true lover of thy peace.
JERRARD WINSTANLEY.