wish, to intrigue and to struggle for the re-establishment of the
Monarchy. From the time of Henry the Eighth the condition of the English
labourers had steadily worsened; it was left to the landholders after
the Restoration to complete their enslavement and degradation. When
considering Winstanley's or any other similar doctrines, the student
would do well to bear in mind Professor Thorold Rogers'
conclusions,[89:1]--conclusions arrived at after a lifelong study of the
question,--that--"I contend that from 1563 to 1824, a conspiracy,
concocted by the law and carried out by parties interested in its
success, was entered into, to cheat the English workmen of his wages, to
tie him to the soil, to deprive him of hope, and to degrade him into
irremediable poverty." Or, as he elsewhere expresses it[89:2]--"For more
than two centuries and a half the English law, and those who
administered the law, were engaged in grinding down the English workman
to the lowest pittance, in stamping out every expression or act which
indicated any organised discontent, and in multiplying penalties upon
him when he thought of his natural rights."


FOOTNOTES:

[79:1] King's Pamphlets. British Museum, Press Mark E 475 (11).

[83:1] King's Pamphlets. British Museum, Press Mark, E. 548 (33).

[84:1] King's Pamphlets. British Museum, Press Mark, E. 555.

[85:1] About this time, or a little later, there appeared in London an
interesting manifesto from some of the disbanded soldiers, the copy of
which in the British Museum (Press Mark, 4152. b.b. 109) bears no date,