estroyed, (harmed,) nor will we (the king) proceed
against him, nor send any one against him, by force or arms, unless
according to (that is, in execution of) the sentence of his peers, _and_
(or _or_, as the case may require) the Common Law of England, (as it was
at the time of Magna Carta, in 1215.)

[Footnote 5: 1 Hume, Appendix 2.]

[Footnote 6: Crabbe's History of the English Law, 236.]

[Footnote 7: Coke says, "The king of England is armed with divers
councils, one whereof is called _commune concilium_, (the common
council,) and that is the court of parliament, and so it is _legally_
called in writs and judicial proceedings _commune concilium regni
Angliae_, (the common council of the kingdom of England.) And another is
called _magnum concilium_, (great council;) this is sometimes applied to
the upper house of parliament, and sometimes, out of parliament time, to
the peers of the realm, lords of parliament, who are called _magnum
concilium regis_, (the great council of the king;) * * Thirdly, (as
every man knoweth,) the king hath a privy council for matters of state.
* * The fourth council of the king are his judges for law matters."

_1 Coke's Institutes, 110 a._]

[Footnote 8: The Great Charter of Henry III., (1216 and 1225,) confirmed
by Edward I., (1297,) makes no provision whatever for, or mention of, a
parliament, unless the provision, (Ch. 37,) that "Escuage, (a military
contribution,) from henceforth shall be taken like as it was wont to be
in the time of King Henry our grandfather," mean that a parliament shall
be summoned for that purpose.]

[Footnote 9: The Magna Carta of John, (Ch. 17 and 18,) defines those who
were entitled to be summoned to parliament, to wit, "The Archbishops,
Bishops, Abbots, Earls, and Great Barons of the Realm, * * and all
others who hold of us _in chief_." Those who held land of the king _in
chief_ included none below the rank of knights.]

[Footnote 10: The parliaments of that time were, doubtless, such as
Carlyle describes them, when he says, "The parliament was at first a
most simple assemblage, quite cognate to the situation; that Red
William, or whoever had taken on him the terrible task of being King of
England, was wont to invite, oftenest about Christmas time, his
subordinate Kinglets, Barons as he called them, to give him the pleasure
of their company for a week or two; there, in earnest conference all
morning, in freer talk over Christmas cheer all evening, in s