, and
Cromwell, by whose side Lilburne had fought at Marston Moor, and against
whose rule he had contended for so many a year, was dead, and the
Commonwealth Government was doomed.

WINSTANLEY AND "THE DIGGERS"

The "Digger" movement was a shorter and much more obscure protest on behalf
of the people than Lilburne's agitation for democracy; but it is notable
for its social significance.

While Lilburne strove vigorously for political reforms that are still
unaccomplished, Gerrard Winstanley preached a revolutionary gospel of
social reform--as John Ball and Robert Ket had before him. But Winstanley's
social doctrine allowed no room for violence, and included the
non-resistance principles that found exposition in the Society of Friends.
Hence the "Diggers," preaching agrarian revolution; but denying all right
to force of arms, never endangered the Commonwealth Government as Lilburne
and the Levellers did.

Free Communism was the creed of more than one Protestant sect in the
sixteenth century, and the Anabaptists on the Continent had been
conspicuous for their experiments in community of goods and anarchist
society.

Winstanley confined his teaching and practice to common ownership of land,
pleading for the cultivation of the enclosed common lands, "that all may
feed upon the crops of the earth, and the burden of poverty be removed."
There was to be no forcible expropriation of landlords.

"If the rich still hold fast to this propriety of Mine and Thine, let them
labour their own lands with their own hands. And let the common people,
that say the earth is _ours_, not _mine_, let them labour together, and eat
bread together upon the commons, mountains, and hills.

"For as the enclosures are called such a man's land, and such a man's land,
so the Commons and Heath are called the common people's. And let the world
see who labour the earth in righteousness, and those to whom the Lord gives
the blessing, let them be the people that shall inherit the earth.

"None can say that their right is taken from them. For let the rich work
alone by themselves; and let the poor work together by themselves."[62]

With the common ownership and cultivation of land, an end was to be made of
all tyranny of man over his fellows.

[Illustration: JOHN HAMPDEN

_After the Engraving by G. Houbraken._]

"Leave off dominion and lordship one over another; for the whole bulk of
mankind are but one living earth. Leave off imprisoning, whipp