Page:The Leveller movement; a study in the history and political theory of the English Great Civil War (IA levellermovement01peas).djvu/48

 A second writer unwittingly illustrated the pitfalls which lay hidden for parliamentary apologists in the compact doctrine when he emphasized, not the contrast and opposition of king and Parliament, but their co-ordination. A compact between king and people which sanctioned the coordinate existence of the three estates of king, Lords, and Commons was, he thought, of record in the unchangeable and fundamental laws of the land “consented to and contrived by the people in its first constitution, and since in every severall reigne confirmed both by mutuall oathes betweene King and People” (p. 7). When the writer added that the supreme power remained in the three estates conjointly, he described the English constitution with more accuracy than was advantageous to his argument. Accordingly he blundered