The Digger Movement in the Days of the Commonwealth: As Revealed in the Writings of Gerrard Winstanley, the Digger, Mystic and Rationalist, Communist and Social ReformerBerens, Lewis Henry
History
The Digger Movement in the Days of the Commonwealth: As Revealed in the Writings of Gerrard Winstanley, the Digger, Mystic and Rationalist, Communist and Social Reformer
Berens, Lewis Henry
Communism; Land use; Winstanley, Gerrard, 1609-
"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:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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