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verned by Things and not by Words, and am throughly ſatisfied that an Aſſembly which does Parliament-Buſineſs is a Parliament. And no doubt the Folkmote made Laws; for it is not to be ſuppoſed that an Aſſembly of the whole Nation ſhould ſit Conſulting Forty Days of Peace and War, of Armies and Fleets, (which in thoſe Days were Three Thouſand Ships, and were able to make out the Dominion of the Seas); of the Grievances of the Nation, and the Redreſs of thoſe Grievances; and of Providing for the Common Profit of the Realm; and after all not to be able to enact their own Concluſions. That is juſt as if our preſent Parliament ſhould ſpend Forty Days in finding out Ways and Means for the raiſing Money, and afterwards were notable to put them into a Law: Or as we Private Men uſe to Conſult and Debate, and Settle the Nation over a Diſh of Coffee, without being able to oblige one ſingle Man to our Orders.
The Thing which miſled this Great Antiquary (as I conjecture) to make this Mark of Difference betwixt a Folkmote and a Wittenagemote, as if a Wittenagemote made Laws and a Folkmote not, is this; That when the Saxon Kings iſſued out their Laws, they ſaid they had paſſed in their Wittenagemote, Concilio Sapientum, or Council of Wiſe Men: And it
