Again, Mr. Hallam says, if the word vel, be rendered by and,, "the
meaning will be, that no person shall be disseized, &c., except
upon a lawful cause of action.", This is true; but it does not follow
that any cause of action, founded on statute only,, is therefore a
"lawful, cause of action," within the meaning of legem terrae, , or
the Common Law., Within the meaning of the legem terrae, of
Magna Carta, nothing but a common law, cause of action is a
"lawful", one.
CHAPTER III. ADDITIONAL PROOFS OF THE RIGHTS AND
DUTIES OF JURORS
If any evidence, extraneous to the history and language of Magna
Carta, were needed. to prove that, by that chapter which
guaranties the trial by jury, all was meant that has now been
ascribed to it, and that the legislation of the king was to be of
no authority with the jury beyond what they chose to allow to it,
and that the juries were to limit the punishments to be inflicted,
we should find that evidence in various sources, such as the laws,
customs, and characters of their ancestors on the continent, and
of the northern Europeans generally; in the legislation and customs
that immediately succeeded Magna Carta; in the oaths that have
at different times been administered to jurors, &c;.
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