CONSTITUTION. 
and the laws of Edward the Confessor, the lat- 
ter he altered and confirmed in Parliament; 
and his statutes even declared, that all free- 
men should hold their possessions without 
unjust exaction and tollage, they rendering 
only their free service due to the crown ; 
this was granted as a right by the common 
council of the kingdom, and has been justly 
called the first magna charta of the Normans, 
though equally conferred on the English. 
Notwithstanding this, the monarch often 
■assumed absolute power, and the constitu- 
tion became gradually aristocratical and op- 
pressive to the lower orders of freemen, nor 
were the nobles exempt from heavy exac- 
tions on their fiefs, and he even suppressed 
the most powerful baronies at pleasure. Self- 
preservation at length suggested opposition, 
and the barons were induced to grant the 
people some advantages to secure their co- 
operations ; as the latter soon began to feel 
their own importance, they ventured to make 
conditions for themselves, and insisted upon 
protection from the laws. Tn the reign of 
Henry I. the above causes produced their ef- 
fects in the resolution of the nation 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 corona- 
tion, which he did, restoring the Saxon laws 
under Edward the Confessor, with the 
emendations 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, and their profits, were determined by 
a moderate rule of law. Sir Henry Spel- 
man was of opinion that this charter served 
as the basis of magna charta; those are 
mistaken, therefore, who consider the pri- 
vileges obtained from King John as a set of 
innovations, as in fact they were mere res- 
titutions of rights, and just limitations of 
usurped power ; Lord Lyttelton even thought 
this charter more important than that forced 
from John. Henry II. granted a charter 
of liberties, and confirmed that of his grand- 
father. Through the above causes the 
constitution of England became the then 
best feudal system in the world. The same 
monarch established itinerant judges; and 
to his everlasting honour the trial by jury 
was extended to civil causes, which mode 
had been rarely used before the conquest. 
John having ascended the throne, ruled 
with the utmost despotism ; in consequence 
a powerful confederacy extorted from him 
the great charter, equally favourable to the 
clergy, the barons, and the people. This 
was confirmed by Henry III. who added 
certain articles to prevent injustice by 
sheriffs, and granted charter of forests. 
These still remain, witli little alteration, and 
are universally considered the safeguards of 
British liberty, and the basis of the consti- 
tution, justly defining the limits of power 
and of subjection. Edward I. declared 
void by his statute, called canfirniatio char- 
tarum, all decisions contrary to the tenor of 
the great charter, which was to be consider- 
ed as the common law, read twice annually 
to the people in every cathedral, and those 
were to be excommunicated who infringed 
it ; and in the statute de tallagio non conce~ 
dendo he decreed, that no tax or impost 
should be levied without the joint consent 
of Lords and Co.mmons. In the reign of 
Edward II. tlie Commons ventured to an- 
nex petitions to their bills granting subsi- 
dies ; and in that of Edward III. they de- 
clared, they would acknowledge no law to 
which they refused their assent : soon after 
they impeached and punished certain mini- 
sters of state, and refused the granting of 
subsidies till their petitions to Henry IV. 
had been answered. In the interval from 
Edward I. to Henry IV. the fundamental 
principles of the constitution were confirm- 
ed by thirty-two statutes, those were fol- 
lowed by the petition of right agreed to by 
Charles I., the habeas corpus act, and other 
useful laws, in the reign of Charles IL, and 
the bill of rights confirmed 1 William and 
Mary. The revolution of that period was 
the third grand , aera in the history of the 
constitution, from which auspicious time the 
nature and use of government has been 
justly appreciated, and the false doctrine of 
the divine right of Kings entirely exploded : 
four years afterward the liberty of the press 
was established, and in the 12th and 13th of 
William and Mary, the act of settlement, 
limiting the crown to the present royal 
family, took place, which also confinns our 
present invaluable birth rights, in the law, 
religion, and liberty. 
By the combination of three species of 
government, monarcliy, aristocracy, and 
democracy, in Kmg, Lords, and Commons, 
the best properties of each are brought into 
effect, at the same time each branch operates 
as a check upon the encroachments of 
either. The principal excellence of this 
venerable fabric is, that every citizen may 
become a senator, and when such he pos- 
sesses the right of proposing what laws he 
