Who Proposed the Idea of Press as Fourth Estate?——From Edmund Burke to Thomas Carlyle

The idea of press as Fourth Estate was introduced in China in the beginning of the 20th century,but this concept had not been fully studied.The Chinese academic circle has been not sure of the first person who proposed this term.Based on the relevant political and historical writings of 18th century,this article explores the terminology ofPress as Fourth Estateand thus clarifies the issue on who first applied the term of Fourth Estate to newspaper press.