committed by occasion of the said discord, from Easter, in the sixteenth year of our reign, until the conclusion of the peace.-(49.) And, moreover, we have caused to be made to them testimonial letters-patent of the Lord Stephen, Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Henry, Archbishop of Dublin, and of the aforesaid Bishops, and of Master Pandulph concerning this security, and the aforesaid concessions.(LXIII.) Wherefore, our will is, and we firmly command that the Church of England be free, and that the men in our kingdom have and hold the aforesaid liberties, rights, and concessions, well and in peace, freely and quietly, fully and entirely, to them and their heirs, of us and our heirs, in all things and places, for ever as is aforesaid. It is also sworn, both on our part and on that of the Barons, that all the aforesaid shall be observed in good faith, and without any evil intention. Witnessed by the above and many others.-Given by our hand in the Meadow which is called Runningmead, between Windsor and Staines, this 15th day of June, in the 17th year of our reign.

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II.

THE PETITION OF RIGHT, 1628.

THE following is the text of the Petition of Right, made law by 3 Car. I., c.1, June 7th, 1628 :

The Petition exhibited to his Majesty by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, concerning divers Rights and Liberties of the Subjects, with the King's Majesty's royal answer thereunto in full Parliament.

To the King's Most Excellent Majesty, Humbly show unto our Sovereign Lord the King, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons in Parliament assembled, I That whereas it is declared and enacted by a statute made in time of the reign of King Edward L., commonly called Statutum de Tallagio non Concedendo, that no tallage or aid shall be laid or levied by the king or his heirs in this realm, without the good will and assent of the archbishops, bishops, earls, barons, knights, burgesses, and other the freemen of the commonalty of this realm; and by authority of parlia ment holden in the five-and-twentieth year of the reign of King Edward III., it is declared and enacted that from thenceforth no person should be compelled to make any loans to the king against his will, because such loans were against reason and the franchises of the land; and by other laws of this realm it is provided, that none should be charged by any charge or imposition called a benevolence, nor by such like charge; by which statutes before mentioned, and other the good laws and statutes of this realm, your subjects have inherited this freedom, that they should not be compelled to contribute to any tax, tallage, aid or other like charge not set by common consent, in parliament.

II. Yet nevertheless of late divers commissions directed to sundry commissioners in several counties, with instructions, have issued; by means whereof your people have been in divers places assembled, and required to lend certain sums of money unto your Majesty, and many of them, upon their refusal so to do, have had an oath administered unto them not warrantable by the laws or statutes of this realm, and have been constrained to become bound and make appearance and give utterance before your Privy Council and in other places, and others of them have been therefore imprisoned, confined, and sundry other ways molested and disquieted; and divers other charges have been laid and levied upon your people in several counties by lord lieutenants, deputy lieutenants, commissioners for musters, justices of peace and others, by command or direction from your Majesty or your Privy Council, against the laws and free customs of the realm.

III. And whereas also by the statute called "The Great Charter of the liberties

Here followed the names of the Barons and other signatories as before mentioned.

of England," it is declared and enacted, that no freeman may be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised of his freehold or liberties, or his free customs, or be outlawed or exiled, or in any manner destroyed, but by the lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land.

IV. And in the eight-and-twentieth year of the reign of King Edward III., it was declared and enacted by authority of parliament, that no man, of what estate or condition that he be, should be put out of his land or tenements, nor taken, nor imprisoned, nor disherited, nor put to death without being brought to answer by due process of law.

V. Nevertheless, against the tenor of the said statutes, and other the good laws and statutes of your realm to that end provided, divers of your subjects have of late been imprisoned without any cause showed; and when for their deliverance they were brought before your justices by your Majesty's writs of habeas corpus there to undergo and receive as the court should order, and their keepers commanded to certify the causes of their detainer, no cause was certified, but that they were detained by your Majesty's special command, signified by the lords of your Privy Council, and yet were returned back to several prisons, without being charged with anything to which they might make answer according to the law.

VI. And whereas of late great companies of soldiers and mariners have been dispersed into divers counties of the realm, and the inhabitants against their wills have been compelled to receive them into their houses, and there to suffer them to sojourn against the laws and customs of this realm, and to the great grievance and vexation of the people.

VII. And whereas also, by authority of parliament, in the five-and-twentieth year of the reign of King Edward III., it is declared and enacted, that no man shall be forejudged of life or limb against the form of the Great Charter and the law of the land; by the said Great Charter and other the laws and statutes of this your realm, no man ought to be adjudged to death but by the laws established in this your realm, either by the customs of the same realm, or by acts of parliament; and whereas, no offender of what kind soever is exempted from the proceedings to be used, and punishments to be inflicted by the laws and statutes of this your realm: nevertheless of late time divers commissions under your Majesty's great seal have issued forth, by which certain persons have been assigned and appointed commissioners with powers and authority to proceed within the land, according to the justice of martial law, against such soldiers or mariners, or other dissolute persons joining with them, as should commit any murder, robbery, felony, mutiny, or other outrage or misdemeanour whatsoever, and by such summary course and order as is agreeable to martial law, and as is used in armies in time of war, to proceed to the trial and condemnation of such offenders, and them to cause to be executed and put to death, according to the law martial.

VIII. By pretext whereof some of your Majesty's subjects have been by some of the said commissioners put to death, when and where, if by the laws and statutes of the land they had deserved death, by the same laws and statutes also they might, and by no other ought to have been judged and executed.

IX. And also sundry grievous offenders, by colour thereof claiming an exemption, have escaped the punishments due to them by the laws and statutes of this your realm, by reason that divers of your officers and ministers of justice have unjustly refused or forborne to proceed against such offenders according to the same laws and statutes, upon pretence that the said offenders were punishable only by martial law, and by authority of such commissions as aforesaid; which commissions, and all other of like nature, are wholly and directly contrary to the said laws and statutes of this your realm.

X. They do therefore humbly pray your most excellent Majesty, that no man hereafter be compelled to make or yield any gift, loan, benevolence, tax, or suchlike charge, without common consent by act of parliament; and that none be called to make answer, or take such oath, or to give attendance, or be confined, or otherwise molested or disquieted, concerning the same or for refusal thereof; and that no freeman, in any such manner as is before mentioned, be imprisoned or detained; and that your Majesty would be pleased to remove the said soldiers and mariners, and that your people may not be so burdened in time to come; and that the afore

said commissions, for proceeding by martial law, may be revoked and annulled; and that hereafter no commissions of like nature may issue forth to any person or persons whatsoever to be executed as aforesaid, lest by colour of them any of your Majesty's subjects be destroyed or put to death contrary to the laws and franchise of the land.

XI. All which they most humbly pray of your most excellent Majesty as their rights and liberties, according to the laws and statutes of this realm; and that your Majesty would also vouchsafe to declare, that the awards, doings, and proceedings, to the prejudice of your people in any of the premises, shall not be drawn hereafter into consequence or example; and that your Majesty would be also graciously pleased, for the further comfort and safety of your people, to declare your royal will and pleasure, that in the things aforesaid all your officers and ministers shall serve you according to the laws and statutes of this realm, as they render the honour of your Majesty, and the prosperity of this kingdom.

Qua quidem petitione lecta et plenius intellecta per dictum dominum regem taliter est responsum in pleno parliamento, viz., Soit droit fait come est desiré (Statutes of the Realm, v. 24, 25).

III.

HABEAS CORPUS ACT, 1679.

THE Habeas Corpus Act of 1679 (31 Car. II., c. 2) was intituled "An Act for the better securing the Liberty of the Subject, and for Prevention of Imprisonments beyond the Seas." It was restricted to the case of persons imprisoned before sentence for criminal or supposed criminal matters. This famous measure enacted

(1) That on complaint and request in writing by or on behalf of any person committed and charged with any crime (unless committed for treason or felony plainly expressed in the warrant; or as accessory or on suspicion of being accessory before the fact to any petit treason or felony; or upon suspicion of such petit treason plainly expressed in the warrant; or unless he is convicted or charged in execution by legal process) the Lord Chancellor or any of the judges in vacation, upon viewing a copy of the warrant, or affidavit that a copy is denied, shall (unless the party has neglected for two whole terms after his imprisonment to apply to any court for his enlargement) award a habeas corpus for such prisoner, returnable immediately before himself or any other of the judges. And upon service thereof the officer in whose custody the prisoner is shall bring him before the said Lord Chancellor or other judges, with the return of such writ and the true cause of the commitment; and thereupon, within two days after the party shall be brought before them, the said Lord Chancellor or other judge shall discharge the prisoner, if bailable, upon giving security, in any sum according to their discretion having regard to his quality and the nature of his offence, to appear and answer to the accusation in the proper course of judicature. (2) That such writs shall be endorsed as granted in pursuance of this Act, and signed by the person awarding the same. (3) That the writ shall be returned, and the prisoner brought up, within a limited time according to the distance, not exceeding in any case twenty days after service of the writ. (4) That officers and keepers neglecting or refusing to make due returns, or not delivering to the prisoner or his agent within six hours after demand a true copy of the warrant or commitment or shifting the custody of the prisoner from one to another, without sufficient reason or authority (specified in sec. 8 of the Act), shall for the first offence forfeit £100, and for the second

offence £200 to the party grieved and be disabled to hold his office. (5) That no person once delivered by habeas corpus shall be re-committed for the same offence, on penalty to the party of £500. (6) That every person committed for treason or felony, shall, if he requires it, the first week of the next term, or the first day of the next session of oyer and terminer, be indicted in that term, or session, or else admitted to bail, unless it appear, upon oath made, that the King's witnesses cannot be produced at that time; and if acquitted, or not indicted and tried in the second term or session, he shall be discharged from his imprisonment for such imputed offence; but that no person, after the assizes shall be open for the county in which he is detained, shall be removed from the common gaol by habeas corpus till after the assizes are ended, but shall be left to the justice of the Judges of assize. (7) That any such prisoner may move for and obtain his habeas corpus as well out of the Chancery or Exchequer as out of the King's Bench or Common Pleas; and the Lord Chancellor or Judges denying the same, on view of the copy of the warrant, or oath that such copy is refused, shall forfeit severally to the party grieved the sum of £500. (8) That this writ of habeas corpus shall run into the Counties Palatine, the Cinque Ports, and other privileged places, and the islands of Jersey and Guernsey. (9) That no inhabitant of England (except persons contracting, or convicts praying, to be transported, or having committed some capital offence in the place to which they are sent) shall be sent prisoner to Scotland, Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey, Tangier, or any places beyond the seas within or without the King's dominions, on pain that the party committing, his advisers, aiders, and assistants, shall forfeit to the party aggrieved a sum not less than £500, to be recovered with treble costs; shall be disabled to bear any office of trust or profit; shall incur the penalties of præmunire; and shall be incapable of receiving the King's pardon for any of the said forfeitures, losses, or disabilities.

There were three defects in this great and important statute: first, it fixed no limit on the amount of bail which might be demanded; secondly, it only applied to commitments on criminal or supposed criminal charges, all other cases of unjust imprisonment being left to the habeas corpus at common law as it subsisted before this enactment; and thirdly, it did not guard against falsehood in the return. The Bill of Rights (1689) remedied the first of these defects by declaring that excessive bail ought not to be required. The other defects were not remedied until the year 1816, when an act was passed "for more effectually securing the liberty of the subject." The statutable remedy was by this act of George III. extended to cases of imprisonment on non-criminal charges; and the judges were empowered to examine and determine the truth of the facts set forth in the return, and in all cases of doubt to bail the prisoner. Finally, in consequence of the decision of the Court of Queen's Bench in Anderson's case-where a writ of habeas corpus was issued into Upper Canada-the act of 25 and 26 Victoria, c. 20 (1862), was passed, which provides "That no writ of habeas corpus shall issue out of England, by authority of any judge or court of justice therein, into any colony or foreign dominion of the Crown where her Majesty has a lawfully established court or courts of justice having authority to grant and issue the said writ and to ensure the due execution thereof throughout such colony or dominion."

IV.

THE BILL OF RIGHTS, 1689.

THE following is the text of the Bill of Rights, passed Nov. 2nd, 1689, in the first year of the reign of William and Mary :—

Whereas the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, assembled at Westminster, lawfully, fully, and freely representing all the estates of the people of this realm, did, upon the thirteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred eighty eight, present unto their Majesties then called and known by the names and style of William and Mary, Prince and Princess of Orange, being present in their proper persons, a certain declaration in writing, made by the said Lords and Commons, in the words following; viz. :-Whereas the late King James II., by the assistance of diverse evil counsellors, judges, and ministers employed by him, did endeavour to subvert and extirpate the Protestant religion, and laws and the liberties of this kingdom :

I. By assuming and exercising a power of dispensing with and suspending of laws, and the execution of laws, without consent of Parliament.

II. By committing and prosecuting divers worthy prelates, for humbly petitioning to be excused from concurring to the same assumed power.

III. By issuing and causing to be executed a commission under the Great Seal for erecting a Court, called the Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes.

IV. By levying money for and to the use of the Crown by pretence of prerogative, for other time, and in other manner than the same was granted by Parliament. V. By raising and keeping a standing army within this kingdom in time of peace, without consent of Parliament, and quartering soldiers contrary to law. VI. By causing several good subjects being Protestants to be disarmed, at the same time when Papists were both armed and employed contrary to law.

VII. By violating the freedom of election of members to serve in Parliament. VIII. By prosecutions in the Court of King's Bench, for matters and causes cognizable only in Parliament; and by diverse other arbitrary and illegal courses. IX. And whereas of late years, partial, corrupt, unqualified persons have been returned and served on juries in trials, and particularly diverse jurors in trials for high treason, which were not freeholders.

X. And excessive bail hath been required of persons committed in criminal cases, to elude the benefit of the laws made for the liberty of the subjects.

XI. And excessive fines have been imposed; and illegal and cruel punishments inflicted.

XII. And several grants and promises made of fines and forfeitures, before any conviction or judgment against the persons upon whom the same were to be levied. All which are utterly and directly contrary to the known laws and statutes, and freedom of this realm.

And whereas the said late King James II. having abdicated the government, and the throne being thereby vacant, his Highness the Prince of Orange (whom it hath pleased Almighty God to make the glorious instrument of delivering this kingdom from popery and arbitrary power) did (by advice of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and diverse principal persons of the Commons) cause letters to be written to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, being Protestants, and other letters to the several counties, cities, universities, boroughs, and cinque ports for the choosing of such persons as represent them, as were of right to be sent to Parliament, to meet and sit at Westminster upon the two-and-twentieth day of January, in this year one thousand six hundred eighty and eight, in order to such an establishment, as that their religion, laws and liberties might not again be in danger of being subverted; upon which letters, elections have been accordingly made.

And thereupon the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, pursuant to VOL. II.

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