Treason Act 1795

1795 c.7

[18th December 1795]

C1C2 Preamble. Persons who shall compass, devise, &c. the death, restraint, &c. of his Majesty or his heirs, or to depose them, or to levy war to compel a change of measures, &c. to be deemed traitors.

We, your Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal subjects, the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, of Great Britain, in this present Parliament assembled, duly considering the daring outrages offered to your Majesty’s most sacred person in your passage to and from your Parliament at the opening of this present session, and also the continued attempts of wicked and evil disposed persons to disturb the tranquility of this your Majesty’s kingdom, particularly by the multitude of seditious pamphlets and speeches daily printed, published and dispersed with unremitting industry and with a transcendent boldness, in contempt of your Majesty’s royal person and dignity, and tending to the overthrow of the laws, government and happy constitution of these realms, have judged that it is become necessary to provide a further remedy against all such treasonable and seditious practices and attempts: We therefore, calling to mind the good and wholesome provisions which have at different times been made by the wisdom of Parliament for the averting such dangers, and more especially for the security and preservation of the persons of the sovereigns of these realms, do most humbly beseech your Majesty that it may be enacted, and be it enacted by the King’s most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that if any person or persons whatsoever . . . F1 shall, within the realm or without compass, imagine, invent, devise or intend death or destruction, or any bodily harm tending to death or destruction, maim or wounding, imprisonment or restraint, of the person of . . . F2 our sovereign lord the King, his heirs and successors, . . . F3 and such compassings, imaginations, inventions, devices or intentions, or any of them, shall express, utter or declare, by publishing any printing or writing, or by any overt act or deed, being legally convicted thereof upon the oaths of two lawful and credible witnesses upon trial, or otherwise convicted or attainted by due course of law, then every such person and persons so as aforesaid offending shall be deemed, declared and adjudged to be a traitor and traitors, and shall suffer pains of death, . . . F4 as in cases of high treason.