448 Tiie Fenoa 01 Constitution Maiang

fostered by the long wars would be controlled, and that
England's medieval constitution would continue until
Englishmen had~ learned to value it and strive for it. The
field was cleared for the conflict between the great middle
class, trained in government for many centuries, and the
succession of incomparable Tudor and Stuart personalities.

Of the features of the constitution characteristic of the
modern period it is safe to say that the most matured by
1485 were the courts and common law,"^^nLese^wef e "al-
reaHy veru^^ the subject of

thought, and of writings that had become classical. And
on the whole the courts had developed a procedure that
safeguarded the subject from oppression. The substance
of habgasjzorpus wa^aJreadjMn^existence; unanimous jury
verdicts were necessary to convict in all serious criminal
charges, and questions of fact in civil suits were usually
determined in the same way; public officials, even when
acting directly for the king, were not immune from
damage suits or indeed from trial on criminal accusations,
and the facts were judged by juries. The king was clearly
under the law, though just what law and who upon all
occasions should hold him to it had not been worked out.
In this connection the baronage had played a part in
England that the corresponding class had played in no
other country. When we say that the government of
England in the middle ages was becoming constitutional
we mean that it was becoming aristocratic. But when
the b^ons fought against the king, it was not, generally
speaking, that they had a different ma3i5^ry of govgrn-
ment to put m^a^cs^tion] {^^^^e^Tea^Jto_>o;cceQt the
^ and his

What they

wished was to cogtrdltibpse institutions and

Baronial victor-
ies did not, as a rule,^esi3tln^ecay and weakening of the
government; a large part of the more professional staff
in the various departments were allowed to continue their