Of Law and Lawyers.
“Shall we have no Lawyers?
“There shall be no need of them, for there is to be no buying and selling, neither any need to expound Laws; for the bare letter of the Law shall be both Judge and Lawyer, trying every man’s actions. And seeing we shall have successive Parliaments every year, there will be rules made for every action that a man can do.
“But there are to be Officers chosen yearly in every Parish, to see the Laws executed according to the letter of the Laws; so that there will be no long work in trying of offences, as it is under Kingly Government, to get the Lawyers money, and to enslave the Commoners to the Conqueror’s Prerogative Law or Will. The sons of contention, Simeon and Levi, must not bear rule in a Free Commonwealth.”
Plea for Consideration.
“At the first view you may say, ‘This is a strange government.’ But I pray you judge nothing before trial. Lay this Platform of Commonwealth’s Government in one scale, and lay Monarchy, or Kingly Government, in the other scale, and see which gives true weight to Righteous Freedom and Peace. There is no middle path between these two; for a man must either be a free and true Commonwealth man, or a Monarchial Tyrannical Royalist.”
Answers to further Objections.
“If any say this will bring poverty, surely they mistake: for there will be plenty of all Earthly Commodities, with less labor and trouble then now it is under Monarchy. There will be no want; for every man may keep as plentiful a house as he will, and never run into debt, for common stock pays for all.
“If you say, Some will live idle; I answer, No. It will make idle persons to become workers, as is declared in the Platform: There shall be neither Beggar nor Idle Person.
“If you say, This will make men quarrel and fight; I answer, No. It will turn Swords into Ploughshares, and settle such a peace in the Earth as Nations shall learn war no more. Indeed, the Government of Kings is a breeder of wars, because men being put into the straits of poverty, are moved to fight for Liberty, and to take one another’s estates from them, and to obtain Mastery. Look into all Armies and see what they do more, but make some poor, some rich, put some into freedom others into bondage: and is not this a plague among mankind?