xample, by Kent,
(2 _Comm._ 13,) Story, (3 _Comm._ 661,) and the Supreme Court of New
York, (19 _Wendell_, 676; 4 _Hill_, 146.)

The fifth amendment to the constitution of the United States seems to
have been framed on the same idea, inasmuch as it provides that "no
person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, _without due
process of law_."[31]

_Whether the word_ VEL _should be rendered by_ OR, _or by_ AND.

Having thus given the meanings, or rather the applications, which the
words _vel per legem terrae_ will reasonably, and perhaps must
necessarily, bear, it is proper to suggest, that it has been supposed by
some that the word _vel_, instead of being rendered by _or_, as it
usually is, ought to be rendered by _and_, inasmuch as the word _vel_ is
often used for _et_, and the whole phrase _nisi per judicium parium
suorum, vel per legem terrae_, (which would then read, unless by the
sentence of his peers, _and_ the law of the land,) would convey a more
intelligible and harmonious meaning than it otherwise does.

Blackstone suggests that this may be the true reading. (_Charters_, p.
41.) Also Mr. Hallam, who says:

"Nisi per legale judicium parium suorum, _vel_ per legem terrae.
Several explanations have been offered of the alternative clause;
which some have referred to judgment by default, or demurrer; others
to the process of attachment for contempt. Certainly there are many
legal procedures besides trial by jury, through which a party's goods
or person may be taken. But one may doubt whether these were in
contemplation of the framers of Magna Carta. In an entry of the
Charter of 1217 by a contemporary hand, preserved in the Town-clerk's
office in London, called Liber Custumarum et Regum antiquarum, a
various reading, _et_ per legem terrae, occurs. _Blackstone's
Charters_, p. 42 (41.) And the word _vel_ is so frequently used for
_et_, that I am not wholly free from a suspicion that it was so
intended in this place. The meaning will be, that no person shall be
disseized, &c., except upon a lawful cause of action, found by the
verdict of a jury. This really seems as good as any of the
disjunctive interpretations; but I do not offer it with much
confidence."--2 _Hallam's Middle Ages, Ch._ 8, _Part_ 2, p. 449,
_note_.[32]

The idea that the word _vel_ should be rendered by _and_, is
corroborated, if not absolutely confirmed, by the following passage i