in every point, without breach, * * and that our
justices, sheriffs, mayors, and other ministers, which, under us,
have the _laws of our land_[63] to guide, shall allow the said
charters pleaded before them in judgment, in all their points, that
is, to wit, _the Great Charter as the Common Law_, and the Charter of
the Forest for the wealth of the realm.

"And we will, that if any judgment be given from henceforth, contrary
to the points of the charters aforesaid, by the justices, or by any
other our ministers that hold plea before them against the points of
the charters, it shall be undone, and holden for naught."--_25 Edward
I._, ch. 1 and 2. (1297.)

Blackstone also says:

"It is agreed by all our historians that the Great Charter of King
John was, for the most part, _compiled from the ancient customs of
the realm, or the laws of Edward the Confessor; by which they usually
mean the old common law which was established under our Saxon
princes_."--_Blackstone's Introduction to the Charters._ See
_Blackstone's Law Tracts_, 289.

Crabbe says:

"It is admitted, on all hands, that it (Magna Carta) contains nothing
but what was confirmatory of the common law, and the ancient usages
of the realm, and is, properly speaking, only an enlargement of the
charter of Henry I., and his successors."--_Crabbe's History of the
English Law_, p. 127.

That the coronation oath of the kings subsequent to Magna Carta was, in
substance, if not in form, "_to maintain this law of the land, or common
law_," is shown by a statute of Edward Third, commencing as follows:

"Edward, by the Grace of God, &c., &c., to the Sheriff of Stafford,
Greeting: Because that by divers complaints made to us, we have
perceived that _the law of the land, which we by oath are bound to
maintain_," &c.--_St. 20 Edward III._ (1346.)

The following extract from Lord Somers' tract on Grand Juries shows that
the coronation oath continued the same as late as 1616, (four hundred
years after Magna Carta.) He says:

"King James, in his speech to the judges, in the Star Chamber, Anno
1616, told them, 'That he had, after many years, resolved to renew
his oath, made at his coronation, concerning justice, and the promise
therein contained for _maintaining the law of the land_.' And, in the
next page save one, says, '_I was sworn to maintain the law of the
land_, and therefore h