still, and cannot stand with the freedom of the Commonwealth, nor warranted by the Engagement.  For by the Laws and Engagement of the Commonwealth, none ought to be hanged nor put to death, for other punishment may be found out.  And those that do hang or put to death their fellow Englishmen, under colour of Laws, do break the Laws and Engagements by so doing, and cast themselves from under the protection of the Commonwealth, and are Traitors to England’s Freedom, and upholders of the kingly, murdering power.

“(6) This Freedom in the Common Earth is the Poor’s Right by the Law of Creation and Equity of the Scriptures.  For the Earth was not made for a few, but for whole mankind; for God is no respecter of persons.”

Winstanley then concludes as follows: 

“Now these few considerations we offer to all England, and we appeal to the judgement of all rational and righteous men whether this we speak be not that substantial truth brought forth into action, which Ministers have preached up, and all Religious Men have made profession of.  For certainly God, who is the King of Righteousness, is not a God of words only, but of deeds; for it is the badge of hypocrisy for man to say and not to do.  Therefore we leave this with you all, having peace in our hearts by declaring faithfully to you this Light that is in us, and which we do not only speak and write, but which we do easily act and practice.

“Likewise we write it as a letter of congratulation and encouragement to our dear Fellow Englishmen that have begun to dig upon the Commons, thereby taking possession of their Freedom, in Wellinborow in Northamptonshire, and at Cox Hall in Kent, waiting to see the chains of slavish fear to break and fall off from the hearts of others in other countries till at last the whole Land is filled with the knowledge and righteousness of the Restoring Power, which is Christ Himself, Abraham’s seed, who will spread Himself till He become the joy of all Nations.

“Jerrard Winstanley, Richard Maidley, Thomas James, John Dickins, John Palmer, John South, Elder, Nathaniel Halcomb, Thomas Edcer, Henry Barton, John Smith, Jacob Heard, Thomas Barnet, Anthony Wren, John Hayman, William Hitchcock, Henry Hancocke, John Batty, Thomas Starre, Thomas Adams, John Coulton, Thomas South, Robert Sawyer, Daniel Ireland, Robert Draper, Robert Coster, and divers others that were not present when this went to the Presse.

     “March 26th, 1650.”

We are afraid that the enterprise at Wellinborrow did not have a very long life; for in the Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, Green, p. 106, under date April 15th, 1650, we note the following letter, which seems to us to show that the Rulers of England were fully alive to “the mischief these designs tend to,” and to prove that it was the theories of the Diggers, not their actions, that filled the breasts of the privileged classes with the determination to nip their enterprise in the bud, before it had time to influence the life and thought of the Nation: