16 JUNE 1917, Page 22

The Leveller Movement. By T. C. Pease. (H. Milford. 6s.

Cal. net. )— Dr. Pease, of Illinois University, has made a careful study of the Leveller movement led by John Lilburne during our Civil War, Ho emphasizes the Levellers' demand for a supreme law which neither King nor Parliament could override, because in this respect they anticipated the founders of the American Constitution. Dr. Pease is unusually sympathetic towards Lilburne, though he does not vouch for the honesty of that clever but unattractive man, and sees that if the Levellers had shattered the discipline of the Army Charles II. would have come back in 160 and crushed Presby- terians, Independents, and Levellers alike. Lilburne was not i Communist like Everard and Winstanley the " Diggers," who led a band of men to plant beans on St. George's Hill, near Cobham, and were driven away by the angry commoners. With this amusing experiment Dr. Pease is not concerned.