"And thus in the name of the rest of those called Diggers and
Commoners through the land, I have in short declared our mind and
cause to you in the light of righteousness, which will prove all
these reports made against us to be false and destructive to the
uniting of England into peace.
"Per me Gerrard Winstanley, for myself and in the behalf of my
fellow commoners.
"_December the 8th, 1649._"
Amongst Winstanley's disciples was one Robert Coster, who appears to
have been the poet of the Digger Movement, and the next pamphlet which
issued from their camp, on December 18th, some ten days after the date
affixed to the above vigorous letter, was from his pen. It is entitled:
"_A Mite cast into the Common Treasury_:[126:1] Or Queries
propounded (for all Men to consider of) by him who desireth to
advance the work of Public Community. By Robert Coster."
In it Coster first recapitulates Winstanley's main arguments and
contentions, and then shows that he for one fully realised their
far-reaching scope, by indicating their probable effects in the
following words:
"As, 1. If men would do as aforesaid rather than to go with cap in
hand and bended knee to Gentlemen and Farmers, begging and
entreating to work with them for 8d. or 10d. a day, which doth give
them an occasion to tyrannise over poor people, who are their
fellow-creatures; if poor men would not go in such a slavish
posture, but do as aforesaid, the rich Farmers would be weary of
renting so much land of the Lords of Manors.
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