g
the barons thought fit to ask, hoping that the exorbitancy of their
demands would justify in the eyes of the world the breach of his
promises. The instruments by which the barons secured their liberties
were drawn up in form of charters, and in the manner by which grants had
been usually made to monasteries, with a preamble signifying that it was
done for the benefit of the king's soul and those of his ancestors. For
the place of solemnizing this remarkable act they chose a large field,
overlooked by Windsor, called Running-mede, which, in our present
tongue, signifies the Meadow of Council,--a place long consecrated by
public opinion, as that wherein the quarrels and wars which arose in the
English nation, when divided into kingdoms or factions, had been
terminated from the remotest times. Here it was that King John, on the
15th day of June, in the year of our Lord 1215, signed those two
memorable instruments which first disarmed the crown of its unlimited
prerogatives, and laid the foundation of English liberty. One was called
the Great Charter; the other, the Charter of the Forest. If we look back
to the state of the nation at that time, we shall the better comprehend
the spirit and necessity of these grants.

Besides the ecclesiastical jurisprudence, at that time, two systems of
laws, very different from each other in their object, their reason, and
their authority, regulated the interior of the kingdom: the Forest Law,
and the Common Law. After the Northern nations had settled here, and in
other parts of Europe, hunting, which had formerly been the chief means
of their subsistence, still continued their favorite diversion. Great
tracts of each country, wasted by the wars in which it was conquered,
were set apart for this kind of sport, and guarded in a state of
desolation by strict laws and severe penalties. When, such waste lands
were in the hands of subjects, they were called Chases; when in the
power of the sovereign, they were denominated Forests. These forests lay
properly within the jurisdiction of no hundred, county, or bishopric;
and therefore, being out both of the Common and the Spiritual Law, they
were governed by a law of their own, which was such as the king by his
private will thought proper to impose. There were reckoned in England no
less than sixty-eight royal forests, some of them of vast extent. In
these great tracts were many scattered inhabitants; and several persons
had property of woodland,