If this latter reading be adopted, the provision would seem to
exclude all trials except trial by jury, and all causes of action
except those of the common law.,

But I apprehend the word vel, must be rendered both by and,, and
by or;, that in cases of a judgment,, it should be rendered by and,,
so as to require the concurrence both of "the judgment of the peers
and, the law of the land," to authorize the king to make execution
upon a party's goods or person; but that in cases of arrest and
imprisonment, simply for the purpose of bringing a man to trial,
vel, should be rendered by or, , because there can have been no
judgment of a jury in such a case, and "the law of the land" must
therefore necessarily be the only guide to, and restraint upn, the
king. If this guide and restraint were taken away, the king would
be invested with an arbitrary and most dangerous power in.
making arrests, and confining in prison, under pretence of an
intention to bring to trial.

Having thus examined the language of this chapter of Magna Cart,
so far as it relates to criminal cases, its legal import may be stated
as follows, viz.:

No freeman shall be arrested, or imprisoned, or deprived of his
freehold, or his liberties, or free customs, or be outlawed, or
exiled, or in any manner destroyed, (harmed,) nor will we (the
king) proceed. against him, nor send any one against him, by force
or arms, unless according to (that is, in execution. of) the sentence
of his peers, and (or or, as the case may require) the Common Law
of England, (as it was at the time of Magna Carta, in 1215.)