4. C. 17 forbids sheriffs and coroners to hold pleas of the crown. Pleas of the crown are criminal cases which it is desirable should not be tried by an inferior and perhaps igno rant magistrate. C. 18 provides that if any one holding a lay fee from crown die, the king's bailiff, on showing letters patent of summons for debt from the king, may attach all his goods and chattels, so that nothing be moved away till the debt to crown be paid off clearly, the residue to go to executors to perform the testament of the dead; and if there be no debt owing to crown, all the chattels of the deceased to go to executors, reserving, however, to the wife and children their reasonable parts. Debts to the govern ment have precedence in United States as well as in England. A man can now in Eng land will away his whole personal property from wife and children, but not in some of the United States. See Gen. Stat. Mass. 1560. C. 19 relates to purveyance of king's house ; c. 20, to the castle-guard ; c. 21, to taking horses, carts, and wood for use of royal castles. The three last chapters are now obsolete. C. 22 provides that the lands of felons shall go to king for a year and a day, afterwards to the lord of the fee. So in France. The day is added to prevent dis pute as to whether the year is exclusive or inclusive of its last day. C. 23 provides that the wears shall be pulled down in the Thames and Medway, and throughout England, ex cept on the sea-coast. These wears destroyed fish, and interrupted the floating of wood and the like down stream. C. 24 relates to the writ of prcecipe in capite for lords against their tenants offering wrong, etc. , Now abo lished. C. 25 provides a uniform measure. See 5 & 6 Will. IV. c. 63. C. 26 relates to inquisitions of life and member, which are to be granted freely. Now abolished. C. 27 relates to knight-service and other ancient tenures, now abolished.
5. C. 28 relates to accusations, which must be under oath. C. 29 provides that " no free man shall be taken, ot imprisoned, or dis seised from his freehold, or liberties, or im munities, nor outlawed, nor exiled, nor in any manner destroyed, nor will we come upon him or send against him, except by ,pgal judgment of his peers or the law of the land. We will sell or deny justice to none, nor put off right or justice." This clause is very
much celebrated, as confirming the right to trial by jury. By common law, the twelve jurors must be unanimous. Lord Campbell, in England, recently introduced a bill chang ing this and, in certain cases, allowing the majority to decide. C. 30 relates to merchant strangers, who are to be civilly treated, and, unless previously prohibited, are to have free passage through, and exit from, and dwelling in, England, without any manner of extortions, except in time of war. If they are of a country at war with England, and found in England at the beginning of the war, they are to be kept safely until it is found out how English merchants are treated in their country, and then are to be treated accordingly. C. 31 relates to escheats ; c. 32, to the power of alienation in a freeman, which is limited. C. 33 relates to patrons of abbeys, etc. C. 34 provides that no appeal shall be brought by a woman except for death of her husband. This whs because the de fendant could not defend himself against a woman in single combat. The crime of mur der or homicide is now inquired into by in dictment. C. 35 relates to rights of holding county courts, etc. Obsolete. C. 36 pro vides that a gift of lands in mortmain shall be void, and lands so given go to lord of fee.
C. 37 relates to escuage and subsidy. C. 38 confirins every article of the charter.
Magna Charta is said by some to have been so called because larger than the Charta de Foresta, which was given about the same time. Spelman, Gloss. But see Cowel. Magna Charta is mentioned casually bi Bracton, Fleta, and Britton. Glanville is supposed to have written before Magna Charta. The Mirror of Justices, c. 315 et seq., has a chapter on its defects. See Coke, 2d Inst.; Barrington, Stat.; 4 Sharswood, Blackst. Comm. Q3. See a copy of Magna Charta in I Laws of South Carolina, edited by Judge Cooper, p. 78. In the Penny Maga zine for the year 1833, p. 229, there is a copy of the original seal of King John affixed to this instrument ; a specimen of a fac-simile of the writing of Magna Charta, beginning at the passage, IsTullus liber horn° eapietw vel imprisonetur, etc. A copy of both may be found in the Magasin Pittoresque for the year 1834, pp. 52, 53. See 8 Encyc. Brit. 722 ; 6 id. 332 ; Wharton, Lex. 2d Lond. ed.