LIBERTY. 
♦lie Act of Settlement, statute 12 and 13 
William III. c. 2, whereby the crown was 
limited to his present Majesty’s illustrious 
house ; and some new provisions were add- 
ed at the same foitunate a;ra, for better 
securing our religion, laws, and liberties, 
which the statute declares to be “ the birth- 
right of the people of England according 
to the ancient doctrine of the common 
law. 
Thus much for the declaration of our 
rights and liberties. The rights themselves 
thus defined by these several statutes, con- 
sist in a number of private immunities, 
which will appear, from what has been pre- 
mised, to be indeed no other than, either 
that residuum of natural liberty, which is not 
required by the laws of /society to be sacri- 
ficed to public convenience ; or else those 
civil privileges which society hath engaged 
to provide in lieu of the natural liberties so 
given up by individuals. These, therefore, 
were formerly, either by inheritance or 
purchase, the rights of all mankind ; but in 
most other countries of the world, being 
now more or less debased or destroyed, 
they at- present may be said to remain, in a 
peculiar and emphatical manner, the rights 
of the people of England. 
These rights may be reduced to three 
principal or primary articles : 
The right of personal security. 'Ihe right 
of personal liberty. The right of private 
property. 
The right of personal security consists in 
a person’s legal and uninterrupted enjoy- 
ment of his life, his limbs, his body, his 
health, and his reputation. The enjoyment 
of this right is secured to every subject by 
the various laws made for the punishment of 
those injuries, by which it is any way vio- 
lated ; for a particular detail of which, see 
Assault,' Homicide, Maihem, Libel, 
Nuisance, &c. 
The words of the Great Charter, c. 29, 
are, “ Nulius liber homo capiatur, impriso- 
netur, vel aliquo modo destruatur, nisi per 
legale judicium parium suormn aut per le- 
gem terrae.” No freeman shall be taken, im- 
prisoned, or any way destroyed, unless by the 
lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law 
of the land ; which words, “ aliquo modo 
destruatur,” according to Coke, include a 
prohibition, not only of killing or maiming, 
but also of torturing, (to which our laws are 
strangers), and of every oppression by co- 
lour of an illegal authority. And it is enacted 
by stat. 5 Edward HI. c. 9, that no man 
shall be attaciied by any accusation, nor 
forejudged of life or limb, nor shall his lands 
or goods be seized into the King’s hands 
contrary to the Great Charter, and the law 
of the land. And again, by statute 28 
Edward III. c. 3, that no man shall be put 
to death without being brought to answer 
by due process of law. 
The right of personal liberty consists in 
the power of loco-motion, of changing si- 
tuation, or moving one’s person to whatso- 
ever place one’s own inclination may direct, 
wdthout imprisonment or restraint, unless 
by due course of law. This right there is at 
present no occasion to enlarge upon. For the 
provisions made by the laws of England to 
secure it. See Habeas corpus, False im- 
prisonment, Bail, Arrest, &c. 
The absolute right of property, inherent 
in every Englishman, consists in the free 
use, enjoyment, and disposal of all his ac- 
quisitions, without any controul or dimi- 
nution, save only by the law's of the land. 
Another eliect of this right of private 
property is, that no subject of England can 
be constrained to pay any aids or taxes, 
even for the defence of the realm, or the 
support of the government, but such as are 
imposed by his own consent, or that of his 
representatives in parliament. By statute 
25 Edward I. c. 5, 6, it is provided, that the 
King shall not take any aids or tasks, but 
by the common assent of the realm. And 
what that common assent is, is more fully 
explained by statute 34 Edward I. statute 
4, c. 1 ; w'hich enacts, that no talliage or 
aid shall be taken, without the assent of 
the Archbishops, Bishops, Earls, Barons, 
Knights, Burgesses, and other freemen of 
the land : and again, by statute 14 Edw. HI. 
statute 2. c. 1. the Prelates, Earls, Barons, 
and Commons, Citizens, Burgesses, and 
Merchants, shall not be charged to make 
any aid, if it be not by the common assent 
of the great men and commons in parlia- 
ment. And as this fundamental law had 
been shamefully evaded, under many pre- 
ceding princes, by compulsive loans and 
benevolences, extorted without a real and 
voluntary consent, it w'as made an article in 
the petition of rights, 3 Charles I. that no 
man shall be compelled to yield any gift, 
loan, or benevolence, tax, or such like 
charge, without common consent by act of 
parliament. And, lastly, by the Bill of 
Rights, statute l William and Mary, statute 
2, c. 2, it is declared, that levying money 
for or to the use of the crown, by pretence 
of prerogative, without grant of parlia- 
ment, or for longer time, or in other man- 
