"Magna fuit quondam magnae reverentia chartae." (Great was
formerly the reverence for Magna Carta.) Coke's Proem to 2
Inst., p. 1 to 7.
Coke also says, "All pretence of prerogative against Magna Charta
is taken away." 2 Inst., 36.
He also says, "That after this parliament (52 Henry III., in
1267) neither Magna Carta nor Carta de Foresta was ever
attempted to be impugned or questioned." 2 Inst., 102. [4]
To give all the evidence of the authority of Magna Carta, it
would be necessary to give the constitutional history of England
since the year 1215. This history would show that Magna Carta,
although continually violated and evaded, was still acknowledged
as law by the government, and was held up by the people as the
great standard and proof of their rights and liberties. It would
show also that the judicial tribunals, whenever it suited their
purposes to do so, were in the habit of referring to Magna Carta
as authority, in the same manner, and with the same real or
pretended veneration, with which American courts now refer to the
constitution of the United States, or the constitutions of the
states.
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