In comer, gear, por, ver, vir, voar, of the Portuguese, were it not for the assistance of the kindred dialects, who would expect to find comedere, gelare, The examples already adduced in ponere, venire, videre, volare? In support of our canons are numerous. numerous verbs of the French, SpaThey might have been abundantly nish, and Portuguese, every thing increased; but, were we in possession radical, every part essential to the of the colloquial and provincial language of the Romans, they might, I doubt not, have been extremely multiplied. Besides, many expressions, once classical, have become obsolete and perished; for, in Latin, we have had no Hesychius to preserve them from oblivion.

It is universally understood, that I have, in my four last essays, exItalian, Spanish, Portuguese, and hibited a key to the principal lan French originate in Latin. This re- guages of Europe; and should any

Latin scholar be disposed to study the laws, by which their mutations have bee governed, he will learn them with facility. Had I possessed such assistance some fifty years ago, I should have both saved much time and escaped much perplexity.

To facilitate the acquisition of these languages, as well as to point out the nature and extent of those mutations to which all languages are subject, I have brought forward numerous canous, and I will venture to say, that, if these shall be well impressed upon the mind, no one, who is conversant with Ronian literature, will find any difficulty in acquiring all the languages of Europe, more especially French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese, because, with the exception of these licentious changes which I have noticed, they are, for the most part, plainly and distinctly Latin.

The Necessity for reading the CHARTER OF LIBERTIES in Churches, Chapels, and the Courts of Law, as directed by Statute; and for frequently examining if any Encroach ments are made, to prevent Disputes about Rights and Privileges in future.

TIME, experience, and an examination of the records of passed ages, frequently discover to inquisitive persons the sinister methods which have been practised by designing men, in different periods of our history, to increase their power, by encroaching on the rights and the liberties of others. The annals of most nations will shew us, that it has been by the crafty designs of such persons that innovations have been suffered to subvert the best systems of government that have been formed by the art of

man.

abuses for fear of consequences.— What reason have we to entertain any gloomy apprehensions for doing what is legal and right, if there is nothing to fear in doing what may be deemed illegal and wrong? It is only the guilty who tremble as the shaking of a leaf; while those, who are conscious of good intentions, hear the thunder rattle at a distance without any tremor.

The best method of appeasing such alarming fears will be to prevent, in future, the cause of them, by frequently recurring to first principles, and at short intervals to review and expunge all errors and encroachments made, either by the governors or governed, in any law, prerogative, or privilege, in any department, either in church or state. This would be the means of forming a strong barrier against the pressure of interested men, ever watchful and ready to take any advantage where vigilance sleeps.Our rude and unlettered ancestors acted with more wisdom, after they had obtained a system of laws for the government of a free people; they endeavoured, with zeal and energy to render it permanent by every method they could devise. Experience had taught them how difficult it would be to secure their own rights against the grasping hand of power; and they were as vigilant as their successors have been negligent in preserving those rights which they had with such difficulty obtained. They united the utmost efforts of human policy and religious obligation to establish the law of the land against the attacks of the most determined opposers. They threatened to excommunicate and anathematise, with bell, book, and candle, every one who endeavoured to evade and annul any article contained in their charter of liberties.

The Anathema.

Encroaching innovations, Eke noxious plants in a fruitful soil, soon take deep root, and rapidly spread their luxuriant branches, where there is a "By the authority of Almighty God, total inattention to the checking them Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and St. at their first appearance. If time be Mary, mother of our blessed Lord, suffered to sanction an error in belief, and St. Michael the archangel, and or to countenance an encroachment St. Peter the prince of the apostles, on the liberties or the laws established and St. Nicholas, and St. Augustine, in any nation, the trumpet of alarm and all saints; let the man be excomis immediately sounded from all quar- municated and damned, and separated ters, to guard against correcting any from entering into holy church, and

95 Necessity for reading the Charter of Liberties in Churches, &c. [AvGUST from the fraternity of God's elect; the records of passed ages, for they moreover, let them have their punish- once elected their own magistrates ment with Judas, our Lord's disciple, from among themselves; but now, and with them who said to our Lord, by custom and statute, they are apDepart from us, we will not have pointed by the crown. The sheriffs, the knowledge of thy ways.' Except who summon the juries, were, like they be converted, and betake them- the coroners, selected by the people; selves to satisfaction, let them be ac- but now the crown has the nominacursed, eating and drinking, walking tion of them. By the militia laws, and sitting, speaking and holding their they are deprived of choosing their peace, waking and sleeping, rowing own officers, if called upon to face and riding, laughing and weeping, in the king's enemies in the field.house and in field, on water and on Though justice is neither to be deland, and in all places, cursed be their layed nor denied to any one, yet, in head and their thighs, their eyes and many petty jurisdictions, the law has their ears, their tongue and their lips, been disregarded, and the supposed their teeth and their throat, their offender has suffered a long and a shoulders and their breasts, their feet rigorous confinement before trial. and their legs. Let them remain accursed from the bottom of the feet to the crown of the head, unless they bethink themselves and come to satisfaction; and just as this candle is deprived of its present light, so let them be deprived of their souls in

hell"

Then the barons and great men threw out of their bands the extinguished and smoking candles, and each one present said, So let them stink in hell who shall incur this sentence." The bells were then rung, and Henry the Third said. “So may God help me, as I shall faithfully observe all the articles of the charter of liberties, as I am a man, as I am a christian, as I am a knight, and as I am an anoiuted crown king."

Without running into such superstitious ceremonies as our ancestors adopted, we can use legal means for perpetuating a remembrance of their rights and liberties, which have long been neglected and disregarded by us. To atone for any such neglect in not spreading a knowledge of the laws among the great body of the people, we should apply to the legislature for a statute to enforce the reading of the charter of liberties four times in a year in all parish churches and chapels throughout the kingdom, as it may be the means of teaching them to respect and reverence those laws which have hitherto secured to them personal liberty.

It was by inattention and indifference that time introduced innovations and encroachments on the civil rights of the people. This is evident from

Time has shewn us how the charter of liberties was trampled on by our "heaven-born minister," in committing and detaining persons in a prison which was not under the she riff's jurisdiction; and, by suspending the habeas-corpus, he prevented the year after year. We may cease to boast complainants from seeking justice of the Lex Terræ, and the great charter of liberties, if their power depends upon the pleasure of any man, or body of men, in the kingdom; for then the common law may, at their wills, become a dead letter, though confirmed by upwards of thirty acts of parlia

ment.

We are told by some of the old school, that no precedent can prevail against an express statute, unless the origin of the precedent be within legal memory, or within the first year of the reign of the bartering Richard the First.

As a privilege is an exemption from some known custom or law given to certain persons to promote some public good, it must have been either the custom or the law which gave the privilege, and of course defined it, otherwise it could not have been known In the laws of Ethelbert it is said, "If the king call an assembly of his people, and any da mage be done to them there, let it be repaid twofold, and fifty shillings be paid to the king." This privilege was given to the great barons of the realm, to protect them from personal assaults when they were summoned by the king to attend at the council of the

nation. But, as it was only the bishops, the abbots, the earls, and those who held of the king in chief, who were summoned to attend at the Witenagemot of the Saxons, we must search in the Norman race for the origin of the privilege of the British parliament. The House of Commons certainly did not exist with the same power it has at present, till many years after the law of the land was confirmed by charter.

self in the King's-Bench within a quarter of a year after the proclamation made; and if he do not, the said John shall be attainted of the same deed, and pay to the party aggrieved his double damages, to be taxed by the discretion of the judges of the said Bench for the time being, or by an inquest if need be; and, also, he shall make fine and ransom at the king's will. Moreover, it is accorded in the same parliament, that likewise it be In the fifty-second year of the reign done in time to come in like cases." of Henry the Third, chapter the 5th, In 11 Henry VI. c.11, it is said, "The the charter of liberties was recon- king, willing to provide for the ease and firmed in most of its articles; but tranquillity of them who come to the there was no separate House of Com- parliaments and councils of the king mons to assemble at that period of by his commandment, hath ordained our bistory. The Earl of Leicester, and stablished, That if any assault or in Henry the Third's reign, summon- affray be made to any lord spiritual or ed the citizens and the burgesses to temporal, knight of the shire, citizen, parliament, to answer his interested or burgess, come to the parliament, purposes, and to make himself popu- or to other council of the king, by his lar; but it may be questioned when commandment, and there being and they were summoned again, or when attending at the parliament or counthey met in a separate body, or had cil, that then proclamation shall be any controul over the public purse as made in the most open place of the they have at present. Whenever the town by three several days where the Commons first met in a separate assault or affray shall be made; that house, for framing of laws jointly the party that made such affray or with the king and the lords, and for assault yield himself before the king transacting other acts of a legislative in his Bench within a quarter of a body, they could not have had any more privilege than the great and minor barons had enjoyed before them; and where the historian is silent, we must remain ignorant of the proceedings of our ancestors.

year after the proclamation made, if it be in the time of the term, or otherwise at the next day in the time of the term following the said quarter; and if he do not, that he be attainted of the said deed, and pay to the party aggrieved the double damages, to be taxed by the discretion of the justices of the same Bench for the time being, or by inquest, if it be needful, and make fine and ransom at the king's will; and if he come, and be found guilty by inquest, by examination, or otherwise, of such affray or assault, then he shall pay to the party so aggrieved his double damages found by the inquest, or to be taxed at the discretion of the said justices, and to make fine and ransom at the king's will, as above is said."

Perhaps the first privilege the members of the House of Commons had conferred on them was confirmed by statute, in the fifth year of the reign of Henry the Fourth, chapter the 6th, to prevent an assault upon any servant of any knight in parliament. It is there said, "that Richard Cheddar,' Esq. was going to the parliament with Thomas Brook, knight, one of the knights chosen in the same parliament for the county of Somerset, and a menial servant to the said Thomas was horribly beaten, wounded, blemished, and maimed by one John In the preceding statutes we have Salage, otherwise Savage; it is or- the reason for the granting of the pridained and stablished, that, seeing vilege to the representatives of the the same horrid deed was done within people and their servants; it was to the time of the said parliament, that secure them a safe passage when they proclamation be made where the were going from their own homes to same horrible deed was done, that parliament, in obedience to the sumthe same John appear and yield him- mons of the king; and we shall find UNIVERSAL MAG. VOL. XIV.

N

without so much litigation. But, as we have neglected the prevention of strife, it will be a wise step to provide a remedy in future; and, if privilege was never designed to render the law a dead letter, let it be defined and limited by statute.

Sir,

A FINAL REJOINDER.

VOU have been pleased already,

that the law has been as careful of generally known, and easily checked, their characters as of their persons; for in the 2 Richard II. c. 5, it is said,"Of devisers of false news, and of horrible and false lies, of prelates, dukes, earls, barons, and other nobles and great men of the realm, and also of the chancellor, treasurer, clerk of the privy seal, steward of the king's house, justices of the one Bench, or of the other, and of other great officers of the realm, of things which by the said prelates, lords, nobles, and officers aforesaid, were never spoken, done, nor thought, in great slander of the said prelates, lords, nobles, and officers, whereby debates and discords might rise between the said Lords and the Commons (which God forbid), and whereof great peril and mischief might come to all the realm, and quick subversion and destruction of the said realm, if due remedy be not provided: it is strictly defended, upon grievous pain, for to eschew the said damages and perils, that from henceforth none be so hardy to devise, speak, or to tell any false news, lies, or any such false things, of prelates, lords, and others aforesaid, whereof discord or any slander might rise within the same realm; and he that doeth the same shall incur and have the pain another time ordained thereof by the statute of the first year of the above reign, which will, that he be taken and imprisoned till he have found him of whom the word was moved."

There is no authority given in this statute for the person libelled to be his own judge, either of the crime or of the punishment; and it is not half a century since the House of Commons resolved, that privilege does not extend to the case of writing and publishing seditious libels, nor ought to be allowed to obstruct the ordinary course of the law. Lord Littleton was of the same opinion; for he said, in a speech which he delivered in the House of Lords, "Privilege against law, in matters of high concernment to the public, is oppression wherever

it exists."

If the charter of confirmation of the law of the land, and the privileges of any description of people, had been constantly examined at stated seasons, and publicly read four times in a year, every innovation would have been

in a couple of letters, to publish my thoughts on the right use of two of our consonants, and I will not weary you further with litera, or syllabical, or verbal examples. That were only to repeat what has already been advanced. Between Philo and myself, the question stands nearly as follows. He says, I quote the exceptions and not the rule. Just so he quotes an historian recently departed, who is one of the few exceptions for more than half a century past to the practice I contend for, but who, he says, chose rather to lead than to follow the multitude. But do the multitude follow him in this particular? Certainly not. I cited an ancient critic in favour of that great arbiter, Use, a critic who has led and has been followed by multitudes for a series of ages. Philo, for one, is determined to follow his historian, and will find himself singular. In a word, he thinks one way-I think another: he rests upon collateral, adminicular, and what he calls adjutory proof-I accompanied my opinion with reasons which were direct and home.

I remain,
Your humble servant,