ed, that it is become a proverb amongſt them, Voyons le Jeu de Trots Eſtats, as the ſtrangeſt ſight which can be ſeen in an age. I have not the book now by me, but I will be anſwerable for the ſubſtance of this quotation, having retained this paſſage in my head above theſe five and twenty years.
I can only touch ſeveral other arguments which might be enlarged upon. The high court of parliament is the dernier reſſort in this kingdom; and if that fail, there may be a failure of the Engliſh juſtice.
Bracton ſays of an ambiguous or difficult cauſe, Reſpectuetur ad magnam curiam; but unleſs parliaments be frequent, ſuch a cauſe is adjourned to a long day.
Every body that underſtands the Engliſh conſtitution, knows that it is exactly the ſame as it was laid down in parliament 8 Edward IV. by the lord chancellor that then was. You have it in Sir Robert Cotton’s abridgment of the Rolls in the Tower, p. 682. in theſe words: “He then declared the three eſtates to comprehend the governance of this land, the preheminence whereof, was to the King as chief, the ſecond