The Labor enquirer., 1884-02-02
uals. was the work Of the ablsst lawyers

Now, history tells us that the barons
| framed and enforced that law, but II will
not here discuss the question of its pa
terniry. One thing do deny, that it
was an expression of the rights and
privileges of individuals. I admit it
was an expression of the individual
barons who compelled the king to sign it.
1t must be remembered, however, that
the then existing sovereign to approve
the charter, were not representative OF
the English people and that they were
known in those days as the Confederate
barons." The king, prior to the signing
| of the magma chartra, had granted q
charter by which the extraordinary and
summary disposal of England and Ire
land to God, to st. Peter and st. Paul,
and Pope Innocent and his successors in
the apostolic chair forever, alleging that
| it was by the full sanction Of the barons,
which was true enough as far as his OWE
baronnial partisans were concerned, but
was not sanctioned by the confederate
barons who afterwards rose in arms
against him.
Alfred Walton, an Englishman, in his
Land Tenures of Great Britain and Ire
land, says, at has been customary with
some people as we'll as certain class OF
interested writers and politicians to extol
this document to the highest degree, and
certainly no class in the community has
greater reason to praise it than those
who boast of being the descendants of
the barons who framed and enforced it.
They, above all others, have profted
most by its provisions. 1t was simply
the charter of the great barons and
knights, upon whom it was intended to
confer special privileges, particularly in
reference to tenure and occupancy OF the
land, as well as the mode of levying
taxes and tallages, aids and scuttages."
The second section of the charter pro-
vides that, eff any of our earls or barons
or others who hold of US in chief by
military service, shall die, and at the
time of his death his heir shall be of
fullia and owes relief, he shall have
his inheritance by ancient relief that
lis to say, the heir or heirs of an earl for
a whole earl's barony by a hundred
pounds, the heir or heirs of a baron by
hundred marks, the heir or heirs OF a
knight for a whole knights fee, by a
hundred shillIngs at most"
1t will be remembered that land was
held in those days by diferents sorts of
tenure and that it was not until the
reign of Henry VIII. that real owner
ship was effected or the succession OF
property made legal by act of parliament.
The barons, however, by the passage or
approval of the magma charta got in the
thin end of the wedge, which was driven
home after passing the Act 80, Henry
VIII. True, the charter took from the
king the prerogatiye and placed the
power in the common council of the
kingdom, namely The arehbishops,
bishops and abbots, earls and great
barons of the fealm," who then COM
posed the common council of the
kingdom. ' ...-
By section Il, it was provided that no
taxes shall be imposed unless by the
common council, except taxes for ran
soming his (the kings person, making
his eldest son knight, for marrying his
eldest daughter, and for these there
should be reasonable sum. By Sec
ton Is the barons invested in them
selves the same power to impose rent
charges or scuttages on the farmers, or
occupiers of the land within their re-
spectiye baronies, as the feudal sover'
eigns exercised towards the tenants Of
the crown, and we may behold the end
and final result of that baronnial inoVa.
ton in the rack-rentism of the present
lday. Section 33 3of the baronnial charter
was turned to good account by the
barons and their descendants, by the
usurpation of all the rivers and fisheries,
(which became co-extensiye with the
absorption and usurpation of the, land
the bowels of the earth and all the min.
eral wealth therein.
From section As to the end of magma
/ charta every clause tends to consolidate
the power and extend the privileges Of
the barons. By its provisions they OBJ
tanned a frmer hold upon the land and
although their possession was still OF
beneficiary tenure, the primary object O
| its final absorption was steadily ano
stealthily pursued by their descendant
until the passing of the statute of Henry
VIII, by which 1t was for the first time
made lawful in England to bequeath Of
inherit land by will or testamentary
writings, and the laws of entail wer'
the crowning climax to its complete
usurpation. By sections 81 and 81 th'
great barons declared that the king
should no longer be entrusted with thu
administration of affairs, but that "fo1
the honor of God and the amendmen
of our kingdom" they provide that @fv'
and twenty baronnial chiefs, of thei
own choosing, were to take care with al
their might to see the provisions of tn
, charter fully enforced"