I do not overlook the fact that this idea of fundamental laws unchangeable by statute long slumbered in England, and that the contrary--the legal supremacy of parliament--was subsequently established. In studying this aspect of the Great Charter, we must recall that the conditions of life in England during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were very much simpler than those existing later, and that it was not then realized, or at most only vaguely and dimly, that the legislative power could change the laws regulating the rights and duties of individuals as among themselves or in their relation to the government. The modern habit of imagining that in legislation is to be found the panacea for all ills and of measuring the efficiency of a government by the number of statutes it has produced was unthought of. Probably the only legislative function in the minds of Englishmen during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries was taxation, and as yet men hardly realized the necessity for broader regulative or legislative powers. Nevertheless, the doctrine that the permanent fundamental principles of the law of the land guaranteed by Magna Carta were inviolable prevailed in England long after the fourteenth century, and in fact was declared in the English courts as late as the seventeenth century. Bonham's case is the most familiar instance of the recognition of that doctrine. The views of English lawyers, judges and statesmen have changed in this respect, and it is now settled that parliament is supreme and that it can amend or repeal Magna Carta in any respect it may see fit. The changed view undoubtedly met with ready acquiescence, partly because of the necessity for amendments of the law in order to cope with changing conditions, partly because of the unwillingness of the English people to leave questions of constitutional power to the courts, in view of the dependence of the judges upon the crown, but principally because of the confident belief that parliament existed primarily for the very purpose of upholding and protecting the rights and liberties secured to the people by the Great Charter of Liberties, and that the people could rely upon parliament never to consent to the violation of those rights and liberties.