C. 28 relates to accusations, which must be under oath, or not without faithful witnesses brought in for the same. C. 29 provides that "no freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned, or disseised from his free hold, or liberties, or immunities, nor outlawed, nor exiled, nor in any manner destroyed, nor will we come upon him or send against him, except by le gal 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 cele brated, as confirming the right to trial by jury. C. 30 relates to merchant-strangers, who are to be civilly treated, and, unlesq, previously prohibited, are to have free passage through, and exit from, and dwelling in, England, without any manner of eictortions, 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 the death of her husband. This was because the defendant could not defend himself against a woman in single combat. The crime of murder or homicide is now Inquired into by indict inent. C. 35 relates to rights of holding county courts, etc. Obsolete. C. 36 provides that a gift of lands in mortmain shall be void, and lands so given go to the lord of fee. C. 37 relates to escuage and subsidy. C. 38 confirms every article of the charter. In Magna Carta we get the first attempt at the expressions in exact legal terms of some of the leading ideas of constitutional government. ... The period in which the law is developed by the power of the crown alone is over ; the period which will end in the establishment of a body which will limit thb power of the crown and share in the making of laws is begun. ... Meantime the common law is safe. The king himself is restrained, but the law remains.
2 Holdsw. Hist. E. L. 168.
The object of this statute was to declare and re affirm such common-law principles as, by reason of usurpation and force, had come to be of doubtful effect, and needed therefore to be authoritatively announced, that king and subject might alike au thoritatively observe them. Cooley, Const. Lim, 30. Magna Carta is said by some to have been so called because larger than the Charta de Forests (q. v.), which was given about the same time, Spel Man, Gloss. But see Cowell. Magna Carta is men tioned casually by Bracton, Fleta, and Britton. Glanville is supposed to have written before Magna Carta. The Mirror of Justices (q. v.) has a chapter on its defects.. See Co. 2d Inst.; Barringt. Stat. ; 4 Bla. Corn. 423. See a copy of Magna Carta in 1 Laws of South Carolina, edited by Judge Cooper, p. 78. In the Penny Magazine for the year 1833, p. 229, there is a copy of the original seal of King John af fixed to this instrument ; a specimen of a fac-simile of the writing of Magna Carta, beginning at the passage, Nunes Tiber homo capiatur vel imprison etur, etc. A facsimile has been published by Chatto & Windus, London. A copy of both may he found in the Magasin Pittoresque for the year 1834, pp. 52, H. Magna Carta was published for the first time in America In a tract issued by William Penn called "The Excellent Privilege of Liberty and Property," printed by Bradford at Philadelphia in 1687. Besides extensive extracts from Magna Carta and Coke's comments thereon, the tract contains the confirmation of the charters of the liberties of England and of the forest made in the 25 Edward I., the Statute de Tallagio, the royal charter of Pennsylvania, and Penn's charter of liberties to the freemen of the province. This tract having become very scarce, has been reprint ed by the Philobiblion Club of Philadelphia, with an historical introduction by Dr. Frederick D. Stone. See Encyc. Brit. ; Wharton, Lelt. ; Thomson ; Wells ; McKechnie; Barrington, Magna Carta. The Latin text, with a translation, is to be found in 1 Stat. at Large p. 1 (British).