Lewis H. Berens - The Digger Movement in the Days of the Commonwealth

L >> Lewis H. Berens >> The Digger Movement in the Days of the Commonwealth

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FAITHFUL OFFICERS AND FAITHLESS OFFICERS.

"So that all true Officers are chosen Officers, and when they act
to satisfy the necessities of them who chose them, then they are
faithful and righteous servants to that Commonwealth, and then
there is a rejoicing in the City. But when Officers do take the
possessions of the Earth into their own hands, lifting themselves
up thereby to be Lords over their Masters, the people who choose
them, and will not suffer the people to plant the Earth and reap
the fruits for their livelihood unless they will hire the land of
them, or work for day wages for them, that they may live in ease
and plenty and not work: These Officers are fallen from true
Magistracy of a Commonwealth, and they do not act righteously, and
because of this sorrow and tears, poverty and bondages are known
among mankind, and now that City mourns."

"ALL OFFICERS IN A COMMONWEALTH ARE TO BE CHOSEN NEW ONES EVERY
YEAR."

Winstanley believed that power of any sort, more especially if long
enjoyed, tends to corrupt and to deteriorate. He therefore advocates,
and shows surprisingly good reasons for his advocacy, that new Officers
should be appointed every year. He says:

"When public Officers remain long in places of Judicature, they
will degenerate from the bounds of humility, honesty and tender
care of bretheren, in regard the heart of man is so subject to be
overspread with the clouds of covetousness, pride and vain-glory.
For though at the first entrance into places of Rule they be of
public spirits, seeking the Freedom of others as their own; yet
continuing long in such a place, where honors and greatness come
in, they become selfish, seeking themselves, and not Common
Freedom; as experience proves it true in these days, according to
this common proverb--'_Great offices in a Land and Army have
changed the disposition of many sweet spirited men._'

"And Nature tells us, that if water stand long, it corrupts;
whereas running water keeps sweet and is fit for common use.

"Therefore, as the necessity of Common Preservation moves the
people to frame a Law and to choose Officers to see the Law
obeyed, that they may live in peace: So doth the same necessity bid
the people, and cries aloud in the ears and eyes of England, to
choose new Officers, and to remove the old ones, and to choose
State Officers every year: and that for these reasons:

"_First_, To prevent their own evils: for when pride and fulness
take hold of an Officer, his eyes are so blinded therewith that he
forgets he is a servant to the Commonwealth, and strives to lift up
himself high above his Bretheren, and oftentimes his fall prove
very great: witness the fall of oppressing Kings, Bishops and other
State Officers.

"_Secondly_,{12} To prevent the creeping of oppression into the
Commonwealth again. For when Officers grow proud and full, they
will maintain their greatness, though it be in the poverty, ruin
and hardship of their Bretheren: Witness the practice of Kings and
their Laws, that have crushed the Commoners of England a long time.
And have we not experience in these days that some Officers of the
Commonwealth have grown so mossy for want of removing that they
will hardly speak to an old acquaintance, if he be an inferior man,
though they were very familiar before these wars began? And what
hath occasioned this distance among friends and bretheren, but long
continuance in places of honor, greatness and riches?"

"_Thirdly_, Let Officers be chosen new every year in love to our
posterity. For if burdens and oppressions should grow up in our
Laws and in our Officers for want of removing, as moss and weeds
grow in some land for want of stirring, surely it will be a
foundation of misery not easily to be removed by our posterity, and
then will they curse the time when we their forefathers had
opportunities to set things to rights for their ease, and would not
do it.

"_Fourthly_, To remove Officers of State every year will make them
truly faithful, knowing that others are coming after who will look
into their ways, and if they do not do things justly, they must be
ashamed when the next Officers succeed. And when Officers deal
faithfully with the Government of the Commonwealth, they will not
be unwilling to remove: the peace of London is much preserved by
removing their Officers yearly.

"_Fifthly_, It is good to remove Officers every year, that whereas
many have their portions to obey, so many may have their turn to
rule. And this will encourage all men to advance righteousness and
good manners in hopes of honor; but when money and riches bear all
the sway in the Rulers' hearts, there is nothing but tyranny in
such ways.

"_Sixthly_, The Commonwealth hereby will be furnished with able and
experienced men, fit to govern, which will mightily advance the
honor and peace of our Land, occasion the more watchful care in the
education of children, and in time will make our Commonwealth of
England the Lily among the Nations of the Earth.

"WHO ARE FIT TO CHOOSE, AND FIT TO BE CHOSEN OFFICERS IN A
COMMONWEALTH.

"All uncivil livers, as drunkards, quarrellers, fearful ignorant
men, who dare not speak truth less they anger other men; likewise
all who are wholly given to pleasure and sports, or men who are
full of talk: all these are empty of substance and cannot be
experienced men, therefore not fit to be chosen Officers in a
Commonwealth--yet they may have a voice in the choosing.

"_Secondly_, All those who are interested in the Monarchial Power
and Government, ought neither to choose nor to be chosen Officers
to manage Commonwealth's affairs; for these cannot be friends to
Common Freedom.... But seeing that few of the Parliament's friends
understand their Common Freedom, though they own the name
Commonwealth, therefore the Parliament's Party ought to bear with
the ignorance of the King's Party, because they are Bretheren, and
not make them servants, though for the present they be suffered
neither to choose nor be chosen Officers, lest that ignorant spirit
of revenge break out in them to interrupt our common peace.

"Moreover, All those who have been so hasty to buy and sell the
Commonwealth's Land, and so to entangle it upon a new accompt,
ought neither to choose nor be chosen Officers. For hereby they
declare themselves either to be for kingly interest, or else are
ignorant of Commonwealth's Freedom, or both, therefore unfit to
make Laws to govern a Free Commonwealth, or to be Overseers to see
those laws executed. What greater injury could be done to the
Commoners of England than to sell away their Land so hastily,
before the people knew where they were, or what Freedom they had
got by such cost and bloodshed as they were at? And what greater
ignorance could be declared by Officers than to sell away the
purchased Land from the purchasers, or from part of them, into the
hands of particular men to uphold Monarchial Principles?

"But though this be a fault, let it be borne withal, it was
ignorance of Bretheren; for England hath lain so long under kingly
slavery that few knew what Common Freedom was; and let a
restoration of this redeemed land be speedily made by those who
have possession of it. For there is neither Reason nor Equity that
a few men should go away with that Land and Freedom which the whole
Commoners have paid taxes, free-quarter, and wasted their estates,
healths and blood, to purchase out of bondage, and many of them are
in want of a comfortable livelihood.

"Well, these are the men that take away other men's rights from
them, and they are members of the covetous generation of
self-seekers, therefore unfit to be chosen Officers or to choose.

"WHO THEN ARE FIT TO BE CHOSEN OFFICERS?

"Why truly choose such as have a long time given testimony by their
actions to be promoters of Common Freedom, whether they be Members
in Church Fellowship, or not in Church Fellowship, for all are one
in Christ.

"Choose such as are men of peaceable spirits, and of a peaceable
conversation.

"Choose such as have suffered under Kingly Oppression, for they
will be fellow-feelers of others' bondages.

"Choose such as have adventured the loss of their estates and lives
to redeem the Land from bondage, and who have remained constant.

"Choose men of courage, who are not afraid to speak the truth; for
this is the shame of many in England at this day, they are drowned
in the dung-hill mud of slavish fear of men.

"Choose Officers out of the number of those men that are above
forty years of age, for these are most likely to be experienced
men, and to be men of courage, dealing truly and hating
covetousness."

PAYMENT OF REPRESENTATIVES.

"And if you choose men thus principled who are poor men, as times
go, for the Conqueror's Power hath made many a righteous man a
poor man, then allow them a yearly maintenance from the Common
Stock, until such time as a Commonwealth's Freedom is established,
for then there will be no need of such allowances."

THE MAIN SOURCE OF IGNORANCE.

"What is the reason that most men are so ignorant of their
Freedoms, and so few fit to be chosen Commonwealth's Officers?

"Because the old Kingly Clergy, that are seated in Parishes for
lucre of Tythes, are continually distilling their blind principles
into the people, and do thereby nurse up ignorance to them. For
they observe the bent of the people's minds, and make sermons to
please the sickly minds of ignorant people, to preserve their own
riches and esteem among a charmed, befooled and besotted people."

After this passing shot at his old adversaries, Winstanley proceeds to
consider the Offices and Institutions suitable for his ideal community,
for a Free Commonwealth. He first summarises their function as a whole,
and of the special duty incumbent on all public officials, as follows:

"All the Offices in a Commonwealth are like links of a chain; they
arise from one and the same root, which is necessity of Common
Peace; therefore they are to assist each other, and all others are
to assist them, as need requires, upon pain of punishment by the
breach of the Laws. The Rule of Right Government being thus
observed, may make a whole Land, nay the whole Fabric of the Earth,
to become one Family of Mankind, and one well-governed
Commonwealth."

THE WORK OF A FATHER OR MASTER OF A FAMILY.

"A Father is to cherish his children till they grow wise and
strong; and then as a Master he is to instruct them in reading, in
learning languages, Arts and Sciences, or to bring them up to
labor, or employ them in some Trade or other, or cause them to be
instructed therein, according as is shown hereafter in the
Education of Mankind. A Father is to have a care that all his
children do assist to plant the Earth, or by other Trades provide
necessaries; so he shall see that every one have a comfortable
livelihood, not respecting one before another. He is to command
them their work, and see they do it, and not suffer them to live
idle; he is either to reprove by words, or whip those that offend;
for the Rod is prepared to bring the unreasonable ones to
experience and moderation. That so children may not quarrel like
beasts, but live in Peace, like rational men, experienced in
yielding obedience to the Law and Officers of the Commonwealth:
every one doing to another as he would have another do to him."

THE WORK OF A PEACEMAKER.

"In a Parish or Town may be chosen three, four or six Peacemakers,
according to the bigness of the place: and their work is twofold.
_First_, In general to sit in Council to order the affairs of the
Parish, to prevent troubles, and to preserve common peace.
_Secondly_, If there arise any matters of offence between man and
man, the offending parties shall be brought by the Soldiers
[Policemen] before any one or more of these Peacemakers, who shall
hear the matter, and endeavour to reconcile the parties and make
peace, and so put a stop to the rigour of the Law, and go no
further. But if the Peacemaker cannot persuade or reconcile the
parties, then he shall command them to appear at the Judges' Court
at the time appointed to receive the Judgement of the Law.

"If any matter of public concernment fall out wherein the Peace of
the City, Town or Country is concerned, then the Peacemakers in
every town thereabouts shall meet and consult about it; and from
them, or any six of them, if need require, shall issue forth any
orders to inferior Officers. But if the matter concern only the
limits of a Town or City, then the Peacemakers of that Town shall
from their Court send forth orders to inferior Officers for the
performing of any public service within their limits.

"_Thirdly_, If any proof be given that any Officer neglects his
duty, a Peacemaker is to tell that Officer, between them two, of
his neglect. If the Officer continue negligent after this reproof,
the Peacemaker shall acquaint either the County Senate, or the
National Parliament therewith, that from them the offender may
receive condign punishment.

"AND IT IS ALL TO THIS END THAT THE LAWS BE OBEYED; FOR A CAREFUL
EXECUTION OF LAWS IS THE LIFE OF GOVERNMENT."

THE WORK OF AN OVERSEER.

Winstanley then details at some length the functions of Overseers, of
which the following will, we think, give our readers sufficient insight:

"In a Parish or Town there is to be a four-fold degree of
Overseers, which are to be chosen yearly. The first is an Overseer
to preserve peace, in case of any quarrels that may fall out
between man and man.... The second office of Overseer is for
Trades. This Overseer is to see that young people be put to
Masters, to be instructed in some labour, trade, service, or to be
waiters in Storehouses, that none may be idly brought up in any
family within his circuit.... Truly the Government of the Halls and
Companies in London is a very rational and well-ordered government;
and the Overseers for Trades may well be called Masters, Wardens,
and Assistants of such and such a Company, for such and such a
particular Trade.... Likewise this Overseer for Trades shall see
that no man shall be a Housekeeper and have servants under him till
he hath served under a Master seven years, and hath learned his
Trade: and the reason is, that every Family may be governed by
staid and experienced Masters, and not by wanton youth. And this
Office of Overseer keeps all people within a peaceful harmony of
Trades, Sciences, or Works, that there be neither Beggar nor Idle
Person in the Commonwealth.

"The third Office of Overseership is to see particular Tradesmen
bring in their work to the Storehouses and Shops, and to see that
the waiters in Storehouses do their duty.... And if any Keeper of a
Shop or Storehouse neglect the duty of his place ... the Overseer
shall admonish him and reprove him. If he amend, all is well; if he
doth not, the Overseer shall give orders to the Soldiers to carry
him before the Peacemaker's Court, and if he reform upon the
reproof of that Court, all is well. But if he doth not reform, he
shall be sent by the Officers to appear before the Judge's Court,
and the Judge shall pass sentence--That he shall be put out of that
House and Employment, and sent among the Husbandmen to work in the
Earth: and some other shall have his place and house till he be
reformed."

"Fourthly, all ancient men, above sixty years of age, are General
Overseers. And wheresoever they go and see things amiss in any
Officer or Tradesmen, they shall call any Officer or others to
account for their neglect of duty to the Commonwealth's Peace; and
they are called Elders."

THE OFFICE OF A SOLDIER.

"A Soldier is a Magistrate as well as any other Officer; and indeed
all State Officers are Soldiers, for they represent power; and if
there were not power in the hands of Officers, the spirit of
rudeness would not be obedient to any Law or Government, but their
own wills. Therefore every year shall be chosen a Soldier, like
unto a Marshall of a City, and, being the Chief, he shall have
divers soldiers under him at his command to assist in case of need.
The work of a Soldier in times of peace is to fetch in Offenders,
and to bring them before either Officer or Court, and to be a
protector to the Officers against all disturbances."

THE WORK OF A TASK-MASTER.

"The Work or Office of a Task-master is to take those into his
oversight as are sentenced by the Judge to loose their Freedom, to
appoint them their work, and to see they do it."

THE WORK OF A JUDGE.

"THE LAW ITSELF IS THE JUDGE OF ALL MEN'S ACTIONS; yet he who is
chosen to pronounce the Law is called Judge, because he is the
mouth of the Law: for no single man ought to judge or to interpret
the Law. Because the Law itself, as it is left us in the letter, is
the mind and determination of the Parliament and of the people of
the Land, to be their Rule to walk by and to be the touch-stone of
all actions. And the man who takes upon him to interpret the Law,
doth either darken the sense of the Law, and so make it confused
and hard to be understood, or else puts another meaning upon it,
and so lifts up himself above the Parliament, above the Law, and
above all people in the Land.

"Therefore the work of that man who is called Judge is to hear any
matter that is brought before him; and in all cases of difference
between man and man, he shall see the parties on both sides before
him, and shall hear each man speak for himself, without a fee'd
Lawyer; likewise he is to examine any witness who is to prove a
matter on trial before him. And then he is to pronounce the bare
letter of the Law concerning such a thing: for he hath his name
Judge, not because his will or mind is to judge the actions of
offenders before him, but because he is the mouth to pronounce the
Law, who, indeed, is the true Judge: Therefore to this Law and to
this Testimony let everyone have regard who intends to live in
Peace in the Commonwealth."

Then occurs a passage that shows how carefully Winstanley had watched
the public affairs of his own times, more especially the prolonged
attempt of the late King to govern England under cover of ancient
obsolete Laws interpreted by Judges removable at his will. He continues:

"For hence hath arisen much misery in the Nations under Kingly
Government, in that the man called the Judge hath been suffered to
interpret the Law. And when the mind of the Law, the Judgement of
the Parliament and the Government of the Land, is resolved into the
breasts of the Judges, this hath occasioned much complaining of
Injustice in Judges, in Courts of Justice, in Lawyers, and in the
course of the Law itself, as if it were an evil Rule. Because the
Law which was a certain Rule was varied, according to the will of a
covetous, envious or proud Judge. Therefore no marvel though the
Kingly Laws be so intricate, and though few know which way the
course of the Law goes, because the sentence lies many times in the
breast of a Judge, and not in the letter of the Law. And so the
good Laws made by an industrious Parliament are like good eggs laid
by a silly goose, and as soon as she hath laid them, she goes her
way and lets others take them, and never looks after them more, so
that if you lay a stone in her nest, she will sit upon it as if it
were an egg. And so, though the Laws be good, yet if they be left
to the will of a Judge to interpret, the execution hath many times
proved bad."

"WHAT IS THE JUDGE'S COURT?

"In a County or Shire there are to be chosen--A Judge, the
Peacemakers of every Town within that Circuit, the Overseers, and a
band of Soldiers attending thereupon: and this is called the
Judge's Court or the County Senate. The Court shall sit four times
in the year, or oftener if need be.... If any disorder break in
among the people, this Court shall set things to right. If any be
bound over to appear at this Court, the Judge shall hear the
matter, and pronounce the letter of the Law, according to the
nature of the offence. So that the alone work of the Judge is to
pronounce the Sentence and mind of the Law: and all this is but to
see the Law executed and the Peace of the Commonwealth preserved."

"WHAT IS THE WORK OF A COMMONWEALTH'S PARLIAMENT IN GENERAL?"

Winstanley then sketches, first in broad outline and then in detail,
what he deemed the work of a Commonwealth's Parliament should be; and
for our own part we know not where to find a higher ideal of the duties
incumbent upon the chosen Representatives of the People: an ideal that
no Parliament to this day has ever attained, and which probably is only
attainable when there shall be a strong body of educated public opinion,
loving Justice and deserving Justice, inspiring and supporting their
endeavours. He commences as follows:

"A Parliament is the highest Court of Equity in a Land; and it is
to be chosen every year.... This Court is to oversee all other
Courts, Officers, persons, and actions, and to have a full power,
being the Representative of the whole Land, to remove all
grievances, and to ease the people that are oppressed."

A PARLIAMENT IS THE FATHER OF THE COMMONWEALTH.

"A Parliament hath its rise from the lowest Office in a
Commonwealth, viz., from the Father in a Family. For as a Father's
tender care is to remove all grievances from the oppressed
children, not respecting one before another; so a Parliament are to
remove all burdens from the people of the Land, and are not to
respect persons who are great before those who are weak; but their
eye and care must be principally to relieve the oppressed ones, who
groan under the Tyrant's Laws and Powers: the strong, or such as
have the Tyrant's Power to support them, need no help.

"But though a Parliament be the Father of a Land, yet by the
Covetousness and Cheats of Kingly Government the heart of this
Father hath been alienated from the children of the Land, or else
so overawed by the frowns of a Kingly Tyrant, that they could not
or durst not act for the weaker children's ease. For hath not
Parliament sat and rose again, and made Laws to strengthen the
Tyrant in his Throne, and to strengthen the rich and the strong by
those Laws, and left Oppression upon the backs of the oppressed
still?"

HIS HOPES FOR THE FUTURE.

Here Winstanley checks himself, and continues:

"But I'll not reap up former weaknesses, but rather rejoice in hope
of amendment, seeing our present Parliament hath declared England
to be a Free Commonwealth, and to cast out Kingly Power: and upon
this ground I rejoice in hope that succeeding Parliaments will be
tender-hearted Fathers to the oppressed children of the Land. And
not only dandle us upon the knee with good words and promises till
particular men's turn be served, but will feed our bellies and
clothe our backs with good actions of Freedom, and give to the
oppressed children's children their birthright portion, which is
Freedom in the Commonwealth's Land, which the Kingly Law and Power,
our cruel step-fathers and step-mothers, have kept from us and our
fathers for many years past.

"THE PARTICULAR WORK OF A PARLIAMENT IS FOUR-FOLD--FIRSTLY,

"As a tender Father, a Parliament is to empower Officers and give
orders for the free planting and reaping of the Commonwealth's
Land, that all who have been oppressed, and kept back from the free
use thereof by Conquerors, Kings, and their Tyrant Laws, may now be
set at liberty to plant in Freedom for food and raiment, and are to
be a protection to them who labor the Earth, and a punisher of them
who are idle.

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