It's interesting to note I'm reading the same level of
vitriol from libertarians who have no understanding of the long history of the
Rule of English Common Law and therefore the value of a head of state detached
from the political process. The Westminster Parliamentary System has resulted
in creating some of the most successful governments on earth and when rights
are challenged it is the very system that you're trashing which holds the key
to restoring liberty under law.
In this those who claim to want liberty disembodied from
the traditions under which it evolved share the identical delusion that
socialists labour under, namely an idealized utopia which has never existed.
Not only has such utopian ideology never created utopia (which is Greek for no
place) every time it was attempted it created tyranny and social ruin. And one
further thought, those who advocate such things never define in practice how
their utopian vision will work outside of our current legal, constitutional,
and parliamentary system which is based upon having a monarch as symbolic head
of state representing our inherent rights, liberties, and courts of justice.
Since the Westminster Parliamentary System is the one we
inherited let’s examine its achievements in creating the most successful and
stable democracies the world has ever known. Dominions which encircle the globe
that have provided the most functional responsible governments which have ever
blessed mankind. And let me state the following clearly, the first to recognize
that slavery was not an acceptable institution and plied the high seas at great
expense to mother country to end it. Let’s be clear, slavery is an institution
which still exists with an estimated thirty million people still living in
bondage. And where does this bondage exist in its worst forms? Why under communist
socialism where human beings are being used as organ harvesting platforms in
CCP led China.
The City of St. Catharines was the final terminus on the
Underground Railroad for hundreds of people fleeing slavery in the 1820s. The
Underground Railroad and Niagara's Freedom Trail was a network of people who
hid and guided enslaved black people who were leaving the United States and
heading to British North America to seek freedom.
Harriet Tubman and abolition:
The railroad began at the “The Crossing,” which is located
along the Niagara River by historic Fort Erie and ends at the British Methodist
Episcopal Church, Salem Chapel. Harriet Tubman, an important Underground
Railroad conductor and abolitionist attended this chapel which became an
important space for early abolitionist activity in British North America.
Tubman remained in St. Catharines for 10 years where she worked as an abolitionist
and helped former enslaved people adjust to their new life.
William Hamilton Merritt, prominent businessmen and
abolitionist, helped the new citizens purchase land to build the British
Methodist Episcopal Church, Salem Chapel and later the Zion Baptist Church.
https://www.stcatharines.ca/en/arts-culture-and-events/the-underground-railroad.aspx
Ignorance of history not only destines us to repeat past
mistakes, it demonstrates unforgivable laziness in an age when historical
resources are available on-line. If we hope to advance the cause of responsible
government ignorance will not serve our cause. These advances were made
possible by famous jurists who had paved the way for universal recognition of
liberty under law and universal suffrage.
2 Timothy 2:15 "Study to show thyself approved unto
God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of
truth."
Why we are getting our definitions of political and
philosophical leanings incorrect:
The left-right political divide originated during the time
of the French Revolution. To the right of the King (today's executive branch)
sat those who believed the King had the right to veto acts of parliament while
to the King's left sat those who believed that Parliament had the right to veto
the King. Over many centuries Britain evolved the Westminster System to designate
an almost purely symbolic role for its Monarch, which I deem to be essential to
our system of governance. Magna Carta has had far reaching impact in this
evolutionary process of limited government.
Sir Edward Coke of “Magna Carta is such a fellow that he
will have no sovereign” fame explains one of the key sections of Magna Carta on
English liberties (1642).
Sir Edward Coke:
Found in Selected Writings of Sir Edward Coke, vol. II
The English judge and Member of Parliament Sir Edward Coke
(1552-1634) spelled out the full meaning of what it meant to have “English
liberties.” Because he believed that “the liberty of a man’s person is more
precious to him, then all the rest that follow” he listed the nine “branches”
which made up the “tree of liberty” as understood in the mid-17th century:
Upon this Chapter [29] of Magna Carta, as out of a roote,
many fruitfull branches of the Law of England have sprung…
This Chapter containeth nine severall branches.
1. That
no man be taken or imprisoned, but per legem terrae, that is, by the Common
Law, Statute Law, or Custome of England; for these words, Per legem terrae,
being towards the end of this Chapter, doe referre to all the precedent matters
in this Chapter, and this hath the first place, because the liberty of a mans
person is more precious to him, then all the rest that follow, and therefore it
is great reason, that he should by Law be relieved therein, if he be wronged,
as hereafter shall be shewed.
2. No man
shall be disseised, that is, put out of seison, or dispossessed of his free-hold
(that is) lands, or livelihood, or of his liberties, or free customes, that is,
of such franchises, and freedomes, and free customes, as belong to him by his
free birth-right, unlesse it be by the lawfull judgement, that is, verdict of
his equals (that is, of men of his own condition) or by the Law of the Land
(that is, to speak it once for all) by the due course, and processe of Law.
3. No man
shall be out-lawed, made an exlex, put out of the Law, that is, deprived of the
benefit of the Law, unlesse he be out-lawed according to the Law of the Land.
4. No man
shall be exiled, or banished out of his Country, that is, Nemo perdet patriam,
no man shall lose his Country, unlesse he be exiled according to the Law of the
Land.
5. No man
shall be in any sort destroyed (Destruere. i. quod prius structum, & factum
fuit, penitus evertere & diruere) unlesse it be by the verdict of his
equals, or according to the Law of the Land.
6. No man
shall be condemned at the Kings suite, either before the King in his Bench,
where the Pleas are Coram Rege, (and so are the words, Nec super eum ibimus, to
be understood) nor before any other Commissioner, or Judge whatsoever, and so
are the words, Nec super eum mittemus, to be understood, but by the judgement
of his Peers, that is, equalls, or according to the Law of the Land.
7. We
shall sell to no man Justice or Right.
8. We
shall deny to no man Justice or Right.
9. We
shall defer to no man Justice or Right.
Sir Edward Coke wrote a voluminous set of glosses on
aspects of English law known as The Institutes. In this case, The Second Part
of the Institutes, he glosses the meaning of the Great Charter (Magna Carta) of
1215. It elaborated in considerable detail the foundation upon which “English
liberties” rested. It was not published until 1642, some 8 years after his
death, but just in time to become part of the intellectual ammunition used by
opponents of the Monarchy during the English civil war and revolution during
the 1640s and 1650s. This quotation comes from chapter 29 on the section
entitled “No Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised of his
Freehold, or Liberties … but by lawful judgment of his Peers, or by the Law of
the Land.” To Coke, this was the “root” from which sprang many “branches” of
English law regarding individual liberty. One can imagine John Lilburne reading
from this passage in his successful defence in his trial for treason in 1649.
The jury of his peers acquitted him of all charges.
Only an ignorant fool would or could wish to ignore these
traditions and the long history of the evolution of our Rule of Law. Her late
Majesty had 15 Prime Ministers during her reign all of whom benefited from her
advice and careful guidance. But what does this mean to us today? Since we
choose to describe politics as left vs right we need to admit that those who
claim to be leftists are actually extreme right wing authoritarians who want
the executive to be able to veto parliament. This places them to the right of
the King making Justin Trudeau an extreme right wing fanatic. This has been
demonstrated clearly during COVID with Justin Trudeau suspending parliamentary
oversight of government while giving himself unconstitutional powers to ignore
the will of the people and their parliament!
Classical liberals in the English sense recognize the
importance of the symbolic in government. Since Her late Majesty’s passing, I have
read libertarians spewing the most vile and loathsome nonsense about Her and
the role of the monarch in our Westminster version of limited, constitutional,
parliamentary democracy without ever suggesting by what process we would be
able to replace our system and what that new form of government would look
like. It appears to me that libertarians despise the Rule of English Common Law
which is arguably one of our greatest inheritances. It is the very reason that
Lieutenant Governor Simcoe was appointed to the newly separated province of
Upper Canada in the 1790's since the American Loyalists who lost their land in
the states did not want to live under French Civil Law which Lower Canada had
at that time and indeed still has today.
If we are to hope for greater liberty under law by ignoring
the traditions which has created the most successful democracies on earth, we are
merely deluding ourselves. For libertarians to assert they have something
better than our admittedly flawed system of government without having a single
example of the form of government they advocate ever having existed shares a
similar delusion that leads radical socialists to claim that communism has
never been tried is spite of all its tyranny and failures. So, if you hope to
increase liberty here in Canada, I strongly advise a little gratitude for those
who struggled mightily within the Westminster System to apply Magna Carta to
all men by reminding our illiberal and authoritarian government that Magna
Carta is such a fellow as will have no sovereign. We have much work to do but
that work will not be accomplished by tearing down. It can only be furthered by
building on the millennia old foundations which began in the times of Witan and
Ting on to the modern Westminster System which exist throughout the
Commonwealth today. After all we have a common enemy, namely those who have the
temerity to believe they are sovereign to Magna Carta! It will be more than
sufficient for us to remind them on no uncertain terms that no one is above the
Grand Charter and that the Rule of Law must apply equally to all!
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