And
the charter, no doubt, accomplished very much in this way. After
Magna Carta, it required much more audacity, cunning, or
strength, on the part of the king, than it had before, to invade
the people's liberties with impunity. Still, Magna Carta, like
all other written constitutions, proved inadequate to the full
accomplishment of its purpose; for when did a parchment ever
have
power adequately to restrain a government, that had either
cunning to evade its requirements, or strength to overcome those
who attempted its defence? The work of usurpation, therefore,
though seriously checked, still went on, to a great extent, after
Magna Carta. Innovations upon the Law of the Land are still made
by the government. One innovation was cited as a precedent;
precedents made customs; and customs became laws, so far as
practice was concerned; until the government, composed of the
king, the high functionaries of the church, the nobility, a House
of Commons representing the "forty shilling freeholders," and a
dependent and servile judiciary, all acting in conspiracy against
the mass of the people, became practically absolute, as it is at
this day.
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