re
the principal clauses of this nature.

It was ordained, that all the privileges and immunities above-
mentioned, granted to the barons against the king, should be extended
by the barons to their inferior vassals. The king bound himself not
to grant any writ, empowering a baron to levy aids from his vassals,
except in the three feudal cases. One weight and one measure shall be
established throughout the kingdom. Merchants shall be allowed to
transact all business, without being exposed to any arbitrary tolls
and impositions; they and all freemen shall be allowed to go out of
the kingdom and return to it at pleasure: London, and all cities and
burghs, shall preserve their ancient liberties, immunities, and free
customs: aids shall not be required of them but by the consent of the
great council: no towns or individuals shall be obliged to make or
support bridges but by ancient custom: the goods of every freeman
shall be disposed of according to his will: if he die intestate, his
heirs shall succeed to them. No officer of the crown shall take any
horses, carts, or wood, without the consent of the owner. The king's
courts of justice shall be stationary, and shall no longer follow his
person: they shall be open to every one; and justice shall no longer
be sold, refused, or delayed by them. Circuits shall be regularly
held every year: the inferior tribunals of justice, the county court,
sheriff's turn, and court leet, shall meet at their appointed time and
place: the sheriffs shall be incapacitated to hold pleas of the crown,
and shall not put any person upon his trial from rumour or suspicion
alone, but upon the evidence of lawful witnesses. No freeman shall be
taken or imprisoned, or dispossessed of his free tenement and
liberties, or outlawed, or banished, or anywise hurt or injured,
unless by the legal judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land;
and all who suffered otherwise, in this or the two former reigns,
shall be restored to their rights and possessions. Every freeman
shall be fined in proportion to his fault; and no fine shall be levied
on him to his utter ruin: even a villain or rustic shall not, by any
fine, be bereaved of his carts, ploughs, and implements of husbandry.
This was the only article calculated for the interests of this body of
men, probably at that time the most numerous in the kingdom.

It must be confessed, that the former articles of the great charter
contain such mitigations an