1 SEPTEMBER 1984, Page 23

Brute force?

Sir: In his review of Christopher Hill's The Experience of Defeat (Books, 18 August) Eric Christiansen says: 'Levellers, like early Quakers, believed in brute force.' This is so utterly opposed to everything I have read by and about early Quakers that I should be grateful for some clarification. What evidence is there that any Quaker used or advocated 'brute force'?

John E. Brown

22a Sewell House, Belmont Road, Winscombe, Avon