nec imprisonetur nec disseisetur
nec utlagetur nec exuletur nec aliquo modo destruatur _nec rex eat
vel mittat super eum vi_ nisi per judicium parium suorum vel per
legem terrae."

That is, "The body of a freeman shall not be arrested, nor
imprisoned, nor disseized, nor outlawed, nor exiled, nor in any
manner destroyed, _nor shall the king proceed or send (any one)
against him_ WITH FORCE, unless by the judgment of his peers, or the
law of the land."

The true translation of the words _nec super eum ibimus, nec super eum
mittemus_, in Magna Carta, is thus made certain, as follows, "_nor will
we (the king) proceed against him, nor send (any one) against him_ WITH
FORCE OR ARMS."[19]

It is evident that the difference between the true and false
translations of the words, _nec super eum ibimus, nec super eum
mittemus_, is of the highest legal importance, inasmuch as the true
translation, _nor will we (the king) proceed against him, nor send (any
one) against him by force or arms_, represents the king only in an
_executive_ character, _carrying the judgment of the peers and "the law
of the land" into execution_; whereas the false translation, _nor will
we pass upon him, nor condemn him_, gives color for the exercise of a
_judicial_ power, on the part of the king, to which the king had no
right, but which, according to the true translation, belongs wholly to
the jury.

"_Per legale judicium parium suorum._"

The foregoing interpretation is corroborated, (if it were not already
too plain to be susceptible of corroboration,) by the true
interpretation of the phrase "_per legale judicium parium suorum_."

In giving this interpretation, I leave out, for the present, the word
_legale_, which will be defined afterwards.

The true meaning of the phrase, _per judicium parium suorum_, is,
_according to the sentence of his peers_. The word _judicium, judgment_,
has a technical meaning in the law, signifying the decree rendered in
the decision of a cause. In civil suits this decision is called a
_judgment_; in chancery proceedings it is called a _decree_; in criminal
actions it is called a _sentence_, or _judgment_, indifferently. Thus,
in a criminal suit, "a motion in arrest of _judgment_" means a motion in
arrest of _sentence_.[20]

In cases of sentence, therefore, in criminal suits, the words _sentence_
and _judgment_ are synonymous terms. They are, to this day, commonly
used in law books as sy