"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 appealed most strongly to Winstanley, who within a
fortnight of its issue, on March 26th, replied to it in the following
high-spirited, almost triumphal, address, which also appeared in the
form of a broadsheet:[153:1]
"AN APPEAL TO ALL ENGLISHMEN TO JUDGE BETWEEN BONDAGE AND FREEDOM:
Sent from those that began to dig upon George Hill in Surrey,
but now are carrying on that public work upon the little heath
in the Parish of Cobham, near unto George Hill, wherein it
appears that the work of Digging upon the Commons is not only
warranted by Scripture, but by the Law of the Common-wealth of
England likewise.
"Behold, behold all Englishmen, The Land of England now is your
free inheritance: all Kingly and Lordly entanglements are declared
against by our Army and Parliament. The Norman Power is beaten in
the field, and his head is cut off.
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