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 Middlesex, 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 title-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 God, 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 God. Now man being made after God's image or
likeness, and created by the word of God, 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 God'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 god on Earth, as God
is the God 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 lusts, 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 classes 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 God'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 God
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 masses 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 God'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 title soever, God
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 Nobility 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 restitution 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 entitled:
"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 God'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 God 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 God as expressed in the Holy Scriptures. Hence it denounces
the oppressing privileged classes as "rebels against God's commands,"
and as "traitors against God'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.
Some six weeks later, on May 10th, yet another pamphlet appeared from
the same part of the country, entitled:
"A DECLARATION OF THE WELL-AFFECTED IN THE COUNTY OF
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE:[84:1]
Being a Representation of the Middle Sort of Men within the three
Chilterne Hundreds of Disborough, Burnum and Stoke, and part of
Ailsbury Hundred, whereby they declare their Resolution and
Intentions, with a Removal of their Grievances."
This is a very short pamphlet, of some seven pages, in which these
"Middle Sort of Men" state that they had waited for eight years for
redress of their grievances, but finding them still continue, and
expecting little good from the Parliament and the Grandees of the Army,
"finding the Grandees of the Army to be the men that hinder both the
honest soldiery that stand for absolute freedom, and doth imprison and
put them to death that are for Just Principles of Common Right and
Equity, so that those honest men are by those proud Commanders
persecuted by the name of Levellers...."[85:1]
"Therefore we declare our intentions that the World may take notice
of our principles, which are for Common Right and Freedom. And
therefore--
"1. We do protest against all Arbitrary Courts, Terms, Lawyers,
Impropriators, Lords of Manors, Patents, Privileges, Customs,
Tolls, Monopolisers, Incroachers, Enhancers, etc., or any other
interest-parties, whose powers are arbitrary, etc., as not to allow
or suffer ourselves to be inslaved by any of those parties, but
shall resist, as far as lawfully we can, all their Arbitrary
Proceedings.
"2. We protest against the whole Norman Power, as being too
intolerable a burden any longer to bear.
"3. We protest against paying Tythes, Tolls, Customs, etc.
"4 We protest against any coming to Westminster Terms, or to give
any money to the Lawyers, but will endeavour to have all our
Controversies ended by 2, 3 or 12 men of our own neighborhood, as
before the Norman Conquest.
"5. We protest against any trial by a Martial Court as arbitrary,
tyrannical and wicked, and not for a Free People to suffer in times
of peace.
"6. We shall help to aid and assist the Poor to the regaining all
their Rights, dues, etc., that do belong unto them, and are
detained from them by any Tyrant whatsoever.
"7. And likewise will further and help the said Poor to manure,
dig, etc., the said Commons, and to sell those woods growing
thereon to help them to a stock, etc.
"8. All well affected persons that joyn in Community in God's way,
as those Acts 2. v. 44, and desire to manure, dig and plant in the
waste grounds and commons, shall not be troubled or molested by any
of us, but rather furthered therein.
"We desire to go by the Golden Rule of Equity, viz., To do to all
men as we would they should do to us, and no otherwise: and as we
would tyrannise over none, so we shall not suffer ourselves to be
slaves to any whosoever."
That such views were not restricted to "the Levellers" may be inferred
from the very similar demands made in "A Petition of the Officers
engaged for Ireland," and presented to the House of Commons in July of
the same year (see Whitelocke, p. 413), from which we take the
following: "That proceedings in law may be in English, cheap, certain,
etc., and all suits and differences first to be arbitrated by three
neighbours, and if they cannot determine it, then to certify the Court."
They also "humbly pray"--"That Tithes may be taken away, and Two
Shillings in the Pound paid for all lands, out of which the Ministers to
be maintained and the Poor." This, we should think, was the first
petition to the House of Commons in favour of the Taxation of Land
Values.
In fact, religious and political speculation, as well as dissatisfaction
and discontent, were rife amongst the active and thoughtful of the
people, as well as in the Army. On the 17th of the previous month, some
of the soldiers, who, according to Gardiner,[87:1] "had resolved not to
leave England till the demands of the Levellers [the political
Levellers] had been granted--300 in Hewson's regiment alone," had
refused to go to Ireland, and had been promptly cashiered. On April 24th
a dispute about pay in one of the troops of Whalley's regiment had
resulted "in some thirty of the soldiers seizing the colours and
refusing to leave their quarters." It was not till Cromwell and Fairfax
appeared on the scene that they submitted. Fifteen of their number were
carried to Whitehall, where, on the 26th, a Court-martial condemned six
of them to death. "Cromwell, however, pleaded for mercy, and in the end
all were pardoned with the exception of Robert Lockyer, who was believed
to have been their leader." Lockyer, Gardiner continues, "though young
in years, had fought gallantly through the whole of the war. He was a
thoughtful, religious man, beloved by his comrades, who craved for the
immediate establishment of liberty and democratic order. As such he had
stood up for _The Agreement of the People_ on Corkbush Field," when
another trooper of a similar character, named Arnold, had been shot to
death, "and he now entertained against his commanding officers a
prejudice arising from other sources than the mere dispute about pay,
which influenced natures less noble than his own.... On the 27th,
Lockyer, firmly believing himself to be a martyr to the cause of right
and justice, was led up Ludgate Hill to the open space in front of St.
Paul's, and there, after expostulating with the firing party for their
obedience to their officers in a deed of murder, he was shot to death."
Lockyer's funeral took place on the 29th, and was the occasion of a
remarkable demonstration, of which we take the following account from
the pages of Whitelocke's _Memorial of English Affairs_ (p. 399):
"Mr. Lockier a Trooper who was shot to death by Sentence of the
Court Martial was buried in this manner. About one thousand went
before the Corps, and five or six in a file, the Corps was then
brought with six Trumpets sounding a Soldier's Knell, then the
Trooper's Horse came clothed all over in mourning and led by a
Footman. The Corps was adorned with bundles of Rosemary, one half
stained with blood, and the Sword of the deceased with them. Some
thousands followed in Ranks and Files, all had Sea-green and black
Ribbon tied on their Hats and to their Breasts, and the Women
brought up the Rear. At the new Church Yard in Westminster some
thousands more of the better sort met them, who thought not fit to
march through the City. Many looked on this Funeral as an Affront
to the Parliament and Army; others called them Levellers, but they
took no notice of any of them."
In view of such a manifestation of the state of public opinion, we
cannot be surprised that Winstanley's eloquent and impressive appeals
awoke a responsive echo in the minds of many who would have shrunk from
following his example, or even from publicly avowing his creed.
Moreover, the miserable condition of the masses of the agricultural
population, of which we shall give some startling evidence later on,
must have prepared a soil favourable to his self-imposed mission, to
awaken them to a knowledge both of their rights and of their duties.
Especially welcome must have been doctrines in accordance with their
simple religious beliefs, as well as with their ancient and well-founded
traditions of certain inalienable rights to the use of the land: rights
that, as they well knew, had been filched from them under cover of laws
they had no voice in making, which they did not understand, and which
were enforced upon them by the power of the sword and gallows. We must
remember, however, that though the landholders had succeeded in
impoverishing, they had not yet succeeded in degrading the people; some
remnant of the old English spirit was still left, and the Civil War had
re-awakened the old English craving for freedom, liberty, and equity.
The landholders, in their attempt to emancipate themselves from the
control of the Crown, had kindled a fire amongst the people before which
they quailed; small wonder, then, that about this time they began to
wish, to intrigue and to struggle for the re-establishment of the
Monarchy. From the time of Henry the Eighth the condition of the English
labourers had steadily worsened; it was left to the landholders after
the Restoration to complete their enslavement and degradation. When
considering Winstanley's or any other similar doctrines, the student
would do well to bear in mind Professor Thorold Rogers'
conclusions,[89:1]--conclusions arrived at after a lifelong study of the
question,--that--"I contend that from 1563 to 1824, a conspiracy,
concocted by the law and carried out by parties interested in its
success, was entered into, to cheat the English workmen of his wages, to
tie him to the soil, to deprive him of hope, and to degrade him into
irremediable poverty." Or, as he elsewhere expresses it[89:2]--"For more
than two centuries and a half the English law, and those who
administered the law, were engaged in grinding down the English workman
to the lowest pittance, in stamping out every expression or act which
indicated any organised discontent, and in multiplying penalties upon
him when he thought of his natural rights."
FOOTNOTES:
[79:1] King's Pamphlets. British Museum, Press Mark E 475 (11).
[83:1] King's Pamphlets. British Museum, Press Mark, E. 548 (33).
[84:1] King's Pamphlets. British Museum, Press Mark, E. 555.
[85:1] About this time, or a little later, there appeared in London an
interesting manifesto from some of the disbanded soldiers, the copy of
which in the British Museum (Press Mark, 4152. b.b. 109) bears no date,
but is addressed as follows: "To the Generals and Captains, Officers and
Soldiers of this present Army. The Just and Equal Appeal, and the state
of the Innocent Cause of us, who have been turned out of your Army for
the exercise of our pure Consciences, who are now persecuted amongst our
Brethren under the name of Quakers." Wherein they declare that "The
first cause and ground of our engagement in the late wars against the
Bishops and Prelates, and against Kings and Lords, and the whole body of
oppressors: our first engagement, we say, against these was justly and
truly upon that account of purchasing and obtaining Liberties in Civil
Rights, and also in matters of Conscience in the exercise of the worship
of God.... And we can safely say that the Liberty of Conscience and the
True Freedom of the Nations from all their oppressions was the mark at
which we aimed, and the harbour for which we hoped and the rest proposed
in our minds as the absolute end of our long and weary travel."
[87:1] _History of the Protectorate_, vol. i. pp. 50, 51.
[89:1] _Six Centuries of Work and Wages_, p. 398.
[89:2] _Socialism and Land._ Essay in a Quarterly Review, _Subjects of
the Day_, part ii. p. 52.