[120] “Unfortunately his friends, in petitioning for his release, rested their case on the ground that all sentences given by a court-martial were made illegal by the Petition of Right and the law of the land. Such a doctrine would have dissolved the army into chaos, and when Lilburne and Overton wrote to Fairfax, threatening him with the fate of Joab and Strafford, all chance of pardon was at an end. Lockyer firmly believed himself to be a martyr to the cause of right and justice.”--S. R. Gardiner, _History of the Commonwealth_. [121] See Whitelocke’s _Memorials_, “The Army’s Martyr,” “A True Narrative,” and “The Moderate” (1649). [122] “So die the Leveller corporals. Strong they, after their sort, for the liberties of England; resolute to the very death.”--Carlyle. [123] Lilburne’s attitude to Winstanley’s propaganda was similar to the attitude of the political Chartists in the 19th century to Robert Owen’s socialism. [124] “Then ensued a scene, the like of which had in all probability never been witnessed in an English court of justice, and was never again to be witnessed till the seven bishops were freed by the verdict of a jury from the rage of James II.”--S. R. Gardiner. “In a revolution, where others argued about the respective rights of king and parliament, he spoke always of the rights of the people. His dauntless courage and his power of speech made him the idol of the mob.”--Professor C. H. Firth, “Lilburne,” _Dictionary of National Biography_. [125] See L. A. Berens, _Digger Movement in the Days of the Commonwealth_. [126] _Clarke Papers_, vol. ii. [127] Government rarely distinguishes between different schools of agitators. [128] Between 1710 and 1867 the number of acres so enclosed was 7,660,439. [129] _Clarke Papers_, vol. ii. [130] See Graham Wallas, _Life of Francis Place_. [131] “Disappointment bitter and wide-spread was following closely upon the inevitable failure of the extravagant expectations and overheated hopes which the agitation for parliamentary reform had kindled.”--F. York Powell, _The Queen’s Reign: a Survey_. [132] See Graham Wallas, _Life of Francis Place_. [133] Herbert Paul, _History of Modern England_. [134] _Ibid._ [135] “Want of leaders and organization, and the great difference in objects among the Chartists themselves, led to their failure. For a while Chartism was stayed.”--Professor T. F. Tout, _England from 1689_. [136] The differences between the two became more acute when Feargus O’Connor started his land colonization schemes a few years later. O’Brien opposed these schemes, which all ended in heavy financial losses, and urged sticking to political reform. From 1842 O’Brien was practically outside the Chartist movement, though it was not till 1848 he formally retired. He died in poverty in 1864, after giving some help to the middle-class radical movement for household suffrage. [137] A similar impulse fifty years later brought “Labour Churches” into existence.