Page:The Leveller movement; a study in the history and political theory of the English Great Civil War (IA levellermovement01peas).djvu/122

 committee of the House of Commons. When the chairman asked him a question evidently based on Bastwick’s information, Lilburne refused to answer until he was informed of the charges against him; and he denounced as illegal the action of the House in committing him without specifying the cause of commitment. He was, therefore, recommitted. A pamphlet in which he retailed the committee’s proceedings and commented upon them came to the attention of the House of Commons August 9. A vote of the House empowered the committee to remand Lilburne to prison, if on inquiry it found him to be the author of the tract. On his refusal to answer questions, the committee accordingly sent him to Newgate. August 11, the House approved this step and ordered that Lilburne be tried at the next quarter sessions.

A petition in Lilburne’s behalf signed by two or three thousand persons was presented to the House of Commons August 26. It asked that Lilburne might be removed from Newgate, his case reheard, and an allowance from his arrears assigned him for his support in prison. The House thereupon ordered two members to manage the charges against the prisoner at the next general session, and assigned him a grant of one hundred pounds. It returned answer to the petitioners that inasmuch