Page:An Essay Concerning Parliaments.djvu/41

 Folkmote is uſed in every ſuddain Danger, and likewiſe if Neceſſity require it, under the Alderman (that is the Earl) of every County.

This laſt is plainly a Provincial Folkmote in time of Neceſſity; but the former part of the Sentence ſeems to intimate, that upon a Surprize when the King had not time to call a Parliament, the laſt Folkmote met; as the laſt Weſtminſter Parliament did, to give the Prince of Orange the Adminiſtration, before it was Poſſible to have a Parliament Elected.

Though the former Deſcription of the General and not the Provincial Folkmote is our preſent Buſineſs. And at the firſt fight it looks like a Full Parliament, for it conſiſts of the Princes, as well Biſhops, as Magiſtrates, and the Freemen; that is to ſay, the Chiefs of the whole Nation. And they are employed in Parliament-work, for they Conſult of the Common Safety, of Peace, of War, and promoting the Publick Profit. And did not the General Title of our Laws every Seſſion run thus; To the High Honour of God, and to the Profit of the Common-Wealth? If ever there were Wites in Parliament, ſure it was Princes, as well Biſhops as Magiſtrates, and the Freemen. Why then does this Learned Knight diſtinguiſh betwixt a Wittenagemote and a Folkmote, ſeeing they were both made up of Wites? I am Rh