The Treason Act 1800 (39 & 40 Geo.3 c.93) was an Act of the

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

of the

Kingdom of Great Britain The Kingdom of Great Britain (officially Great Britain) was a Sovereign state, sovereign country in Western Europe from 1 May 1707 to the end of 31 December 1800. The state was created by the 1706 Treaty of Union and ratified by the Acts of ...

. It assimilated the procedure on trials for

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

and

misprision of treason Misprision of treason is an offence found in many common law jurisdictions around the world, having been inherited from English law. It is committed by someone who knows a treason is being or is about to be committed but does not report it to a p ...

to the procedure on trials for murder in certain cases. It was passed as a result of an attempt on the life of

George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

by James Hadfield earlier that year. The

Criminal Lunatics Act 1800 The Criminal Lunatics Act 1800 (39 & 40 Geo 3 c 94) was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain that required and established a set procedure for the indefinite detention of mentally ill offenders. It was passed through the House of Commons ...

was passed at the same time. The Act provided that in all cases of

high treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

which consisted of compassing or imagining the death of the king, or of

misprision Misprision (from fro, mesprendre, modern french: se méprendre, "to misunderstand") in English law describes certain kinds of offence. Writers on criminal law usually divide misprision into two kinds: negative and positive. It survives in the la ...

of that species of high treason, where the

overt act In criminal law, an overt act is the one that can be clearly proved by evidence and from which criminal intent can be inferred, as opposed to a mere intention in the mind to commit a crime. Such an act, even if innocent ''per se'', can potentiall ...

(or acts) of that species of high treason alleged in the

indictment An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a legal person, person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felony, felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concep ...

for that offence was the assassination or killing of the King, or a direct attempt against his life, or a direct attempt against his person whereby his life might be endangered or his person might suffer

bodily harm Bodily harm is a legal term of art used in the definition of both statutory and common law offences in Australia, Canada, England and Wales and other common law jurisdictions. It is a synonym for injury or bodily injury and similar expressions, t ...

, the accused could be, and was to be, indicted,

arraigned Arraignment is a formal reading of a criminal charging document in the presence of the defendant, to inform them of the charges against them. In response to arraignment, the accused is expected to enter a plea. Acceptable pleas vary among jurisdi ...

tried In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal, ...

and

attainted In English criminal law, attainder or attinctura was the metaphorical "stain" or "corruption of blood" which arose from being condemned for a serious capital crime (felony or treason). It entailed losing not only one's life, property and hereditary ...

, in same manner, and under the same procedure ("course and order of trial") and on the same

evidence Evidence for a proposition is what supports this proposition. It is usually understood as an indication that the supported proposition is true. What role evidence plays and how it is conceived varies from field to field. In epistemology, evidenc ...

, as if he was charged with

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

. It further provided that nothing in the

Treason Act 1695 The Treason Act 1695 (7 & 8 Will 3 c 3) is an Act of Parliament, Act of the Parliament of England which laid down rules of evidence and procedure in high treason trials. It was passed by the English Parliament but was extended to cover Scotland ...

or the

Treason Act 1708 The Treason Act 1708 (7 Ann c 21) is an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain which harmonised the law of high treason between the former kingdoms of England and Scotland following their union as Great Britain in 1707. This Act is partly st ...

was to extend to any indictment for high treason consisting of compassing or imagining the death of the king, or for misprision of such treason, which alleged any of the overt acts specified above. It further provided that nothing contained in the Act was to be construed to affect the penalty for treason fixed by law. The provisions of the Act were amended and extended to all cases of treason and misprision of treason by section 1 of the

Treason Act 1945 The Treason Act 1945 (8 & 9 Geo.6 c.44) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was introduced into the House of Lords as a purely procedural statute, whose sole purpose was to abolish the old and highly technical procedure in ca ...

; subject to a saving for the 1695 and 1708 Acts (s. 2(2)) and five separate repeals of words (s. 2(1)).

References

The Statutes Revised A revised edition of the statutes is an edition of the Revised Statutes in the United Kingdom (there being more than one edition). These editions are published by authority. In 1861 the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed the first of a lon ...

. Third Edition.

HMSO The Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) is the body responsible for the operation of His Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO) and of other public information services of the United Kingdom. The OPSI is part of the National Archives of the Un ...

. 1950.

Volume 2 Volume Two, Volume 2, Volume II or Vol. II may refer to: * '' Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life'', a 1998 album by rapper Jay-Z * ''Volume 2'' (Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass album), 1963 * '' Vol. 2 (Breaking Through)'', by The West Coast Pop Art Experimenta ...

. Page 313. {{GB legislation Treason in the United Kingdom Great Britain Acts of Parliament 1800

See also

References