MAGNA CARTA

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 141, 18 June 1927, Page 17

MAGNA CARTA

FOUNDATION OF LIBERTY

OUR HERITAGE TO-DAY

SYMBOL OF UNITY

-Magna Carta Day (15tli June), was marked by a special celebration at Wellington Girls' College, when appropriate: songs and other items wero given by the school choir and by Mrs. J. Hannan and Mrs. Ray Brown/ An address dealing >with Magna Carta was delivered by Mr. A. E- Atkinson. In .brief introductory remarks the principal (Miss Greig) referred to New Zealand's relationship ■with the outside world and to the interest of the school in the -Empire, ■ the English-Speaking TTriion,' and the League or Nations. Mr. A. B. Atkinson said that two consecutive "Wednesdays had brought us intimate reminders of two of the most momentous events in English history. A week ago the ninth centenary of ■■-the birth of William the Conqueror was celebrated at Hastings and Battle Atbey. To-day they were celebrating the signing of Magna Carta. William was-.one of the strongest, ablest, and bravest of our. Kings—a great.soldier, a great statesman, and a great-man.;. At Hastings he defeated an England which had sadly degenerated since the days of /Alfred, arid by rough methods, he gave it peace, order, the beginnings of common law, and uhityof a kind. But the rule of William .was foreign and despotic, and to him, and his Norman, barons."Englishniau,'' was a term of contempt. John was a very different sort, of man. Macaulay called hjm "a trifler and a coward"—a very mild description of one of tho vilest, most vicious, and most contemptible of men. One of John's first acts was to kill his father by, his. treachery: . Henry 11. died of a broken heart from the discovery that his. son had been secretly plotting against him. /One of John's last acts was: the proposal to hang the garrison of. Rochester Castle which he had captured. „ The .Eev. W. Hunt described him-as.."mean, false, vindictive,: and abominably crnel," as of a .violent temper but at heart a coward, and as "so ■frivolous-and slothful that at critical times he would behave like a fool." One -might- add "that -he was so unbalanced that. oh some. critical occasions he would eveh-t>ehave like a.madman.

SALVATION FROM VICE.

Yet England's debt to John was im-

mense. "The talents and even the virtues of her first' six French Kings were," said Mac&ulay, "a curse to her. The -follies and vices of the aeyenth yreie lier . salvation." John was so impartially ; faithless, cruel, and oppressive- to everybody that the distinctipni between Norman and English; was obscured in their common sufferings. ''The two races,'' Macaulay proceeded, "so long hostile, soon found that (ihdy had common interests and common ene.niies. Both were alike aggrieved by/tfii?/tyranny, of a bad king." . . . Tte : great-graudsons of those who had

.fought;under-William and the great■i grandsons., of those who had fought unHarold began to draw near to each other in friendship; and the first pledge .of Itheir Teconeiliation was tho Great Charter, won by their united exertions, and framed for their common benefit. Here/commences the history of the Eng-' lish natio-n.'i^ ■; . .

■The charter, which .was won under these.conditions was, as Maitland said, . an "intensely-practical" document. It . was practical,- concrete, and businesslike; There was no nonsense about it, and no frills. There was nothing about "liberty,.equality,, and fraternity" after the French'style,"nothing about the self-evident truth that all men were ._. cr.eated equal,- which was affirmed in tho American Declaration of Independence. There was no thought of this .., in, ' a"_, practical document designed to meet practical needs. Men had been .cruelly [robbed under the name of tax- ;. 'htion-at. the.will of a wicked King. ■They, had been iitnprisoned and pun-ished-without trial. Justice had been denied, or; delayed—which was often the same thing. No man's property or . -liberty was safe. The barons who had becn-compelled: to tako up arms and •■:• had. at last- got the upper hand were : determined:that those things cease. .-They .put what they wanted, into a document, and at Runnymcdo on; the loth, June, 1215, they compelled King. . John' to sign: it. ■ ' That was Magnav Carta.' - . °

THE LAW ABOVE THE KINO. The. essence of the charta was to stop "the; tyranny under which. both races-had suffered by putting the Jaw!, above tho .King. Hence -Macuulay.fi> description of . it *as an instrument of national unity as well as securityMAni amusing illustration of ,'its "intensely-: practical" character, was a clause which provided that, if the King broke-the contract the barons ajad the community "may distrain and distress us : all. the ways possible, namely, by seizing our castles, lands,. and possessions, and in aiy other 'ways they can." If John made default, the- barons and the people had) the right to: pint the bailiffs into .Windsor Gastlef—if they,'.. could!' John's attitude to the, charter he ;had ; signed' wasj, characteristic;,. Firstj he "worked himself into a state of fury. gnashing his teeth and gnawing straws and;.bits of. stick." The 1 he repudiated' the and the .fighting began again,.but he was not strong enough. Magna Carta had! other perils to'face;from some other Kings, but it ..'still! stood\in the slightly modified: form given to it in 1225, and while it stood tyranny was impossible. "A King," accrding to a Greek philosopher, "ruled as he ought, a tyrant as he lists; a king to the profit of ally a tyrant to please a few." King John ruled as a jbyrant, King George;as a/ king.

;? KINGSHIP TbR TYBANNY. Magna Carta and subsequent extensipnsVof its principles had not only secured popular rights in Britain but iad' enabled her to carry, law, order, and-liberty all round tho world, and to give a great lead to the other Powers which.had, joined her in the League of Nations. Wiea the pioneers landed' in this'country they brought Magna Carta .. with them, not in any of their carpet bags—for .the .only, surviving original remained. in the ..British • Museum—but as a "part, of the .equipment of law and liberty which followed the British] . flag. .i. Magna Carta stood at tho head of the British laws which' were inforce in New Zealand to-day. Its principles had-.-given protection to the weaker: "races' _ of the Empire, and had enabled' Britain to confer upon, the millions of India, iii .the words of Mr. Eamsay Muir, "the supreme gift which the West.had to oft e'r to,the East, the substitution, of -the unvarying Eeign!of Law for •; the capricious .wills of in- : numerable ;and . shifting despots." ': ' ! ■'The Crown to-day was a; peril to nobody.; It. was,- on the; contrary, a symbol "of unity and safety, an object of affection and reverence for them, all, and for .the overseas peoples in particularMt was the symbol and guarantee of.a:united.Empire. .;;■; .-.,• _ . ..What, a •wonderful development that Empire' had .undergone! Krst; a nest "of pirates 'settled on the Hampshire coast, then extended by slow degrees t»:Wessx, then after conquest by other pirates front Normandy covering '.thewhole of England, then tho United Kingdom, and finally the great Empire which was the chief bulwark of peace, order, and liberty throughout the world.,. Let .them remember that tho history of the men who had accomplish-