Note 647 — MAGNA CARTA. (continued 3)

Dr. Stubbs, Const. Hist., I. 650, thinks that the proposals of the Articles and Charter indicated a tendency towards judicial absolutism, only curbed by the growth of trial by jury. Yet the barons in providing against the sheriff’s irregularities had certainly no intention to enhance the royal power. The attitude of the insurgents in 1215 suggests rather that the sheriffs had now become instruments of royal absolutism to a greater extent than the king’s justices themselves. The problem of local government had thus assumed a new form (cf. supra, p. 20). Edward I., indeed, deftly turned this chapter to his own advantage, arguing that it cancelled all private jurisdiction over criminal pleas previously claimed by boroughs or individuals. See Coke, Second Institute, 31, and cases there cited.