how early the English law protected married women in their property
rights. Chapter 13 confirmed the liberties and customs of London and
other cities and seaports--which is interesting as showing how early
the notion of free trade prevailed among our ancestors. It gave
rise to an immense deal of commercial law, which has always existed
independent of any act of Parliament. Chapter 17 provided that the
common pleas court--that is, the ordinary trial court--should not
follow the king about, but be held at a place and time certain. That
was the beginning of our legal liberty; because before that the king
used to travel about his realm with his justiciar, as they called his
chief legal officer, and anybody who wanted to have a lawsuit had
to travel around England and get the king to hear his case. But the
uncertainty of such a thing made justice very difficult, so it was a
great step when the leading court of the kingdom was to be held in a
place certain, which was at once established in Westminster. Minor
courts were, of course, later established in various counties, though
usually the old Saxon county or hundred-motes continued to exist.
Chapter 12 is the one relating to scutage, from the word _scutum_,
shield--meaning the service of armed men. Just as, to-day, a man who
does not pay his taxes can in some States work them out on the road,
so conversely in England they very early commuted the necessity of
a knight or land-owner furnishing so many armed men into a money
payment. "The three customary feudal aids" were for the defence of the
kingdom, the building of forts, and the building of bridges--all
the taxes usually imposed upon English citizens in these earliest
times--all other taxation to be only by the Common Council of the
kingdom. This is the first word, council; later, it became "consent";
the word _conseil_ meaning both consent and council. "Council of
England" means, of course, the Great Council. We are still before the
time when the word Parliament was used. Thus Magna Charta expresses it