The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-01-28

4 Out II ICSlG0 heaviest on the common
people. The villeins or serfs were in
| abject slavery and their only friend was
| the common law, which, with many
| benef1cient provisions slowly ameliora-
| ted their condition, and finally wrought
| their emancipation.
! We have. then, at this period of the
| evolution of Anglo-Saxon institutions,
| the powerful influence of Norman feu-
| dalism, highly centralized monarchy,
| looking hard towards absolute despot-
| ism; with vast wealth and untold pat
ronaSe in the crown; and the residue of
| power vested in a baronage largely Gre
| ated by the crown; but the people were
| servants or slaves, and did we'll to keep
| a whole skin, without meddling in af-
| fairs of state.
| Such vast powers has at times been wise
| lyused by a great king, butt is not trans
Missile. His descendants will abuse it
anu DScoLne IyranIS-
England escaped from bondage
through the weakness of her kings
| English liberties fattened on the foibIes
| Of the unworthy descendants of the
! COnqueror. While Richard of the Lion
! Heart was listing phantasma goria in
| the Holy Land, the shackles were fall
| ing from the great cOmmOnalty of Eng
| Iand, and the barOns were learning less
| obsequiouS subServience to the crown,
/ and more consideration for their de-
pendents who were their strength in
arms in conflict with the king
JOhn was a special diSpenSatiOn of
providence, ana the weakest and wick
eldest OF kings became the mightiest in
Strument for the upbuilding of English
constitutional liberty.
On a balmy day in the month of
June, 1891, pair of travellers on pleas
ure bent might have been seen board
ing London and Southwestern rail-
way train at Chaplain Junction and
al1ght1ng at the picturesque old town of
Sta1neS, about five miles from
Windsor Castle, and near the eastern
boundary of the Windsor Great Park.
Across the Thames to the northwest
ward and on the south side of the
river lies an open grassy meadow,
stretching some two miles along the
river. There is not on earth a more
peaceful bit of pastoral landscape, nor
one so big with the story of English
liberties.
This is the plain of Runnymede.
Here on one other day in June, six
centuries gone by, the barons of Eng
land extOrted from their baff1ed tyrant
the Great Charter of liberties, which
is now our common heritage.
The travellers look in vain for some
mementO, some lettered monument,
some cairn or stone to mark the birth
place and the shrine of English hber-
ties.
Across the Thames is AnkerwycKe,
where stands the hoary yew tree, now
more than 80 feet in girth, where fat
old Harry VIII. first danced upon the
green, then wooed and won fair Ann
Boleyn.
Midway in the islet where Johns de-
termined barons made their stand after
the final parley in the plain of Runny-
masters face to face, and where was
signed and sealed the greatest writing
since that which Moses fetched down
from Mount Sinai.
A building, said to have been built to
commemorate the great event, still
stands on Magma Charta island, and
the table on which the charter was
signed, is still preserved.
If we were politicians, instead of law
yers, should, per force, be intensely
American. and hold up all things Eng
lish to ridicule, and try to assist the
American eagle to unjOint the tail of
the British lion.
But on your undertaking not to be-
tray me at the hustings, and in this
intellectual privacy, and among men
who recognize that the fountains of our
Jurisprudence lie deep down in the
English common law, I may venture to
touch up the other side of the British
aristOcracy, and remind you that to the
barons of England, whose lineal de-
scendants now compose of the house of
peers, we are indebted for Magma Char
ia, and all the blessings of liberty that
have flowed from it from a mighty
river, swelling ever as it flows, glad
dening the hearts of men for six hun
bred years gone by. and bearing its
pledges for the future into all lands
where the English tongue is spoken. So, |
if as Mr.. Gladstone says, we have to-
day, "A sneaking kindness for a lord"
it is founded in gratitude for that which
the down trOdden commons could not
have achieved without the aid of the
powerful barons of England.
Magma Charta was not the first char !
ter of rights granted by English kings,
but it was the first, which, to use a
modern figure in constitutional con-
structiOn, was self-executOry.
William granted a charter in 1911, but |
it was empty promises with no power !
outside of the throne to enforce it.
Henry I. granted a charter and Steph- !
en- two of them, and Henry II. another, |
but, like that of the cOnquerOr, they |
had Of the elements of contra
there was no remedy for their viola |
ton.
Guizot in his history of representa-
tive government, LUMINOSITY observes: |
Liberties are nothing until they have |
become rights, formally recognized and !
cOnsecrated. Rights even when recog-
nized are nothing so long as they are |
not maintained by forces Independent /
of them, in the limit of their rights.
Convert liberties into rights, surround |
rights by guarantees, intrust the keep |
ing of these guarantees to forces capa- |
BILE of maintaining them, such are the |
successive steps in the progress towards |
a free government.
This progress was exactly realized in |
England. Liberties first converted |
themselves into rights; when rights |
were nearly recognized, guarantees were |
placed in the hands of regular powers.
In this way representative system OF |
government was formed
The charters of William and Henry I. |
and Stephen and Henry II were viO- |
laleQ WIN DuI the DaTOnS
formulated a plan whereby if the rights |
guaranteed by the create charter were |
violated, they might lawfully levy war
upon the king and seize his castles and |
lands until their grievances were re- |
dressed.
The charter provided that they should |
select 25 of their own number who were !
clothed with joint powers of a vigilance |
committee to determine when the /
abuses existed and umpires to decide |
when they were corrected.