s many times in the
breast of a Judge, and not in the letter of the Law. And so the
good Laws made by an industrious Parliament are like good eggs laid
by a silly goose, and as soon as she hath laid them, she goes her
way and lets others take them, and never looks after them more, so
that if you lay a stone in her nest, she will sit upon it as if it
were an egg. And so, though the Laws be good, yet if they be left
to the will of a Judge to interpret, the execution hath many times
proved bad."

"WHAT IS THE JUDGE'S COURT?

"In a County or Shire there are to be chosen--A Judge, the
Peacemakers of every Town within that Circuit, the Overseers, and a
band of Soldiers attending thereupon: and this is called the
Judge's Court or the County Senate. The Court shall sit four times
in the year, or oftener if need be.... If any disorder break in
among the people, this Court shall set things to right. If any be
bound over to appear at this Court, the Judge shall hear the
matter, and pronounce the letter of the Law, according to the
nature of the offence. So that the alone work of the Judge is to
pronounce the Sentence and mind of the Law: and all this is but to
see the Law executed and the Peace of the Commonwealth preserved."

"WHAT IS THE WORK OF A COMMONWEALTH'S PARLIAMENT IN GENERAL?"

Winstanley then sketches, first in broad outline and then in detail,
what he deemed the work of a Commonwealth's Parliament should be; and
for our own part we know not where to find a higher ideal of the duties
incumbent upon the chosen Representatives of the People: an ideal that
no Parliament to this day has ever attained, and which probably is only
attainable when there shall be a strong body of educated public opinion,
loving Justice and deserving Justice, inspiring and supporting their
endeavours. He commences as follows:

"A Parliament is the highest Court of Equity in a Land; and it is
to be chosen every year.... This Court is to oversee all other
Courts, Officers, persons, and actions, and to have a full power,
being the Representative of the whole Land, to remove all
grievances, and to ease the people that are oppressed."

A PARLIAMENT IS THE FATHER OF THE COMMONWEALTH.

"A Parliament hath its rise from the lowest Office in a
Commonwealth, viz., from the Father in a Family. For as a Fath