n Law, or the Common Law of England; as in the statute
_Articuli super Chartas_, cap. 15, in the statute 25 Edward III.,
cap. 5, (4,) and infinite more records and statutes."--1 _Hale's
History of the Common Law_, 128.

This common law, or "law of the land," _the king was sworn to maintain_.
This fact is recognized by a statute made at Westminster, in 1346, by
Edward III., which commences in this manner:

"Edward, by the Grace of God, &c., &c., to the Sheriff of Stafford,
Greeting: Because that by divers complaints made to us, we have
perceived that _the law of the land, which we by oath are bound to
maintain_," &c.--_St. 20 Edward III._

The foregoing authorities are cited to show to the unprofessional
reader, what is well known to the profession, that _legem terrae, the law
of the land_, mentioned in Magna Carta, was the common, ancient,
fundamental law of the land, which the kings were bound by oath to
observe; _and that it did not include any statutes or laws enacted by
the king himself, the legislative power of the nation_.

If the term _legem terrae_ had included laws enacted by the king himself,
the whole chapter of Magna Carta, now under discussion, would have
amounted to nothing as a protection to liberty; because it would have
imposed no restraint whatever upon the power of the king. The king could
make laws at any time, and such ones as he pleased. He could, therefore,
have done anything he pleased, _by the law of the land_, as well as in
any other way, if his own laws had been "_the law of the land_." If his
own laws had been "the law of the land," within the meaning of that term
as used in Magna Carta, this chapter of Magna Carta would have been
sheer nonsense, inasmuch as the whole purport of it would have been
simply that "no man shall be arrested, imprisoned, or deprived of his
freehold, or his liberties, or free customs, or outlawed, or exiled, or
in any manner destroyed (by the king); nor shall the king proceed
against him, nor send any one against him with force and arms, unless by
the judgment of his peers, _or unless the king shall please to do so_."

This chapter of Magna Carta would, therefore, have imposed not the
slightest restraint upon the power of the king, or afforded the
slightest protection to the liberties of the people, if the laws of the
king had been embraced in the term _legem terrae_. But if _legem terrae_
was the common law, which the king was sworn to maint