the 3d of October, 1871, "It is certain that acts
contemporary with King John frequently speak of the 'three estates,' but
do not utter the word _tiers-etat_ (third estate). The great chronicles
and Froissart say nearly always, 'the church-men, the nobles, and the
good towns.' The royal ordinances employ the same terms; but sometimes,
in order not to limit their enumeration to the deputies of closed cities,
they add, _the good towns, and the open country_ (Ord. t. iii p. 221,
note). When they apply to the provincial estates of the _Oil_ tongue it
is the custom to say, the burghers and inhabitants; when it is a question
of the Estates of Languedoc, the commonalties of the seneschalty. Such
were, in the middle of the fourteenth century, the only expressions for
designating the third order.

"Under Louis XI., Juvenal des Ursins, in his harangue, addresses the
deputies of the third by the title of _burghers and inhabitants of the
good towns_. At the States of Tours, the spokesman of the estates, John
de Rely, says, _the people of the common estate, the estate of the
people_. The special memorial presented to Charles VIII. by the three
orders of Languedoc likewise uses the word _people_.

"It is in Masselin's report and the memorial of grievances presented in
1485 that I meet for the first time with the expression third estate
(_tiers-etat_). Masselin says, 'It was decided that each section should
furnish six commissioners, two ecclesiastics, two nobles, and two of the
third estate (_duos ecclesiasticos, duos nobiles, et duos tertii
status._)' (_Documents inedits sur l'Histoire de France; proces-verbal de
Masselin,_ p. 76.) The commencement of the chapter headed _Of the Commons
(du commun)_ is, 'For the third and common estate the said folks do
represent . . .' and a few lines lower, comparing the kingdom with the
human body, the compilers of the memorial say, 'The members are the
clergy, the nobles, and the folks of the third estate. (_Ibid. after
the report of Masselin, memorial of grievances,_ p. 669.)

"Thus, at the end of the fifteenth century, the expression third estate
was constantly employed; but is it not of older date? There are words
which spring so from the nature of things that they ought to be
contemporaneous with the ideas they express; their appearance in language
is inevitable, and is scarcely noticed there. On the day when the
deputies of the communes entered an assembly, and seated themsel