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was proper for the King to call his Folkmote by that Name, though not for them themſelves. As for Inſtance, the Writs of Election at this Day call for ſome of the Diſcreeteſt to be choſen to Parliament, though the Members do not aſſume that Title: And I know ſo much of the Old Engliſh Genius, that they would no more have called themſelves a Wittenagemote than this preſent Parliament would call their Votes which come out Day by Day, Journal de Sçavans.
But I will wave Conjectures even in Antiquities, (though we are there oftentimes forced to go in the Dark, to tread upon Ruins, and to feel out our Way;) becauſe I have direct Proof that the Folkmote made all the Laws we ever had. And for this I will go no farther than to the third Branch of the Uſual and Accuſtomed Coronation Oath taken by the former Kings of England, and taken twice by Richard the Second, 1. Hen. 4. Membr. 20. inter Decem Scriptores, p. 1746. in theſe words, ſpoken to the King by way of Queſtion: “Concedis juſtas Leges & Conſuentudines eſſe tenendas; & promittis per te eſſe protegendas & ad honorem Dei corroborandas quas Vulgus elegerit, ſecundum vires tuas? Reſpondebit, Concedo & promitto.” Do you grant that the juſt Laws and Cuſtoms which are of the Folks Chuſing ſhall
