The constitution violated : an essay / by the author of the "Memoir of John Grey of Dilston".

  • Butler, Josephine Elizabeth Grey, 1828-1906.
Date:
1871
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The constitution violated : an essay / by the author of the "Memoir of John Grey of Dilston". Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    to my readers an adequate notion of the strictness of meaning of the one expression in Magna Charta, “We will destroy no one unless by the judgment of his peers.” It is by the great lawyers interpreted to mean, that no proceeding of any kind whatever of a compulsory nature shall be permitted on the person of any one except after jury trial. Blackstone and others, to make the matter more plain, minutely define those cases in which alone this prohibition of Magna Charta may be set aside, viz., in the punishment of young children by their parents, and of pupils by their masters, but even these were to be kept within the bounds of decency and humanity. I will only quote the words of De Lolme1 on this subject: “ Thus it was made one of the articles of Magna Charta, that the executive power should not touch the person of the subject, but in conse- quence of a judgment passed upon him by his peers ; and so great was afterwards the general union in main- taining this law, that the trial by jury which so effec- tually secures the subject against all the attempts of power, even against such as may be made under the sanction of the judicial authority, hath been preserved till this day.” In the clause of Magna Charta upon which we have dwelt, the words “ per legem teme” (by the law of the 1 De Lolme on the Constitution, p. 354.