Without needlessly multiplying quotations from our great constitutional writers, it is impossible to convey to my readers an adequate notion of the strictness of meaning of the one expression in Magna Charta, “We will destroy no one unless by the judgment of his peers.” It is by the great lawyers interpreted to mean, that no proceeding of any kind whatever of a compulsory nature shall be permitted on the person of any one except after jury trial. Blackstone and others, to make the matter more plain, minutely define those cases in which alone this prohibition of Magna Charta may be set aside, viz., in the punishment of young children by their parents, and of pupils by their masters, but even these were to be kept within the bounds of decency and humanity. I will only quote the words of De Lolme[18] on this subject: “Thus it was made one of the articles of Magna Charta, that the executive power should _not touch the person of the subject_, but in consequence of a judgment passed upon him by his peers; and so great was afterwards the general union in maintaining this law, that the trial by jury which so effectually secures the subject against all the attempts of power, even against such as may be made under the sanction of the judicial authority, hath been preserved till this day.” In the clause of Magna Charta upon which we have dwelt, the words “per legem terræ” (by the law of the land) occur. It might be supposed by a rude observer that these words were meant to refer to something other than jury trial, and might perhaps include such Acts of Parliament as those which we reprobate. The various clauses of Magna Charta have been elucidated and confirmed no less by subsequent enactments than by famous State trials, which have led to clear definitions of what is to be understood by each clause. Among the clauses thus confirmed and elucidated, there has been none more dwelt upon than that “per legem terræ,” the contentions over which single expression have served again and again to confirm and securely establish the liberties of England. It is in the light of these subsequent confirmations and elucidations that great lawyers are enabled to read the words of Magna Charta with a certainty which could never have otherwise been attached to them, and to give to every word of that charter a fulness of meaning which cannot be gathered from a study of the text alone.