all hold pleas of our crown_," expresses the opinion that it "_is a
general law_," (that is, applicable to all officers of the king,) "by
reason of the words _vel alii balivi nostri_, (or other our bailiffs,)
_under which words are comprehended all judges or justices of any courts
of justice_." And he cites a decision in the king's bench, in the 17th
year of Edward I., (1289,) as authority; which decision he calls "a
notable and leading judgment."--_2 Inst._, 30--1.

And yet Coke, in flat contradiction of this decision, which he quotes
with such emphasis and approbation, and in flat contradiction also of
the definition he repeatedly gives of the word _balivus_, showing that
it embraced _all ministers of the king whatsoever_, whether high or low,
judicial or executive, fabricates an entirely gratuitous interpretation
of this chapter of Magna Carta, and pretends that after all it only
required that _felonies_ should be tried before the king's _justices, on
account of their superior learning_; and that it permitted all lesser
offences to be tried before inferior officers, (meaning of course the
_king's_ inferior officers.)--_2 Inst._, 30.

And thus this chapter of Magna Carta, which, according to his own
definition of the word _balivus_, applies to all officers of the king;
and which, according to the common and true definition of the term
"pleas of the crown," applies to all criminal cases without distinction,
and which, therefore, forbids any officer or minister of the king to
preside in a jury trial in any criminal case whatsoever, he coolly and
gratuitously interprets into a mere senseless provision for simply
restricting the discretion of the king in giving _names_ to his own
officers who should preside at the trials of particular offences; as if
the king, who made and unmade all his officers by a word, could not
defeat the whole object of the prohibition, by appointing such
individuals as he pleased, to try such causes as he pleased, and calling
them by such names as he pleased, _if he were but permitted to appoint
and name such officers at all_; and as if it were of the least
importance what _name_ an officer bore, whom the king might appoint to a
particular duty.[90]

Coke evidently gives this interpretation solely because, as he was
giving a general commentary on Magna Carta, he was bound to give some
interpretation or other to every chapter of it; and for this chapter he
could invent, or fabricate, (for it is a