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Lastly, by the thirty-ninth article of the same charter, it was enacted, that no subject should be exiled, or in any shape whatever molested, either in his person or effects, otherwise than by judgment of his peers, and according to the law of the land;*-an article so important, that it may be said to comprehend the whole end and design of political societies: -and from that moment the English would have been a free people, if there were not an immense distance between the making of laws, and the observing of them.

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But though this charter wanted most of those supports which were necessary to ensure respect to it, though it did not secure to the poor and friendless any certain and legal methods of obtaining the execution of it (provisions which numberless transgressions alone could, in process of time, point out),-yet it was a prodigious advance towards the establishment

"Nullus liber homo capiatur, vel imprisonetur, vel "dissesiatur de libero tenemento suo, vel libertatibus vel “liberis consuetudinibus suis; aut utlagetur, aut exule“tur, aut aliquo modo destruatur; nec super eum ibimus, "nec super eum mittemus, nisi per legale judicium "parium suorum, vel per legem terræ. Nulli vendemus, "nulli negabimus, aut differemus, justitiam vel rectum," Magna Chart. cap. xxxix. xl.

of public liberty. Instead of the general maximis respecting the rights of the people and the duties of the prince (maxims against which ambition perpetually contends, and which it sometimes even openly and absolutely denies), here was substituted a written law, that is, a truth admitted by all parties, which no longer required the support of argument. The rights and privileges of the individual, as well in his person as in his property, became settled axioms. The Great Charter, at first enacted with so much solemnity, and afterwards confirmed at the beginning of every succeeding reign, became like a general banner perpetually set up for the union of all classes of the people; and the foundation was laid on which those equitable laws were to rise, which offer the same assistance to the poor and weak as to the rich and powerful.*

The reader, to be more fully convinced of the reality of the causes to which the liberty of England has been here ascribed, as well as of the truth of the observations made at the same time on the situation of the people of France, needs only to compare the Great Charter, so extensive in its provisions, and in which the barons stipulated in favour even of the bondman, with the treaty concluded at St. Maur, October 29, 1465, between Louis XI. and several of the princes and peers of France. In this treaty, which was made in order to terminate a

Under the long reign of Henry the Third, the differences which arose between the king and the nobles rendered England a scene of confusion. Amidst the vicissitudes which the fortune of war produced in their mutual conflicts, the people became still more and more sensible of their importance, and so did, in consequence, both the king and the barons alsó. Alternately courted by both parties, they obtained a confirmation of the Great Charter, and even the addition of new privileges, by the statutes of Merton and of Marlebridge. But I hasten to reach the grand epoch of the reign of Edward the First,-a prince who, from his numerous and prudent laws, has been denominated the English Justinian.

Possessed of great natural talents, and succeeding a prince whose weakness and injustice had rendered his reign unhappy, Edward was sensible that nothing but a strict administration of justice could, on the one side, curb a nobility whom the troubles of the preceding reign had

war that was called the war for the public good (pro bono publico), no provision was made but concerning the particular power of a few lords: not a word was inserted in favour of the people. It may be seen at large in the Piéces Justificatives annexed to the Mémoires de Phillippe de Comines.

rendered turbulent, and, on the other, appease and conciliate the people, by securing the property of individuals. To this end, he made jurisprudence the principal object of his attention; and so much did it improve under his care, that the mode of process became fixed and settled: Judge Hale going even so far as to affirm, that the English laws arrived at once et quasi per sallum, at perfection, and that there was more improvement made in them during the first thirteen years of the reign of Edward, than in all the ages since his time.

But what renders this æra particularly interesting is, that it affords the first instance of the admission of the deputies of towns and boroughs into parliament.*

Edward, continually engaged in wars, either against Scotland or on the continent, seeing moreover his demesnes considerably diminished, was frequently reduced to the most pressing necessities. But, though, in consequence of the spirit of the times, he frequently indulged himself in particular acts of injustice, yet he perceived that it was impossible to extend a general oppression over a body of nobles, and

I mean their legal origin; for the earl of Leicester, who had usurped the power during part of the preceding reign, had called such deputies up to parliament before.

common cause.

a people, who so well knew how to unite in a In order to raise subsidies, therefore, he was obliged to employ a new method, and to endeavour to obtain, through the consent of the people, what his predecessors had hitherto expected from their own power. The sheriffs were ordered to invite the towns and boroughs of the different counties to send deputies to parliament:-and it is from this æra that we are to date the origin of the house of commons.

It must be confessed, however, that these deputies of the people were not, at first, possessed of any considerable authority. They were far from enjoying those extensive privileges which, in these days, constitute the house of commons a collateral part of the government; they were in those times called up only to provide for the wants of the king, and approve the resolutions taken by him and the assembly of the lords. † But it was never

* Anno 1295.

+ The end mentioned in the summons sent to the lords, was de arduis negotiis regni tractaturi et consilium impensuri: the requisition sent to the commons was, ad faciendum et consentiendum. The power enjoyed by the latter was even inferior to what they might have expected from the summons sent to them. "In most of the ancient "statutes they are not so much as named; and in several, "even when they are mentioned, they are distinguished

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