Property Assailed and Defended

The English Levellers have justifiably attracted scholarly attention. As one historian of political thought observes, their platform represented “the first proposal in history for a written constitution based on inalienable natural rights.” Their thinking was revolutionary, for “what was in prospect was a new epoch in world history.” This is because they raised the issue of manhood suffrage, gave supreme authority to an elected representative body, and limited the powers of government by principles of natural justice—equality before the law, freedom of conscience, the abolition of commercial monopolies, the banning of conscription, and the right to revolution if a government violated these principles. ¹ Early modern Europe witnessed many popular movements, but none was as radical as the Levellers in their anticipation of modern democracy. In the longer perspective, the West experienced nothing like the Levellers until the American and French Revolutions. ² Admittedly, they were ultimately defeated—by shifting political circumstances and the opposition of the ruling elites—but their ideas were no less significant because they were premature and unsuccessful. ³