Note 274 — PART IV. HISTORICAL SEQUEL TO MAGNA CARTA.

Dr. Stubbs thinks that in thus avoiding one danger, a greater danger was incurred. "It must be acknowledged that Hubert, in trying to bind the royal conscience, forsook the normal and primitive form of legislative enactment, and opened a claim on the king’s part to legislate by sovereign authority without counsel or consent." (Const. Hist., II. 37.) This seems to exaggerate the importance of an isolated precedent, the circumstances of which were unique. The confirmation was something far apart from an ordinary “legislative enactment.”