Magna Charta, after frequent confirmations, was questioned under the Tudors and Stuarts, but at last was definitely established by the "Petition of Rights" in 1628. This latter constitutional document, after quoting the fundamental Statute (of Edward I) de Tallagio, &c., "that no tallage or aid shall be laid or levied by the King * * * without the good will and assent of * * * the freemen of the commonalty of this realm," finally reasserts these fundamental rights.
In the Grand Remonstrance of 1641, we find additional protest against "monopolies and other unlawful taxes."
But Charles I died on the scaffold because he was unable to learn that there was one form of Liberty that the Anglo-Saxon peoples would never be deprived of, that is the right to be secure in their properly, and free to grant or withhold their consent to being deprived of it.
There can be no greater justification of the care with which our forefathers fortified us against similar danger than the fact that Englishmen, having thus safeguarded their own freedom, having thus not merely fought for, but died for the principle involved, could, in less than a century, themselves attempt, by similar method, to destroy that of their fellow-subjects, living at a distance, in the Colonies, even though of identical blood and tradition; not, however, without vigorous protest from their own greatest men who really understood how important and of what Liberty consisted.
Lord Chatham immortalized himself by proclaiming to them in Parliament that they were dealing with "a subject of greater importance than ever engaged the attention of this House, that subject only excepted, when, near a century ago, it was a question of
