a thing made justice very difficult, so it was a
great step when the leading court of the kingdom was to be held in a
place certain, which was at once established in Westminster. Minor
courts were, of course, later established in various counties, though
usually the old Saxon county or hundred-motes continued to exist.
Chapter 12 is the one relating to scutage, from the word _scutum_,
shield--meaning the service of armed men. Just as, to-day, a man who
does not pay his taxes can in some States work them out on the road,
so conversely in England they very early commuted the necessity of
a knight or land-owner furnishing so many armed men into a money
payment. "The three customary feudal aids" were for the defence of the
kingdom, the building of forts, and the building of bridges--all
the taxes usually imposed upon English citizens in these earliest
times--all other taxation to be only by the Common Council of the
kingdom. This is the first word, council; later, it became "consent";
the word _conseil_ meaning both consent and council. "Council of
England" means, of course, the Great Council. We are still before the
time when the word Parliament was used. Thus Magna Charta expresses it
that there should be no taxation without "the advice" of Parliament,
without legislation; and as Parliament was a representative body, it
is the equivalent of "taxation without representation." This also was
omitted in Henry III's charter, 1217, and only restored under Edward
I in 1297, a most significant omission. And it is also expressed in
early republications of the Great Charter that taxation must be for
the benefit of _all_, "for public purposes only," for the people
and not for a class. On this latter principle of Anglo-American
constitutional law one of our great political parties bases its
objection to the protective tariff, or to bounties; as, for instance,
to the sugar manufacturers; or other modern devices for extorting
wealth from all the people and giving it to the few. All taxation
shall be for the _common_ benefit. Any taxation imposed for the sole
benefit of the land-owning class, for instance, or even for
the manufacturing class, is against the original principles of
constitutional liberty.

Then we come to chapter 39, the great "Liberty" statute. "No freeman
shall be taken or imprisoned or be disseised of his freehold or _his
liberties or his free customs_ [these important words added in 1217]
or be outlawed or exiled or