The Digger Movement in the Days of the Commonwealth Part 12

"Well, this same writing was delivered into their Court, but they cast it out again, and would not read it, and all because I would not fee an Attorney. And then the Court-day following, before there was any trial of our cause, for there was none suffered to speak but the Plaintiff, they pa.s.sed a judgement, and after that an execution. Now their Jury was made of rich Freeholders, and such as stand strongly for the Norman power. And though our digging upon that barren Common hath done the Common good, yet this Jury brings in damages of 10 a man, and the charges of the Plaintiff in their Court, twenty-nine s.h.i.+llings and a penny: and this was their sentence and the pa.s.sing of the execution upon us."

Winstanley then mentions one instance descriptive of the way he and his comrades were "boycotted" by his neighbours, and of the men responsible therefor. He says:

"Before the report of our digging was much known, I bought three acres of gra.s.s from a Lord of the Manor, whom I will not here name because I know the counsel of others made him prove false to me.

For when the time came to mow, I brought money to pay him beforehand, but he answered me that I should not have it, and sold it to another before my face. This was because his Parish Priest and the Surrey Ministers have bid the people neither to buy nor to sell us, but to beat us, imprison us, or to banish us."

He then relates that two days later "they sent to execute the execution, and they put Harry Bickerstaffe in prison, but after three days Mr.

Drake released him again, Bickerstaffe not knowing of it till the release came. They seek after Thomas Star to imprison his body, who is a poor man, not worth ten pounds." He continues:

"Then they came privately by day to Gerrard Winstanley's house and drove away four cows, I not knowing of it. They took away the cows which were my livelihood, and beat them with their clubs that the cows' heads and sides did swell, which grieved tender hearts to see. And yet," he pathetically but somewhat humourously adds, "these cows never were upon George Hill, nor never digged upon that ground, and yet the poor beasts must suffer because they gave milk to feed me. But strangers made rescue of those cows, and drove them astray out of the Bailiffs' hands, so that the Bailiffs lost them.

But before the Bailiffs had lost the cows, I, hearing of it, went to them and said--'Here is my body, take me, that I may speak to those Normans that have stolen our land from us; and let the cows go, for they are none of mine.' After some time, they telling me they had nothing against my body, it was my goods they were to have. Then said I, 'Take my goods, for the cows are not mine.'"

Here follows one of the most touching pa.s.sages to which Winstanley ever set pen:

"And so I went away and left them, being quiet in my heart, and filled with comfort within myself, that the King of Righteousness would cause this to work for the advancing of His own cause, which I prefer above estate and livelihood. Saying within my heart as I went along, that if I could not get meat to eat, I would feed upon bread, milk and cheese. And if they take the cows, and I cannot feed on this, or hereby make a breach between me and him that owns the cows, then I'll feed upon bread and beer, till the King of Righteousness clears up my innocency and the justice of His own cause. And if this be taken from me for maintaining His cause, then I'll stand still and see what He will do with me; for as yet I know not.

"Saying likewise within my heart as I was walking along--O thou King of Righteousness, show thy power and do thy work thyself, and free thy people now from under this heavy bondage of misery. And the answer in my heart was satisfactory, and full of sweet joy and peace: and so I said, Father, do what thou wilt, for this cause is thine, and thou knowest that the love to righteousness makes me do what I do."

He then continues:

"I was made to appeal to the Father of Life in the speakings of my heart likewise thus--Father, thou knowst that what I have writ or spoken concerning this light, that the Earth should be restored and become a Common Treasury for all mankind, without respect of persons, was thy free revelation to me, I never read it in any book, I heard it from no mouth of flesh, till I understood it from thy teaching first within me. I did not study nor imagine the conceit of it; self-love to my own particular body does not carry me along in the managing of this business; but the power of love flowing forth to the liberty and peace of thy whole Creation, to enemies as well as to friends: nay, towards those who oppress me, endeavouring to make me a beggar to them. And since I did obey thy voice, to speak and act this truth, I am hated, reproached and oppressed on every side. Such as make professions of thee, yet revile me. And though they see I cannot fight with fleshy weapons, yet they will strive with me by that power. And so I see, Father, that England yet doth choose rather to fight with the Sword of Iron and Covetousness than with the Sword of the Spirit, which is Love.

And what thy purpose is with this Land or with my body, I know not, but establish thy power in me, and then do what pleases thee.

"These and such like sweet thoughts dwelt in my heart as I went along; and I feel myself now like a man in a storm, standing under shelter upon a hill in peace, waiting till the storm be over to see the end of it, and of many other things that my eye is fixed upon."

The pamphlet concludes as follows:

"You have arrested us for digging upon the common land, you have executed your unrighteous power, in destraining cattle, imprisoning our bodies, and yet our cause was never publicly heard, neither can it be proved that we broke any Law that is built upon equity and reason. Therefore we wonder whence you had your power to rule over us by will, more than we to rule over you by our will.... We request that you would let us have a fair open trial.... let your Ministers plead with us in the Scriptures, and let your Lawyers plead with us as to the equity and reason of your own Law. And if you prove us transgressors, then we shall lay down our work and acknowledge that we have trespa.s.sed against you in digging upon the Commons, and then punish us. But if we prove by Scripture and Reason that undeniably the Land belongs to one as well as another, then you shall own our work, justify our cause, and declare that you have done wrong to Christ, who you say is your Lord and Master, in abusing us His servants and your fellow-creatures, while we are doing His work. Therefore, knowing you to be men of moderation in outward show, I desire that your actions towards your fellow-creatures may not be like one beast to another, but carry yourselves like man to man, for your proceeding in your pretence of Law hitherto against us is both unrighteous, beastly, and devilish, and nothing of the spirit of man seen in it. You Attornies and Lawyers, you say you are Ministers of Justice, and we know that equity and reason is or ought to be the foundation of Law. If so, then plead not for money altogether, but stand for Universal Justice and Equity: then you will have peace; otherwise both you and the corrupt Clergy will be cast out as unsavoury salt."

As will have been seen from the above, and as we shall show more fully later on, the little company of Diggers were having a rather troublesome time. Within two days of the delivery of their first letter to Lord Fairfax, on June 11th, some of them were grievously a.s.saulted by two of the local freeholders, accompanied by men in women's garments; but, according to their own account, they made no attempt to defend themselves.[122:1] In November of the same year the agitation against their doings was revived, or became more acute, and early in December they found themselves compelled again to appeal to Lord Fairfax for protection.[122:2] After having recapitulated their main arguments, this letter continues:

"Now, Sirs, divers repulses we have had from some of the Lords of Manors and their servants, with whom we are patient and loving, not doubting but at last they will grant liberty quietly to live by them. And though your tenderness hath moved us to be requesting your protection against them, yet we have forborne, and rather waited upon G.o.d with patience till he quell their unruly spirits.... In regard likewise the soldiers did not molest us, for that you told us when some of us were before you, that you had given command to your soldiers not to meddle with us, but resolved to leave us to the Gentlemen of the County and to the Law of the Land to deal with us, which we were satisfied with, and for this half-year past your soldiers have not meddled with us.

"But now, Sirs, this last week, upon the 28th of November, there came a party of soldiers commanded by a Cornet, and some of them of your own regiment, and by their threatening words forced three labouring men to help them to pull down our two houses, and carried away the wood in a cart to a Gentleman's house, who hath been a Cavalier all our time of war, and cast two or three old people out who lived in those houses to lie in the open fields this cold weather (an act more becoming Turks to deal with Christians than for one Christian to deal with another). But if you inquire into the business you will find that the Gentlemen who set the soldiers on are enemies to you, for some of the chief had hands in the Kentish rising against the Parliament, and we know, and you will find it true if you trust them so far, that they love you but from the teeth outward.

"Therefore our request to you is this, that you would call your soldiers to account for attempting to abuse us without your commission, that the Country may know that you had no hand in such an unrighteous and cruel act. Likewise we desire that you would continue your former kindness and promise to give commission to your soldiers not to meddle with us without your order."

As we shall presently see, nothing more discouraged the little company of Diggers than the a.s.sistance given to their enemies by the soldiery.

Lord Fairfax, however, had no free hand in this matter; the Council of State had again received information of what was termed "a tumultuous meeting at Cobham," which the ordinary power at the disposal of the local Justices of the Peace "was not sufficient to disperse," and had consequently sent Lord Fairfax definite instructions to send "such horse as you may think fit to march to that place."[124:1] This information had evidently come to Winstanley's knowledge. He had not signed the foregoing letter, so felt himself at liberty to supplement it by another and more forcible one, which opens as follows:

"WINSTANLEY'S SECOND LETTER TO LORD FAIRFAX.[124:2]

"TO MY LORD GENERAL AND HIS COUNCIL OF WAR.

"SIR,--I understand that Mr. Parson Platt with some other gentlemen have made report to you and the Council of State that we that are called Diggers are a riotous people, and that we will not be ruled by the Justices, and that we hold a man's house by violence from him, and that we have four guns in it to secure ourselves, and that we are drunkards, and Cavaliers waiting an opportunity to bring in the Prince, and such like. Truly, Sir, these are all untrue reports, and as false as those which Hamaan of old brought against sincere-hearted Mordecai to incense king Ahasuerus against him. The conversation of the Diggers is not such as they report; we are peaceable men and walk in the light of righteousness to the utmost of our power."

He then expounds their aims, and justifies their action in the manner with which our readers will by now be familiar, and continues:

"We know that England cannot be a free Common-wealth, unless all the poor Commoners have a free use and benefit of the land. For if this freedom be not granted, we that are the poor commoners are in a worse case than we were in the King's days; for then we had some estate about us, though we were under oppression, but now our estates are spent to purchase freedom, and we are under oppression still of Lords of Manors tyranny. Therefore unless we that are poor commoners have some part of the land to live upon freely, as well as the Gentry, it cannot be a Common-wealth, neither can the kingly power be removed so long as this kingly power in the hands of Lords of Manors rules over us.

"Now, Sir, if you and the Council will quietly grant us this freedom, which is our own right, and set us free from the kingly power of Lords of Manors, that violently now as in the king's days hold the commons from us (as if we had obtained no conquest at all over the kingly power), then the poor that lie under the great burden of poverty, and are always complaining for want, and their miseries increase because they see no means of relief found out, and therefore cry out continually to you and the Parliament for relief, and to make good your promises, will be quieted.

"We desire no more of you than freedom to work, and to enjoy the benefit of our labors--for here is waste land enough and to spare to supply all our wants. But if you deny this freedom, then in righteousness we must raise collections for the poor out of the estates, and a ma.s.s of money will not supply their wants. Many are in want that are ashamed to take collection money, and therefore they are desperate, and would rather rob and steal and disturb the land, and others that are ashamed to beg would do any work for to live, as it is the case of many of our Diggers, who have been good housekeepers. But if this freedom were granted to improve the common lands, then there would be a supply to answer everyone's inquire, and the murmurings of the people against you and the Parliament would cease, and within a few years we should have no beggars nor idle persons in the land.

"_Secondly_, Hereby England would be enriched with all commodities within itself which they each would afford. And truly this is a stain to Christian religion in England [a stain not yet removed]

that we have so much land lie waste and so many starve for want.

Further, if this freedom be granted, the whole Land will be united in love and strength, that if a foreign enemy, like an army of rats and mice, come to take our inheritance from us, we shall all rise as one man to defend it.

"Then, lastly, if you will grant the poor commoners this quiet freedom to improve the common land for our livelihood, we shall rejoice in you and the Army in protecting our work, and we and our work will be ready to secure that, and we hope that there will not be any kingly power over us, to rule at will and we to be slaves, as the power has been, but that you will rule in love as Moses and Joshua did the children of Israel before any kingly power came in, and that the Parliament will be as the elders of Israel, chosen freely by the people to advise for and to a.s.sist both you and us.

"And thus in the name of the rest of those called Diggers and Commoners through the land, I have in short declared our mind and cause to you in the light of righteousness, which will prove all these reports made against us to be false and destructive to the uniting of England into peace.

"Per me Gerrard Winstanley, for myself and in the behalf of my fellow commoners.

"_December the 8th, 1649._"

Amongst Winstanley's disciples was one Robert Coster, who appears to have been the poet of the Digger Movement, and the next pamphlet which issued from their camp, on December 18th, some ten days after the date affixed to the above vigorous letter, was from his pen. It is ent.i.tled:

"_A Mite cast into the Common Treasury_:[126:1] Or Queries propounded (for all Men to consider of) by him who desireth to advance the work of Public Community. By Robert Coster."

In it Coster first recapitulates Winstanley's main arguments and contentions, and then shows that he for one fully realised their far-reaching scope, by indicating their probable effects in the following words:

"As, 1. If men would do as aforesaid rather than to go with cap in hand and bended knee to Gentlemen and Farmers, begging and entreating to work with them for 8d. or 10d. a day, which doth give them an occasion to tyrannise over poor people, who are their fellow-creatures; if poor men would not go in such a slavish posture, but do as aforesaid, the rich Farmers would be weary of renting so much land of the Lords of Manors.

"2. If the Lords of Manors and other Gentlemen who covet after so much land, could not let it out by parcels, but must be constrained to keep it in their own hands, then would they want those great bags of money (which do maintain pride, idleness and fullness of bread) which are carried in to them by the Tenants, who go in as slavish a posture as well may be, namely, with cap in hand and bended knee, crouching and creeping from corner to corner, while his Lord (rather Tyrant) walks up and down the room with his proud looks, and with great swelling words questions him about his holding.

"3. If the Lords of Manors and other Gentlemen had not those great bags of money brought to them, then down would fall the lordliness of their spirits, and then poor men might speak to them, and there might be an acknowledging of one another to be Fellow-Creatures.

"For what is the reason that great gentlemen covet after so much land? Is it not because Farmers and others creep to them in a slavish manner, profering them so much money for such and such parcels of it, which doth give them occasion to tyrannise over their Fellow-Creatures, which they call their Inferiors?

"And what is the reason that Farmers and others are so greedy to rent land of the Lords of Manors? Is it not because they expect great gains, and because poor men are so foolish and slavish as to creep to them for employment, although they will not give them money enough to maintain themselves and their families comfortably?

All which do give them an occasion to tyrannise over their Fellow-Creatures, which they call their Inferiors.

"All which considered, if poor men which want employment and others which work for little wages would go to dress and improve the Commons and Waste Lands, whether it would not bring down the price of Land, which doth princ.i.p.ally cause all things to be dear?"

The pamphlet concludes with the following lines:

"The Nation is in such a state as this, to honor rich men because they are rich; And poor men, because poor, most do them hate.

O, but this is a very cursed state; But those who act from love which is sincere, will honor truth wherever it doth appear.

And no respecting of persons will be with such, but tyranny they will abhor in poor and rich.

And in this state is he whose name is here, your very loving friend, Robert Costeer."

By way of appendix the author adds a long poem, of nine verses, ent.i.tled "A Digger's Ballad," of which the following verse, the last one, will give our readers a sufficient idea:

"The glorious state which I do relate Unspeakable comfort shall bring, The corn will be green and the flowers seen, Our Storehouses they will be filled.

The birds will rejoice with a merry voice, All things shall yield sweet increase.

Then let us all sing and joy in our King, Who causeth all sorrows to cease."

As will be seen in the following chapter, the time the above pamphlet was published was one of great anxiety in the brave little community which had ventured so much to lay the foundations of a better society than ever they knew, of a Social State based upon Justice, in which all should equally enjoy the benefits of their Creation. They had thrown their little possessions into a Common Treasury; they had taken possession of their birthright, the Commons of England; they had patiently endured all possible wrongs, injuries and insults, and had still remained steadfast to the Law of Reason and Love, to the express command of their acknowledged Master and King--Resist not evil. However, though their courage and endurance remained unabated, their little stock of provisions was becoming exhausted, and the end of their high endeavour was in sight. However this may be, it was about this time, during the bleak winter months, that they composed two Christmas Carols to sing round their camp-fires, which were given to the world the following April in a little book bearing the following t.i.tle: