420 
[Dec. 1, 
Packing of Special Juries, 
of further inducement, he had lent, for 
a year, three thousand marks to the 
Countess of Flanders. 
Lastly, upon the same day also, he 
had signed his definitive treaty of alii- 
ance, offensive and defensive, with the 
Comte de Boulogne. 
It appeals also by different acts, that, 
about the same time, he was assured 
of tlie Duke de Lembourg, de Vaieran, 
son of that duke, the Counts de Bar, 
father and son, the Duke of Louvain, 
and many other lords. Lastly, March 
529, 1213, he had received the homage, 
and engagement of service of the Count 
de Kollande. 
The Certa'mty of his Reconciliation uith 
the Pope facilitated the meanSy not 
only of resisting the Attacks which 
Prance was preparing against hiniy hut 
cf transferring the War himself into the 
Bosom of that Kmgdorn, 
On the 25th of May he wrote to the 
Earl of Flanders, pressing him to send 
more powerful succours than those which 
liad already arrived; and the 26th of 
June following, he renewed the same as¬ 
surance. In fact, four days before, he 
bad ordered the Master of the Temple to 
remit to the ambassadors, whom he had 
sent to the earl, a sum of money, which 
the master had under his care, and 
which was reserved for the use of the 
ear). 
At the same time the English king 
urged the king of Arragon to put in ex¬ 
ecution the projects for a campaign, 
which had been previously concerted 
with him. 
The Pope, at the epoch, when he 
named Robert de Courcon legate of 
France, that is, towards the end of April, 
1213, certainly was not ignorant of all 
tiiese intentions and projects. It was 
not then, without truth, nor assuredly 
v^ithout reason, that, in the letter in which 
he recommended Robert to Philip 
August, he mentioned the impending 
peril which menaced France. But, was 
be equally sincere, or did he only use a 
lanciuage suitable to him, or a matter of 
course, when he added, in the same 
letter, that the interests of France -vvere 
dearer to him than those of llie Eccle¬ 
siastic See ? In fact, it the interests of 
that so valued kingdom were tlien in 
damper, who other than he was the 
occasion of U. Had he not himself the 
year before engaged, even commanded, 
Philip, under penalty of excoramuni- 
cauoiij to kvy war against John? Had 
1 
be not, under his pretended apostolical 
authority, transferred to Philip ail the 
rights of a prince, then the object of ec¬ 
clesiastical persecution? Had not he 
assured him of the assistance of all those 
whom the exhortations of the Floly See 
could rouse against an excommunicated 
and deoosed king? Was it not then a 
i O 
kind of duplicity, by which he ordered 
Pandolph and Durand, that, as soon as 
the rebel king submitted to the laws of 
the Vatican, all'his enemies should be 
ordered to disarm, principally Philip, and 
respect John. 
We are led to think, that even the 
personal choice of the legate, born a 
subject of the king of England, was, on 
the side of the pontiff, a consequence of 
his habitual partiality to England against 
France. In fact, Robert did not cease 
tamanage his business in such a manner, 
as to favour in every thing the affairs of 
the king of England, and thwart the 
views which could aggrandize the po^ver 
of Philip. 
(Here.ends the account of M. de la 
Porte du Theil, who lias certainly elu¬ 
cidated an important fact in English 
history, not before clearly understood. 
He might have added, that the crafty 
Pope, by duping both tlie kings, though 
ill a bare-faced manner, succeeded in 
subjugating them both to the ecclesias¬ 
tical yoke, Philip, however, does not 
seem to have been aware that the Pope, 
seeing the consequences of his successful 
excommunications of Otho and John, 
treated the French king in a manuer 
which he had no power to prevent or 
resent.) 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine, 
.SIR, 
HE trial by jury has so long been 
considered as the bulwark of En¬ 
glish Liberty, that every thing connected 
with it, even in-the remotest degree, 
must be interesting. In the present 
times, when the extreme jealousy of the 
government has so anxiously . circum¬ 
scribed the freedom of the pressy this pre¬ 
dilection must of course be augmented 
ten-fold; these being the tw’o corner 
stones of the English temple, dedicated 
to that deity. 'I'o this circuinstance is 
to be attributed the interest, almost to 
enthusiasm, with which a late treatise 
on “ I’lie Powers and Duties of Juries,'^ 
has been received in every part of the 
United Kingdom. It is a work of great 
merit, and of extensive utility; but, like 
all other works, founded on detaclied 
facts, 
