both in its internal and external relationships. But it is equally certain that the King arbitrarily imposed taxes and aids, levied import and export duties on merchandise, and inflicted penalties and exacted fines, without in any way consulting his Great Council. It is evident too, from the Patent Rolls, that in various transactions of this kind the King was in the constant habit of making corrupt bargains with his subjects, and of converting his "favours," and even "justice" itself, into marketable commodities. Virtually therefore the King, in early times, exercised a species of absolute and irresponsible power; although we can scarcely suppose that when he assembled his Council for the consideration of public affairs he acted in direct opposition to its resolutions. Sometimes, indeed, the Great Council seemed to exercise the chief power not only in the legislature, but even in the general administration; yet, on the other hand, we find the royal prerogatives exercised in a manner as absolute and arbitrary as if no assembly existed, and as if these prerogatives knew neither limit nor control.

Accordingly the Barons, after having been exposed for more than a century to the vexatious oppressions of the Conqueror and his successors, at length resolved to unite in their own defence and take active measures for resisting the arbitrary encroachments of the King, and for obtaining from him certain specific acknowledgments which should define their own rights and privileges and those of the people at large, and which should at the same time set a limit to the royal prerogatives. Hence it is to the Barons-with whom are included the Bishops and Abbots-that we are indebted for the establishment of those great fundamental principles on which the superstructure of our constitutional rights and privileges was afterwards raised.

The struggles between the King and his Barons had been revived from time to time with increasing fierceness, until they

were at length destined to come to a crisis in the reign of King John. This reign forms the most important and memorable era in our constitutional history, for it gave birth to the Great Charter of our national liberties. The Great Charter was not, however, the first that had been granted: five previous charters had been given since the Conquest; one by the Conqueror, one by Henry I., two by Stephen, and one by Henry II. But these were vague, general, and limited in their provisions, and chiefly affected the interests and privileges of the Barons or of the Church: few, if any, concessions were made to the great mass of the people, and even these were faithless and delusive. Of the five charters in question the most important was that granted by Henry I., and it was upon this charter, which had grown virtually obsolete (so little were its provisions observed), that the Barons at length took their stand for redress.

The proceedings more immediately connected with the granting of the Great Charter are recounted at length by Blackstone in his "Introduction to Magna Carta ;" but his narrative is too long to be given here in detail. Guizot, however, in his essay on the "Origin of the Representative System in England," has given so clear and concise an epitome of Blackstone's "Introduction," that it will probably be as well to give the entire passage from the.

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"In August, 1213, the Barons and the superior clergy are assembled in London, whither the King has summoned them in order to obtain subsidies. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton, induces the Barons to hold a secret meeting, and, on the 25th August, produces in the midst of this assembly the Charter of Henry I., which he has just discovered. The reading of it is heard with acclamations. The Barons make an appointment with a view to take measures for constraining the King to renew this guarantee of their rights. They meet again on the 20th Nov. 1214, at St. Edmondsbury,

and, with Stephen Langton still as their president, they come one after another to the altar to take a solemn oath to cause the Charter of Henry I. to be put in force.

"On the 6th of January, 1215, the confederates, armed, present themselves in London, and demand (requièrent) of the King the renewal of this charter as well as of the laws of Edward the Confessor. John knew nothing of this coalition, and was quite unprepared. He asks for time, and is allowed till Easter. Meanwhile he endeavours to profit by this delay. He grants to the clergy a special charter, and despatches William Mauclerc to Rome to seek assistance from the Pope against the Barons. Without waiting for the Pope's reply, he takes up the cross on the 2nd of February, and makes a vow to set out for the Holy Land, hoping thereby to cover his despotism under the privilege of the Crusaders.

"Neither the Barons nor the clergy, however, allow themselves to be intimidated. They also send to Rome one of the most zealous of their number, Eustace de Vesey, in order to maintain the lawfulness of their enterprise; and without waiting his return (as soon as the delay agreed upon is expired), they meet at Stamford, in the county of Lincoln, on the 19th of April, 1215, followed by upwards of two thousand knights. The King sends to know their pretensions. They ask for the Charter of Henry I., and forward to the King articles, which in explaining this charter extend its provisions. Why,' exclaimed the King in a rage, 'do not the Barons also ask me for my kingdom? I will never grant them liberties which would reduce me to slavery.' All negotiation is immediately at an end. On the 5th May following the Barons, having assembled at Wallingford with their troops, solemnly renounce their oaths of allegiance; Robert Fitz-Walter is named Marshal of the Army of God and of the holy Church; and war is declared."

"Letters arrive from the Pope to the King, the Barons, and the clergy—but they are of no avail. On the 24th May the Barons

take possession of London, with the consent of the citizens. John retires to Odiham. Alone and fugitive, he again attempts to negotiate; he offers the mediation of the Pope, which is rejected, for it is necessary that despotism should confess itself vanquished: the public proclamation of his defeat is indispensable to the victory of liberty.

"At length a conference is opened on the plains of Runnymede, between Windsor and Staines. The King signs the preliminary articles proposed by the Barons, and on the 15th June, 1215, the Great Charter itself is granted."

"The Great Charter," says Hallam, "is the keystone of English liberty." It is, in fact, the bulwark and fountain-head of all the rights and privileges which we inherit from our ancestors: it is in a manner the groundwork and basis of our civilisation ; for civilisation properly commences only when personal rights and the rights of property are duly recognised, guaranteed, and upheld. Without these there would be no progress, and society would relapse into the primitive condition of savage life, where every rude warrior must fight single-handed with his fellow-man for the means of existence, and where the law of might is right is daily exemplified in its full force.

The benefits conferred by Magna Charta were derived rather, perhaps, from the confirmation of franchises embodied in previous charters—but which had never been acted upon—than from any new rights or liberties which it granted. People were no longer in terror for their personal safety or their possessions. A new soul was infused into the English people, and once more was revived that spirit of sturdy independence which had formerly characterised the Anglo-Saxon race, but which for the space of a century and a half had been bowed down by oppression and crushed beneath the yoke of a harsh and exterminating despotism.

Without reciting the provisions of the Charter at length, we will enumerate some special points and indicate generally its

bearing and principal features. After confirming the immunities and franchises pertaining to the clergy, it elucidates definitively the obscurities and ambiguities which existed in the feudal laws, while it determines the import of those laws with precision; it fixes the amount, hitherto arbitrary, of the fine or relief due to the Crown of an heir when he came into possession of his estates; it takes precautions for securing their just revenues to the widows and children of the King's vassals, and for the marriage of his feudal wards; while it provides ample remedies for those abuses which creep into the feudal relationships, to the prejudice of the vassal. The twelfth article of the Charter ordains that no scutage or aid shall be imposed on the kingdom but by the Common Council of the kingdom, unless to redeem the King, to make his eldest son a knight, or to marry his eldest daughter; and that in the latter cases only a reasonable aid shall be imposed. The fourteenth article runs in the following terms:-"For the holding the Common Council of the kingdom for the purpose of levying any aid other than in the three cases specified, or for levying a scutage, we will cause to be convoked the archbishops, bishops, and abbots, the earls and great barons, individually and by letter from ourself; and we will cause to be convoked in a body by our sheriffs all those who hold of us directly. The said convocation shall be holden on a certain fixed day-namely, at the interval of forty days at least, and at a certain place to be determined; and in the letters of summons we will explain the cause of the convocation; and the convocation being thus called, the matter shall be treated of on the day appointed, with the advice of those who shall be present, even if all those who shall have been convoked should not be present."

Again, all the liberties enjoyed by the King's vassals are declared common to the vassals of the lords. By the seventeenth article it is determined that in future the Court of Common Pleas shall not follow the King in his movements from place to