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Hongkong Daily Press.
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Registered as a Newspaper at the General 報西 · ESTABLISHED 1857
HONGKONG, THURSDAY, APRIL 13, 1939.
G.P.O. Box No. 1,
ENGLISH LAW KNOWS NO DISTINCTION
BETWEEN RICH & POOR
M
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Interesting Address By Sir Atholl MacGregor
6.
“ENGLISH LAW KNOWS NO DISTINCTION BE- TWEEN RICH AND POOR, ` JEW AND GENTILE, OFFICIAL AND UNOFFICIAL. In the eyes of the law each is free and because he is free he is a responsible citizen and as such answerable to the law for any in- fringement of the rights of any of his fellow citizens. Not even the highest official in the land can set up Act of State as his justification for an illegal act,” de- clared the Chief Justice, Sir Atholl MacGregor, K.C., In an interesting address on "Freedom in English Law” which he delivered before a large audience at St. John's Hall on Tuesday night.
2.
Sir Atholl, in his address, blow fell "there was such a groan said:
by the thousands then present as | I never heard before and desire I'
may never hear again."
evident; that all men are created from arrest or arbitrary impri- equal; that they are endowed by sonment was concerned. But mark their creator with certain inalien-the beginning of the great article. able rights; that among these are "No free man" and the last life, liberty and the pursuit of hap-words "by the law of the land." piness, that, to secure these rights In the thirteenth century all in governments are instituted among England were not free: the feudal men, deriving their just powers system was in full force, and the from the consent of the governed." Barons who negotiated the Char- Even the charters of post-war Gerter with King John would, in yiew. many and of Soviet Russia are at of their feudal rights, have been pains to declare guaranteed free the last to demand from their dom of person, of speech and of King any restriction of their exist- the press, though few solemn de ing rights over their villeins. All
men were not free, but they gained" public recognition of their free- dom, slow though the process was, not by virtue of any statutory de- claration, but by the law of the land, a law that was established and pronounced by the judges and In some cases, by the action of juries of their fellow subjects
clarations can" have been more cynically disregarded.
A student of comparative legislation will "have no difi- culty in discovering. «similar legislative authority for liberty In almost every civilised coun- 'try, but in England he will search the statutes in vain for any comparable pronounce- * ment..
From the moment when first the independence of the judiciary was grudgingly admitted the judges: discouraged villeinage. So late as 1817 in the reign of James I the defence of villeinage was set up. though happily it failed, but in a much earlier case all the Judges of the Court sat and held that the prescription of villeinage had fail- ed since the first year of the reign of Henry VIL
At Arst sight that no doubt When a few weeks ago my friend'
seems to be a very sweeping state George She asked me if I would
ment which can easily be refuted give you a talk on some legal sub-
In these days when nations need by reference to Magna Carta of fect; I was very proud of the hon above all authority which is not 1215; the Petition of Right in 1623 our he was doing me and I very state worship, and liberty which is and the Bill of Rights and the To- gladly accepted the invitation. I not anarchy, the King's last speechleration Act of 1889. When, how have come to a stage in life when has a deep import. Having de- Lever, one examines those great his- one feels that youth is incompar-clared that he desired the people's torical documents, one finds that ably the greatest of gifts. Youth freedom, he continued "Their 1-they, none of them, contain any is so essentially vital and recep-berty and freedom consist in hav-new principle. Indeed, the cir tive and youth has the glorious ing of government these laws by cumstances in which they came adventure of having all life before which their life and their goods into being show clearly that they It to shape and to mould into pro-shall be most their own." It is not do no more than re-amrm cardi- per form, and so when I began to having a share in government, al principles of English policy of look for a subject I chose one that Birs: that is nothing pertaining to the relations that long had sub I think has a real meaning and them. A subject and a sovereignaisted and must continue to sub-and freely recognized? Unfor- message to the rising generation, are clear different things."
sist between subject and monarch tunately we cannot. The reigns the subject of Liberty in English" Law.
TWO REASONS
13
· UNIQUE “REIGNS
Can we then say that with the accession of James I universal freedom in England was gladly
of the Stuart Kings are fortunate-
NO NOVELTY
ly unique in our island's troubled Some among you may, in after I have chosen that tragic day 25
Magna Carta, to which most history. The Stuarta set up the years, guide and control the des- my starting point for two reasons. people would at once point as the divine right of Kings, their judges tinies of the great Republic of It was the practice in those days of written guarantee of our social were weak and time-serving and China; many of you will certainly public, execution for each victim liberties, was no novelty, nor did the great proclamations of Magna in the fields of medicine, science of the scaffold to make a farewell it claim to establish any new con- Carta were deliberately and re- and teaching, bring enlighten-speech for the edification of pos- stitutional principles. The charter Peatedly noted. Discontent at ment, happiness and prosperity to terity, King Charles could hardly of Henry I who died eighty years the recurrent invasions of Liberty your fellowmen, and so I felt just have conscientiously believed that earlier, formed the basis of the person and of property grow fed in belleving, as 7 very con- he had devoted the years of his whole, and the additions to that rapidly till in 1828 Charles I was dently believe, that if I could con- reign to preserving the liberties of old charter are merely formal re- compelled to assent to the Peti- vince you that there is no greater his subjects, for, as I shall show cognition of the judicial changestion of Right which provided in human blessing, whether for state you later. It was in Stuart times introduced by Henry II
the main that there should be no or for subject, than Liberty, as that the Royal house made the
taxation without consent of Par- that word le understood and safe-most determined attempts to en- It is in the main a vague' docu- llament and no illegal imprison- guarded by English Law and the croach on the liberties of their ment which, by modern canons of British administration of justice, subjects, but King Charles must draughtsmanship, would manifest- I should have justified this intrus-have realized that liberty was the ly raise problems of interpretation sion on your time and have given most precious heritage of each one you a message of real outstanding of his subjects, a heritage to which Importance.
even the divine right of Kings The canvas which I have before must yield."
ment
Charles I, however was deterinin-
which would be the delight ored to go down with his fag fiying. despire of any judge, but, when it Next year, 1829, he dissolved Par comes to pronounce on the subject: flament and with the help of his of liberty, the rights of English-two ministers Strafford and: Land || me is vast that it would "be What then is the source from their right to fustice, to se he embarked on the fatal decade curity of person and property and of government by prerogative" impossible. for anyone in one brief which in England flows this life to good government ars enunciated alone. Things went from bad to lecture to all it or indeed to do blood of freedom? If one were in clarion tones refreshingly free worse till they came to a head in more than trace upon it faint considering almost any country from vagueness or ambiguity "No the famous case of the King y outline, but I hope that even an but England the answer would be free man runs the memorable Hampden, better known perhaps outline may be enough to whet simple. France pat liberty in the 39th Article which is the basis of as the case of Ship Money, in 1637. your appetites for more and to en- forefront of her republican con- our whole judicial system," "shall The Judges of the day were sc- courage you for yourselves to read stitution and so does the written be seized or imprisoned or dispos commodatingly complaisant and and study a subject which perhaps constitution of Belgiumeta da
sessed or outlawed, or in any way Charles having no Parliamen more than any other, distinguishes
song,On÷July 4, 1776, came the de- brought to ruin, we will not go consult, made it his habit to take democracy from despotism
claration of American indepen-¡ against any man nor send against the opinion of the Judges. And sp with this brief introduc-dence. Jefferson's wording is a him, save by legal judgment of his in 1836 all twelve Judges advised tion, I come to my task:
model of such stately and states peers or by the law of the land" him that he might prope tary 30, 1640, Charles I manlike English that you will for- Bo, more than seven hundred years prerogative writs for utad in Whitehall, A give me for quoting from it, "We ago, our liberty was recognised in Ƒtion of ship, moner, so he, duly ator has told how when the hold these
› be self- | writing, at least so far as freedoms farmed write shout the realm.
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