Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/313

Rh the raiſing money, and afterwards were not able 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 obey our orders.

thing which miſled the 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 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 des Scavans.

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