The Magna Carta, greatest of all historical charters wrung from the various kings of England from Henry I downward, was granted by King John at the pressing instance of the Barons and Commons of England toward the end of his ill-judged and unfortunate reign. Of this Document, celebrated and historic as it is, but little is known at large. Although Blackstone and other prominent lawyers have written upon it, information about it is hard to obtain. No reproduction of the original Document has ever been offered to American collectors. This facsimile is illuminated in colors with the shields of many of the Peers who compelled King John to accede to their demands for civil and religious liberty. The original charter was signed at a place called Runnymede (the Council Meadow) a spot between Windsor and Staines, on the 15th of June, 1215, about a year before the death of John. It practically guaranteed to the Commons of England all the civil and religious rights they enjoy to-day. It dealt with testamentary law as well, securing to widows all the legal rights which they to-day possess. It dealt with the rights of accused persons; with military service; with feudal tenure; with taxation, and it limited the heretofore autocratic power of the King to an extent unknown before in the history of the world. If we except the Declaration of Independence, it is the most interesting historical record of all time. The Second Section of the Library (ten volumes) is devoted to the presentation of Government, Philosophy, Law and Ethics. This section embraces such names as Grotius, Plato, Sir George Cornewall Lewis, Adam Smith, Hamilton, Madison, Jay, Walter Bagehot, Spinoza, Schopenhauer, Machiavelli, as well as those builders of Ideal Governments, More, Bacon, Campanella and Rousseau. Of all benefactors in Literature of the human race, Grotius may perhaps rank as first among his equals. Centuries have borne witness to the justness of his premises and the wisdom of his conclusions. The principles of national law laid down by him are to-day accepted as the axioms of the Science. Among the nations, perhaps the United States is most deeply interested in the right administration of the principles affirmed by Grotius in his gigantic work on the "Rights of War and Peace," and it was therefore most fitting, when the recent peace conference at The Hague completed the great structure of international comity, the foundations of which were laid by Grotius in 1625, that a silver wreath was laid by the representative of the United States upon the grave of the man to whom the Conference owed its initial impulse, although at a distance in time of nearly three centuries.