CONSTITUTION. 



deduced, and the authorities to which 

 appeals must be made in all cases of 

 doubt. An act of parliament can be con- 

 sidered unconstitutional, only when it mi- 

 litates against other laws which regulate 

 the form of government. Those who con- 

 sider the British constitution as a plan 

 made by our ancestors at some distant 

 aeraare deceived ; the great Charta, and 

 the bill of Rights, were successful efforts 

 to restrain the abuses of regal power, 

 but they are partial modifications of the 

 constitution, which, like others in Europe, 

 originated from a variety of causes, and 

 may be compared to an old mansion, 

 repaired and altered at different periods, 

 according to the abilities and taste of 

 its possessors. Several approved histo- 

 rians conjecture, that the British con- 

 stitution may have had its origin from the 

 Anglo-Saxons ; those alledge that the go- 

 vernment of the northern nations, found- 

 ed on the ruins of that of Rome, was free, 

 and, though injured by succeeding prin- 

 ces, still retains a degree of legal admini- 

 stration, and an air of independence. Th 

 Saxons, who conquered Britain in the fifth 

 century allowed their chiefs a very limited 

 authority, and brought with them the same 

 spirit of liberty which had distinguished 

 their ancestors. The king therefore de- 

 pended solely on his ownabilities,and pos- 

 sessed no arbitrary power derivedfrom his 

 station ; the people, subject to little legal 

 restraint, and less polished, paid great re- 

 spect to the monarch and his family, yet 

 were more regardless of regular descent, 

 than present convenience, in filling the 

 vacant throne. As their sovereignty was 

 neither hereditary nor elective,the,wiil of 

 the king in the appointment of a succes- 

 sor was not always accepted, for the con- 

 currence of the.pe op le was required, not 

 only in this case, but in the usual mode of 

 government : the states might establish a 

 sovereign by suffrage, but they seldom ex- 

 ercised this privilege. The constitution 

 may have differed in the different king- 

 doms of the Heptarchy, and have chang- 

 ed between the invasion and the Norman 

 conquest, yet in all events they maintain- 

 ed a wittenagenot, or council, whose 

 consent was necessary for making of laws 

 and ratifying public acts ; the preambles 

 of all those from Ethelbert to Edward the 

 Confessor, and even those of Canute, 

 give undoubted proofs of the existence of 

 a limited regal government, which was 

 however very aristocratical, though the 

 ancient democracy may, under the pa- 

 tronage of some distinguished lord, have 

 given security and dignity to the gentry, 



and protection to the lower classes of 

 people. The courts of the decennary, the 

 hundred, and the county, were all calcu- 

 lated to defend general liberty, and re- 

 strain tne power of the nobles, and the 

 admission of all freeholders in the latter 

 court was a great check upon the aristo- 

 cracy. Some writers assert that the go- 

 vernment of the Anglo-Saxon princes had 

 little more affinity to the present constitu~ 

 tion than in the relations between the 

 king and nobility, common to those found- 

 ed by the northern nations, and place 

 the aera of its origin at the conquest, 

 when William of Normandy overturned 

 the ancient form of legislation, expell- 

 ed the landholders, and gave their lands 

 to his chiefs, whose government was ty- 

 rannical, different from the constitution, 

 and a mixture of the custom s of Normandy 

 and the laws of Edward the Confessor ; 

 the latter he altered and confirmed iu 

 Parliament; and his statutes even declar- 

 ed, that all freemen should hold their 

 possessions without unjust exaction and 

 tollage, they rendering only theirfree ser- 

 vice due to the crown ; this was granted 

 as a right by the common council of tiie 

 kingdom, and has been justly called the 

 first magna charta of the Normans, though 

 equally conferred onthe English. Notwith- 

 standing this, the monarch often assumed 

 absolute power, and the constitution be- 

 came gradually aristocratical and oppres- 

 sive to the lower orders of freemen ; nor 

 were the nobles exempt from heavy ex- 

 actions on their fiefs, and he even sup- 

 pressed the most powerful baronies at 

 pleasure. Self-preservation at length sug- 

 gested opposition, and the -barons were 

 induced to grant the people some advan- 

 tages, to secure their co-operations ; as 

 the latter soon began tofeeltheirown im- 

 portance, they ventured to make condi- 

 tions for themselves, and insisted upon 

 protection from the laws. In the reign 

 of Henry I. the above causes produced 

 their effects, in the resolution- of the na- 

 tion to give the crown to a prince, who 

 should hold it under a compact with 

 the people. Henry had sworn to grant 

 a charter after his coronation, which he 

 did, restoring the Saxon laws under Ed- 

 ward the Confessor, with the emenda- 

 tions made by his father and the advice of 

 parliament, annulling evil customs and 

 illegal sanctions; some of those were 

 recited in the charter, and expressly re- 

 pealed ; the King also mitigated his 

 feudal rights over his own tenants ; those 

 due from theirs, ana their profits, were 

 determined by a moderate rule of law. 





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