[105:1] King’s Pamphlets. British Museum, Press Mark, E. 564. Also at the Guildhall Library. The Ralph Verney mentioned is the hero of The Verney Memoirs: there is, however, no mention of this incident therein.
[106:1] This argument would scarcely have appealed to Ireton, who during the debate of the Army Council frankly declared that in his opinion—“It was not the business of Jesus Christ, when he came into the world, to create Kingdoms of the World, and Magistracies and Monarchies, or to give the rule of them, positive or negative.”—See Clarke Papers, vol. ii. p. 101.
[108:1] Colonel Rainborrow, who with Sexby and Wildman represented on the Army Council the private soldiers of the Model Army, during the debate on the right of voting, gave expression to the view that some fundamental changes in the laws of the Land were both necessary and justifiable, in the following words: “I hear it said, ‘It’s a huge alteration it’s a bringing in of new laws.’ ... If writings be true, there hath been many scuttlings between the honest men of England and those that have tyrannised over them. And if what I have read be true, there is none of those just and equitable laws that the people of England are born to, but were once intrenchments [but were once innovations]. But if they [the existing laws] were those which the people have been always under, if the people find that they are not suitable to freeman, I know no reason that should deter me, either in what I must answer before God or the world, from endeavouring by all means to gain anything that might be of more advantage to them than the government under which they live.”—Clarke Papers, vol. i. p. 247.
[109:1] Economic Interpretation of History, p. 138.
[110:1] Economic Interpretation of History, p. 241.
[110:2] Six Centuries of Work and Wages, pp. 432-433.
CHAPTER XI
A WATCHWORD TO THE CITY OF LONDON, ETC.
“All men have stood for Freedom; thou hast kept fasting-days and prayed in the morning exercises for Freedom; thou hast given thanks for victories because hopes of Freedom; plenty of Petitions and Promises thereupon have been made for Freedom. But now the common enemy is gone, you are all like men in a mist seeking for Freedom, but know not where nor what it is.... Assure yourselves, if you pitch not now upon the right point of Freedom in action, as your Covenant hath it in words, you will wrap up your children in greater slavery than ever you were in.”—Winstanley, A Watchword to the City of London.
The House of Commons, as we have seen, took no notice of Winstanley’s dignified appeal, hence, within a week of its publication in pamphlet form, Winstanley, on August 26th, 1649, addressed himself to the City of London, at that time the stronghold of advanced political and religious thought. The pamphlet, which is one of the most interesting he ever wrote, appeared the following month: the title-page reads as follows:
“A WATCHWORD TO THE CITY OF LONDON AND THE ARMY:[112:1]