But I apprehend the word vel must be rendered both by _and_, and by _or_; that in cases of a _judgment_, it should be rendered by _and_, so as to require the concurrence both of "the judgment of the peers _and_ the law of the land," to authorize the king to make execution upon a party's goods or person; but that in cases of arrest and imprisonment, simply for the purpose of bringing a man to trial, _vel_ should be rendered by or, because there can have been no judgment of a jury in such a case, and "the law of the land" must therefore necessarily be the only guide to, and restraint upon, the king. If this guide and restraint were taken away, the king would be invested with an arbitrary and most dangerous power in making arrests, and confining in prison, under pretence of an intention to bring to trial. Having thus examined the language of this chapter of Magna Carta, so far as it relates to criminal cases, its legal import may be stated as follows, viz.: No freeman shall be arrested, or imprisoned, or deprived of his freehold, or his liberties, or free customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or in any manner destroyed, (harmed,) nor will we (the king) proceed against him, nor send any one against him, by force or arms, unless according to (that is, in execution of) the sentence of his peers, _and_ (or _or_, as the case may require) the Common Law of England, (as it was at the time of Magna Carta, in 1215.) [Footnote 5: 1 Hume, Appendix 2.] [Footnote 6: Crabbe's History of the English Law, 236.] [Footnote 7: Coke says, "The king of England is armed with divers councils, one whereof is called _commune concilium_, (the common council,) and that is the court of parliament, and so it is _legally_ called in writs and judicial proceedings _commune concilium regni Angliæ_, (the common council of the kingdom of England.) And another is called _magnum concilium_, (great council;) this is sometimes applied to the upper house of parliament, and sometimes, out of parliament time, to the peers of the realm, lords of parliament, who are called _magnum concilium regis_, (the great council of the king;) * * Thirdly, (as every man knoweth,) the king hath a privy council for matters of state. * * The fourth council of the king are his judges for law matters." _1 Coke's Institutes, 110 a._] [Footnote 8: The Great Charter of Henry III., (1216 and 1225,) confirmed by Edward I., (1297,) makes no provision whatever for, or mention of, a parliament, unless the provision, (Ch. 37,) that "Escuage, (a military contribution,) from henceforth shall be taken like as it was wont to be in the time of King Henry our grandfather," mean that a parliament shall be summoned for that purpose.]