22 Oct r 1807

L d Eldon's Bill

In England, among /of/ the laws on which the experiment of [...?] was first tried was Magna Charta.

The state of the human mind being in those days not /not being as yet/ ripe enough to produce regulations that should be sufficiently ample and at the same time precisely enough limited /sufficiently determinate/, the provision is that famous law /charter/ were several of them so loose, that whoever had the application of it might especially in those blind ages /ages of general blindiness/ read in it whatever it suited him to read it. No free man shall be dealt with so and so but by the judgment of his peers or by the law of the land: that is, according to some other rule, whatsoever had been laid down or should come to be laid down by those to whom it belonged to lay down rules viz. by lawyers.

Moreover Magna Charta, besides being thus favourable to lawyers being the most popular of all laws, hence for the purpose of the experiment for the purpose of giving curency[?] to the doctrine, and getting /gaining/ /winning/ the /men's/ affections of the people on the side /in favour/ of it, it was the best adapted of all laws.

Accordingly it became a maxim with lawyers, and amongst others with the arch lawyer, Lord Coke, that Magna Charta was inalterable: that it was proof against the very power that made it proof against the power of the acknowledged sovereign legislator: and accordingly that whatsoever Act of Parliament, if any, ever had been, or should ever come to have been made in contrariety to it was ipso facto void: i.e. that upon a signal given by lawyers the people should rise up in rebellion against King and Parliament, rather than conform to it or suffer one another /others/ /any one/ to conform to it.