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Edward promised, that on his return from the Scottish expedition, in which he was then engaged, he should ratify his confirmation, and also that the decrees of the Forest Charter should be enforced, as soon as his affairs in the Romish Court which related to his dispute with Philip of France, should be brought to a conclusion. At a Parliament holden at London on the 8th of March, the first Sunday in the next Lent, King Edward again confirmed the Charters; and on the 26th of March and 2nd of April following, he issued Writs to the several Sheriffs of England, containing a recitation of nearly the whole of the Forest Charter, commanding it's particular observance, together with all the Articles of the Great Charter. To answer the doubts of the people, which still existed, Edward despatched other Writs addressed to all the Sheriffs of England, written both in the Norman French or common language, and also in the Latin, which he commanded should be published in every place of public resort, whether City, Borough, or Market-town. The purport of these Writs, which were dated on the 25th of June, was, that the King considered himself as too hardly pressed by the continual complaints of his subjects, at the same time stating that the reasons of his delay were the many and difficult affairs in which he was involved. These, he continued, would in July be brought to a close; but as it would be improper for the Perambulators to com

mence their survey of the Forests in Harvest-time, they should meet at Northampton, at the farthest by the ensuing Michaelmas day: he also requested that the people would not believe any that maliciously reported to the contrary, in order to awaken strife between the Sovereign and the Nation. At another Parliament which sat at London on the 6th of March, the Charters were again confirmed by a new statute, entitled the "The Articles upon the Charters," hereafter printed, in the series of these instruments. After much doubt concerning the King's promise, it is supposed that the Forest Commissioners or Perambulators, met at Northampton, about Michaelmas, in the year 1299, to arrange their plans of proceedings for the next Spring. On the first of April, 1300, Edward issued Writs to each of them, commanding them to commence their journies through the ForestCounties; and on the 10th of May, these were followed by Commissions to the Knights who had been elected in the various Shires, by others dated on May the 27th, to put in force and execute the two Charters. The Forest Commissioners concluded their perambulations for settling the boundaries of the Royal Woods, about the Summer of of the year 1300. On September the 29th, a Parliament was called to assemble at Lincoln on the 20th of January in the following year, and every person cited to appear thereat, who could offer any reason why the report of these Commissioners

should not be proceeded upon. The Perambulations were then finally examined and approved by the Parliament, having been attested by the King's Justices, the oaths of a Jury, and the evidence of the Verderers and Foresters of each Forest. After receiving a fifteenth from the Commonalty of England, the King, on the 14th of the succeeding February, confirmed the Perambulations, by which he thus fixed the future boundaries of the Forests, and at the same time issued the last Confirmation of the Charters; with the provisions, "that if any thing had been enacted contrary to their true sense and meaning, it should be remedied or even annulled, by the common consent of the Realm. a””

Thus, after the example of Blackstone's celebrated Introduction, although certainly with much less minuteness, have been traced the rise, fluctuating progress, and permanent conclusion of Magna Charta. Sir Edward Coke, in the Proëm to the second of his Institutes, remarks, that Magna Charta and the Charta Foresta, "have been confirmed, established, and commanded to be put into execution by thirty-two several acts of Parliament in all;" and when this is properly considered, it will be evident that it must occupy a history of no trivial extent, to shew all the circumstances and events concerning it. The centuries which have elapsed since it's execution, and the consequent oblivion into which many of the customs so early a period must have fallen,

a Blackst. Introd. lxxiii.

while they are sufficient arguments for the illustration of the history of the Great Charter, are at the same time almost insurmountable barriers to the performance of it. By means of an Essay even imperfect as the present, however, some idea may be formed of the manner in which the English Barons thought and acted: what circumstances opposed their progress, or what events combined to assist them; and when the Reader is possessed of only such information as this, he will with greater satisfaction turn to the modernised Copies and Translations, which occupy the following pages.

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