Saturday, November 26, 2005
For where there is no law declared, there can be no transgression. Therefore it is very requisite that the parliament would declare their privileges to the whole commons of England, that so no man may through ignorance (by the parliament's default) run causelessly into the hazard of the loss of their lives, liberties, or estates. For here it is acknowledged by themselves that their power is limited by those that betrust them, and that they are not to do what they list but what they ought, namely, to provide for the people's weal and not for their woe: so that unknown privileges are as dangerous as unlimited prerogatives — being both of them secret snares, especially for the best-affected people.
-- John Lilburne, “The 150th Page” [1645]
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