AN ESSAY CONCERNING PARLIAMENTS AT A CERTAINTY OR The KALENDS of MAY. BY SAMUEL JOHNSON Vice Cotis fungar Horace LONDON Printed for the Author MDCXCIII TO THE Barons and Commons Of ENGLAND In Parliament Assembled May it please your Honours YOU either knew more of the Matter contained in these Papers or less or the same If you knew more I should be glad to see it in your Laws which you mean to Establish Or which is better in your Declaration of the Constitution If not no Body can find fault with my poor Office of bearing a Light but they that have very ill Eyes I am the known Servant of You and of my whole Country Samuel Johnson AN ESSAY Concerning Parliaments at a Certainty CHAP. I. Shewing that the Frequent meeting of Parliaments is the Basis of our Constitution and the True of the Government and that the Intermission of them is Inconsistent with the Body of the English Law IF a Man would have an entire View of the English Constitution he must have recourse to those Able and Approved Authors who have written Purposely on that Subject For it is a Rule Parva est Authoritas aliud Agentis and what is said by the by is of less Weight than what is professedly handled provided it have been Maturely considered by a Competent Judge of that Matter of which he treats And in this kind we do not find a Man better Qualified than the Learned Lord Chancellor Fortescue who was an Aged Lawyer and had been Lord Chief Justice of England when he wrote his Book de laudibus Legum Angliae which was on purpose in a Dialogue with the Prince of Wales to inform him of the Nature of the English Constitution and to let him know by what Sort of Laws the Realm in which he was to Succeed his Father was to be Governed And therefore he adjures him over and over again to Addict himself to the Understanding of the Laws of his Father's Realm wherein he was to Succeed Fol. 16. a. and having shewed the Prince the Different nature of Reahns where a King could Tyrannize and where he could not being restrained by Politick Laws Fol. 26. b. Rejoyce therefore says he most Excellent Prince and be glad That the Law of the Realm in which you are to succeed is Such for it shall exhibit and minister to You and your People no small Security and Comfort But out of that excellent Book which I believe no way Warped for then it must lean towards the Court partly because of the Flattery and Officiousness which is too often found in Dialogues with Princes and partly because the Author was retained on the Crown side by the Greatest Office in England I will confine my Self to those Passages only which relate to the Frequency of Parliaments And the first I meet with is in his 18th Chap. concerning the Statutes of England in these words Et si Statuta haec tantâ solemnitate prudentiâ edita efficaciae tantae quantae conditorum cupiebat intentio non esse contingant Concitò reformari ipsa possunt 〈◊〉 non sine Communitatis Procerum Regni illius assensu quali ipsa primitùs emanarunt And if these Statutes fall short of their intended Efficacy though devised with such great Solemnity and Wisdom of Parliament they may very Quickly be Reformed but not without the Assent of the Commons and Peers of the Realm which was their Source from the beginning Now I only desire that the word Concitò may be taken notice of which is the quickest Word that can be imagined and shews that our Parliaments were always at Hand and the whole Passage shews for what Wise and Just Reasons they were so The next Passage is Chap. 53. Fol. 129. a. Neque leges Angliae frivolas infructuosas permittunt inducias Et siquae in Regno illo dilationes in Placitis minùs accommodae fuerint usitatae in Omni Parliamento amputari illae possunt etiam Omnes Leges Aliae in Regno illo usitatae cum in aliquo Claudicaverint in Omni Parliamento poterunt Reformari Quo recte concludi potest quod omnes Leges Regni illius Optimae sunt in actu vel potentiâ quo faciliter in actum duci poterunt in Essentiam realem Ad quod faciendum quoties aequitas id poposcerit singuli Reges ibidem Sacramento astringuntur solemniter praestito tempore receptionis Diadematis sui Neither do the Laws of England allow in Law-suits frivolous and fruitless Delays And if in this Kingdom Delays in Pleas which are not to the purpose should be used they may in every Parliament be cut off Yea and all other Laws used in the Realm when they Halt or are Defective in any point they may in every Parliament be set to Rights Whereupon it may be rightly Concluded that the Laws of England are the Best in the World either Actually or Potentially since they can easily be brought into Act or Being To the performance whereof as often as Equity so requireth Every King is bound by an Oath solemnly taken at the time of receiving his Crown Out of this last Passage I will not trouble you with any more Observations than these First That Parliaments are the Remedy against Delays in Law Proceedings But how if Parliaments themselves should be Delayed Secondly That if any or all our Laws should Halt and our Parliaments at the same time should be Crippled too and not able to come together they could not help one another In the next and last Chapter of that Book Fol. 129. b. the Prince immediately replies Princeps Leges illas nedum bonas sed optimas esse Cancellarie ex prosecutione tuâ in hoc Dialogo certissimè deprehendi Et siquae ex illis meliorari deposcant id Citissimè fieri posse Parliamentorum ibidem Formulae nos erudiunt Quo realiter potentialiterve Regnum illud semper praestantissimis Legibus gubernatur Nec tuas in hâc concionatione doctrinas futuris Angliae Regibus inutiles fore Conjicio dum non delectent regere legibus quae non delectant Says the Prince My Lord Chancellor by the Tenour of your Discourse in this Dialogue I am throughly satisfied that the Laws of England are not only Good but the Best in the World And in case any of the Laws want to be mended or improved the Rules of the English Parliaments do instruct us That that may be done forthwith Whereupon the Realm of England is always Governed by the very best Laws either in Reality or in Possibility And besides I conjecture that the Doctrines that have been held forth in this Dialogue will be very useful to the Kings of England that shall come hereafter since no Body likes to Govern by Laws which they do not like After all these Lauds and Praises of the English Laws which the Chancellor has stuck all over with Stars quite through his Book and has made their Perfection to Center in this
pur aides 〈◊〉 cuilets de 〈◊〉 Et ou les 〈◊〉 duissent faire al Common assent del Roy 〈◊〉 de ses Counties la le se font 〈◊〉 per le Roy 〈◊〉 ses Clerks 〈◊〉 per aliens 〈◊〉 autres que nosent contravener le 〈◊〉 eins 〈◊〉 de luy plaire 〈◊〉 de luy Counseller a son 〈◊〉 tout ne soit my le Counsel Covenable al Commons del People fans 〈◊〉 les Counties 〈◊〉 fans ensuer les Rules de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dount 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 se foundent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fur 〈◊〉 que sur Droit The second Abusion of the Law is that whereas Parliaments ought to Convene for the Salvation of the Souls of Trespassors and this at London and Two Times in the Year now a days they meet but seldom and at the Will of the King for Aids and Gatherings of Treasure And whereas Ordinances ought to be made by the Common Assent of the King and his Counties now they are made by the King and his Clerks and by Aliens and others that dare not Contradict the King but desire to Please him and to Counsel him for his own Profit though it be not Counsel which is Convenient for the Commons of the People without applying to the Counties and without following the Rules of Right Whereupon there are several of the present Ordinances that are rather founded upon Will than upon Right From this Passage I shall only observe that the Place of a Parliament's meeting is Fixed and still at London And that the Two Times a Year was standing Law down to King Edward the First though Abusions and Court-Practices had broken in upon the Law Now let us see how the Law stood afterwards wherein I can only consult the Books I have by me for I have not Health enough to go and Transcribe the Records in the Tower but take them upon Content as they lie in Sir Robert Cotton's Abridgment of the Records in the Tower And there in the very first Page 5 Ed. 〈◊〉 it is Ordained Que Parliament serra tenus un ou deux foits per An. That a Parliament shall be held one Time or Two Times a Year Here you see the Twice a Year is 〈◊〉 into Once or Twice The next is p. 93. of the same Bock 36. Ed. 3. The Print touching the Yearly holding of a Parliament cap. 10. agreeth with the Record Now the Print is Item for Maintenance of the said Articles and Statutes and Redress of divers Mischiefs which Daily happen a Parliament shall be holden every Year as another time was Ordained by Statute Now that Statute as I find by the Statute-Book for I cannot find it in Sir Robert Cotton is thus 4 Ed. 3. cap. 14. Item it is accorded that a Parliament shall be holden every Year Once and more Often if need be By the Reason given in the 36 Ed. 3. cap. 10. just now recited for a Yearly Parliament one would think it should be a Daily Parliament because it is for the Maintenance of former 〈◊〉 and Redress of divers Mischiefs which Daily happen But I believe that a Parliament which Sits but Forty Days in the Year are able to do that Work Concerning which we will enquire further afterwards In the 50 Ed. 3. p. 138. The Parliament's Demand or Petition is this That a Parliament may be holden every Year the Knights of the Parliament may be chosen by the whole Counties and that the Sheriff may likewise be without brokage in Court The King's Answer is this To the Parliament there are Statutes made therefore To the Sheriffs there is answer made To the Knights it is agreed that they shall be chosen by common Consent of every County After these Three Laws in Ed. 3d's Time we come to the First of King Richard the Second p. 163. where the Petition or Demand for a Yearly Parliament is this That a Parliament may be Yearly holden in convenient place to redress Delays in Suits and to end such Cases as the Judges doubt of The King's Answer is It shall be as it hath been used In the 2 R. 2. p. 173. By the King's Commandment one Cause of opening the Parliament is Declared to be this Secondly for that it was enacted that a Parliament should Yearly be holden Nay if the Court insist upon a Yearly Parliament the Country may and ought Thus stood the Law of England till the 16 Caroli 1. when that King having discontinued Parliaments for Twelve Years and created a Distrust of him in the Breasts of his People which was Just for if a Prince spoil the Government for Twelve Years together who shall Trust him in the Thirteenth The Nation found a Necessity of having a Cautionary Parliament every Third Year to secure their Annual Parliaments for the Two Years immediately foregoing This is the true Reason of the Act for a Triennial Parliament which was a perfect Innovation both Name and Thing For I challenge any Antiquary Lawyer or Person whatsoever that has turned over Books to shew me the word Triennial joined to the word Parliament from the Foundation of this Government till the Year 1640. A Triennial Parliament therefore is so far from being the Constitution of this Government that if it were so a great number of our present Lords and Commoners are Older than the Constitution and were Born before it But as I said before that Act was only a Cautionary Act as a Town or Gate of a City is taken in Caution for performance of Articles This appears by the first thing which is Enacted in that Law namely That the Laws for a Parliament to be holden at least once a Year shall hereafter be duly Kept and Observed Scobel's Coll. 16 Car. 1. Cap. 1. This Act was Gently drawn up and had more of a Prospect than a Retrospect and does not look back into those Oppressions which King Charles himself in his large Declaration of August the 12th does acknowledge were Insupportable which were wholly owing to this long Intermission of Parliaments but it wisely provides that in case the two first Years Parliaments should fail then came a Peremptory Parliament which the King and Keeper might call if they pleased but if they did not the Counties and Burroughs of England were forced to send It is an Act that executes it self like our Act for Burying in Woollen and he that will see the Wisdom of it may read it where I have quoted it After this comes the Act 16 Car. 2. cap. 1. and repeals this Triennial Act because say they It is in Derogation of his Majesty's just Rights and Prerogative inherent to the Imperial Crown of this Realm for the Calling and Assembling of Parliaments whereupon the Triennial Act is Annulled as if it had never been made I wish it had never been made But we will stop there first It is annulled as if it had never been made There is nothing lost by that for then our Parliaments are where they were which was Due Annual Well now let
us see what Alteration is made by this New Act 16 Car. 2. which follows in these words Sect. 3. And because by the Ancient Laws and Statutes of this Realm made in the Reign of K. Edward the 3d Parliaments are to be held very often that is once or twice a Year Therefore they shall not be Discontinued above Three Years at the most I do not use to Admire Consequences which I do not understand But under favour I would be taken right I say that the Recital of the Ancient Laws of this Realm does not Repeal them Disannul them anneantir any thing nothing when there is not one Repealing Word concerning them in that Statute I knew what I said when I wished the Triennial Bill of Forty had never been made and it must be remembred that that Act is as if it had never been made For it gave occasion to some Men that came in with the Deluge of the Restauration when it rained Cavaliers though I value all Mens Rights more than my own and Princes most because they are biggest and it prompted them to think of turning a Cautionary Triennial into a Discretionary But God be thanked they wanted Words to express themselves and if they meant it they have not done it But so as they did put the Act together and as it now stands there are several things in it worth observing 1st That if there be occasion there shall be more and oftner Parliaments than once in Three Years Now I ask for whose sake was that Clause Enacted Not for the King 's for he was always enabled by his Prerogative for the sake of the Ardua Regni to call a Parliament every Month in the Year Well then it was for the sake of his People that if they judged there was Occasion for more or Oftner Parliaments they might ask for them For I appeal to Common Sense whether it be not Ridiculous and wonderfully beneath the Dignity of a Parliament when a Prince was bound by his Coronation Oath to Call a Parliament Once a Year or oftner if need were for so the Law stood and so this Prince was at that time Bound to Interpret a Law after such a manner as to say he was Enabled to call a Parliament Oftner than once in Three Years So much for that Point the next is this The The Upshot of this Act of Parliament and the Conclusion of the whole Act is in these words To the end there may be a frequent Calling Assembling and Holding of Parliaments once in Three Years at the least I do say that if ever we came to Low-water Mark in our Laws about Parliaments and if ever they run Dregs it was in the Time of Charles the 2d And yet it was enacted and was the End of that Law that One should be Called Once in Three Years at the least Now I leave it to the Lawyers to tell whether a Proclamation can call a Parliament or any thing else besides a Writ of Summons and a Writ for Elections And thus have I run through the Law of Parliaments till t'other Day and considered what is the Law at present From King Alfred's Time down to Edward the First it seems to have been the standing Law to have Parliaments Twice a Year I know that the Invasions of several Nations both Danes and Normans and the Revolutions and Disturbances of State which happened must needs cause frequent Interruptions in the practice of it But my reason to be of that Opinion is this because Horne who lived in those Times says That Parliaments at that Time ought to meet twice a Year and that at London and that the Intermitting of Parliaments was the Greatest Abusion of the Law but one Though I think I have still a Greater Authority than Horn's if any thing in this World can be bigger than that of an Able and Honest Man But it is a King in his Letter to the Pope It is in the Clause Rolls Anno 3. Ed. 1. m. 9. Cedula and is to be seen in Prynne's large Book p. 158. I will quote no more of it than is for my purpose It is concerning the Yearly Tribute of a Thousand Marks which the Popes from K. John's Time claimed and there were several Years Due The Pope's Nuncio sollicites the Matter but the King excuses himself that he had come to no Resolution in his Easter-Parliament but by Common Advice he would give him an Answer in his Michaelmass-Parliament next following At present I only mind the wording and way of expressing these two Parliaments Concerning the First he says In Parliamento quod circa 〈◊〉 Resurressionis 〈◊〉 celebrati in 〈◊〉 Consuevit In a Parliament that Used to be held in England about the Octaves of Easter That word Consuevit amounts to Custom and Usage and seems to express a Parliament de More He says That the Parliament was in Octabis and by Occasion of his Sickness after they had made several good Laws and 〈◊〉 many Grievances but not all that lay before them for the Reason aforesaid That Parliament was Dissolved and the King could not treat with them about the Pope's Petition of Tribute But he promises to do the Pope Reason in his Michaelmass-Parliament which he intended Now let us see how that is express'd 〈◊〉 firmo scituri pie Dater et Domine quod in alio Parliamento nostro quod ad festum Sancti Michaelis prox futur intendimus dante Domino celebrare habito et communicato consilio cum 〈◊〉 et 〈◊〉 memoratis 〈◊〉 super 〈◊〉 ipsorum consilio dabimus 〈◊〉 Know for certain Pious Father and Lord That in another Parliament of Ours which we intend to hold at Michaelmass next ensuing with God's leave We and the Prelats and Peers aforesaid consulting together according to their Advice will give you an Answer upon the Premisses But I will say no more upon this Head being intent upon another CHAP. III. Shewing That the Yearly Parliaments were Fresh and Fresh THERE are several ways of proving that there was a New Election every Year They tell me there are Writs extant for New Elections for Fourscore Years Successively where there are but about Six wanting What if they had been all lost imbezelled or made away What then is our Constitution lost when Bundles of Writs are lost No I will go no farther than this last Letter to shew that there is a great Appearance that while there were Two Parliaments in a Year the Second must be new Called Though I hate the word New applied to a Parliament for a Parliament is a Parliament and our Ancestors would no more have dream'd of a Stale or Old Parliament than of an Old Moon cut out into Stars I will cite the words of King Edward's Letter dated the 19th of June in the third of his Reign and when that 's done let the Reader make his own Judgment upon them It was in the Interval betwixt his 〈◊〉 and his Michaelmass-Parliament Set antequam eidem
Remedies thereupon as they think fit notwithstanding the said King that in his Parliaments he might obtain his Will which was Rash often directed his Mandates to his Sheriffs that they should Return certain Persons nominated by the King himself as Knights of the Shires which Knights indeed he could make Plyable to him and as he very often did sometimes by various Threats and Terrors and sometimes by Gifts to Consent to those Things which were Prejudicial to the Realm and extreamly Burthensom to the People and particularly to grant the same King the Subsidy of Wool during his Life and another Subsidy for certain Years thereby too much Oppressing his People Now if he could have made Long Parliaments he need not have made use of these mean Shifts But he could make use of no other way because Parliaments as I said were Fresh and Fresh and Antiquity knew no other And if any Man can make out of this Authentick Record that it was any otherwise Than so many Parliaments so many Elections then I have done with Writing and Reading CHAP. IV. Of the Kalends of May. AT 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 so certain but that there were Parliaments then I am certain I have it from the wise Gildas that Vortigern 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 Britains that opposed them the Saxons drove out of their Countrey whereby as Gildas says all their Records were lost But out of that Venerable Author we plainly see that the Lamentable Letter which was sent the Year 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 withdrawn out of Britany which caused our Enemies to make an Insult and the British Parliament begg'd hard to have them return the Roman Senate's Answer was that they were otherwise engaged and they must help themselves as they could which made them betake themselves to the Saxons A very fair Answer to a Nation that was disabled and disarmed after their Kings and Parliaments had been only Tax-gatherers to the Romans for several Hundreds of Years as if you have no True Lord Mayor you must still have Pageants and somewhat that keeps up the Shew But after these Early Times we have somewhat in King Edward the Confessor's Laws which all succeeding Kings have been Sworn to which I will try what to make of It is an Yearly Folkmote upon the Kalends of May. I do not know readily what that Yearly Folkmote is because those Laws of Edward the Confessor say that King Arthur Invented it Quod Arthurus Rex inclytus Britonum invenit Then I am sure the Original Name of it was not Folkmote Then we will mind the Name no more but come to the Thing Sir Henry Spelman in the Learnedest Glossary that ever was Writ I will not except Mr. Somner's says thus under the word Gemotum Wittenagemot idem apud Anglosaxones quod apud nos hodie Parliamentum parumque a Folcmoto differebat nisi quod Hoc Annuum esset e certis plerumque Causis illud ex Arduis Contingentibus Legum condendarum gratiâ ad arbitrium Principis indictum A Wittenagemot was the same thing amongst the English Saxons as now at this Day a Parliament is amongst us and a Wittenagemote differed little from a Folkmote only that this last was Annual and chiefly sat about the standing Affairs of the Nation The other was called at the King's Pleasure upon Emergencies of State and for the sake of making Laws Now let us see what the Learned Antiquary says concerning Folkmotes by themselves in the same place p. 315. In Folcmoto semel quotannis sub initio Kalendarum Maii tanquam in annuo Parliamento convenere Regni Principes tam Episcopi quam Magistratus Liberique homines Jurantur Laici omnes coram Episcopis in mutuum foedus in fidelitatem Regis in Jura Regni Conservanda Consulitur de Communi Salute de Pace de Bello de Utilitate publicâ Promovendâ In a Folkmote Once every Year at the beginning of the Kalends of May as in an Yearly Parliament there Met together the Princes of the Realm as well Bishops as Magistrates and the Freemen All the Laymen are sworn in the Presence of the Bishops into a Mutual Covenant with one another into their Fealty to the King and to Preserve the Rights of the Kingdom They Consult of the Common Safety of Peace of War and of Promoting the Publick Profit It follows in the next words Adhibetur praeterca Folcmotum in repentino omni discrimine exigente etiam necessitate sub Aldermanno hoc est Comite cujuslibet Comitatus Besides a 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 sight 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 governed by Things and not by Words and am throughly satisfied that an Assembly which does Parliament-Business is a Parliament And no doubt the Folkmote made Laws for it is not to be supposed that an Assembly of the whole Nation should sit Consulting Forty Days of Peace and War of Armies and Fleets which in those Days were Three Thousand Ships and were able to make out the Dominion of
the Seas of the Grievances of the Nation and the Redress of those Grievances and of Providing for the Common Profit of the Realm and after all not to be able to enact their own Conclusions That is just as if our present Parliament should spend Forty Days in finding out Ways and Means for 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 our Orders The Thing which misled this 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 nor 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 de Sqavans But 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 for this I will go no farther than to the third Branch of the Usual and Accustomed Coronation Oath taken by the former Kings of England and taken twice by Richard the Second 1 Hen. 4. Membr 20. inter Decem Scriptores p. 2746. in these words spoken to the King by way of Question Concedis justas Leges Consuetudines esse tenendas promittis per te esse protegendas ad honorem Dei corroborandas quas Vulgus elegerit secundum vires tuas Respondebit Concedo promitto Do you grant that the just Laws and Customs which are of the Folks Chusing shall 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 Praeter 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 the Second's Time then I would fain know in what King 's Reign it was afterwards that the Constitution was altered In short the Folk Chose the Laws and I believe the English Folkmote and Wittenagemote will be found to be old Homer'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 I cannot but say there was some Difference betwixt the Folkmote upon the Kalends of May and the Folkmotes which the King always called for his Ardua Contingentia or Contingencies of State But the Difference lay only in this that the Folkmote of the Kalends of May was a Parliament de more and of Course who Assembled themselves sub initio Kalendarum Maii says Spelman and were bound to do so in Capite Kal. Maii say the Laws of Edward the Confessor cap. 35. de Greve and out of that Chapter has Sir H. Spelman extracted his true Account of a Gerneral Folkmote which was Anniversary whereas a Wittenagemote or Extraordinary Parliament or Folkmote was Summoned at the King's Pleasure and was ever at his Call both for Time and Place Other Difference I can find none For as for the Constituent Parts of a Folkmote if the Princes of the Realm as well Bishops as Magistrates and the Freemen cannot denominate a Wittenagemote I know not where the King will find his Wites or Wise-men I have spoke to that Point already I have likewise spoken to the Point of the Folkmotes making of Laws We find indeed the Saxon Kings in the Preface of their Laws which were made in Extraordinary Parliaments Decreeing with their Wites 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some at Greatanlage and at Midwinter afterwards at Eaxcester as King Athelstan some at 〈◊〉 at the Holy Easterly Tide as King Edmund others at Wodestock in Mercialand and others at Winchester Whereby it appears that the Kings of England had a Power to Summon Parliaments when and where their Weighty Affairs required them in all Places of the Realm and at all Seasons of the Year This is an undoubted Prerogative lodged in the King for the sake of the Ardua Contingentia and no Man would Govern a Kingdom that could not Command the Advice and Assistance of his Subjects to be forthcoming when the Occasions of the Kingdom required it And for the sake of these Ardua Negotia the Knights Citizens and Burgesses are to be Impowered to Act in Parliament-Business by those that sent them lest for want of that full and sufficient Power or by means of an Improvident Election these Arduous and Weighty Affairs of the Kingdom should in any wise remain Infecta or be left Undone This is contained in the present Writ of Elections directed to every Sheriff of a County at every Election of Parliament-men But that is not my present Business for I am in a further Search after the Annual or rather the Anniversary Folkmote CHAP. V. Concerning the First Founder of the Yearly Folkmote of the Kalends of May. BEfore I proceed any further I must clear one Point And that is that we find the Author and Founder of our Yearly Folkmote mentioned in the Laws of Edward the Confessor which were Recited and Confirmed by K. William the First under the Title De Greve Chap. 35. which may possibly leave a Suspicion that this Yearly Folkmote of the