Star.
London, England, 1820-07-03 00:00:00

HIGH PI:EASON:

The following is an outline pf the charge of the
LORD PRESIDENT of Scotland, to the Grand Jury at
• Glasgow, on Monday lait, said to be one of
the most learned and elOquent ever delivered in a
Scottish Court."
• His Lordship began by observing, that Treason'
has happily been a crime of rare occurrence in Scot-
land, particularly. since the time of 'the Union.—
There have only occurred three sets of cases, those
of 1715, 1745, and 1794. In the two former of
those instances, which were, as is well known, re-
bellions excited by the adherents of the family of
Stuart, though Treason was committed in Scot-
land, yet the examples that were made in •EttgLi.nd,
• where most of the traitors were apprehended, having
been deemed sufficient for the ends of public justice,
there were no prosecutions instituted in Scotland;
and the memorable cases of Watt and Downie, in 1794,
are therefore the only cases since the Union which
have been tried in that cocntry. The Gentlemen of
the Jury were perhaps aware, that by,the Treaty of.
Union entered into in 1704, by which Scotland has
been so great a gainer, it was anxiously stipulated
that the great body of our municipal laws should
remain entire, and that our own peculiarities in laws
and customs should be preserved to us. But, as by
• that treaty both parts of the Island became one
people, deriving protection from the same Sovereign,
to whom they therefore owed the same duty of alle-
giance, it was provided by the Legislature that the
• laws arhing out of that allegiance—that offences
against the State should be the same in both eoun-
tries. Acordingly an exception was made with
regard to tile laws of Treason, and this was further
regulated by a Statute of Queen Anne, 7th Anne,
cap. 21. In one respect Scotland was no great
gainer by the change. By the law of Scotland, in
• every criminal case, as for murder, robbery, &c. the
criminal, before he can be brought to trial, must
.have a copy of his indictment served upon him,
containing a list of his Jurors, and of the witnesses.
to produced against him ; and fifteen days must
intervene betwixt his citation and his trial, and he
is entitled, in all cases, to the benefit of Counsel ;
whereas, in England, they have only an induciz of
ten days, and, except in the case of High Treason,
Counsel are not assigned. To be sure in. England
tit) man can be indicted for High Treason, or indeed
other offences, except a true Bill be first found against
him by a Gr.mil Jury, and afterwards he is sent
before a Petty Jury, and he may challenge a certain,
number of the latter without assigning any reasons;
but no man acquainted with the subject can doubt
that, on the whole, in so far as these matters are
concerned, the criminal procedure observed in Scot-
land is preferable to that of England, and more
merciful to the subject ; his Majesty's Advocate
exercising, in ordinary cases, to the best of his judg-
ment, the powers of 'the English Grand Jury. But
in one respect we have been great gainers by the
change. The old Treason law of Scotland into the
nature of which it is now unnecessary to inquire) was
worse defined and more sanguinary than that of

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of their eldest . High
It would seem that the hiving the deliberate intention
to kill the King was sufficient. Aware that the life
of the 'Sovereign involved the safety of the State, the
Legislature have considered the imagining that high
crime, though the intention should never assume the
oulsaik! of attion, as sufficient to constitute the offence,
itenajAlney have accordingly guarded his life with more'
ous care than the life of any ordinary person, as
to the case of a subject, both the intention and the
accomplishment of the deed are required. For ex-
apple, if a mairlays a bap for his neighbour's life,
aM there may have been the least conceivable acci-,
dent only in_ the way to hinder the guilty deed from j
being perpetrated, and death does not ensue, diis,l
though treason if it had occurred' with the King,
would only be punishable as a misdemeanour if coin,
milted by a'subject towards a subject. Nay, sup-
pose the case occurring between subjects, should
death ensue: if a man kill another, and if it be proved
it was in self-defence, the killer is acquitted ; or if it
be done in consequence of great provocation, violent
passion, or other irritating circumstances, he will be
guilty onlY of manslaughter or culpable homicide.
In these cases the offender is visited with a lower de-
tree of punishment ; and the same here holds where
.tire King's death is actually accomplished. It is not
the act done, but the intention which is punished.—
' Thus Sir Walter Tyrrell having killed William Rufus
in a lawful amusement, to which alibis subjects were
invited, ne punishment could 1/Ilow, the killing.
having been purely accidental—so strong is this; that
in the trial of the Regicides who btb,t4t Charles
the First to the scaffold, the crime waiUd in com-
passing, not in taking away the lifer that being only
adduced as the overt act indicative of the pre-exist-
ing intention: Jest so in all crimes. To constitute
the crime of murder, a man must not only be killed,
but he must be killed with a criminal intent, or in
circumstances which admit neither of alleviation nor
justification ; and to constitute the crime of .theft,
goods must be stolen, and there must .be an actual
removal or taking away feloniously from the custody
of the rightful owner. But the life of .the King Is
not to be tatnperecl with, and the law .exercises
scrupulous.jealousy regarding it. Here the inten-
tion is punished, for the Statute .does not Say one
word of killing the King from the beginning t 3 the
end of it. Yet it would be absurd to imagine that
men were to become the objects of punishment for
intentions known only to GOD, and accordingly some
outward manifestation of the guilty purpose, techni-
cally some overt act, is, in the Jaw of treason, re-
ouiied both by Statute and usage. What is suffi-
cient, and what is ilistifficientf to indiCate such in-
tention, may not always be easily' defined ; but it
must be an act tending directly to the King's death
which brings- the party within the meaning of the
Statute. Trim the deed may not be done; but the
intention Must be indicated in a mode not to be mis-
taken ; as if, when the King intends to ride out, a
person lies in wait to kill him by the way, though
the King should not move out of his palace at that
time, still if there be evidence that he. knew before-
hand of the King's intention, and provided himself
with the means of executing his purpose, and that
purpose be proved by other circumstances, the per-
son is guilty of treason, If a person latent: a meeting
which is to provide arms 'for the iissasuivation of his
Majesty, thot,4l the meeting should separate without
coming to any resolution; provided the object of the
meeting be previously known, the whole persons at:
tending it are guilty of treason. lii all these cases,
what has been said applies chiefly to a direct attempt
upon the life of the King! but there are many cases
where the links in the chain—where the thing-done,
indicative of the treasonable purpose, and tyre actual
killing of the King—do not so directly connect with
each other. Still all our Statutes and writers are
agreed that this is no less cognizable as treason.—
Thus a conspiracy to levy war within the realm is
held to be treason, as tending to bring the King's
life into hazard; for no one can doubt that, were
success to crown any such effort, the life of the King
would be taken, were it for no other object than
that the delinquents might escape punishment. Sir
Matthew Hale, one of the most constitutional of our
writers, justly remarks, that there is but a step be-
tween the prison and the grave of it Icing ;—hence
successful rebellion has been almost uniformly closed
with the death of the Sovereign. Witness the cases
of Richard the Second, Charles the First, and of our
James the First. Therefore, where war has been ac-
tually levied, as where men have been found in arms
against the King, and a civil war has taken place,
the crime is complete. But a conspiracy to levy
war, though no war be actually levied, is held to be
an overt act of treason, provided there be then on
foot a settled scheMe or design, to which men be-
come parties, whose ultimatb object is 'the actual
levying of war. For example, it is treason to build
or fortify a castle to resist the King's power, or to
devise means to seize him and oblige him to dismiss
his Counsellors, or to change his measures, or other-
wise to resort to force for constraining his acts, or for
compelling him - to abandon his prerogatives. To
remove certain doubts which might be entertained
respecting the meaning of the Act of Edward 111.
there was passed the Statute 36 George 111. cap. 93,
which so much resembles the old Scottish Act of
1662, that it is difficult to conceive a case of treason
triable under the one Statute which might not be
indictable undes -the other. It provides for the se-
entity of both Houses of Parliament, and for every
attempt by force to overawe and intimidate them.—
One overt act must be proved is have been com-
mitted in the county where the indictment is laid,
but this will nut prevent the Jury from taking cogni-
tion of treasons committed in other counties, other-
wise the offender might go from county to county,
and commit treason in them all. As all our writers
agree that the sasembling of an armed force against
the King's power 'within the realm is treason, so this
holds equally whether they be ill-clothed and ill-ac-
coutred, as when it happens otherwise. From the
vet y nature of the thins, rebellion has a tendency to
become formidable, as it proceeds. from its incipient
state to its final consummation; and whether any

se tv is ttal-terlt &rag-
, become ss, the guilt the sante&
&nista that in 1743, s`a Prince
the Pretender; kg raised
and wheels was joined by
unarmed. Highlanders, they were
- then as after their victory at
leaders supplied them With
~itlo-thing. clear, therefore, that how."
ill-dtilled or ill-armed a person may be, yet if
be iPcitessio, or.-joins in any insurrection to redress
grievainces, real or imaginary, by force (things which
tan only be constitutionally accomplished' by Parlia-
ment), it is an actuallerying of war, and becomes
an overt act of treason ; and hence all associations
for providing, or inducing other to provide them-
selves with arms, for such purposes, is held to be
treason within the meaning of the Statute. k may
here be necessary to explain the distinction between
riot and treason—and the best distinction perhaps is
that the one has a public or general, and the other a
private or particular object in view. The one, indeed,
resembles the other very nearly in many respects ;
but tumults are generally of a transitory and local'
nature and seldom manifest a studied opposition to
the King. '
The
_inhabitants of a neighbourhood
having right to 2 common, rise in a mass and destroy
an enclosure which interferes with their supposed
right of property, or they by force break, open a pri-
son and set a prisoner at liberty, but neither of these
cases will be held to be treason. The last of these
instances, indeed, was deliberately considered in. the
Ease of the Porteous mob, where the fury of the po-
pulace shewed itself in opposing a particular exercise
of the Royal authority; but because it was particu-
lar—not to open all prisons, or implying general hos-
tiiity to the King's Pretogative, it was found to be
only punishable as a simple riot. A conspiracy to
open all enclosures, and to oppose all Magistrates,
Revenue-officers, &c. would be treason. A delicate
question now occurs—Can treason be committed by
words spoken it The law now seems to be (contrary to
what was once erroneously held)that mere words are
not sufficient. For instance, were a man to declare
that it would be meritorious to kill the King, though
this would be highly punishable, still it would not-
mount to High Treason, unless it were spoken in a
consultation held in reference to some general plan
going forward to do the thing contemplated.—
The law is pretty much the same with regard to
airing or printing. Thus in the case of Algernon
Sydney, where High Treason was found on account
solely of manuscript papers, discovered on a search in
his repositories, and never published, it is universally
hell to have been decided contrary to law. But to
write, print, publish, or post up a Proclamation,
calling the People to arms on a certain day, to over-
throw the Government, is undoubtedly treason, and
persons of this description are the most guilty--anain-
pining advisedly by writing or printing, that any
person has a right to the Crown otherwise than ac-
cording to the Act of Settlement, or denying thS
power of the King and Parliament is treason.—
With regard to the evidence, there must be two
witnesses, as in other cases, to make legal proof, of
one witness to the fact, and others to con oborate;
but, if separate acts be charged, one witness to each
act is sufficient, provided that they be all of the same
nature. His Lordship concluded by stating to the
Jury that, though they Were to be guided solely by die
evidence, and to hear only what was offered for the
CrO..n ; of course only one side—yet they did not•
require to be so-scrupulously nice as the Petty Jury,
hick might come after them—the Grand Jury
might, on hearing the Crown evidence, justly find
true bills, and it would be no disparagement to theie
verdict, nor to the' character of the pannel, thou
the Petty Jury should, afterwards acquit.
Lordship added, let me only recommend that you
banish Born your minds all previous steeling that'
Treason may have lately been committed in this
County, to be guided in no respect by what jou
may have seen or heard, and to find solely from the
evidence that you are now to receive froth the lir
of the witnesses.

•
On Saturdiy the CO/411,10N SERJEA NT made a Re-
port to his MAJESTY in Council of the following con-
victs in Newgate capitally convicted in April last:
John Starkey, Edward Roberts, albs James Smith, Thomas
Thorp, Robert Claxton, Janus Hayes, Thompson,
Thomas M'Kenzie, Wlms Jones, Gilbert ayes, Daeill
Evans. John Bellew, WlMant KaL aka Willlmitses,eml.telin
Sdchway, for In ate
e; Miss Baum smd
Winton Aves4d.iter *am Chandler mid
Henry Reinert, ter privemkeeselleg he is.; Mass Heney
Stanfird, Themes Ceske Jahn aeignata. and %Mims Brooks,
for uttering forgedand ounnterfeit metes; Ma* Jones,
Henry Havidnk WMlam Perks, Dna}, Thmase,. Anima
Painter, John Smith, sod Alexander Fraser ' fei die;;
William Sanders and John Willienes, for klerat-alulludi.lled
William Paley (convjeted last January Bogdan), lir lambi
forged Bank notes. When Zed94.dran ileelussa, Haw
Hawkins, ;Mans Anedd, Willies Henry illisirsed, and Mem
Sanders, were ordered ibirseenties on Weebtaiden siezt.—The
others were pupated .during pleasure.
Yesteiday, the above six ',thing men, all-of .decent
appearance, some of them having respectable, con-
nections. attended Divine Service in .the Chapel of
'New gale, preparatory to undergoing the awful sen-
tence of the law. They seemed dieply alected.
Bow-Suiram—Saturday'.Tain Brews was charged by a Patrol,
with occasioning a riot. • Oddy stated, theft he saw the prisoner..
NM two or three others In St. Martin's-lane, each having a bun,
dle of papers, which they were vending to the by-standers at a
penny each. One of them had a large green bag, ornamented
with a sheet of parchment on one side, and suspended to a long
pole, which he waved about, while they all shinned, with Seen-
torian lungs, "'Here's a true and faithful account of the patriotic,
speech of Sir Francis Burdett, and here's the rak green bag, for.
the small charge of one penny."—Mr. Ilimnie—" What have
you to say, Mr. Brown, to this charge?"—Brown said, he did
not know as be was a-doing anything wrong. He was out id
work, and wanted to yarn an honest penny. Mr. Emertz.—'4 An'
honest penny, you call it ! But what is the green bag for r-4
Browe-4, Why, yoir Honour, !hat be a sort of a sign, seek
that the speech is shout a green bag !"—Mr. BISMID" Then,
Sir, I shall keep your green bag, and you mist find bail. I
must not have the peace distufied by such fencers as you, wide,
your green bags and nonsensical speeches."--Brown was MD.
mitted.for want of sureties. •
Harrox-asanah.—lnformation was given at this dike is
Saturday, that, about. ten o'clock on the preceding IVA. as the
Rev. Dr. Ford was passing the House Of COrrectiosif Coldbeds-
fields two men came up to him, and; the Doctor being fee 5,
offered their assistance. They each, put hand under his aeme,
and on his resisting, one of them swore trensendoUslybe wadi
stab him to the bea4 #he gate any alarm. They then
bins to a field at the back of the House of Correction, whin24
rifled his pockets of their contents; but finding their bent lees
than they expeited, they knocked him down, and.beat him with
sticks, and attempted to cut his throat wide *kola:. they had
taken *an him. They then left hint, and alter some time he
erns dire, crawl to theyead,. when he was sent•home In a coach,
sod a Surgeon sewed up his.vevound, which was fire inches long,
:bet not mortal The Police Officers are nn the aka; and we
hope the villains will not long elude WO vigilante&

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tngland. vi idi rigida ihiiiiitraiiii;7at Saiiiind ilia Ultras t 6 142--itt it
bd-ore the Uaion, which is the addict to be soar bilk 11 ear it alitliaccie
staameni
dared, it is necessary to remarkjhatethe law of that twit cosset be doubted
country has remained nearly the same since the Clizich T called
days of Edward the Third. • lb' an. Act of the his . at Lochiel, at
25th year, sap. 2. ofijbat great King, it is enacted a few othed, unarms
that • all persons cOirossiag or imagining the ktst as pilty of treasoo th
death of the King sr of die Queen Consort, or Prsum'pans, where their :
of their eldest son; ii' guilty of High Treason.— arms,and...elothing. at is
To. .......1A ....... s.h.r AA hsitiner the tioliherate intention ever ill-dolled Or 111.4irMe