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be kept, and do you promiſe that they ſhall be Protected, and to the Honour of God receive Affirmance by you, to the utmoſt of your Power? The King ſhall Anſwer, I Grant and Promiſe.
Now I would fain know, How a Folkmote can be otherwiſe expreſſed in Latin than by the Word Vulgus, which is a Collective Word: Or how the Vulgus or Folk could chuſe Laws any otherwiſe than in a Folkmote?
I will not enter into the ſtiff Diſpute which exerciſed King Charles the Firſt and his Parliament for a long time, whether the word was Præter Tenſe or Future; and whether the Word was beſt rendred in the French Tranſlations, the Laws which the Folk auront eſleu, ſhall have choſen, or which the Folk eſlieront ſhall hereafter Chuſe; whereupon they ſaid that he was bound to Sign and Affirm all the Laws they ſhould hereafter preſent to him, and that he could not make uſe of a Negative without Perjury. I ſay that that whole Diſpute was not worth a Farthing. For if the Folk Choſe the Laws all along down to King Richard the Second’s Time, and the Kings were ſworn to Affirm them, then we know how the Laws antiently were made; And who cares whether Eſlieront or Chooſing for the future be the Senſe of the Word or no? For if the Folks Chooſing was the Conſtitution in K. Richard
