Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/118

c INTRODUCTION. the Magna Charta, as it has been well denomi- nated, of Aragon. It was granted hy Peter the Great to the cortes at Saragossa, in 1283. It em- braces a variety of provisions for the fair and open administration of justice ; for ascertaining the le- gitimate powers intrusted to the cortes ; for the se- curity of property against exactions of the crown ; and for the conservation of their legal immunities to the municipal corporations and the different or- ders of nobility. In short, the distinguishing ex- cellence of this instrument, like that of Magna Charta, consists in the wise and equitable protec- tion which it affords to all classes of the communi- ty.^^ The General Privilege, instead of being wrested, like King John's charter, from a pusillani- mous prince, was conceded, reluctantly enough, it is true, in an assembly of the nation, by one of the ablest monarchs who ever sat on the throne of Ara- gon, at a time when his arms, crowned with re- peated victory, had secured to the state the most important of her foreign acquisitions. The Aragonese, who rightly regarded the Gen- eral Privilege as the broadest basis of their lib- erties, repeatedly procured its confirmation by suc- ceeding sovereigns. " By so many and such various 43 " There was such a confor- confirmation of the jirivilege by mity of sentiment among all par- James the Second, in 1325, torture, ties," says Zurita, " that the privi- then generally recognised by the leges of the nobility were no bet- municipal law of Europe, was ex- ter secured tlian those of the com- prcssly prohibited in Aragon, " as mons. For the Aragonese deemed unworthy of freemen." See Zu- that the existence of the common- rita, Analcs, lib. 6, cap. Gl, — and wealth depended not so mucii on Fueros y Observ'ancias, torn. i. fol. its strength, as on its liberties." 9. Declaratio Priv. Generalis. (Anales, lib. 4, cap. 38.) In the