Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/285

Rh, 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.

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.

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.

body that underſtands the Engliſh conſtitution, knows that it is exactly the ſame as it was laid down in parliament 8 IV. by the lord chancellor that then was. You have it in Sir ’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 to