ed to them.[36] At a meeting
between Henry III and the French prince at Merton in Surrey, it was
agreed to give Magna Charta a form, in which it was deemed compatible
with the monarchy. In this shape the article on personal freedom
occurs; on the other hand everything is left out that could imply a
power of control to be exercised against the King; the need of a grant
before levying scutage is also no longer mentioned. The barons
abandoned for the time their chief claims.

It is, properly speaking, this charter which was renewed in the ninth
year of Henry III as Magna Charta, and was afterwards repeatedly
confirmed. As we see, it did not include the right of approving taxes
by a vote.

Whether men's union in a State in general depends on an original
contract, is a question for political theorists, and to them we leave
its solution. On the other hand, however, it might well be maintained
that the English constitution, as it gradually shaped itself, assumed
the character of a contract. So much is already involved in the first
promises which William the Conqueror made at his entry into London and
in his agreement with the partisans of Harold. The same is true of the
assurances given by his sons, especially the second one: they were the
price of a very definite equivalent. More than any that had gone
before however does Magna Charta bear this character. The barons put
forward their demands: King John negociates about them, and at last
sees himself forced to accept them. It is true that he soon takes
arms to free himself from the obligation he has undertaken. It comes
to a struggle, in which, however, neither side decidedly gains the
upper hand, and they agree to a compromise. It is true the barons did
not expressly stipulate for the new charter when they submitted to
John's son (for with John himself they could certainly have never been
reconciled), but yet it is undeniable that without it their submission
would never have taken place, nor would peace have been concluded.

As, however, is generally the case, the agreement had in it the germs
of a further quarrel. The one side did not forget what it had lost,
the other what it had aimed at and failed to attain. Magna Charta does
not contain a final settlement, by which the sovereign's claims to
obedience were reconciled with the security of the vassals; it is less
a contract that has attained to full validity, than the outline of a
contract, to fill up which would yet req