CHARLES I. i (5s

of guilt, the law of England had, with the mostscrupulous exactness, defined that of. (reason;because on that side it was found most necessaryto protect the subject against the violence of theking and of his ministers. In the famous statuteof Edward III. all the kinds of treason areenumerated, and every other crime, besidessuch as are there expressly mentioned, is carefullyexcluded from that appellation. But'with regardto this guilt, An endeavour to subvert the funda-mental laws , the statute of treasons is totallysilent : And arbitrarily to introduce it into thefatal catalogue, is itself a subversion of all law ;and, under color of defending liberty, reversesa statute the best calculated for the security ofliberty, that had ever been enacted by an Enghsliparliament.

As this species of treason , discovered by thecommons, is entirely new and unknown to thelaws ; so is the species of proof, by which theypretend to fix that guilt upon the prisoner. Theyhave invented a kind of accumulative or construclivcevidence , by which many actions cither totallyinnocent in themselves, or criminal in a muchinferior degree , shall, when united , amount totreason , and subject the person to the highestpenalties inflicted by the law. A hasty andunguarded word , a rash and passionate action»assisted by the malevolent fancy of the accuser,and tortured by doubtful constructions, is trans-muted into the deepest guilt; and the lives andfortunes of the whole nation, no longer pro-

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