Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/315

Rh 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 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 chuſing for the future, be the ſenſe of the word or no? For if the Folks chuſing was the conſtitution in King  the ſecond’s time, then I would fain know in what King’s reign it was afterwards, that the conſtitution was altered.

ſhort, the Folk choſe the laws; and I believe the Engliſh Folkmote and Wittenagemote will be found to be old ’s river,

which the gods call Xanthus, but mortal men call Scamander. Now, though Scamander be the homelier name, yet it is the ſame river.

but ſay there was ſome difference betwixt the Folkmote upon the kalends of May, and the Folkmotes which the King always called for