Page:The Leveller movement; a study in the history and political theory of the English Great Civil War (IA levellermovement01peas).djvu/141

 City Remonstrance, Lilburne had embarked on a contest with the Lords that led him to this very conclusion. With Presbyterianism temporarily checked, the little group of Independents surrounding Lilburne abandoned its agitation of purely ecclesiastical questions, and became absorbed in radical and far-reaching projects of constitutional change.

Lilburne’s activity in prosecuting his impeachment of Colonel King earned him as an indirect consequence the hostility of the Lords. After his release from prison, in October of 1645, he continued to press his charges against King in the House of Commons. In April of 1646 King, treating Lilburne’s charges as slander, brought suit in common pleas for damages. Lilburne considered that a witness to a charge of high treason depending before the House of Commons was not bound