had provided no other method to ſecure their actual enjoyment. It has therefore eſtabliſhed certain other auxiliary ſubordinate rights of the ſubject, which ſerve principally as barriers to protect and maintain inviolate the three great and primary rights, of perſonal ſecurity, perſonal liberty, and private property. Theſe are,
1. The conſtitution, powers, and privileges of parliament, of which I ſhall treat at large in the enſuing chapter.
2. The limitation of the king’s prerogative, by bounds ſo certain and notorious, that it is impoſſible he ſhould exceed them without the conſent of the people. Of this alſo I ſhall treat in it’s proper place. The former of theſe keeps the legiſlative power in due health and vigour, ſo as to make it improbable that laws ſhould be enacted deſtructive of general liberty: the latter is a guard upon the executive power, by reſtraining it from acting either beyond or in contradiction to the laws, that are framed and eſtabliſhed by the other.
3. A third ſubordinate right of every Engliſhman is that of applying to the courts of juſtice for redreſs of injuries. Since the law is in England the ſupreme arbiter of every man’s life, liberty, and property, courts of juſtice muſt at all times be open to the ſubject, and the law be duly adminiſtred therein. The emphatical words of magna carta[1], ſpoken in the perſon of the king, who in judgment of law (ſays ſir Edward Coke[2]) is ever preſent and repeating them in all his courts, are theſe; nulli vendemus, nulli negabimus, aut differemus rectum vel juſtitiam: “and therefore every ſubject,” continues the ſame learned author, “for injury done to him in bonis, in terris, vel perſona, by any other ſubject, be he eccleſiaſtical or temporal without any exception, may take his remedy by the courſe of the law, and have juſtice and right for the injury done to him, freely without ſale, fully without any denial, and ſpeedily without delay.” It were endleſs to enumerate all the affirmative acts of parliament
