From internal evidence we gather that the book was written some time before it was published. Winstanley had come to realise that the real power of the Country was in the hands of the Army, of its trusted officers and leaders. Hence it is, probably, that the opening epistle is addressed to Oliver Cromwell, who at the time was Commander in Chief of the Army, and the man to whom all England was looking with wonder and admiration, not unmixed with anxious forebodings. The years that had elapsed between the conception and the publication of Winstanley's book had been momentous ones in this great man's career. Owing to Lord Fairfax's reluctance to invade Scotland, the command of the Commonwealth's Army had devolved on him: and right good use had the hero of Naseby made of his opportunities. In September 1651 he won the decisive battle of Dunbar; and in the same month of the following year he won the even more decisive battle of Worcester, which, to use Gardiner's words, manifested to the world that England refused "to be ruled by a king who came in as an invader."[163:1] In the following November, when Winstanley was sitting down to write his Dedicatory Epistle, Cromwell was already back in his seat in Parliament, endeavouring "to use the patriotic fervour called out by the invasion to settle the Commonwealth on a broader basis," and agitating for "a time to be fixed for the dissolution of the existing Parliament and for the calling of a new one."[163:2] And in February 1652, when the book was published, political and religious excitement in England was probably at the greatest height to which it ever attained even in the stirring days of the Commonwealth, and Cromwell may be regarded as standing at the dividing line of his wonderful career. The title-page of the book reads as follows: "THE LAW OF FREEDOM IN A PLATFORM:[164:1] OR TRUE MAGISTRACY RESTORED. Humbly presented to Oliver Cromwel, General of the Commonwealth's Army in England, Scotland and Ireland. And to all English-men my Bretheren, whether in Church Fellowship or not in Church Fellowship,[164:2] both sorts walking as they conceive according to the order of the Gospel: and from them to all the Nations of the World. Wherein is declared, What is Kingly Government, and What is Commonwealth's Government. BY GERRARD WINSTANLEY. In thee, O England, is the Law arising up to shine, If thou receive and practice it, the Crown it will be thine. If thou reject, and still remain a froward Son to be, Another Land will it receive, and take the Crown from thee. REV. 11-15. DAN. 7. 27. LONDON. Printed for the Author, and are to be sold by Giles Calvert at the Black Spred-Eagle at the West end of Pauls." As already mentioned, it opens with a Dedicatory Letter--