Fourth Estate of the Realm
Preserved but no longer current.
The daily Press. The most powerful of all, the others (see ESTATES) being the Lords Spiritual, the Lords Temporal, and the Commons. Burke, referring to the Reporters' Gallery, is credited with having said, "Yonder sits the Fourth Estate, . more important than them all," but it does not appear in his published works.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Fourth Estate of the Realm” mean?
The daily Press. The most powerful of all, the others (see ESTATES) being the Lords Spiritual, the Lords Temporal, and the Commons. Burke, referring to the Reporters' Gallery, is credited with having said, "Yonder sits the Fourth Estate, . more important than them all," but it does not appear in his published works.
Is “Fourth Estate of the Realm” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.