ſtatute of Magna Charta. With this honour and renown it deſcended all along down to us, till it fell into the very dregs of tyranny, and then they pick quarrels with it for its birth and breeding.
Now to ſtrip it out of Laud’s diſguiſing cant of an obſcure birth and ill nurſing, the plain notion of Magna Charta is this: It is a ſummary of the native and inherent rights of Engliſhmen, which the Norman Kings, by granting afterwards by charter, bound themſelves not to break in upon and invade: ſo that it was only a Norman-faſhioned ſecurity, that theſe rights ſhould not be violated. But we do not hold theſe rights by charter; no, not by the old dear-bought parchment and wax; for they are the birthright of Engliſhmen, which no kings could ever give or take away: they are, as they are called 25 Edward III. The franchiſes of the land, and every Engliſhman, by being born in the land, is born to them. And theſe original rights being a better inheritance to every Engliſhman than his private patrimony, how great ſoever, and being tranſmitted down to poſterity by the hard labour, ſweat, and blood of our anceſtors, they are the children’s bread: and it is not meet for us to take the children’s bread and caſt it away.
