The Labor enquirer., 1884-02-02
mYyrnR1ous Law.
[concluded rom First Page

himself to the Isle OF Wight, where ne,
meditated vengeance against the con-
federate barons who compelled him to
sign the charter; and how he sent em-
issaries abroad to enlist soldiers into his
service, promising them the confiscated
estates of the barons, who rose In arms
against him; and how he sent a mes
senger to Rome to lay before Pope limo
cent copy of magma charta and to COM
plain Of the violence which had been
done him, and that the pope issued a
bull to completely annul and abrogate
the charter. He prohibited the barons
from exercising the observance of it and
prevented the king from paving any re-
gard to it, and pronounced general
sentence of accommodation against
every one who should 4preseyere in
maintaining such reasonable and in
iquitous pretensions."
/ need not 60 into details of how
john had assembled an army of 10000
foreign mercenaries and landed with the
bull at Dover and proceeded to lay the
country waste as far Eorth as the Tweed.
History tells us he reduced the castles,
and confscated the estates of the con-
federate barons, and they We're obliged
to fly in all directions. 1t is recorded
that John had twentY-eight hanged in
one day before he sat down to breakfast.
Musgrave, page 3s9, says: Various
historians describe him as having dis
tributed among the Poitevins, GUM
neses and other foreigners all the offices,
fiefs or baronies at his disposal, and
under yarious pretexts deprived several
of the rich barons of their estates in
favor of the new comers." Z
Many of the confederate barons de-
serted into the camp of King John and
received as reward for their treachery
share of the confscated estates and
plunder in common with this foreign
banditd. I am depressing somewhat,
but it is for the purpose of showing that
the charter was not observed during the
reign Of King John. Indeed the charter
was barely recognized until the reign OF
Henry Ill, who succeeded his father,
King John, and who was only ten years
of age when he was crowned at Glou-
cester. This youth was for a consider
able time in the leading strings of the
baronnial chiefs.
1t will he remembered there was no
parliament in those days; the great
barons were the self-constituted and
only government England had, and in
deed the first assemblage that had any
pretensions of being a parliament and
which met later on in the reign Of
Henry was, it may be said, self:consti-
tuted.
This parliament met at Westminster
in 1924, and Brady informs us they were
all barons and great tenants in Capite
not one commoner, as now reputed
among them.
This great magma charta, that shines
with such brilliancy in the eyes o.
Judge Markham, was to all intents and
purposes the charter of the barons, in
the interest of the barons, without any
regard for the interest or well-being Of
the industrial classes of England and
Ireland, and is like most of the laws Of
Great Britain, enacted centuries ago, in
the interest of the few and against the
toillng people of the kingdom. Had be
said that the charter recognized the
right of the barons to levy taxes upon
the people they had robbed and plum
dered of their inheritance; he woulC
then be doing truth and history justice
but he has outraged truth and misrep
resented history, when he says the
charter was the grandest monument
ever reared along the pathway of civil
ization IN all the tide of time.
During the reign of Henry II. a large
portion of the land was declared forest
land and was attached afterwards to the
kings demesne. Early in the reign O.
Henry III. the barons, with the earl O.
Pembroke, who was regent and protector
of the realm, got the youthful king tc
confirm the King John charter and also
to grant new charter called the "Fores
Charter, and by its provisions all land!
annexed to the forest lands as confs ca
tions from the reign of Henry IL, shoulC
be disaforested. Now, common sense
would lead one to believe that this lanC
would revert to the people, inasmucf
that when 1t was disafforested it became
by the letter of the forest charter, pub
lie property.
Now, Judge Markham would, have
no doubt, call this "a grand instrument
that recognized the rights of the people
Well, who were the people? l answer
the barons, and to them reverted thu
land disafforested, the claim of the per
sons who previously possessed it beinl
entirely disregarded and treated witt
contempt. This land was parceled ou
to the barons and court favorites and {
tax was laid on the principal towns anc
handed over to the king for his signing
and sealing. the forest charter,
Thus were the people not only robbed
of the land, but the industry of tht
country had to ransom the king for ap
proving such robbery. And these arr
Ma Mcrlarions lous thot haua stood thI