Evening star., 1915-06-27

0NJf1F4 Day OF yfneQe was Cele-
| brated with more literary com
q ment than had been poured out
upon that momentous event in English
history and the worlds history for a
hundred years. But the Day of Run
nymede this year was the seven hun
dredth anniversary of Magma Charta-
| the great Charter which, at the bidding
and behest of the barons of feuda1
England, King John, more or less will
| ingly, or more or less unwillingly,
signed and sealed.
| The momentous and epoch ma king
instrument though written in Latin,
| has been of all human documents the
most quoted by the English-speakin
people and 1T has been an inspiration
to other races of men. There had
arisen among various classes of the
people of England. especially among
the upper and more powerful classes.
a disposition to limit the authority Of
the king. What was wanted was the
re-esta blishment of the laws of Ed
ward the Confessor based on the olden
customs of the SaXons-lawS that had
been overlaid by the Norman customs
and undone by the unrestrained power
of the successors of the Conqueror.
This charter included many clauses,
larations that the Church of England
was Free that the king should not levy
extraordinary taxation without the
consent of the taxed, and that the
barons should be tried by their own
peers. 1t secured a standard of
weights and measures, fixed regular
law courts. that there should be no
banishment or Imprisonment except by
judicial process, and no denial. sale or
delay of justice.
The clause of Magma Charta which
perhaps has made the strongest appeal
to mankind was that which set forth
that mo free man shall be taken or
imprisoned, or disseized of his free
mold, or liberty or free customs. or be
otherwise damaged, nor will we (the
k1ng) pass upon him nor send upon
him but by lawful judgment of his
peers, or by the law OF the land The
phra seology. according to the nearly
unanimously accepted translation, is
that: No free man shall be taken or
imprisoned, or dispossessed or outlaw
ed' or banlshed or in any way destroy
ed. nor Will we go upon him, nor send
upon MN, except by the legal judg-
the land
That Is the clause of Magma Charta
with which scholars and historical
critics have most concerned them
selves. The dispute as to the demo-
cratic intent. as democracy has been
interpreted for a century or two has
heen waged with vigor, acumen and
ability by great and authoritative men.
There are two sides to the question.
one group. and the larger group, of
scholars, maintains that the declara-
ton In Magma Charta concerning
free men,, was stride toward demo-
cratic aspirations and popular rights
A very respectable body of scholarship
holds that the democratic feature of
the charter has been too much empha-
sized, and according to DR.. Mckechnie
learned commentator on Magma Charta
1t was in the main "a mass of class
legislation extorted from the king by a
group of powerful aristocratic barons,
who We're class conscious and intent
mainly upon their own interests.
The dispute over the Interpretation of
Magma Charta hinges very largely on
the meaning of free men of Eng land
not on what those words mean in this
year of grace. but what they meant in
the year 1915.
Robert Livingston Schuyler of the
department of history in Columbia
University in a recent interview said:
"The theory that the charter Is a
democratic document must be pro-