Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/308

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T laſt I am come to ſearch after the head of Nile, and the true old land-mark of the Engliſh Conſtitution. How parliaments ſtood in the Britiſh times I am not certain; but that there were parliaments then I am certain. I have it from the wiſe, that and his fooliſh thaynes ſent to the Saxons for help againſt the Picts and Scots, and took into their boſoms a warlike and fierce nation, whom at a diſtance they were afraid of. And they indeed of courſe beat thoſe that infeſted Severus’s wall, but they made mine hoſts that invited them in, hewers of wood and drawers of water. And thoſe of the Britons that oppoſed them, the Saxons drove out of their country, whereby as ſays, all their records were loſt. But out of that venerable author we plainly ſee, that the lamentable letter, which was ſent ſome few years before to the ſenate of Rome, was written by a Britiſh parliament. For whoſe ſake I beg of all nations not to let in legions of foreign nations to be their maſters; for when they want them and their protection moſt, they ſhall go without it. For when the Roman legions were