The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-07-13

In an editorial or Saturuay last,
"The Barons at Runnymede," you
speak critically Of the Presidents
likening, in his Mount Vernon address,
Washington and his associates to
those barons as having spoken and
acted mot for a class but for q peo-
ple." and you say:
This reference to Magma Charta,
the Great Charter granted by King
John to the barons Of England at
Runnymede In 1915. accords with the
prevailing idea among lawyers and
general historians that this famous
declaration of rights was designed to
benefit the English people rather than
the mobiles who exacted It from the
sovereign, and there Is no doubt that
it was subsequently treated as a
charter of popular liberty As a
matter OF fact, however, 1t was
directly and Immediately beneficial
only to the higher classes in the Eng
lish state as It then existed: the
barons, the clergy and the freepen.
10 afforded little protection to the
villeins. who constituted a majority Of
the population"
Then you quote the late James C.
Carter as though having commented
adversely upon the agreement Of most
modern English jurists that the Great
Charter was the first embodiment Of
genuine written law in the judicial
history Of Great Britain"
II Mr.. Carter meant so to be under
stood (Which, however. your quotation
from him does not make apparently,
he spoke incautiously, for there Is no
such agreement among most, or even
many, modern English jurists: the
agreement is that that immortal in
strument was the first clear written
definition and declaration of the con-
stitutional and civil rights of English
men as against their sovereign. As
Bishop Stubbs aptly says Il Const.
Hist. Of England, $40, I'd Ed: THE
Great Charter, although drawn up in
the form Of a royal grant, was really
treaty between the King and his
subjects; and with this Mr.. Carter
seems to have agreed.
AS respects the English law, the
law of the land, the Charter postulates
that; for, by what Stubs calls It's
famous and precious enunciations OF
principles the King bound himself to
60 upon, or send upon, no free man
"but by the lawful judgment of his
peers or by the law Of the land" And
Viscount tther Mr.) Bryce, in his ad-
dress to the American Bar Associa-
ton in Portland, Me-. in 1907. lucidly
showed how this provision drove King
and subject alike to searching out
this already existing law, and thereby
established that principle of appealing
to precedent so characteristic of the
administration of the English law, and
reliance upon which has evoked such
varying sentiments.
Regarding the genesis Of the Charter
/ this treaty between sovereign and sub
| jects, Buckle in his History of Civiliza-
| ton in England (Vol. II. Oh. H., PIP.
| 116-117. Longman's Edition of 1922.
| notes the contrast between the power
of the English crown and that Of the
| French crown over the nobility of the
| respective countries in that, in the
latter the power of the crown was 80
weak that the French mobiles were en-
abled ito exercise on their own es-
tates all the functions OF Independent
sovereigns," whereas in the former
that power was comparatively so
strong that 1.-The most powerful of
[Englishl mobiles became amenable to
the law, or at all events. to the au-
thority Of the king; adding.
"Out of this difference between the
/ aristocratic power of France and Eng
land there followed many consequences
of great Importance. In our country
[Englandl the MOBILES being too feeble
/