JOHN. 1199-1216. One weight and one measure were to be established throughout the kingdom. Merchants were to be allowed to transact all business, without being exposed to any arbitrary Public police. tolls or impositions"; and they and all freemen were to be allowed to go out of the kingdom and return at pleasure"; and no lands were to be alienated in mortmain. borough privi London and all cities and boroughs were to preserve their Confirmation of ancient liberties, immunities, and free customs; aids were leges. not to be required of them but by the consent of the great council; and no towns or individuals were to be obliged to make or support bridges but by ancient custom. rights. The goods of every freeman were to be disposed of according Testamentary to his will; and if he died intestate, his heirs were to succeed to them; and no officer of the crown was to take any horses, Purveyance. carts, or wood, without the consent of the owner 20. of justice. The king's courts of justice were to be stationary, and Administration were no longer to follow his person; they were to be open to every one, and justice no longer to be sold, refused, or delayed 22. Circuits were to be held every year: the inferior tribunals of justice, the county court, sheriff's tourn, and court leet, were to meet at their appointed time and place. The sheriff's were to be incapacitated to hold pleas of the crown; and not to put any person upon their trial, from rumours or suspicion alone, but upon the evidence of lawful witnesses. subject. No freeman was to be taken or imprisoned, or dispossessed Protection of the of his free tenement and liberties, or outlawed, banished, or anywise hurt or injured, unless by the legal judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land 23; and all who suffered otherwise, in this or the former two reigns, were to be restored to their rights and possessions. Every freeman was to be fined in proportion to his fault; and no fine to be levied on 16 Mirror, c. 1, s. 3. Madox, Hist. Exch. c. 13, s. 3, p. 323. Leges Wallicæ, 330. 17 Vita S. Thomæ. 1. 2, c. 14, p. 82. Epistolæ S. Thomæ. 1. 1; ibid. 48, 1. 3. M. Paris, 117. 2 Lingard, 256. 6 Henry, 75. 18 2 Lingard, 256. 19 Madox, Hist. Exch. c. 11, s. 12. 6 Henry, 76. 20 Eadmer, Hist. Nov. 1. 4, p. 94. 2 Lingard, 256. 6 Henry, 84. 21 2 Lingard, 253. 23 1 Madox, 448, 452, 515, 517. Hist. Croyl. 455-477. 2 Lingard, 253. 6 Henry, 81. 23 Vitæ S. Thomæ, 1. 2, c. 14, p. 82. Epistolæ S. Thomæ, 1. 1; Ep. 48, 1. 3; Ep. 79. 6 Henry, 79. 1 JOHN. 1199-1216. The object of political contests is ment. him to his utter ruin24: and a "villain" or "rustic" was not, by any fine, to be bereaved of his carts, ploughs, and implements of husbandry 25. This was the only article calculated for the interests of this party aggrandize body of men, probably at that time the most numerous in the kingdom, a fact tending to establish the proposition,—that in all political contests the struggle is merely for party aggrandizement, and without any view to the maintenance or increase, of the welfare or happiness of the people at large. First attempt to assemble a general representative body. 2. Legislative Assemblies. The first proceeding towards assembling a general representative body, is in 15 John, when writs were issued to all the sheriffs of the different counties, commanding them to require the attendance of certain knights within their respective bailiwicks, at Oxford, with arms, in fifteen days from the day of All Saints;-and on November 7, in the same year, other writs were issued to all the sheriffs, commanding them to cause all the knights so summoned to be at Oxford on the appointed day, with arms, and the bodies of the barons (who, it must be presumed, were summoned to appear at Oxford at the same time), without arms; and in like manner to cause to come to the king, at the same time, four discreet knights of each county, "ad loquendum nobiscum de negotiis regni nostri." There is no record to establish, whether these writs or those to which they refer, were obeyed or not. The language of the last writ implies a distinction between such as were styled "barons," apparently including the "earls," and the four knights who were to come from the several counties “ad loquendum," and who were also distinguished from the knights summoned to attend with arms. How the four knights of each county were to be chosen, whether by the county, or according to the mere will of the sheriff, does not JOHN. It has been attempted to infer from the great charter of John, what were the constituent parts of the then legislative 1199-1216. council; but no clear information can be deduced from such a source. The great charter of John purports to be the act of the king, by the council or advice, "per concilium," of the archbishop of Canterbury, the archbishop of Dublin, divers English bishops, the pope's legate, the master of the Temple, William Mareschall, earl of Pembroke, with other noblemen particularly named, "et aliorum fidelium nostrorum." All the persons thus described cannot be considered as having formed, according to law, parts of a legislative council of the kingdom, particularly the archbishop of Dublin, in that character, and the pope's legate; and the expression— "aliorum fidelium nostrorum," as used in the charter, is too indefinite to afford any just inference. Magna Charta affords no information as to legislative coun gi The charter puract of the king. ports to be the by name in the charter. The persons specified by name in the charter as those by Persons specified whose advice it was granted, were only the persons who were of the king's party in that transaction: Robert Fitzwalter, the leader of the discontented barons, and the carls and barons of that party, not being named in the charter, and the meeting at which the business was transacted, was in pursuance of an agreement made by the Earl of Pembroke on behalf of the king, with Fitzwalter, styling himself Marshal of the Army of God and of the Holy Church in England, and the earls and barons associated with him, on behalf of themselves and the rest of the people. By this agreement the king stipulated to meet Fitzwalter and his party on an appointed day, at Runimede, to settle the subjects of dispute between the king, the church, and the people. ing the demands of the barons. The articles containing the demands of the barons, and Articles containfrom which the charter was formed, are entitled "Ista sunt Capitula que Barones petunt et Dominus Rex concedit," and they conclude, "Omnes autem istas Consuetudines et libertates quas Rex concessit Regno tenendas, quantum ad se pertinet erga suos, omnes de Regno, tam Clerici quam Laici, observabunt, quantum ad se pertinet erga suos." The transaction taken in all its parts, affected the whole The charter afbody of the people; not only as between them and the fected the whole crown, but also as between the different classes of the ple. JOHN. 1199-1216. Assembly at regular legisla tive assembly. king's subjects; and the articles under the king's seal, as well as the charter, must be deemed to have been made, for the time, part of the law of the land, though neither appears to have been expressly enacted in any legislative assembly constituted for that purpose. The assembly at Runimede was not a regular legislative Runimede not a assembly, convened according to any known constitutional law; nor indeed does there appear to have been any writ or proclamation of the king for the purpose of its convention. It met according to the stipulation made with the barons in arms and their adherents, it was made on the king's part unwillingly, as a concession to superior force, but conceding nothing which the clergy, the barons, and the people did not consider as their just rights, acknowledged by the charters of Henry I. and Henry II., and in effect by that of William I. Election of knights to in quire of bad customs. No allusion made an appeal to a legislative assembly. The instrument which secured the performance of the terms of the charter on the king's part, refers to a writ tested at Runimede, June 19, 17 John, reciting the charter which was tested June 15, 17 John, and commanding obedience to it, and also commanding twelve knights of each county to be elected "in primo comitatu," to inquire of the bad customs to be abolished, according to the charter." If any legislative assembly existed at this period, it seems in the charter of extraordinary that some allusion to it was not made, but neither the king, nor the discontented barons, nor the barons who adhered to the king, at any time appealed for the decision of their differences, to a legislative assembly to be convened for that purpose, according to any existing law, or according to any newly-devised form, by which the authority of the whole nation might be solemnly given, to any compact which might be made for settling those differences, and providing for the peace and future good government of the country. No article in the charter refers to a previous legis lative assembly. It is also remarkable that no article in the charter, has reference to the previous existence of any assembly, convened for general purposes of legislation, nor does the charter contain any provision for the calling of any such assembly in future, nor any provision purporting the existence by law of any representative system for the purpose of general legislation. • Fœdera, N. E. tom. i. 129. 5 Ibid. 130, 133, 134. JOHN. 1199-1216. It may be doubted, therefore, whether the writ issued in 15 John, for the election of knights to come to the king at Oxford, "ad loquendum de Negotiis Regni," was not without Writs of 15 John precedent, and without any other legal authority than that, which it might derive from the king's prerogative. unprecedented. an assembly. Some, however, of the provisions in the charter of John, Convocation of do refer to the convention of an assembly for the purpose of assessing extraordinary aids to the king, and scutage, which was generally a conversion of military service due by tenure into a money payment: and various clauses of the charter recognise persons distinguished by the appellation of "comites" and " barones," but generally with reference only to their property, and the charges by which it may be affected. tenure, of which a consequence. Burgesses ten ants in chief of the crown. The citizens and burgesses of cities and boroughs which citizens and burheld of the king in fee-farm, held by a tenure, of which gesses held by a homage was not a consequence; they were not military homage was not tenants, and scutage was a matter with which they, as citizens and burgesses, as bodies or individually, had no concern. The bodies of citizens and burgesses of these cities and boroughs, were tenants in chief of the crown of their respective cities and boroughs which they held in fee-farm; but they were such respectively as a body, and not as individuals. As a body they were liable to no charge, but the fee-farm Liability to talrent reserved on the grant to the body;-as individuals, they lage. were liable to tallage; and any extraordinary aid granted to the crown, whether in lieu of tallage, or distinct from it, must have been levied on the individuals, and not on the body which held the borough or city in fee-farm. In the assembly to be convened by special and general summons under the charter of John, if citizens and burgesses, holding in chief of the crown, had been comprised, they could only have appeared by some of their respective bodies, and therefore could only have appeared by some sort of representation. But in the charter of John, appearance by representation was not provided in the case of such tenants in chief of the crown as should not be specially summoned ;-though the example of representation was to be found in the writs of 15 John, and in the provision of the charter itself, for the election of twelve knights in each county, to inquire of bad customs. citizens, &c. coned under the charter of John. could not be sum But in fact there are no records extant by which it can be Citizens, &c. not inferred, that any city or borough appeared by any of its represented in any council. |