EPITOME OF THE WHOLE COMMONWEALTH

"The centre or fundamental laws are, first, the agrarian, proportioned
at L2,000 a year in land, lying and being within the proper territory of
Oceana, and stating property in land at such a balance, that the power
can never swerve out of the hands of the many.

"Secondly, the ballot conveying this equal sap from the root, by an
equal election or rotation, into the branches of magistracy or sovereign
power.

"The orbs of this commonwealth being civil, military, or provincial,
are, as it were, cast upon this mould or centre by the divisions of
the people; first, into citizens and servants; secondly, into youth
and elders; thirdly, into such as have L100 a year in lands, goods, or
moneys, who are of the horse; and such as have under, who are of the
foot; fourthly, they are divided by their usual residence into parishes,
hundreds, and tribes.

"The civil orbs consist of the elders, and are thus created: every
Monday next ensuing the last of December, the elders in every parish
elect the fifth man to be a deputy, which is but half a day's work;
every Monday next ensuing the last of January, the deputies meet at
their respective hundred, and elect out of their number one justice of
the peace, one juryman, one coroner, and one high constable of the foot,
one day's work.

"Every Monday next ensuing the last of February, the hundreds meet
at their respective tribe, and there elect the lords high sheriff,
lieutenant, custos rotulorum, the conductor, the two censors out of
the horse, the magistrates of the tribe and of the hundreds, with the
jurymen constituting the phylarch, and who assist in their respective
offices at the assizes, hold the quarter-sessions, etc. The day
following the tribe elects the annual galaxy, consisting of two knights
and three deputies out of the horse, with four deputies out of the foot,
thereby endued with power, as magistrates of the whole nation, for the
term of three years. An officer chosen at the hundred may not be elected
a magistrate of the tribe; but a magistrate or officer either of the
hundred or of the tribe, being elected into the galaxy, may substitute
any one of his office in the hundred or in own order to his magistracy
or office in the hundred or in the tribe. This of the muster is two
days' work. So the body of the people is annually, at the charge of
three days' work and a half, in their own tribes, for the perpetuation
of their power, receiv