the repeal of certain treasons declared after this Statute of 25 Edw. III and before that time, and bringing all things to the measures of this Statute) it was agreed by the whole Parliament, that Laws justly made for the preservation of the Commonwealth, without extreme punishment, are more often obeyed and kept, than Laws and Statutes made with great and extreme punishments; and in special such Laws and Statutes so made, whereby not only the ignorant and rude unlearned people, but also learned and expert people, minding honesty, are oftentimes trapped and snared, yea, many times for words only, without other fact or deed done or perpetrated. Therefore this Act of the 25th Ed. III. doth provide that there must be an overt act. 5thly. As to treason, by levying war against the King, we must note, that though conspiring or compassing to levy war, without a war de facto, be no treason, yet it may conspire a war, and only some few actually levy it, all are guilty of the treason. Raising a force to burn or throw down a particular enclosure, is only a riot; but if it had been to have gone from Town to Town, to throw down all enclosures, or to change Religion, or the like, it were levying of war, because the intended mischief is publick. Holding a Fort or Castle against the King’s force, is levying war. 6th. Counterfeiting the great or privy-seal, is treason, but it must be an actual counterfeiting thereof; compassing to do it is no treason; affixing the great seal by the Chancellor, without warrant, is no treason; fixing a new great seal to another patent is misprision, but no treason, being not counterfeiting within this Act. But aiders and consenters are within this Act. 7th. Treason concerning coin, is counterfeiting the King’s coin; and this was treason at common law, and judgment only as of petty treason; but clipping, &c., being made treason by other Statutes, the judgment is, to be drawn, hanged, and quartered. Money, here, extends only to the proper money of this Realm. 8th. As this Statute leaves all other doubtful matters to be declared treason in Parliament, but not to be punished as such till so declared, so in succeeding Kings’ reigns abundance of other matters were declared treason, which being found very grievous and dangerous, by this Statute, 1 Mar., it is enacted that thenceforth no act, deed, or offence, being by Act of Parliament or Statute made treason, petty treason, or misprision of treason, by words, writing, cyphering, deeds, or otherwise however, shall be taken, had, deemed or adjudged to be high treason, petty treason, or misprision of treason, but only such as be declared and expressed to be treason, petty treason, or misprision of treason, by this Statute of 25 Edw. III.

Here we rest the matter, my Lords, convinced that the author of Number III, is not within the meaning of this Statute, nor any exposition of it, and that the design of your Lordships in adding the epithet treasonable, was wicked, base, and infamous, and will be sure to secure to you the contempt and detestation of every honest man.

THE CRISIS.—NO. IX.

To the King:

SIR: You ascended the Throne of these Realms with advantages which, if properly improved, would have rendered your reign not only glorious and happy, but have made you the most powerful monarch upon earth; you might have kept the world in awe. Yet, O shame to tell, though the times demand it, you soon sacrificed your own peace, the tranquillity, honour, and interest of this great and mighty Kingdom, to the ambitious views and pernicious designs of your infernal minion, Lord Bute, and his profligate, abandoned adherents. Your accession to the Throne filled with joy the breast of every Englishman; but, alas! it was of short duration; you soon convinced them of their mistake, and the compliments paid to your understanding, the calm hour of reason soon convinced us were ill-founded.

No sooner seated upon the Throne of this vast Empire, than you, like all other Kings, as well as tyrants, made the people many and fair promises. You told your Parliament that the suppression of vice and immorality, the encouragement of Trade and Commerce, and the preservation of peace and harmony amongst your people, should be the rule of your conduct, and your principal study. How far you have kept your word, the sacred pen of truth shall now declare.

Scarce seated in regal dignity, before you drove from your presence and councils, by the advice of your Scotch favourite, Lord Bute, every man of honour and integrity, who was valued for his love to his Country, and affection to your family; you implicitly followed the advice of your Northern minion, and in their room took those only who were the most conspicuous for their vices, and the most abandoned in principle. These are facts which Sandwich, Bute, Grafton, North, &c., will confirm.

These men you still continue to countenance; every scene of iniquity they have been concerned in, and every act of violence, oppression, and murder they have committed, has been by you tacitly approved, nay, applauded! Adultery, debauchery, and divorces, are more frequent now than in the corrupt and profligate days of Charles the Second; these, Sir, prove incontestably your religious principles, and show how far you have suppressed vice and immorality.

It will now be necessary to inquire how far you have encouraged Trade and Commerce. Was it by illegally imposing a stamp-duty on the Americans, and taxing those commodities which we supplied them with from this Country, which has stopped, for near six years, a great traffick between this Kingdom and the Colonies? Was it by suffering, with the most shameful impunity, the Portuguese to infringe upon the privileges of the English Merchants at Lisbon, by which many were not only injured, but almost totally ruined? Was it by blocking up the Port and destroying the trade of the Town of Boston, thereby reducing to a state of miserable dependance more than thirty thousand people, and giving a vital stab to the whole Commerce of America?

We will now examine, Sir, how far you have preserved peace and harmony among your people. Was it by providing for all the beggarly relations, and miserable dependants of your Scotch minion, in preference to your English subjects, especially those who were the chief instruments of placing your family upon the Throne? Was it by ordering the late Lord Halifax to issue an illegal warrant for apprehending Mr. Wilkes? Was it by rewarding that delinquent after he had been found guilty of a breach of the English Laws? Was it by screening your Minister behind the Throne, who violated the rights of the Freeholders of England? Was it by rejecting the Petitions of your injured subjects, and laughing at the remonstrance presented to you from the first City in the world, the great capital of the British Empire? Was it by not granting the supplications of your people, and meanly referring those Petitions and Remonstrances to the consideration of those very men, whose conduct they arraigned, and who were only the slavish tools of your abandoned Ministers? Was it by sending Troops to Boston, depriving people of their Constitutional rights; and, contrary to all the Laws of this free Country, enforcing the tyrannical and oppressive Acts of your abandoned Parliament with the sword, and laying America under a Military Government? Was it by rewarding the profligate, the corrupt, and the plunderers of their Country, with titles and honours? Was it by a tame dastardly submission to the insults of the Spaniards, and a sacrifice of the honour of the British Nation? These, Sir, are the means you have made use of for preserving peace and harmony among your people. But, Sir, the greatest piece of ministerial villany, and diabolical cruelty is still behind—it is now going through the House of Lords, and you, Sir, will soon be called upon to sign it; it is a Bill for restraining the American Fishery, and starving to death, or driving to a state of desperation, more than three hundred thousand people. Consider, Sir, the fatal tendency of this Bill; determine no longer to be the dupe of an abandoned set of men; act from yourself, and refuse to sign an Act of Parliament which must involve one part of the Empire in a civil war, and reduce thousands of your subjects to poverty and want. Let no consideration prevail with you to execute a deed, at the idea of which humanity revolts. Consider, Sir, how much this will raise the indignation of your people here, when they find you are destitute of the common feelings of humanity, and that you can be so easily prevailed upon to sacrifice your subjects to the cruel designs of your Ministers and favourites. Give some