An important group on Parliament’s side were the Levellers, who presented a radical constitutional document which included strict separation between the different branches of government - the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary. Here are extracts from that document.
| We the free People of England... agree to ascertain our Government, to abolish all arbitrary Power, and to set bounds and limits both to our Supreme, and all Subordinate Authority, and remove all known Grievances.
And accordingly do declare and publish to the world,
that we are agreed as followeth
That the Supreme Authority of England and the territories therewith incorporate, shall be and reside henceforward in a Representative of the people consisting of four hundred persons, but no more; in the choice of whom (according to natural right) all men of the age of one and twenty years and upwards (not being servants, or receiving alms, or having served the late King in arms), shall have their voices...
That two hundred of the four hundred Members, and not less, shall be taken and esteemed for a competent Representative...
That no Member of the present Parliament shall be capable of being elected of the next Representative, nor any member of any future Representative shall be capable of being chosen for the Representative immediately succeeding...
That... we agree that this present Parliament shall end the first Wednesday in August next 1649... and the next Representative may meet and sit in power... upon the day following, namely the first Thursday of the same August, 1649.
|
