The universal opinion of lawyers and statesmen among ourselves, that these clauses of Magna Charta are the most important bulwark of our liberties, is confirmed by the opinion of a celebrated foreign writer,[12] who concludes a great work on the penal process of England, Scotland, and the United States with these words: “It will be more and more acknowledged how true it is that the penal legislation of a nation is the keystone of that nation’s public law.” Another great writer on Laws says:[13] “It is upon the excellence of the criminal laws that chiefly the liberty of the citizen depends;” and these words, “the liberty of the citizen,” what do they not include? Of the same nature are the weighty words of Lieber[14] on “the value of a well-guarded penal trial as an element of constitutional liberty.” Sir Edward Creasy, in his sketch of the general administration of justice in England, begins with “the criminal law as first in constitutional importance.”[15] I might multiply quotations from great lawyers, showing an universal concurrence in the opinion that without justice in our criminal code we cannot possess that freedom which is one of the conditions of virtue in a nation. It is not requisite for my purpose to enter into a critical examination of each of the words and phrases of the great clause of Magna Charta referred to, nor even to quote a selection of comments on these words and phrases from the voluminous writings which exist on the subject. There are two expressions, however, as to the meaning of which I shall make a few remarks. The first, as bearing more particularly on the subject in hand, viz., the phrase “aut aliquo modo destruatur;” and the second, the words “per legem terræ,” in order that I may with respect to these words correct a misunderstanding which may arise in the mind of a reader who reads them without the light of those subsequent comments and charters which have elucidated Magna Charta.