[We believe that this work, for some reason or other, was suppressed, but not till after about one hundred copies had been circulated. It is attributed to the Hon. Algernon Herbert, author of Cyclops Christianus; Antiquity of Stonehenge.]
Replies.
THE THREE ESTATES OF THE REALM.
(Vol. iv., pp. 115. 196. 278.; Vol. v., p. 129.)
The quotations I have produced on the question, Which are the Three Estates of the Realm? appear
to Canon. Ebor. "quite to support his own positions." I must therefore again ask leave to defend the view which I advanced in Vol. iv., p. 115., and will endeavour, whether it be a right or wrong one, to express my arguments in support of it so definitely and distinctly as not again to leave room for any misapprehension of them. To adopt Canon. Ebor.'s threefold division:—
1. The Three Estates of the Realm are the Nobility, the Clergy in Convocation, and the Commons. In this order they are ranked in the collect I quoted, and in which they are described as "assembled in parliament;" i. e. en plein parlement. The following extract plainly bears out my view:
"And that this doctrine (viz. that the Clergy are an extrinsic part of Parliament, or an Estate of the Realm) was still good, and the language much the same, as low as the Restoration of Charles II., the Office then anew set out for the 5th of November shews, where mention is made of 'the Nobility, Clergy, and Commons of this realm, then assembled in Parliament:' for to say that by 'the Clergy of this realm,' my Lords the Bishops only are intended, were so absurd a gloss, that even Dr. Wake's pen would, I believe, be ashamed of it. And if they were then rightly said to be 'assembled in Parliament,' they may as rightly be said to be so assembled still: and if 'assembled in Parliament,' why not 'a member of Parliament?' to those intents and purposes, I mean, for which they are assembled in it."—Atterbury's Rights, Powers, and Privileges of Convocation, 2nd edit., p. 305.
The same order is observed in Sir Edward Coke's speech on Garnet's trial:—