be named for a conference. The barons answered, "Let the day be the 9th of June,-the place, Runnymede." This Holy Land of English liberty is about halfway from Odiham to London, and it is a grassy plain, of about 160 acres, on the south bank of the Thames, between Staines and Windsor. Various derivations are given for the name: that of the antiquary Leland affirms it to have been so called from the Saxon word Rune, or council, and to mean the council meadow, having been used, in the old Saxon times, as a place of assembly. No column or memorial marks the spot where the primary triumph of the English constitution was achieved; but the noble lines of Akenside should be present to the mind of all who tread the plain of Runnymede. INSCRIPTION FOR A COLUMN AT RUNNYMEDE. "Thou, who the verdant plain dost traverse here Those sacred rights to which themselves were born." On the 8th of June, the day before that named for the conference at Runnymede, the king came to Merton, in Surrey. But the conference was adjourned to the 15th, the Monday following, and the king in the meantime proceeded to Windsor; thence, on the last appointed day, being Trinity Monday, A.D. 1215, the king, with his scanty train of personal followers, came to Runnymede, where the barons and their host were now encamped. On the part of John stood only eight bishops, fifteen noblemen and knights, and Pandulph, the papal legate : even of these many were only seemingly his adherents, or, as the old chronicler expressively phrases it, they stood "Quasi ex parte Regis."* The opposite side of the plain, that nearest to where the town of Egham now stands, was white with the tents of an army, which the old chronicler terms a host above all price.t It is needless," says another old writer, " to enumerate the barons who composed the army of God and the Holy Church; they were the whole nobility of England." Negotiations were formally opened and continued for several days, during which it is probable that the chief managers of the conference on either side may have retired to the little island a short distance higher up the river, which still bears the name of Magna Carta Island, and which tradition points to as the scene of these memorable deliberations. The conference was not concluded till Friday, the 19th of June. Articles or heads of agreement were first drawn up, which were afterwards regularly embodied in the form of a Charter. These "Articuli Magna Carta" are still preserved, and deserve attentive comparison with the Charter for which they served as the rough draft, but which does not always strictly accord with them. When * W. de Heminburg. Exercitum inestimabilem confecere. Matthew Paris, p. 253. * * the Charter itself was prepared, the royal seal was solemnly affixed to it before the Congress at Runnymede, and it bears date as of the first day of that conference, the 15th June, in the year of our Lord 1215, being 149 years after the Norman Conquest, and seven centuries and a half after the reputed era of the landing of the first of our Saxon ancestors in this island. CHAPTER XI. Magna Carta.-General Distribution of its Clauses.-Text of the Great Charter, and Comments. BEFORE setting out the text of the Great Charter, it may be useful to premise some general summary of its contents. A very little attention is necessary to show how unjust it is to speak of it as a mere piece of classlegislation, obtained by the barons for their own special interests. Guizot* well asks, "How is it possible that at least a third of the provisions of the Charter should have related to promises and guarantees made on behalf of the people, if the aristocracy had only aimed at obtaining that which would benefit themselves? We have only to read the Great Charter in order to be convinced that the rights of all three orders of the nation are equally respected and promoted." By the three orders which Guizot here speaks of are meant the clergy, the nobility, and the general commonalty of the freemen of the realm. It will be seen, also, * "History of Representative Government," pt. ii. lect. 7. RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE CONSTITUTION. 129 that the serfs are not wholly neglected in it. And inasmuch as the serfs were always capable of being raised into freemen, and the process of their emancipation was continually, though gradually, going forward, the Great Charter, by providing for the rights of all freemen, provided in effect for the rights of all the inhabitants of the land. Part of the Great Charter consists of clauses relating to the clergy. These are not numerous, as the charter granted by John in the preceding February had provided for ecclesiastical interests. The Great Charter confirms these provisions. With respect to the rights of the laity, the Great Charter determines with careful precision the amount of feudal obligation to which the barons and other immediate tenants of the crown should be thenceforth subject. Involved in those provisions is the all-important article about convening the great council of the realm. It will be seen also that the Charter binds the barons to allow their sub-vassals the same mitigations of the feudal burdens which the barons acquired for themselves from the king. In behalf of members of the rest of the free community, special clauses will be found by which the ancient customs and liberties of cities and boroughs are secured, and by which protection for the purposes of commerce is given to foreign merchants. Thus far the Charter legislates specially for the interests of separate classes, though several of the clauses of this kind, besides redressing an immediate and partial wrong, contain also the germ of a permanent and national right. But the Great Charter is also rich with clauses which have for their object the interests of the nation as a |