THE PETITION OF RIGHT. 37 nothing but the bill, awaited only the royal assent to become law, and "to form a memorable era in the English Government." * On the second of June the Peers were assembled, the Commons summoned, and the King appeared in the House of Lords to give his answer in Parliament to the bill. But, to the surprise of all men, Charles, instead of using the well-known ancient form of words by which such a bill receives the royal assent, addressed the Parliament and told them, "The King willeth that right be done according to the laws and "customs of the realm, and that the statutes be put in due execution, "that his subjects may have no cause to complain of any wrong or oppression contrary to their just rights and liberties; to the preserva"tion whereof he holds himself in conscience as well obliged, as of his "prerogative." 66 The Commons returned highly incensed with this evasive circumlocution. They forthwith began to assail the favourites of the Crown, and impeached a Dr. Manwaring, who had preached a sermon, which had afterwards been printed by the King's command, in which discourse the right divine of kings to deal as they pleased with their subjects' property on emergencies, whether Parliament consented or not, and the duty of passive obedience in the subject, were openly and unreservedly maintained. The Commons procured the trial and condemnation of this sacerdotal satellite of arbitrary power, and were proceeding to assail others higher in Charles's councils, when the King's obstinacy at length gave way, and the Petition of Right received the royal assent in the customary form of Norman French, and this second great solemn declaration of the liberties of Englishmen was declared to be the law of the land, among the general rejoicings of the nation. PETITION OF RIGHT. 3 CAR. I. c. 1. The Petition exhibited to His Majesty by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, concerning divers Rights and Liberties of the Subjects, with the King's Majesty's royal answer thereunto in full Parliament. To the King's Most Excellent Majesty. Humbly shew unto our sovereign lord the king, the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons in parliament assembled, that whereas it is declared and enacted by a statute made in the time of the reign of King Edward I., commonly called Statutum de tallagio non concedendo,† that no tallage or aid shall be laid or levied by the king or his heirs in this realm, without the good will, and assent of the archbishops, bishops, earls, barons, knights, burgesses, and other the freemen of * Hume. This supposed statute found a place among our records very early, and its recognition by the Petition of Right gave it thenceforth the authority of a statute. But Blackstone, in his work on the Charters, has shown that it was originally nothing more than an intended compendium of the Confirmatio Chartarum.-See too, Guizot, "Essais," p. 311, n.; and Hallam's "Supplemental Notes," p. 306. 38 THE PETITION OF RIGHT. the commonalty of this realm; and by authority of parliament holden in the fiveand-twentieth year of the reign of King Edward III., it is declared and enacted, that from thenceforth no person should be compelled to make any loans to the king against his will, because such loans were against reason and the franchise of the land; and by other laws of this realm it is provided, that none should be charged by any charge or imposition called a benevolence, nor by such like charge; by which statutes before mentioned, and other the good laws and statutes of this realm, your subjects have inherited this freedom, that they should not be compelled to contribute to any tax, tallage, aid, or other like charge not set by common consent, in parliament: II. Yet nevertheless of late divers commissions directed to sundry commissioners in several counties, with instructions, have issued; by means whereof your people have been in divers places assembled, and required to lend certain sums of money unto your majesty, and many of them, upon their refusal so to do, have had an oath administered unto them not warrantable by the laws or statutes of this realm, and have been constrained to become bound to make appearance and give utterance before your privy council and in other places, and others of them have been therefore imprisoned, confined, and sundry other ways molested and disquieted; and divers other charges have been laid and levied upon your people in several counties by lord lieutenants, deputy lieutenants, commissioners for mus ters, justices of peace and others, by command or direction from your majesty, or your privy council, against the laws and free customs of the realm: III. And whereas also by the statute called "The Great Charter of the Liberties of England," it is declared and enacted, That no freeman may be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised of his freehold or liberties, or his free customs, or be outlawed or exiled, or in any manner destroyed, but by the lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land: IV. And in the eight-and-twentieth year of the reign of King Edward III., it was declared and enacted by authority of parliament, that no man of what estate or condition that he be, should be put out of his land or tenements, nor taken, nor imprisoned, nor disherited, nor put to death without being brought to answer by due process of law: V. Nevertheless, against the tenor of the said statutes, and other the good laws and statutes of your realm to that end provided, divers of your subjects have of late been imprisoned without any cause shewed; and when for their deliverance they were brought before your justices by your majesty's writs of habeas corpus, there to undergo and receive as the court should order, and their keepers commanded to certify the causes of their detainer, no cause was certified, but that they were detained by your majesty's special command, signified by the lords of your privy council, and yet were returned back to several prisons, without being charged with any thing to which they might make answer according to the law: VI. And whereas of late great companies of soldiers and mariners have been dispersed into divers counties of the realm, and the inhabitants against their wills have been compelled to receive them into their houses, and there to suffer them to sojourn, against the laws and customs of this realm, and to the great grievance and vexation of the people: VII. And whereas also by authority of parliament, in the five-and-twentieth year of the reign of King Edward III., it is declared and enacted, that no man should be forejudged of life or limb against the form of the great charter and the law of the land; and by the said great charter and other the laws and statutes of this your realm, no man ought to be adjudged to death but by the laws established in this your realm, either by the customs of the same realm, or by acts of parliament: And whereas no offender of what kind soever is exempted from the proceedings to be used, and punishments to be inflicted by the laws and statutes of this your realm; nevertheless of late time divers commissions under your majesty's great seal have issued forth, by which certain persons have been assigned and appointed commissioners with power and authority to proceed within the land, according to the justice of martial law, against such soldiers or mariners, or other dissolute persons joining with them, as should commit any murder, robbery, felony, mutiny, or other outrage or misdemeanor whatsoever, and by such summary course and order as is agreeable to martial law, and as is used in armies in time of war, to proceed to the trial and condemnation of such offenders, and them to cause to be executed and put to death according to the law martial: THE ACT FOR ABOLISHING THE STAR-CHAMBER. 39 VIII. By pretext whereof some of your majesty's subjects have been by some of the said commissioners put to death, when and where, if by the laws and statutes of the land they had deserved death, by the same laws and statutes also they might, and by no other ought to have been judged and executed :1 IX. And also sundry grievous offenders, by colour thereof claiming an exemption, have escaped the punishments due to them by the laws and statutes of this your realm, by reason that divers of your officers and ministers of justice have unjustly refused or forborne to proceed against such offenders according to the same laws and statutes, upon pretence that the said offenders were punishable only by martial law, and by authority of such commissions as aforesaid; which commissions, and all other of like nature, are wholly and directly contrary to the said laws and statutes of this your realm. X. They do therefore humbly pray your most excellent majesty, that no man hereafter be compelled to make or yield any gift, loan, benevolence, tax, or such like charge, without common consent by act of parliament; and that none be called to make answer, or take such oath, or to give attendance, or be confined, or otherwise molested or disquieted concerning the same or for refusal thereof; and that no freeman, in any such manner as is before-mentioned, be imprisoned or detained; and that your majesty would be pleased to remove the said soldiers and mariners, and that your people may not be so burthened in time to come; and that the aforesaid commissions, for proceeding by martial law, may be revoked and annulled; and that hereafter no commissions of like nature may issue forth to any person or persons whatsoever to be executed as aforesaid, lest by colour of them any of your majesty's subjects be destroyed, or put to death contrary to the laws and franchise of the land. XI. All which they most humbly pray of your most excellent majesty as their rights and liberties, according to the laws and statutes of this realm; and that your majesty would also vouchsafe to declare, that the awards, doings, and proceedings, to the prejudice of your people in any of the premises, shall not be drawn hereafter into consequence or example; and that your majesty would be also graciously pleased, for the further comfort and safety of your people, to declare your royal will and pleasure, that in the things aforesaid all your officers and ministers shall serve you according to the laws and statutes of this realm, as they tender the honour of your majesty, and the prosperity of this kingdom. Quá quidem petitione lecta et plenius intellecta per dictum dominum regem taliter est responsum in pleno parliamento, viz., Soit droit fait comme est desiré. There is another Act of a subsequent Parliament of this reign, by which the Court of Star-Chamber was abolished; part of which deserves citation. 16 CAR. I. c. 10. INTITULED "AN ACT FOR THE REGULATING OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL, AND FOR TAKING AWAY THE COURT COMMONLY CALLED THE STAR-CHAMBER." WHEREAS by the great charter many times confirmed in parliament, it is enacted, that no freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or disseised of his freehold or liberties, or free customs, or be outlawed or exiled or otherwise destroyed, and that the king will not pass upon him, or condemn him, but by lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land; and by another statute made in the fifth year of the reign of King Edward III., it is enacted that no man shall be attached by any accusation, nor forejudged of life or limb, nor his lands, tenements, goods, nor chattels seized into the king's hands, against the form of the great charter, and the law of the land : and by another statute made in the five-and-twentieth year of the reign of the same king Edward III., it is accorded, assented, and established, that none shall be taken by petition or suggestion made to the king, or to his council, unless it be by indictment or presentment of good and lawful people of the same neighbourhood where such deeds be done in due manner, or by process made by writ original at the common law, and that none be put out of his franchise or freehold, unless he be duly brought in to answer, and forejudged of the same by the course of the law, 40 ABOLITION OF MILITARY TENURES. and if anything be done against the same, it shall be redressed and holden for none : and by another statute made in the eight-and-twentieth year of the reign of the same King Edward III., it is amongst other things enacted, that no man of what estate or condition soever he be, shall be put out of his lands or tenements, nor taken nor imprisoned, nor disinherited, without being brought in to answer by due process of law and by another statute made in the two-and-fortieth year of the reign of the said King Edward III., it is enacted, that no man be put to answer, without presentment before justices, or matter of record, or by due process and writ original according to the old law of the land, and if anything be done to the contrary, it shall be void in law, and holden for error: and by another statute made in the sixand-thirtieth year of the same king Edward III., it is amongst other things enacted, that all pleas which shall be pleaded in any courts before any the king's justices, or in his other places, or before any of his other ministers, or in the courts and places of any other lords within the realm, shall be entered and enrolled in Latin: and whereas by the statute made in the third year of king Henry VII., power is given to the chancellor, the lord treasurer of England for the time being, and the keeper of the king's privy seal, or two of them, calling unto them a bishop and a temporal lord of the king's most honourable council, and the two chief justices of the King's Bench and Common Pleas for the time being, or other two justices in their absence to proceed as in that act is expressed, for the punishment of some particular offences therein mentioned; and by the statute made in the one-andtwentieth year of King Henry VIII., the president of the council is associated to join with the Lord Chancellor and other judges in the said statute of the 3rd of Henry VII., mentioned; but the said judges have not kept themselves to the points limited by the said statutes, but have undertaken to punish where no law doth warrant, and to make decrees for things having no such authority, and to inflict heavier punishments than by any law is warranted. And forasmuch as all matters examinable or determinable before the said judges, or in the court commonly called the Star-Chamber, may have their proper remedy and redress, and their due punishment and correction, by the common law of the land, and in the ordinary course of justice elsewhere; and forasmuch as the reasons and motives inducing the erection and continuance of that court do now cease: and the proceedings, censures, and decrees of that court have by experience been found to be an intolerable burden to the subjects, and the means to introduce an arbitrary power and government; and forasmuch as the council-table hath of late times assumed unto itself a power to intermeddle in civil causes and matters only of private interest between party and party, and have adventured to determine of the estates and liberties of the subject, contrary to the law of the land and the rights and privileges of the subject, by which great and manifold mischiefs and inconveniencies have arisen and happened, and much incertainty by means of such proceedings hath been conceived concerning men's rights and estates; for settling whereof, and preventing the like in time to come: Be it ordained and enacted by the authority of this present parliament, that the said court commonly called the Star-Chamber, and all jurisdiction, power, and authority belonging unto, or exercised in the same court, or by any the judges, officers, or ministers thereof, be from the first day of August in the year of our Lord God one thousand six hundred forty and one, clearly and absolutely dissolved, taken away, and determined. It scarcely falls within the province, and certainly is not within the limits, of the present work, to narrate or discuss the events of the revolutionary period, which extends from Charles I.'s attempt to seize the five members, to the restoration of royalty in 1660. Of the statutes passed in the reign of Charles II., several deserve mention on account of their constitutional importance. The 12 Car. 2, c. 24, abolished military tenures altogether, converting them into common freeholds, and thus swept away those feudal rights of the Crown to wardships, primer seisins, aids, homages, &c., which had long been so burdensome to the nobility and gentry, who held lands by military tenure, HABEAS CORPUS ACT. 41 But it is remarkable, and it shows how early the landholders began to shift the burden of taxation off their own shoulders upon those of the general community, that the compensation voted to the Crown for the loss of these sources of revenue, was not a permanent tax on lands formerly held in chivalry (which was proposed by some members, and was undoubtedly based on just principle), but an excise upon certain articles of general and necessary consumption. The first regular Parliament of Charles passed an important Act to prevent the legislature being overawed, and their votes coerced in future by riotous and seditious mobs under the guise of petitioners. That statute (13 Car. 2, st. 1, c. 5) is still in force, and enacts, that " no person or persons whatsoever shall repair to his Majesty or both or either of the Houses of Parliament, upon "pretence of presenting or delivering any petition, complaint, remon"strance, declaration, or other addresses, accompanied with excessive "number of people, nor at any one time with above the number of ten persons." 66 The Habeas Corpus Act, also, which was passed in this reign (31 Car. 2, c. 2), is of great constitutional value, though it by no means introduced any new principle into our system, or formed any such epoch in the acquisition of the national liberties, as some writers represent. But it made the remedies against arbitrary imprisonment short, certain, and obtainable at all times and in all cases. The statute itself enacts 66 "1. That on complaint and request in writing by or on behalf of any person "committed and charged with any crime (unless committed for treason or felony ex"pressed in the warrant; or as accessory or on suspicion of being accessory before "the fact to any petit treason or felony; or upon suspicion of such petit treason or "felony plainly expressed in the warrant; or unless he is convicted or charged in "execution by legal process), the Lord Chancellor or any of the judges in vacation, upon viewing a copy of the warrant, or affidavit that a copy is denied, shall (unless "the party has neglected for two terms to apply to any court for his enlargement) "award a habeas corpus for such prisoner, returnable immediately before himself or any other of the judges; and upon the return made shall discharge the party, if "bailable, upon giving security to appear and answer to the accusation in the proper "court of judicature. 2. That such writs shall be indorsed as granted in pursuance "of this act, and signed by the person awarding them. 3. That the writ shall be "returned, and the prisoner brought up within a limited time according to the distance, not exceeding in any case twenty days. 4. That officers and keepers "neglecting to make due returns, or not delivering to the prisoner or his agent "within six hours after demand a copy of the warrant of commitment, or shifting "the custody of the prisoner from one to another without sufficient reason or authority (specified in the act), shall for the first offence forfeit £100, and for the "second offence £200 to the party grieved, and be disabled to hold his office. "5. That no person once delivered by habeas corpus shall be re-committed for the "same offence, on penalty of £500. 6. That every person committed for treason or "felony, shall if he requires it, the first week of the next term, or the first day "of the next session of oyer and terminer, be indicted in that term or session, or else "admitted to bail, unless the queen's witnesses cannot be produced at that time; and "if acquitted, or not indicted and tried in the second term or session, he shall be "discharged from his imprisonment for such imputed offence; but that no person, "after the assizes shall be open for the county in which he is detained, shall be " removed by habeas corpus till after the assizes are ended, but shall be left to the "justice of the judges of assize. 7. That any such prisoner may move for and "obtain his habeas corpus as well out of the Chancery or Exchequer, as out of the "King's Bench or Common Pleas, and the Lord Chancellor or judges denying the same on sight of the warrant or oath that the same is refused, forfeits severally to |