GERRARD WINSTANLEY'S UTOPIA
THE LAW OF FREEDOM (_concluded_)
"Day unto day utters speech--
Be wise, O ye Nations! and hear
What yesterday telleth to-day,
What to-day to the morrow will preach.
A change cometh over our sphere,
And the old goeth down to decay.
A new light hath dawned on the darkness of yore,
And men shall be slaves and oppressors no more."
CHARLES MACKAY.
It is in the chapter we have just been considering, the fourth chapter
of "The Law of Freedom," that we find Winstanley's last recorded
utterances on cosmological and theological problems. Nothing seems to us
more strikingly to show the broadening and development of his powerful
mind than a comparison of the views here expressed with those contained
in his earlier writings on the subject. True, the underlying ideas are
practically the same: he still realises the existence of a Divine
Spirit, the Spirit of Reason and of Love, of Righteousness and of Peace,
animating, inspiring, pervading and governing the whole Creation; he
still holds to his doctrine of the Inward Light, the spark of the Divine
Spirit of Reason, within man, prompting each and all to act righteously
and equitably one toward the other. Yet he is decidedly less mystical.
He lays emphasis on the necessity to study the works of God rather than
the Word of God; and has evidently become less anthropomorphic and more
spiritual, less mystical and more rational, less religious and more
ethical, less theological and more philosophic, less scholastic and more
scientific. However, we had better let him speak for himself.
Immediately after his reflections on the duties and functions of a
Commonwealth's Parliament, he proceeds to consider the work of a
Commonwealth's Ministry, as follows:
"THE WORK OF A COMMONWEALTH'S MINISTRY, AND WHY ONE DAY IN SEVEN
MAY BE A DAY OF REST FROM LABOR.
"If there were good Laws and the People be ignorant of them, it
would be as bad for the Commonwealth as if there were no Laws at
all. Therefore it is very rational and good that one day in seven
be still set apart, for three reasons:
"_First_, That the People in such a Parish may generally meet
together to see one another's faces, and beget or preserve
fellowship in friendly love.
"_Secondly_, To be a day of rest, or cessation from labor; so that
they may have some bodily rest for themselves and cattle.
"_Thirdly_, That he who is chosen Minister (for that year) in that
Parish may read to the People three things. First, the affairs of
the whole Land, as it is brought in by the Post-Master. Secondly,
to read the Law of the Common-wealth, not only to strengthen the
memory of the ancients, but that the young people also, who are not
grown up to ripeness of experience, may be instructed to know when
they do well and when they do ill. For the Law of a Land hath the
power of Freedom and Bondage, life and death, in its hand,
therefore the necessary knowledge to be known; and he is the best
Prophet that acquaints men therewith, that as men grow up in years
they may be able to defend the Laws and Government of the Land. But
these Laws shall not be expounded by the Reader; for to expound a
plain Law, as if a man would put a better meaning than the letter
itself, produces two evils: First, the pure Law and the minds of
the people will be thereby confounded, for multitude of words
darken knowledge. Secondly, the reader will be puffed up in pride
to contemn the Law-makers, and in time that will prove the father
and nurse of tyranny, as at this day is manifested by our
Ministry."
WHAT SHALL BE SPOKEN OF.
"But because the minds of people generally love discourses,
therefore, that the wits of men, both old and young, may be
exercised, there may be speeches made in a threefold nature:
"_First_, To declare the acts and passages of former ages and
governments, setting forth the benefit of freedom by well-ordered
Governments, as in Israel's Commonwealth, and the troubles and
bondage which hath always attended oppression and oppressors, as
the State of Pharaoh and other tyrant kings, who said the Earth and
People were theirs, and only at their disposal.
"_Secondly_, Speeches may be made of all Arts and Sciences, some
one day some another, as in Physics, Chyrurgery, Astrology,
Astronomy, Navigation, Husbandry, and such like. And in these
speeches may be unfolded the nature of all herbs and plants, from
the Hysop to the Cedar, as Solomon writ of. Likewise men may come
to see into the nature of the fixed and wandering Stars, those
great powers of God in the heavens above. And hereby men will come
to know the secrets of Nature and Creation, within which all true
knowledge is wrapped up, and the light in man must arise to search
it out.
"_Thirdly_, Speeches may be made sometimes of the nature of
mankind, of his darkness and of his light, of his weakness and of
his strength, of his love and of his envy, of his inward and
outward bondages, of his inward and outward freedoms, etc. And this
is that at which the ministry of Churches generally aim; but only
that they confound their knowledge by imaginary study.... And thus
to speak, or thus to read the Law of Nature (or God) as He hath
written His name in every body, is to speak a pure language, and
this is to speak the truth as Jesus Christ spake it, giving to
everything its own weight and measure. By this means in time men
shall attain to the practical knowledge of God truly, that they may
serve Him in spirit and in truth: and this knowledge will not
deceive a man."
HIS ANSWER TO OBJECTIONS.
Then follows a passage which even to-day would bring down the wrath of
"zealous but ignorant professors" upon the head of any author
acknowledging it, if within their sphere of influence. He continues:
"'I,' but saith the zealous but ignorant Professor, 'this is a low
and carnal Ministry indeed; this leads men to know nothing but the
knowledge of the earth and the secrets of nature; but we are to
look after spiritual and heavenly things.'
"I answer: 'To know the secrets of nature is to know the works of
God; and to know the works of God within the Creation, is to know
God himself; for God dwells in every visible work or body. Indeed,
if you would know spiritual things, it is to know how the Spirit or
Power of Wisdom and Life, causing motion or growth, dwells within
and governs both the several bodies of the stars and planets in the
heavens above, and the several bodies of the earth below, as grass,
plants, fishes, beasts, birds and mankind. For to reach God beyond
the Creation, or to know what he will be to a man after the man is
dead, if any otherwise than to scatter him into his essences of
fire, water, earth and air, of which he is composed, is a knowledge
beyond the line or capacity of man to attain to while he lives in
his compounded body. And if a man should go to imagine what God is
beyond the Creation, or what he will be in a spiritual
demonstration after a man is dead, he doth, as the proverb saith,
but build castles in the air, or tells us of a world beyond the
Moon or beyond the Sun, merely to blind the reason of man.
"'I'll appeal to yourself in this question, What other knowledge
have you of God but what you have within the circle of the
Creation? For if the Creation in all its dimensions be the fullness
of Him that fills all with Himself; and if you yourself be part of
this Creation: where can you find God but in that line or station
wherein you stand? God manifests Himself in actual Knowledge, not
in Imagination. He is still in motion, either in bodies upon earth
or in the bodies in the heavens, or in both; in the night and in
the day, in Winter, in Summer, in cold, in heat, in growth or not
in growth.'"
THE CAUSE OF IGNORANCE, EVIL AND SORROWS.
"But when a studying imagination comes into man, which is the
devil, for it is the cause of all evil and sorrows in the world;
that is he who puts out the eyes of man's knowledge, and tells him
he must believe what others have writ or spoke, and must not trust
to his own experience. And when this bewitching fancy sits in the
Chair of Government, there is nothing but saying and unsaying,
frowardness, covetousness, fears, confused thoughts, and
unsatisfied doubtings, all the days of that man's reign in the
heart."
EXAMINE THE WAYS OF MEN, NOT ONLY THEIR PRECEPTS.
"Or, secondly, examine yourself and look likewise into the ways of
all Professors, and you shall find that the enjoyment of the earth
below, which you call a low and a carnal knowledge, is that which
you and all Professors (as well as the men of the world, as you
call them) strive and seek after. Wherefore are you so covetous
after the world, in buying and selling, counting yourself a happy
man if you be rich, and a miserable man if you be poor? And though
you say, _Heaven after death is a place of glory where you shall
enjoy God face to face_, yet you are loth to leave the earth and go
thither.
"Do not your Ministers preach for to enjoy the earth? Do not
professing Lawyers, as well as others, buy and sell the Conquerer's
justice that they may enjoy the earth? Do not professing Soldiers
fight for the earth, and seat themselves in that Land which is the
birth-right of others, as well as theirs, shutting others out? Do
not all Professors strive to get earth, that they may live in
plenty by other men's labors? Do you not make the earth your very
rest? Doth not the enjoying of the earth please the spirit in you?
and then you say God is pleased with your ways and blesseth you. If
you want earth, and become poor, do you not say, God is angry with
you? Why do you heap up riches? why do you eat and drink, and wear
clothes? Are not all these carnal and low things of the earth? and
do you not live in them and covet them as much as any, nay more
than many which you call men of the world?
"It being thus with you, what other spiritual and heavenly things
do you seek after more than others? What is in you more than in
others? If you say there is, then surely you should leave these
earthly things alone to the men of the world, as you call them,
whose portions these are, and keep you within the compass of your
own sphere, that others seeing you live a life above the world in
peace and freedom, neither working yourselves, nor deceiving, nor
compelling others to work for you, they may be drawn to embrace the
same spiritual life by your single hearted conversation. Well I
have done here."
"LET US NOW EXAMINE YOUR DIVINITY."
Winstanley then carries the war into the camp of his clerical opponents,
and that in so forcible a manner that we cannot refrain from quoting at
length. He says:
"Let us now examine your Divinity, which you call heavenly and
spiritual things; for herein speeches are made, not to advance
knowledge, but to destroy the true knowledge of God. For Divinity
does not speak the truth, as it is hid in everybody, but it leaves
the motional knowledge of a thing as it is, and imagines, studies
or thinks what may be, and so runs the hazard of true or false.
This Divinity is always speaking words to deceive the simple, that
he may make them work for him and maintain him, but he never comes
to action himself, to do as he would be done by; for he is a
monster who is all tongue and no hand.
"This Divining Doctrine, which you call spiritual and heavenly
things, is the thief and the robber, he comes to spoil the Vineyard
of a man's peace, and does not enter in at the door, but he climbs
up another way. And this Doctrine is two-fold: First, it takes upon
him to tell you the meaning of other men's words and writings, by
his studying or imagining what another man's knowledge might be,
and by thus doing darkens knowledge, and wrongs the spirit of the
Authors who did write and speak those things which he takes upon
him to interpret. Secondly, he takes upon him to foretell what
shall befall a man after he is dead, and what that world is beyond
the Sun and beyond the Moon, etc. And if any man tell him there is
no reason for what you say, he answers, you must not judge of
heavenly and spiritual things by reason, but you must believe what
is told you, whether it be reason or no."
WHEREIN IT IS WANTING.
"There is a three-fold discovery of falsehood in this Doctrine.
First, it is a Doctrine of a sickly and weak spirit, who hath lost
his understanding in the knowledge of the Creation, and of the
temper of his own heart and nature, and so runs into fancies,
either of joy or sorrow. If the passion of joy predominate, then he
fancies to himself a personal God, personal Angels, and a local
place of glory, which he saith, he, and all who believe what he
hath, shall go to after they are dead. If sorrow predominate, then
he fancies to himself a personal Devil, and a local place of
torment that he shall go to after he is dead: and this he speaks
with great confidence.
"_Secondly_, This is the doctrine of a subtle running spirit, to
make an ungrounded wise man mad.... For many times when a wise
understanding heart is assaulted with this Doctrine of a God, a
Devil, a Heaven and a Hell, Salvation and Damnation after a man is
dead, his spirit being not strongly grounded in the knowledge of
the Creation nor in the temper of his own heart, he strives and
stretches his brain to find out the depth of that doctrine and
cannot attain to it. For, indeed, it is not knowledge, but
imagination. And so by poring and puzzling himself in it, he loses
that wisdom he had, and becomes distracted and mad. If the passion
of joy predominate, then he is merry, and sings, and laughs, and is
ripe in the expression of his words and will speak strange things:
but all by imagination. But if the passion of sorrow predominate,
then he is heavy and sad, crying out, _He is damned; God hath
forsaken him, and he must go to Hell when he dies; he cannot make
his calling and election sure._ And in that distemper many times a
man doth hang, kill or drown himself. So this Divining Doctrine,
which you call spiritual and heavenly things, torments people
always when they are weak, sickly or under any distemper. Therefore
it cannot be the Doctrine of Christ the Saviour.
"Or, _thirdly_, This Doctrine is made a cloak of policy by the
subtle Elder Brother, to cheat his simpler Younger Brother of the
Freedoms of the Earth. For, saith the Elder Brother, 'The Earth is
mine, and not yours, Brother; and you must not work upon it, unless
you will hire it of me; and you must not take the fruits of it,
unless you will buy them of me, by that which I pay you for your
labor. For if you should do otherwise, God will not love you, and
you shall not go to Heaven when you die, but the Devil will have
you, and you must be damned in Hell.'
"If the Younger reply, and say--'The Earth is my Birth-Right as
well as yours, and God who made us both is no Respecter of persons.
Therefore there is no reason but I should enjoy the Freedoms of the
Earth for my comfortable livelihood, as well as you, Brother.'
"'I,' but saith the Elder Brother, 'You must not trust to your own
Reason and Understanding, but you must believe what is written and
what is told you; and if you will not believe, your Damnation will
be the greater.'
"'I cannot believe,' saith the Younger Brother, 'that our Righteous
Creator should be so partial in his Dispensations of the Earth,
seeing our bodies cannot live upon Earth without the use of the
Earth.'
"The Elder Brother replies, 'What, will you be an Atheist, and a
factious man, will you not believe God?'
"'Yes,' saith the Younger Brother, 'if I knew God said so, I should
believe, for I desire to serve Him.'
"'Why,' saith the Elder Brother, 'this is His Word, and if you will
not believe it, you must be damned; but if you will believe it, you
will go to Heaven.'
"Well, the Younger Brother, being weak in spirit, and not having a
grounded knowledge of the Creation, nor of himself, is terrified,
and lets go his hold in the Earth, and submits himself to be a
Slave to his Brother, for fear of damnation in Hell after death,
and in hopes to get Heaven thereby after he is dead. And so his
eyes are put out, and his Reason is blinded. So that this divining
spiritual doctrine is a cheat. For while men are gazing up to
Heaven, imagining after a happiness, or fearing a Hell after they
are dead, their eyes are put out, that they see not what are their
Birth-Rights, nor what is to be done by them here on Earth while
they are living. This is the filthy Dreamer and the Cloud without
rain. And indeed the subtle Clergy do know that if they can but
charm the people by this their divining doctrine, to look after
riches, Heaven and Glory when they are dead, that then they shall
easily be the inheritors of the Earth, and have the deceived people
to be their Servants.
"For my own part," he continues, "my spirit hath waded deep to find
the bottom of this divining spiritual Doctrine; and the more I
searched, the more I was at a loss. I never came to quiet rest and
to know God in my spirit, till I came to the knowledge of the
things in this Book. And let me tell you, They who preach this
divining doctrine are the murderers of many a poor heart, who is
bashful and simple, and who cannot speak for himself, but who keeps
his thoughts to himself."
Such, then, was Winstanley's final attack on the body of teachings he,
rightly or wrongly, hated and despised as the main supporter of the
prevailing social injustice. Correct thought he realised to be the
necessary precursor of right action; and he knew that correct thought is
impossible so long as old, inherited false ideas are unquestioningly
accepted and hold undisputed dominion over the human mind. Winstanley
seems to us to have realised that it was the ignorance of the many that,
in truth, maintained the privileges of the few; that the masses
themselves forge the fetters for their own enslavement, which, though
apparently as strong as iron bands, are, in truth, but things of
gossamer, easily to be broken by those who themselves have forged and
who themselves still maintain them.
In the next chapter (chap. v.) Winstanley briefly summarises his views
on education, and outlines the means by which he deemed both the
production and the distribution of wealth could be carried on without
having recourse to "the thieving art of buying and selling." It
commences as follows:
OF EDUCATION.
"Mankind in the days of his youth is like a young colt, wanton and
foolish, till he be broken in by education and correction; the
neglect of this care, or the want of wisdom in the performance of
it, hath been and is the cause of much division and trouble in the
world. Therefore the Law of a Common-wealth doth require that not
only a Father, but that all Overseers and Officers should make it
their work to educate children in good manners, and to see them
brought up in some trade or other, and to suffer no children in any
Parish to live in idleness and youthful pleasures all their days,
as many have been; but that they may be brought up like men and not
like beasts. That so the Commonwealth may be planted with laborious
and wise experienced men, and not with idle fools."
He continues his reflections as follows:
"Mankind may be considered in a four-fold degree, his childhood,
youth, manhood, and old age. His childhood and his youth may be
considered from his birth till forty years of age. Within this
compass of time, after he is weaned from his mother, his parents
shall teach him a civil and humble behaviour towards all men. Then
send him to school, to learn to read the Laws of the Common-wealth,
to ripen his wits from his childhood, and so to proceed with his
learning till he be acquainted with all Arts and Languages.... But
one sort of children shall not be trained up only to book-learning,
and to no other employment, called Scholars, as they are in the
Government of Monarchy. For then through idleness they spend their
time to find out policies to advance themselves to be Lords and
Masters over their laboring bretheren, which occasions all the
trouble in the world."
After again indicating the source of all real knowledge, he continues:
"Therefore, to prevent idleness and the danger of Machivilian
cheats, it is profitable for the Commonwealth that children be
trained up in trades and some bodily employment, as well as in
learning languages or the histories of former ages. And as boys are
trained up in learning and in trades, so all maids shall be trained
up in reading, sewing, kniting, spinning of linnen and woollen,
music, and all other easy neat works, either for to furnish
Storehouses with linnen and wooll cloth, or for the ornament of
particular houses with needlework. If this course were taken, there
would be no idle person or beggar in the Land, and much work would
be done by that now lazy generation for the enlarging of the Common
Treasury."
INVENTION TO BE ENCOURAGED.
"In the managing of any trade let no young wit be crushed in his
invention. If any man desire to make a new trial of his skill in
any trade or science, the Overseer shall not injure him but
encourage him therein; that so the Spirit of Knowledge may have his
full growth in man, to find out the secrets in every art. And let
everyone who finds out a new invention have a deserved honor given
him; and certainly when men are sure of food and raiment, their
reason will be ripe and ready to dive into the secrets of the
Creation, that they may learn to see and know God (the Spirit of
the whole Creation) in all his works. For fear of want and care to
pay Rent to Task-Masters hath hindered many rare inventions. So
that Kingly Power hath crushed the Spirit of Knowledge, and would
not suffer it to rise up in its beauty and fullness, but by his
Club Law hath preferred the Spirit of Imagination, which is a
deceiver, before it.
"THERE SHALL BE NO BUYING AND SELLING OF THE EARTH, NOR OF THE
FRUITS THEREOF.
"For by the Government under Kings the cheaters hereby have cozened
the plain-hearted of their Creation Birth-rights, and have
possessed themselves in the Earth, and call it theirs, and not the
others, and so have brought in that poverty and misery which lies
upon many men. And whereas the wise should help the foolish, and
the strong help the weak, the wise and strong destroy the weak and
simple ... and so the Proverb is made true--_Plain dealing is a
jewel, but he who uses it shall die a beggar._ And why? Because
this buying and selling is the nursery of cheats; it is the Law of
the Conqueror, the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees....
And these cunning cheaters commonly become the Rulers of the
Earth.... For not the wise poor man, but the cunning rich man was
always made an Officer and a Ruler; such a one as by his stolen
interests in the Earth would be sure to hold others in bondage of
poverty and servitude to him and his party. Therefore there shall
be no buying and selling in a free Common-wealth, neither shall
anyone hire his Brother to work for him."
From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs:
such, then, was Winstanley's ideal; such was the Communistic
Commonwealth he evidently imagined would naturally evolve if only the
equal claims of all to the use of the Earth were once recognised and
respected. He was, however, much too shrewd to think for a moment that
any such State could be ushered in all at once, or created by Act of
Parliament. For he continues:
"If the Common-wealth might be governed without buying and selling,
here is a Platform of Government for it, which is the ancientest
Law of Righteousness to Mankind in the use of the Earth, and which
is the very height of Earthly Freedom. But if the minds of the
people, through covetousness and proud ignorance, will have the
Earth governed by buying and selling still, this same Platform,
with some few things subtracted, declares an easy way of Government
of the Earth for the quiet of people's minds, and the preserving of
peace in the Land.
"HOW MUST THE EARTH BE PLANTED?
"The Earth is to be planted and the fruits reaped and carried into
Barns and Storehouses by the assistance of every family. If any man
or family want corn or other provisions, they may go to the
Storehouses and fetch without money. If they want a horse to ride,
go into the fields in Summer, or to the Common Stables in Winter,
and receive one from the Keepers, and when your journey is
performed, bring him where you had him, without money. If any want
food or victuals, they may either go to the butchers' shops and
receive what they want without money, or else go to the flocks of
sheep or herds of cattle, and take and kill what meat is needful
for their families, without buying and selling. The reason why all
the riches of the Earth are a Common Stock is this: Because the
Earth and the labors thereupon are managed by common assistance of
every family, without buying and selling, as is shown more largely
in the Office of Overseers for Trades and the Law for Storehouses.
The Laws for the right ordering thereof, and the Officers to see
the Laws executed, to preserve the peace of every family, and to
improve and promote every trade, is shown in the work of Officers
and the Laws following."
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."