commonly it is called the Common Law, or the Common Law of
England; as in the statute Articuli super Chartas,cap. 15, in the
statute 25 Edward III., cap. 5, (4,) and infinite more records and
statutes." 1 Hale's History of the Common Law, 128.

This common law, or "law of the land," the king was sworn to
maintain.This fact is recognized by a statute made at Westminster,
in 1346, by Edward III., which commences in this manner:

"Edward, by the Grace of God, &c;., &c;., to the Sheriff of
Stafford, Greeting: Because that by divers complaints made to us,
we have perceived that the law of the land, which we by oath are
bound fo maintain,"&c;. St. 20 Edward III

The foregoing authorities are cited to show to the unprofessional
reader, what is well known to the profession, that legem terrae, the
law of the land,mentioned in Magna Carta, was the common,
ancient, fundamental law of the land, which the kings were bound
by oath to observe; and that it did not include any statutes or laws
enacted by the king himself, the legislative power of the nation.

If the term legem terraehad included laws enacted by the king
himself, the whole chapter of Magna Carta, now under discussion,
would have amounted to nothing as a protection to liberty; because
it would have imposed no restraint whatever upon the power of the
king. The king could make laws at any time, and such ones as he
pleased. He could, therefore, have done anything he pleased, by
the law of the land,as well as in any other way, if his own laws had
been "the law of the land."If his own laws had been "the law of the
land," within the meaning of that term as used in Magna Carta, this