Note 223 — PART III. MAGNA CARTA: ITS FORM AND CONTENTS.

Const. Hist., I. 571. Cf. Ibid., I. 583, “The act of the united nation, the church, the barons, and the commons, for the first time thoroughly at one.” Who were “the commons” in 1215? The question is a difficult one to answer. Cf. also Mr. Prothero, Simon de Montfort, 18, “The spirit of nationality of which the chief portion of Magna Carta was at once the product and the seal.”