f the protection and
benefit of the laws, but according to the law of the land. By 2 Edw.
III. c. 8. and 11 Ric. II. c. 10. it is enacted, that no commands or
letters shall be sent under the great seal, or the little seal, the
signet, or privy seal, in disturbance of the law; or to disturb or
delay common right: and, though such commandments should come, the
judges shall not cease to do right. And by 1 W. & M. st. 2. c. 2. it
is declared, that the pretended power of suspending, or dispensing
with laws, or the execution of laws, by regal authority without
consent of parliament, is illegal.

[Footnote s: c. 29.]

[Footnote t: 2 Inst. 55.]

[Footnote u: c. 29.]

NOT only the substantial part, or judicial decisions, of the law, but
also the formal part, or method of proceeding, cannot be altered but
by parliament: for if once those outworks were demolished, there would
be no inlet to all manner of innovation in the body of the law itself.
The king, it is true, may erect new courts of justice; but then they
must proceed according to the old established forms of the common law.
For which reason it is declared in the statute 16 Car. I. c. 10. upon
the dissolution of the court of starchamber, that neither his majesty,
nor his privy council, have any jurisdiction, power, or authority by
English bill, petition, articles, libel (which were the course of
proceeding in the starchamber, borrowed from the civil law) or by any
other arbitrary way whatsoever, to examine, or draw into question,
determine or dispose of the lands or goods of any subjects of this
kingdom; but that the same ought to be tried and determined in the
ordinary courts of justice, and by _course of law_.

4. IF there should happen any uncommon injury, or infringement of the
rights beforementioned, which the ordinary course of law is too
defective to reach, there still remains a fourth subordinate right
appertaining to every individual, namely, the right of petitioning the
king, or either house of parliament, for the redress of grievances.
In Russia we are told[w] that the czar Peter established a law, that
no subject might petition the throne, till he had first petitioned two
different ministers of state. In case he obtained justice from
neither, he might then present a third petition to the prince; but
upon pain of death, if found to be in the wrong. The consequence of
which was, that no one dared to offer such third petition; and
grievances seldom falling