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It is most interesting to notice in this traditional form

the existence together of the theory of the automatic devolution of the Crown and of the far earlier theory of popular election. The assembly of wise and notable men which proclaims the new King is in truth the Witan,—the Magnum, Concilium of the nation. Any citizen, we believe, is eligible in law to be present at the gathering and to add his name to the list attached to the Proclamation. It is in no sense a meeting of the Privy Council, but, as we have said, of the Witan. Embedded in he ceremonial is also the idea of the assent of the people,— that assent without which no succession was deemed valid in Anglo-Saxon times, and which even William the Conqueror felt it necessary to ask for and obtain.

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