ter of King John is cited, not as a schedule of the
rights of man in the abstract, but as "The Great Charter of the
Liberties of England," implying that the liberties therein named were
not the natural heritage of men in general but the peculiar heritage
of Englishmen, under English law. The prayer of the Petition is simply
that the king shall accord the people of England "their rights and
liberties according to the laws and statutes of the realm."

So in the Bill of Rights framed by Parliament and approved by William
and Mary upon their accession to the throne, it was not asserted that
the acts of James II complained of were contrary to any natural right
of the subject, but that they "were utterly and directly contrary to
the known laws and statutes and freedom of this realm." The purpose of
the Bill of Rights was declared by the Parliament in behalf of the
people to be "for the vindicating and asserting their ancient rights
and liberties." In the earlier remonstrances of the legislatures of
the English colonies in America against various acts of the king and
Parliament, only the accustomed rights of Englishmen were claimed to
be violated. The colonists, at first, claimed as against king and
Parliament no rights not accorded to Englishmen in England.

But though the notion that man has rights by nature, not granted by
the state and which the state should respect as such, did not for
centuries find expression in state papers or state action, it was by
no means non-existent. It was early in the minds of many and found
some expression in the writings of jurists and philosophers. In Rome
it was a corollary of the doctrine of the existence of a _jus
naturale_. The statement of that doctrine by Ulpian incorporated in
the Digest implies a doctrine that man does have some rights anterior
to and independent of the state. So far, however, as the statement
was susceptible of that construction it was not generally acted upon
and remained practically a dead letter. The doctrine itself survived,
however, engaging the attention and receiving the support of various
writers. It gradually gained ground among students of politics and
spread rapidly after the Protestant Reformation, so-called, because of
the impetus given by that event to the exercise of private judgment.
As early as the 17th century, though finding little or no expression
in the Petition of Right or Bill of Rights, the doctrine that
individual rights were derived from n