without delay. All the aforesaid shall be done, as ye have respect to our person. And in testimony of this matter we send to you: Witness, myself, at Runnemede, the 18th day of June, in the Seventeenth Year of our Reign."

A second branch of this Chapter mentions certain Letters Testimonial, which were to be framed by the King's command, by the Archbishops, Legate, &c. concerning the Liberties and security granted by the Great Charter. A copy of these Letters, merely reciting the whole Charter, in the form of an Inspeximus, is preserved in that very ancient and authentic record, called the Red Book of the Exchequer at Westminster, with which Sir William Blackstone collated the Cottonian copy of Magna Charta, adding the various readings beneath it.

CHAPTER LXIII. Pages 98, 99.

This section consists only of a repetition of the two principal features of Magna Charta, freedom to the Church, and civil liberty to the subject; similar to the clauses contained in Chapter i; and it may be observed that the close of this instrument contains no mention of signing, contrary to the popular conception, as it has been stated on page 274. It should be remarked, however, that in the time of King John, the seal was considered as the most important attestation to a deed, as may be seen in the Charters of Henry III. on pages 116, 130, 332, which were sealed with the impresses of Cardinal Gualo, the Legate, and William Marshall, the Protector; the Great Seal of John having been lost with all his treasure, in the Washes of Lincoln, and his son had no new Seal, until two years afterwards. Some notices of Runnemede, the place where this Charter was concluded, will be found in a future note; and it now remains only to add a few illustrations of the concluding passages of the other Charters of Liberties.

The first instance of a different termination is to be found in Chapter xlii of the First Great Charter of Henry III., vide pages 115, 116. It takes notice of almost all the

a Blackst. Introd. xxiii. The date of this instrument is erroneous, probably from the clerk having written xviii. for xxiii; since the Letter on the Patent Rall immediately before it is witnessed on the 23rd of June.

omissions from the grant of King John,-excepting the clauses relating to Intestacy and the making of Judges,— and then states that the Prelates and Barons had agreed to respite the other particulars for farther deliberation. This respite, says Sir William Blackstone, may be considered as a kind of engagement on the part of the young King, that these Articles should be reviewed, and a new Charter granted, whenever public tranquillity should be restored.

The termination of the Second Great Charter of Henry III. chapter xlvii, pages 129, 130, provides for the destruction of those unlawful, or Adulterine, Castles, which had been erected during the Baronial Wars. It was anciently unlawful to erect a Castle, without license from the King, vide page 203; since there were several high powers and officers connected with them, derived from the King, of which some particulars have been given on pages 205, 211; and they were restrained also from the dangers which would arise if every person might erect a fortress at his own pleasure. In times of civil commotions, however, when depredation or defence were almost the only sources of action, bulwarks appear to have been erected in England without license, and to have been supported without sovereign, or constitutional authority; and at the Treaty of Wallingford, in 1146, after the domestic wars between King Stephen and the Empress Matilda, one of the Articles was, that "the Adulterine Castles which have been constructed in the King's time by any person whomsoever, shall be destroyed.” It can scarcely be doubted but that the oppressions of Castellans and their officers, would make the dismantling of these unlawful forts a very important clause in the first Charter of Liberties after the Civil Wars were ended; and accordingly in the following Writ for the publication of that Charter, this part of it is particularly mentioned :—

"The King to the Sheriff of York, Greeting. We send to you the Charters of Liberties, granted to all of our Kingdom, as well of the Forests as of others, commanding you concerning them that you cause them publicly to be read in your full County-Court of Barons, Knights, and all the free-tenants of the same County, who shall swear to us faithfully for the same. And you shall diligently attend to every particular throughout the whole of those Charters, and cause it to be performed and observed: and chiefly that which is inserted

near the end of the Great Charter, concerning Adulterine Castles, which have been erected or re-edified since the beginning of the war, to be on all occasions destroyed and laid aside as it is contained in the same Charter; because that provision was made and inserted in the OE Charter, by the advice of the Lord Legate and our faithful subjects, for the great benefit of us and tranquillity of our Kingdom. Witness, the Earl at Sturminster, on the 22nd day of February. (The like Letters were sent to every Sheriff of England.)"

This order was probably carried into full effect, since there is no farther provision concerning it in the Third Charter of Henry III., which contains the standard text printed in the Statutes. The variations in the concluding division of Chapter xxxvii of this instrument are an acknowledgement of a Fifteenth, paid by the whole kingdom for re-granting the Great and Forest Charters, a new engagement for the King and his Peers, to protect and observe them, and the number of witnesses names, concluding the whole: vide pages 142-144. This Fifteenth has already been noticed on page 38 of the preceding Essay, and at the period when it was granted, it was an uncertain sum rated upon the value of every person's possessions given by Parliament, as in this instance also, were the Charters themselves. In 1332, however, the 6th of Edward III, on Membrane 26 of the Second Patent Roll for that year, is an entry of the "Tallages made of the Cities, Boroughs, and Lordships, throughout England," which were recorded in the Exchequer as fixing this levy at a fifteenth part of the value of every town, being a certain rate, though even that can be assessed by Parliament only. When the Fifteenth has been thus granted, the inhabitants of a town divide the payment of it for themselves; and if two towns be joined together and disproportionately rated, a Writ may be sued from the Exchequer for equalising the subsidy.

The number of Witnesses with which this Instrument concludes, is expressive of the King's Council by which it was granted; whence Erasmus supposes that Sovereigns first adopted the plural style, to give their Councillors part of the merit of their actions. In the commencement of the reign of Richard II. the expression of "by these Witnesses," was altered for that of "in testimony of which thing we have caused these Letters to be made Patent,"

-or

open,-"Witness myself;" but even anciently those instruments which retained the former words were called Charters, whilst the others were denominated Letters Patents.

The Inspeximus Charter of Edward J. has a concluding clause, providing that if any of the engagements contained in it should not hitherto have been kept, they shall still be considered as inviolable. As the whole instrument, however, was only a rehearsal of the Charter for Confirmation, it is secured by the King's Letters Patent, and is witnessed only by Prince Edward: vide page 158.

Such, then, is a brief and imperfect commentary on the series of the Great Charters of Liberties, intended only to convey a general idea of their nature and powers, to those whom Law-books are either repulsive or not familiar. Enough of illustration, however, has been given to shew the great extent of the subject, and the ancient value of the Charters; and the works whence this has been derived, will supply the enquiring reader with more elaborate judicial discourses, and more ample historical information.

THE

FIRST FOREST CHARTER

OF

King Henry the Third;

Granted November 6th, A. D. 1217,

IN THE SECOND YEAR OF HIS REIGN.

Vide the preceding Essay and Notes, pages 4-8, 37, 38, 45-47, 237-239.

TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL, PRESERVED IN THE ARCHIVES OF DURHAM CATHEDRAL.

Foresters, Sheriffs, Governors, Officers, and all his Bailiffs and faithful subjects;-Greeting. Know ye, that We, for the honour of God, and for the health of our own soul and the souls of our ancestors and successors, to the exaltation of the