to meet them in January, 1300, to receive their report and to take action upon their survey. This Parliament met, and after due deliberation, and giving great care and thoroughness to the work of the commissioners, confirmed and approved their acts, and accepted the boundaries of the forests as laid out by them. King Edward then, on February 14, 1300, issued his last Confirmation Charter of the liberties and the laws of the forests.

This last act was the final one, and placed the Magna Charta of England in the firm position upon which it has rested ever since, the foundation for the constitution and laws of the kingdom.

From now on the government of the kingdom of England was no longer in doubt. It existed according to law, not power, and the laws that then sprang into existence brought forth many learned lawyers, who, through their learning and ability, and through the honesty and fidelity of the judges, caused the laws to be more than the mere customs they

formerly were—they made them the statutes of the realm by writing them out.

The long and bitter struggle, the trying and suffering times the people had endured on their part for nearly two hundred and fifty years, came to an end in this, the reign of Edward I.; and we see in it the final, formal, and lasting establishment of the Magna Charta in England.

If I have traced logically, as I feel sure I have correctly, the events and causes from William's time down to the final establishment of this Great Charter, and have set out in a clear and intelligent manner, chronologically, and in such way that that of which I have written can be clearly understood and appreciated by the lay reader, I have accom- * plished the work I set out to perform.

PART II.

The Great Charters, Forest Cbarters and Some Other Laws.

LAWS OF EDWARD THE CONFESSOR.

THE

'HE following collection of laws is given in Ingulph's Chronicle of the Abbey of Croyland beginning at page 176 (Bohn). Just what faith and credence, and what reliance to place upon them, is very hard to decide. There seems to be no doubt at all, in the minds of historians and antiquarians that the whole of the chronicle reputed to have been written by Ingulph was a forgery of the fourteenth century. The argument advanced by those persons who have closely studied into this matter, is so convincing, that to attempt to dispute it would be futile. The fact that the chronicle is spurious, must be accepted, however regretfully. But even with that fact before us, it would not be advisable to totally' cast aside the whole of the chronicle as useless and valueless, for there is much in it that is true and a help to the study of the trying times of

which it speaks. It was written near to the time which it purports to describe, and the facts therein contained may in some measure have been in the possession of the writer; at least it might have been so in the case of these laws, for as to them, there could have been little gain in forging. I have thought it proper, under all the circumstances, not to accept these laws as fact, and yet not to discard them altogether, but to place them before the reader, for what they may be worth. To some extent at least they may depict the conditions they attempt to perfect, at the time they were supposed to be written, and in operation. To omit them altogether from this work I think would be as great an error, as to rely implicitly upon them.

1. Of the right of asylum, and of ecclesiastical protection.

The protection of our Holy Church we have hereby granted. For any offence whatever, of which a person may have been guilty, if he takes refuge with the Holy Church, he shall have protection for life and limb. And if any one shall lay hands on him who has so sought the protection of Mother Church, if the same is a cathedral church, or an abbey, or a church of the religious

orders, let him restore him whom he has so taken, and pay one hundred shillings as a fine; if it is the mother church of a parish, twenty shillings; and if a chapel, ten shillings. Also, he who breaks the king's peace in the parts subject to the laws of the Mercians, shall pay a fine of one hundred shillings; and so in like manner as to compensation for homicide, and lying in wait of malice aforethought.

2. Of the King's protection.

These pleas pertain to the crown of the king. If any sheriff or any provost shall injure any men belonging to his jurisdiction, and shall be attained thereof by the king's justice, his penalty shall be double that which another would have had to pay.

3. Of the violation of the public peace.

He who, in places subject to the Danish laws, shall break the king's peace, shall pay a penalty of one hundred and forty-four pounds; and the king's fines, which belong to the sheriff, in places subject to the Mercian laws are forty shillings; and in places subject to the laws of Wessex, fifty shillings. And as to a free man who has right of Sach1

1 When any person accuses another of an offence and it is denied, on which the fine levied, if there is one, belongs to the lord.