g dignified words:

"But that all men may see that we are neither ashamed nor afraid to
justify that cause we are arrested for, neither to refuse to answer
to it in a righteous way, therefore we have here delivered this up
in writing, and we leave it in your hands, disavowing the
proceedings of your Court, because you uphold prerogative
oppression, though the kingly office be taken away, and the
Parliament hath declared England a Common-wealth, so that
prerogative cannot be in force, unless you be besotted by your
covetousness and envy.

"We deny that we have trespassed against those three men, or Mr.
Drake either, or that we should trespass against any, if we should
dig up and plough for a livelihood upon any of the waste land in
England. For thereby we break no particular Law made by any Act of
Parliament, but only an ancient custom bred in the strength of
kingly prerogative, which is that old Law or Custom by which Lords
of Manors lay claim to the Commons, which is of no force now to
bind the people of England, since the kingly power and office was
cast out. And the Common People who have cast out the oppressor, by
their purse and person, have not authorised any as yet to give away
from them their purchased freedom; and if any assume a power to
give away or withhold this purchased freedom, they are Traitors to
this Common-wealth of England; and if they imprison, oppress, or
put to death any for standing to maintain this purchased freedom,
they are murderers and thieves, and no just rulers.

"Therefore in the light of Reason and Equity, and in the light of
the National Covenant which Parliament and People have taken with
joint consent, all such prerogative customs, which by experience we
have found to burden the Nation, ought to be cast out with the
kingly office, and the Land of England now ought to be a Free Land
and a Common Treasury to all her children, otherwise it cannot
properly be called a Common-wealth."

He then continues:

"Therefore we justify our act of digging upon that Hill to make the
Earth a Common Treasury. First, because the Earth was made by
Almighty God to be a Common Treasury of Livelihood to the whole of
mankind in all its branches, without respect of persons....
Secondly, because all sorts of people have lent ass