Had he not vested it in parliament,
he would have been obliged to abjure it altogether, and to
confess that the people, through their juries, had the right to
judge of the obligation of all legislation whatsoever; in other
words, that they had the right to confine the government within
the limits of "those just laws and customs which the common
people (acting as jurors) had chosen." True to his instincts, as
a judge, and as a tyrant, he assumed that this absolute power was
vested in the hands of parliament.
But the truth was that, as by the English constitution parliament
had no authority at all for general legislation, it could no more
confirm, than it could abolish, Magna Carta.
These thirty-two confirmations of Magna Carta, which Coke
speaks of as "acts of parliament," were merely acts of the king. The
parliaments, indeed, by refusing to grant him money, except, on
that condition, and otherwise, had contributed to oblige him to
make the confirmations; just as they had helped to oblige him by
arms to grant the charter in the first place.
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