The common aim of these men, no matter which religion they ostensibly profess, is nothing less than the overthrow of authority. Occupying the moral high ground, they wish to liberate men's souls just as those amongst the political revolutionaries who are not wholly given up to the pursuit of personal ambition wish to liberate men's bodies.
Although those same elements of destruction which are today convulsing society have existed throughout the centuries – for each age has seen the birth of immoral and ambitious men, of hypocrites, of hotheads, of deceivers and of reformers – our century, however, solely because of the lack of control of the press, possesses to a greater degree than preceding eras means of contact, of persuasion and of achieving agreement which are far more powerful, simple to implement and ideally suited to act upon all different classes of men.
We are by no means the only ones to ask ourselves if society can exist together with liberty of the press, a scourge unknown anywhere in the world before the last half of the seventeenth century and restricted until the end of the eighteenth century, with a very few exceptions, to England alone, that part of Europe separated from the continent by the sea as well as by its language and by its own distinctive customs.
The foremost principle that must be followed by Monarchs who are united in their determination just as they are in the uniformity of their wishes and of their judgement, must be that of opposing the stability of [existing] political institutions to the disorderly movement which has seized control of men's minds, the immutability of fundamental principles to the mania for reinterpreting them and respect for the laws currently in force to their overthrow.
The hostile faction is split into two very distinct parties: one is that of the levellers and the other that of the doctrinaires.
United in times of upheaval, these men split in times of inaction. It is up to Governments to recognise and to identify them for what they really are.
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