SSO L A W. 
Norman trial by battle. 4. To this time mud alfo be re¬ 
ferred the introduction of efcuage, or pecuniary commu¬ 
tation for perfonal military fervice; which in procefs of 
time was the parent of the ancient fnbfidies granted to 
the crown by parliament, and the land-tax of later times. 
Richard I. a brave and magnanimous prince, was a 
fportfman as well as a foldier; and therefore enforced the 
foreft-laws with fome rigour, which occafioned many dif- 
contents among his people, though (according to Matthew 
Paris) he repealed the penalties of caftration, lofs of eyes, 
cutting off the hands and feet, before inflidted on fuch as 
tranfgreffed in hunting; probably finding that their feve- 
rity prevented proi'ecutions. He alfo, when abroad, com- 
pofed a body ot naval laws at the ille of Oleron; which 
are frill extant, and of high authority; for in his time we 
began again to difeover, that (as an ifland) we were na¬ 
turally a maritime power. But, u'ith regard to civil pro¬ 
ceedings, we find nothing very remarkable in this reign, 
except a few regulations regarding the Jews, and the juf- 
tices in eyre; the king’s thoughts being chiefly taken up 
by the knight-errantry of a croifade again!! the Saracens 
in the holy land. 
In king John’s time, and that of his fon Henry III. 
the rigours of the feodal tenures and the foreft-laws were fo 
warmly kepi up, that they occafioned many infurrefitionsof 
the barons, or principal feudatories ; which at laft had this 
effect, that firft king John, and afterwards his fon, con- 
lented to the two famous charters of Engiifti liberties, 
Magna Charta and Charta de Forefta. Of thefe, the latter 
was well calculated to redrefs many grievances, and en¬ 
croachments of the crown, in the exertion of foreft-law ; 
and the former confirmed many liberties of the church, 
and redreffed many grievances incident to feodal tenures, 
of no fmall moment at the time ; though now, unlefs con- 
fidered attentively and with this retrolpecf, they feem but 
of trifling concern. But, befides thefe feodal provilions, 
care was alfo taken therein to proteft the fubjedl againft 
other oppreflions, then frequently arifing from unreafon- 
able amercements, from illegal diftreffes or other procefs 
for debts or fervices due to the crown, and from the ty¬ 
rannical abufe of the prerogative of purveyance and pre¬ 
emption. It fixed the forfeiture of lands for felony in 
the fame manner as it ftill remains; prohibited for the fu¬ 
ture the grants of exclulive fifheries; and the erection of 
new bridges fo as to opprefs the neighbourhood. With 
refpe£f to private rights, it eftablifhed the teltamentary 
power of the fubjeit over part of his perfonal eftate, the 
reft being diftributed among his wife and children ; it 
laid down the law of dower, as it hath continued ever 
fmee; and prohibited the appeals of women, unlefs for 
the death of their hufbands. In matters of public police 
and national concern, it enjoined an uniformity of weights 
and rneafures, gave new encouragements to commerce, by 
the proteilion of merchant-ftrangers, and forbad the ali¬ 
enation of lands in mortmain. With regard to the ad- 
miniftration of juftice, befides prohibiting all denials or 
delays of it, it fixed the court of Common Pleas at Weft- 
minlter, that the fuitors might no longer be haraffed with 
following the king’s perfon in all his progrefles ; and at 
the fame time brought the trial of iffues home to the very 
doors of the freeholders, by directing aflifes to be taken 
in the proper counties, and eftablifliing annual circuits ; 
it alfo corrected fome abufes then incident to the trials by 
■wager of law and of battle ; directed the regular award¬ 
ing of inqueft for life or member; prohibited the king’s 
inferior minifters from holding pleas of the crown, or try¬ 
ing any criminal charge, whereby many forfeitures might 
otherwife have unjuftly accrued to the exchequer; and, 
regulated the time and place of holding the inferior tri¬ 
bunals of juftice, the county-court, (heriff’s tourn, and 
court-leet. It confirmed and eftabliftied the liberties of 
the city of London, and all other cities, boroughs, towns, 
and ports, of the kingdom. And, laftly, (which alone 
would have merited the title that it bears, of the Great 
Charter,) it protected every individual of the nation in 
the free enjoyment of his life, his liberty, and his pro¬ 
perty, unlefs declared to be forfeited by the judgment of 
his peers or the law of the land. 
The following is the celebrated chapter of Magna 
Charta, the foundation of the liberty of Englilhmen : 
Nullus liber homo capiatur, vel vnprifonetur, aut dijfeifiatur de 
libero tenemento fuo, vel libertatibus, vel liberis confueludinibi/s 
fuis ; aut utlagetur, aut exulet, aut aliquo modo dejlruatur ; nec 
Jvper acm ibimus, nec fuper turn, mittemus , nifi per legale judi¬ 
cium parium fuorum, vel per legem terra. Nulli vendemus, nulli 
negabimus aut differemns, redlum vel jujlitiam. “ No freeman 
(hall be taken, or itnprifoned, or diifeized of his freehold, 
or liberties, or free cuftoms; or outlawed, or banilhed, or 
any ways deftroyed ; nor will we pafs upon him, or com¬ 
mit him to prifon, unlefs by the legal judgment of his 
peers, or the law of the land. We will fell to no man, 
we will deny to no man, nor defer, right or juftice.” 
However, by means of the ftruggles in the reign of 
king John, the pope gained a greater afeendant here than 
he ever had before enjoyed ; which continued through the 
long reign of his fon Henry III. in the beginning of 
whofe time the old Saxon trial by ordeal was alio totally 
abolifhed. And we may by this time perceive, in Brac- 
ton’s treatife, a ftill farther improvement in the method 
and regularity of the common law, efpecially in the point 
of pleadings. Nor muft it be forgotten, that the firit 
traces which remain, of the feparation of the greater ba¬ 
rons from the lefs, in the conftitution of parliament, are 
found in the Great Charter of king John, though omitted 
in that of Henry III. and that, towards the end of the 
latter of thefe reigns, we find the firft record of any writ 
forfummoning knights, citizens, and burgeffes, to parlia¬ 
ment. And here we conclude the fecond period of our 
Engiifti legal hiftory. 
III. The third commences with the reign of Edward I. 
who hath juftly been ftyled our Engiifti Juftinian. For in 
his time the law did receive fo fudden a perfeftion, that 
fir Matthew Hale does not fcruple to affirm, “ that more 
was done in the firft thirteen years of his reign to fettle 
and eftablifti the diftributive juftice of the kingdom, than 
in all the ages fince that time put together.” 
It would be endlefs to enumerate all the particulars of 
thefe regulations ; but the principal may be reduced un¬ 
der the following general heads. 1. He eftabliftied, con¬ 
firmed, and fettled, the Great Charter and Charter of Fo- 
refts. s. He gave a mortal wound to the encroachments 
of the pope and his clergy, by limiting and eftablifliing 
the bounds of ecclefiaftical jurifdidtion ; and by obliging 
the ordinary, to whom all the goods of inteftates at that 
time belonged, to difeharge the debts of the deceafed. 3. 
He defined the limits of the feveral temporal courts of the 
highelt jurifdiiffion, thofe of the King’s Bench, Common 
Pleas, and Exchequer; fo as they might not interfere 
with each other’s proper bufinefs; to do which they muft 
now have recourfe to a fiction, very neceffary and benefi¬ 
cial in the prefent. enlarged ftate of property. 4. He fet¬ 
tled the boundaries of the inferior courts in counties, 
hundreds, and manors, confining them to caufes of no 
great amount, according to their primitive inftitutions ; 
though of confiderably greater than, by the alteration of 
the value of money, they are now permitted to determine. 
5. He fecured the property of the fubjeft by aboliffiing 
all arbitrary taxes and talliages, levied without confentof 
the national council. 6. He guarded the common juftice 
of the kingdom from abufes, by giving up the royal pre¬ 
rogative of fending mandates to interfere in private 
caufes. 7. He fettled the form, foleninities, and effeft, 
of fines levied in the court of Common Pleas; though 
the thing itfelf was of Saxon original. 8. He firft elta- 
bliftied a repofitory for the public records of the kingdom, 
few of which are ancienter than the reign of his father j 
and thofe were by him collected. 9. He improved upon 
the laws of king Alfred, by that great and orderly me¬ 
thod of watch and ward, for prelerving the public peace 
and preventing robberies, eftabliftied by the ftatute of 
Winchefter. 
