Page:A Declaration of the People's Natural Right to a Share in the Legislature (1775) (IA declarationofpeo00shar).djvu/244

 particular mode of Trial is so inseparably annexed to the Law of the Land, that it is sometimes expressed and known by that general term, “the Law of the Land,” (Lex Terra,) as if there was no other Law of the Land but this one: which emphatical expression sufficiently proves that this particular Law for the Mode of Trials is the first and most essential Law of the Constitution; for, otherwise, it could not be entitled to such an eminent and peculiar distinction, in preference to all the other excellent Laws of the Land; and consequently this principal or fundamental law is so necessarily implied and comprehended in that general term, “the Law of the Land,” that the latter may be considered as entirely subverted and overthrown, whenever the former is changed or set aside; for “sublato fundamento cadit opus.” Jenk. Cent, 106.

In the 29th Chapter of Magna Charta, “the Law of the Land” seems to be mentioned in