61. Inasmuch as, for the sake of God, and for the bettering of our realm, and for the more ready healing of the discord which has arisen between us and our barons, we have made all these aforesaid concessions--wishing them to enjoy for ever entire and firm stability, we make and grant to them the following security: that the barons, namely, may elect at their pleasure twenty-five barons from the realm, who ought, with all their strength, to observe, maintain and cause to be observed, the peace and privileges which we have granted to them and confirmed by this our present charter. [Here follows "a treaty of peace" between John and the Barons.] * * * * * Moreover, it has been sworn on our part, as well as on the part of the barons, that all these above-mentioned provisions shall be observed with good faith and without evil intent. The witnesses being the above-mentioned and many others. Given through our hand in the plain called Runnimede between Windsor and Stanes, on the fifteenth day of June, in the seventeenth year of our reign. [2] These important articles were omitted in the charters sworn by subsequent kings. [3] Means of subsistence. [4] The Latin is "quae per nos tempore nostro positae sunt in defenso." Henderson renders "made into places of defence." In Cassell's _Dict. of English History_ it is rendered "in defiance." But _defensum_ in Med. Latin = (1) "prohibition" hence the French _défense_, and (2) "a close season" for fishing or hunting. I suggest that here it is used in a sense midway between (1) and (2) and means "closed" permanently to the public, just as the forests were. Naturally there would be objections raised to new "close" forests and new "close" rivers. Both the other suggested translations appear meaningless. DIALOGUS DE SCACCARIO. +Source.+--_Historical Documents of the Middle Ages._ Henderson. Bohn's Libraries. G. Bell & Sons. In the twenty-third year of the reign of King Henry II., while I was sitting at the window of a tower next to the river Thames, a man spoke to me impetuously, saying: "Master, hast thou not read that there is no use in science or in a treasure that is hidden?" When I replied to him, "I have read so," straightway he said: "Why, therefore, dost thou not teach others the knowledge concerning the exchequer which is said to be thine to such an extent, and commit it to writing lest it die with thee?" * * * * * 1. _What the Exchequer is, and what is the reason of this name._ _Disciple._ What is the exchequer?