Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/279



F a man would have an entire view of the Engliſh conſtitution, he muſt have recourſe to thoſe able and approved authors who have written purpoſely on that ſubject. For it is a rule, Parva eſt authoritas aliud agentis; and what is ſaid by the by, is of leſs weight, than what is profeſſedly handled; provided it have been maturely conſidered, by a competent judge of that matter which he treats. And in this kind we do not find a man better qualified than the learned lord chancellor, who was an aged lawyer, and had been lord chief juſtice of