sow it; and so we find that God is persuading
Japhet to dwell in the tents of Shem. And truly those that we find
most against us are such as have been constant enemies to the
Parliament Cause from first to last.

"Now at last our desire is, That some that approve of this work of
Righteousness would but spread this our Declaration before the
great Council of the Land; that so they may be pleased to give us
more encouragement to go on; that so they may be found amongst the
small number of those that consider the poor and needy; that so the
Lord may deliver them in the time of their troubles ... and our
lives shall bless them, so shall good men stand by them, and evil
men shall be afraid of them, and they shall be counted the
Repairers of our Breaches, and the Restorers of our Paths to dwell
in. And thus we have declared the truth of our necessity, and
whosoever will come in to labor with us, shall have part with us,
and we with them, and we shall all of us endeavour to walk
righteously and peaceably in the Land of our Nativity.

"Richard Smith, John Avery, Thomas Fardin,
Richard Pendred, James Pitman, Roger Tuis,
Joseph Hitchcock, John Pye, Edward Turner.

_March 12th, 1649 (1650)._"

By some means or other this Declaration seems to have reached the
Council of State; for we find the following reference to it in
Whitelocke, p. 448, under date April:

"A Letter sent from the Diggers and Planters of Commons for
Universal Freedom, to make the Earth a Common Treasury, that
everyone may enjoy food and raiment freely by his labor upon the
Earth, without paying Rents or Homage to any Fellow Creature of his
own kind, that everyone may be delivered from the Tyranny of the
Conquering Power, and so rise up out of that Bondage to enjoy the
Benefit of his Creation.

"The Letters were to get money to buy food for them, and corn to
sow the land which they had digged."

Presently we shall lay some evidence before our readers of the view the
Council of State, influenced as it was by men who had recently enriched
themselves by land-grabbing, took of such proceedings, the trend of
which they fully recognised. However, whatever view the Council of State
were likely to take of this touching Declaration, there can be little
doubt but that it