XX.

Concerns castle ward, where a knight

be diftrained for money for keeping his caf

Forbids sheriffs, bailiffs, &c. to take the or carts of any perfon, to make carriage, w paying for it.

XXII.

The king is to have lands of felons a yea a day, and afterwards the lord of the fee.

XXIII.

Requires wears to be put down on rivers.
XXIV.

Directs the writ Præcipe in Capite, for against tenants offering wrong, &c.

XXV.

Declares that there fhall be but one me

throughout the land.

XXVI.

Inquifition of life and member to be gra

freely.

XXVII.

Relates to knights' fervice, petit ferjear

and other ancient tenures.

XXVIII. Di

XXVIII.

Directs that no man fhall be put to his law on the bare fuggeftion of another, but by lawful wit neffes.

XXIX.

No freeman fhall be taken, or imprisoned, or difJeifed of his freehold, or liberties, or free customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or any way otherwife deftroyed; nor we shall not pass upon him, but by the lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the tand; we will fell to no man, we will not deny or defer any's either juftice or right.

to

XXX.

Requires that merchant ftrangers be civilly treated, &c.

XXXI.

Relates to the tenures coming to the king by

efcheat.

XXXII.

No freeman fhall fell land, but fo that the

Patrons of abbeys, &c. fhall have the cuftody of

them in time of vacation.

A woman to have an appeal for the death

husband.

XXXV.

Directs the keeping the county courts m and also the times of holding the sheriff' and view of frank pledge.

XXXVI.

Makes it it unlawful to give lands to rel houses in mortmain.

XXXVII.

Relates to efcuage and fubfidy to be tal

ufual.

XXXVIII.

Ratifies and confirms every article of this charter of liberties.

This facred charter is the substance of con law, contracted in fuch a manner as to be figne confirmed by a fovereign, and to be handed to posterity as a noble, record of English law juftice; it is declared in after ftatutes. "The

of the Great Charter ball live for ever;" the statute of Edward the Firft fays, "The Great "ter shall be taken as the common law of the la

and 44 ftatutes declare, "That any thing con "tained in them, or any other act that militates "against the Great Charter, fhall be bolden for nought." And it is the duty of the Judges to see that no act of Parliament which oppreffes the subject shall be fuffered to continue in force. Sir William Blackftone, in his Commentaries, after obferving the excellence of the first part of this charter, fays, "And lastly (which alone would have merited the "title which it bears of the Great Charter) it pro"tected every individual of the nation in the free « enjoyment of his life, his liberty, and his property, unlefs declared to be forfeited by the judgment of "his peers, or the law of the land."

It is this grand and important part of the charter, contained in the 29th chapter, which every honeft man ought to labor to establish beyond the power of any person to set aside, « the

free enjoyment of life, liberty, and property." Liberty fweetens life, and protects property; it is the birthright of all mankind, and only want of virtue in the prefent day prevents all the fubjects of the English nation from enjoying it it is given by God, established by law, and confirmed

by reason yet, in defiance of all law, facre human, men are imprisoned, and put to mous expences, under the fpecious preten being held to bail for debt. A man is not 1 prifon because he owes another money, but be he cannot find bail; for whether the man ow money or not, is not the business of the offic iffues the warrant, the officer who arrefts th fendant, or the plaintiff's attorney who appli the writ: and as for the judges of the dif courts, they know nothing of the business, the defendant can afford, at a fcandalous exp to bring the plaintiff to trial; fo that this national evil goes on in this manner.-The takes the defendant to a lock-up house o own, fleeces him of all he can, and then him to Newgate, without a fhilling to help felf. In that horrid dungeon a man may out his life, without a bed to lie on, and the allowance one pennyworth of bread a day. defendant is never brought before a court of tice, a judge, or magiftrate, to be asked owes the money; all his crime is, that he ca find bail; that is, he cannot procure two refj

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