To the treasons already enumerated, have to be added :—

6. Endeavouring to deprive or hinder any person, being the next in succession to the crown, according to the Act of Settlement, from succeeding to the crown, and maliciously and directly attempting the same by any overt act.

7. Maliciously, advisedly, and directly, by writing or printing, maintaining and affirming that any other person hath any right or title to the crown of this realm, otherwise than according to the Act of Settlement; or that the kings of this realm with the authority of parliament are not able to make laws and statutes, to bind the crown and the descent thereof.

8. In case the crown shall descend on any issue of her present Majesty while under the age of eighteen, persons aiding or abetting the marriage of the king or queen without the consent of the regent and parliament, and the person married to such king or queen while under the age of eighteen, are guilty of high treason.

Under one or other of these eight heads may the offences now constituting high treason be ranged. The reader would, however, derive a very incorrect notion of the course of legislation on this subject, if he were left to suppose that the statutes, to which reference has been made, comprised the whole law relating to this offence. It is impossible here to review this legislation at length; but a passing allusion may be permitted to-1. the treasons which were created in the reign of Elizabeth, relating to papists; and 2. to those created for the security of the house of Hanover.

The first offence which the legislature of Elizabeth thought fit to declare treason, was the defending of the pope's alleged jurisdiction; and the next the crime committed by any popish priest, born in the dominions of the crown, who came over hither from beyond the seas, unless driven by stress of weather, and tarried here three days without conforming to the Church. In the reign of James I. the parliament went a little further, and declared that if any natural-born subject withdrew from his allegiance, and became reconciled to the pope or see of Rome, or any other prince or state, both he and all such as procured such reconciliation should incur the guilt of high treason.

The other obsolete treason was that created for the security of the Hanoverian succession, whereby the pretended Prince of Wales, who was then thirteen years of age, and had assumed the title of James III., was attainted of high treason; and it was made high treason for any of the king's subjects to hold correspondence with him. A similar penalty was afterwards, in the reign of George II., attached to any recognition of his son, Charles Edward Stuart.

The old punishment of high treason was very terrible. The offender was drawn to the gallows, and there hanged by the neck, but cut down alive. His entrails were then taken out, and burned, while he was yet alive. His head was next cut off, and his body divided into four parts; and the whole was at the king's disposal. The punishment of women differed from that of men. For, as the decency due to the sex forbade the exposing and publicly mangling their bodies, their sentence was to be drawn to the gallows, and there to be burned alive.

All this has been altered, however, and the judgment in all cases now is, that the offender be drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution, and be there hanged by the neck until he be dead, and that afterwards his head be severed from his body, and his body, divided into four quarters, be disposed of as the crown shall think fit.

Before closing this chapter, it is necessary to refer to a class of offences, which in former times ranked as high treason: viz., 1. Sedition; and 2. Attempts to injure or alarm the sovereign.

The insults publicly offered to George III., at the period of the French revolution, the ferment then created among the people by publications advocating a change in the institutions of the country, and the frequent assemblies held under the pretext of deliberating on public grievances, led to the passing of two statutes, the one, 36 Geo. III. c. 7, " for the safety and preservation of his Majesty's Person and Government against

* As an instance of how the Bible may be quoted in support of almost any practice, good, bad, or indifferent, it may be observed that this punishment for treason is warranted by divers examples in Scripture; for Joab was drawn, Bigthan was hanged, Judas was embowelled, and so on of the rest.

"treasonable and seditious practices and attempts;" and the other, 36 Geo. III., c. 8, " for the more effectually preventing "seditious meetings and assemblies."

By the first it was made treason to compass the destruction, bodily harm, or deposition of the king; and any one using words to excite the people to hatred and contempt of his Majesty, or of the government and constitution of the realm, was guilty of a high misdemeanor. This act was partially repealed by 11 & 12 Vict. c. 12; passed to meet the attempts made shortly before its enactment, to effect a repeal of the legislative union between Great Britain and Ireland. It was felt that to dignify such proceedings with the name of high treason, was only to encourage their continuance, by endowing the foolish persons who engaged in them with the name of patriots or martyrs; and the offence is accordingly reduced to felony, and punishable as such.

The other statute, 36 Geo. III. c. 8, was of a temporary character; but at the same period other provisions still in force were made to repress mutinous and seditious practices, and the administration of unlawful oaths. Secret societies were condemned, and public meetings of more than fifty persons prohibited from assembling in any open place within a mile of Westminster Hall, for the purpose of petition, remonstrance, or address to the crown or either house of parliament.

The only other statute to be mentioned is one of the present reign, 5 & 6 Vict. c. 51, passed to prevent a repetition of the annoyances to which the queen was exposed soon after her accession to the throne, by idle youths discharging fire-arms in her presence. As this was done apparently from a love of notoriety, it was considered that a disgraceful punishment would be appropriate; and the wisdom of this legislation has been evinced by the complete cessation of the offence.

CHAPTER VII.

OF OFFENCES AGAINST THE PREROGATIVE.

II. As the felonies which more especially affect the supreme executive power are next to be considered, it will not be amiss here to explain briefly the nature and meaning of felony.

Felony, then, comprises every species of crime which occasioned at common law the forfeiture of lands or goods. This most frequently happened in those crimes for which a capital punishment either is or was liable to be inflicted. Not only therefore are all offences formerly capital in some degree or other felony, but this is likewise the case with some other offences which never were punished with death-as suicide; homicide by chance-medley, or in self-defence; and the small thefts formely termed petit larceny or pilfering: all which are, strictly speaking, felonies, as they subjected the committers of them to forfeitures.

The idea of felony was, indeed, until modern times, so generally connected with that of capital punishment, that it was hard to separate them; and to this usage the interpretations of the law conformed. And therefore, if a statute made any new offence felony, the law implied that it should be punished with death; viz., by hanging, as well as with forfeiture. But the criminal law has been considerably ameliorated in this respect, every person convicted of a felony, for which no punishment is expressly provided, being now punishable with penal servitude or imprisonment. So that felony is reducible to its original signification, a crime which originally involved forfeiture; and to which death or other punishment might or might not be superadded. Forfeiture for crime has been abolished, but this does not affect the definition of felony.

This being premised, the felonies that are more immediately injurious to the royal prerogative are: 1. Offences relating to the coin. 2. The serving of a foreign prince. 3. The embezzling

or destroying stores of war. 4. Desertion from the armies in time of war.

1. Offences relating to the coin, under which may be ranked some inferior misdemeanors not amounting to felony, have been the subject of a series of statutes, commencing in the reign of Edward I.; nearly all of which have now been consolidated by 24 & 25 Vict. c. 99. To that statute, therefore, the reader may be referred, and he will find that the law provides a gradual scale of punishment for offences relating to the coin, the making or counterfeiting of the coin itself being the crime most severely punished.

Tampering with the genuine coin of the realm is almost as penal; but the law deals much more mildly with the utterer of base coin, who is often led into the commission of the offence by the more guilty counterfeiter or seller. He is guilty only of a misdemeanor, unless he has been previously convicted of a similar offence; in which event the crime amounts to felony, involving, of course, severity of punishment.

The same statute facilitates the trial and punishment of accessories, and contains other provisions directed against the making, buying or selling, or being in possession of, coining tools, each of which offences is made a felony. It is also a misdemeanor to deface the coin by stamping it, a practice often resorted to by tradesmen for advertising purposes. The offence of counterfeiting foreign coin, and bringing it into this country to circulate, is also provided for.

2. Serving in foreign states, which is generally inconsistent with natural allegiance, was at one time punished by 3 Jac. I. c. 4; which made it felony for any person to go out of the realm, to serve a foreign prince, without having first taken the oath of allegiance. This statute was amended by subsequent acts, since repealed; the one now in force being the Foreign Enlistment Act, 59 Geo. III. c. 69, which makes the entering into the aid of a foreign prince or people, in any warlike capacity whatever, or going abroad with that intent, or attempting to get others to do so without the royal licence, a misdemeanor, punishable by fine or imprisonment, or both. The same statute imposes a penalty of 50l. on masters of ships and owners assisting