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thf pleasure of a king , or pro tec * to * > lest the fear of displeasing him perverts justice . In tlieir opinions , it is highly criminal that
a king , or protector ^ or court , Should presume to interspose by letters , threats , or promises , to obstruct the due course of the laws , <> r countenance and abet , or discountenance and brow-beat any man ' s cause whatsoever * In fine
they say , the laws that are incapable of partiality , interest , or passion , ought so to govern , as ao man should be subject to the crooked will , or corrupt
affections of any man * II . The Leveller ' s second maxim or principle about government is , that all the laws , levies of monies , war , and peace , ought to be made
by the people ' s deputies in parliament , to be chosen by them successively at certain periods of time , and that no council table orders , or ordinances , or court proclamations ^ to bind the peo «* pie ' s persons or estates . It is the first principleof a people ' s liberty that they shall not be bound but by their own consent ; and this our ancestors left to England as
its undoubted right ; that no laws to bind our persons or estates could he imposed upon us against our wills , and they challenged it as their native right , not to be controuled in making such laws as
Concerned their common right and interestsj as may appear by the parliament ' s records in the time of Edward the Second , and Richard the Second . The Levellers say , that those whose interests are in all things one with the whale people ' s , are the only proper
uninterested judges of what laws are most fit to preserve and provide for that common interest . Suck
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are the people imparliament right * ly constituted and methodized , and they may be depended upon to provide remedies for the people ' s grievances , because they themselves are sharers in every
common grievance , and they will be naturally led to study the common good , because they shall share in it- But , if a monarch ' s pleasure should controui the / people ' s deputies in their parliaments , the laws must be fitted for the interest
of the monarch and his family , to keep him in a condition to overtop the people , not for the ^ corn-Jiion and equal good of the whole nation ; and then the monarch ' s fears on the one hand * lest the
people should be able to diminish his greatness , or that he should hold his greatness at their mercy ; and the people ' s fears on the other hand , lest the monarch should be able to make them slaves , and
they come to hold their estates and lives at his mercy : These , I say , would set two opposite inter ests always at contention , in the composing of laws ; and the
wisdom and industry of the people ' s deputies ? that should be spent in Contriving the advancement of the people ' s common good in the laws , would be taken up endeavouring to defend and preserve the people ' s interests against the monarch ' s z
therefore , say the Levelled , it is equal , necessary , arid of natural right , that the people by their deputies should chusetheir own laws * Yet they conceive it would be of much greater good to our country , if our parliaments were moulded into a better form , and some de «
puties were chosen by the people , only to give their cqnsent or dissent unto laws proposed and oth # r deputies were chosen for
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Jfcrineiples of the jLc ^ ellers ^ io £ § - 9 &
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^ oi * . vi . - e
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1811, page 25, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2412/page/25/
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