XVIII THE TRIENNIAL ACT 6 and 7 Will. and Mar. Cap. 2, 1695. An Act for the frequent Meeting and Calling of Parliaments.1 I. Whereas by the ancient Laws and Statutes of this Kingdom frequent Parliaments ought to be held And whereas frequent and new Parliaments tend very much to the happy Union and good Agreement of King and People We Your Majesties' most loyal and obedient Subjects the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in this present Parliament assembled do most humbly beseech Your most excellent Majesties that it may be declared and enacted in this present Parliament and it is hereby declared and enacted by the King and Queens most excellent Majesties 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 from henceforth a Parliament shall be holden once in Three years at the least. II. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid That within Three at the farthest from and after the Dissolution of this present Parliament and so from time to time for ever hereafter within Three years at the farthest from and after the determination of every other Parliament Legal Writs under the Great Seal shall be issued by directions of Your Majesties your Heirs and Successors for assembling and holding another new Parliament. III. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid That from henceforth no Parliament whatsoever that shall at any time hereafter be called assembled or held shall have any continuance longer than for Three years only at the farthest to be accounted from the day on which by the Writs of Summons the said Parliament shall be appointed to meet. IV. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid That this present Parliament shall cease and determine on the First day of November which shall be in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred ninety six unless their Majesties shall think fit to dissolve it sooner. (Rogers, P.L. i. 115; Macaulay, H.E. ii. 407 et seq.; Hallam, C.H. iii. 148.) 1 Repealed by 1 Geo. I. Stat., 2 c. 38 (see p. 117). XIX THE TRIAL OF TREASONS ACT 7 and 8 Will. III., Cap. 3,1 1696. An Act for regulating of Trials in Cases of Treason and Misprision of Treason. I. Whereas nothing is more just and reasonable than that Persons prosecuted for High Treason and Misprision of Treason, whereby the Liberties, Lives, Honour, Estates, Blood and Posterity of the Subject may be lost and destroyed, should be justly and equally tried and that Persons accused as offenders therein should not be debarred of all just and equal Means for Defence of their Innocencies in such cases; In order thereunto and for the better Regulation of Trials of Persons prosecuted for High Treason and Misprision of such Treason Be it enacted . . . That from and after the Five and twentieth Day of March in the Year of our Lord One thousand six hundred ninety six all and every Person and Persons whatsoever that shall be accused and indicted for High Treason whereby any Corruption of Blood may or shall be made . . or for Misprision of such Treason, shall have a true Copy of the whole Indictment but not the Names of the Witnesses delivered unto them or any of them Five Days at the least before he or they shall be tried for the same, whereby to enable them and any of them respectively to advise with Counsel thereupon to plead and make their Defence his or their Attorney or Attorney's Agent or Agents or any of them requiring the same and paying the Officer his reasonable Fees for writing thereof not exceeding Five Shillings for the Copy of such Indictment, And that every Person so accused and indicted arraigned or tried for any such Treason as aforesaid or for Misprision of such Treason from and after the said time shall be received and admitted to make his and their full Defence by Counsel learned in the Law and to make any Proof that he or they can produce by lawful Witness or Witnesses who shall then be upon Oath for his and their just Defence in that behalf, And in case any Persons or Persons so accused or indicted shall desire Counsel the Court before whom such Person or Persons shall be tried or some Judge of that Court shall and is hereby authorized and required 1 See also 7 Anne, c. 21. Repealed in part 30 and 31 Vict. c. 59, and 51 and 52 Vict. c. 3. immediately upon his or their request to assign to such Person or Persons such and so many Counsel, not exceeding Two, . . . to whom such Counsel shall have free access at all seasonable Hours Any Law or Usage to the Contrary notwithstanding. II. And be it further enacted, That from and after the said [date] no Person or Persons whatsoever shall be indicted, tried or attainted of High Treason whereby any Corruption of Blood may or shall be made . . or of Misprision of such Treason but by and upon the Oaths and Testimony of Two lawful Witnesses either both of them to the same overt act or one of them to one and another of them to another overt act of the same Treason, unless the Party indicted and arraigned or tried shall willingly without Violence and in open Court confess the same or shall stand mute or refuse to plead, or in cases of High Treason shall peremptorily challenge above the Number of Thirty-five of the Jury, Any Law Statute or Usage to the contrary notwithstanding. III. Provided always that any Person or Persons being indicted as aforesaid for any the Treasons or Misprisions of the Treasons aforesaid may be outlawed and thereby attainted of or for any of the said Offences of Treason or Misprision of Treason, And in cases of the High Treasons aforesaid whereby the Law after such Outlawry the Party outlawed may come in and be tried he shall upon such Trial have the Benefit of this Act. IV. And be it further enacted . . . That if Two or more distinct Treasons of diverse Heads or Kinds shall be alleged in one Bill of Indictment, one Witness produced to prove one of the said Treasons and another Witness produced to prove another of the said Treasons shall not be deemed or taken to be Two Witnesses to the same Treason within the Meaning of this Act. ... V. And to the intent that the Terror and Dread of such Criminal Accusations may in some reasonable time be removed, Be it further enacted . . . That from and after the said [date] . . no Person or Persons whatsoever shall be indicted tried or prosecuted for any such Treason as aforesaid or for Misprision of such Treason that shall be committed or done within the Kingdom of England Dominion of Wales or Town of Berwick upon Tweed after the said [date] . . . unless the same Indictment be found by a Grand Jury within Three years next after the Treason or Offence done and committed. that no Person or Persons shall be prosecuted for any such Treason or Misprision of such Treason ocmmitted or done or to be committed or done within the Kingdom of England Dominion of Wales or Town of Berwick upon Tweed before the said [date] . unless ... And he or they shall be indicted thereof within Three Years after the said Five and twentieth Day of March. VI. Always provided and excepted that if any Person or Persons whatsoever shall be guilty of designing endeavouring or attempting any Assassination on the Body of the King by Poison or otherwise such Person or Persons may be prosecuted at any time notwithstanding the aforesaid Limitation; VII. And that all and every Person or Persons who shall be accused, indicted such or tried for Treason as aforesaid or for Misprision of such Treason after the said [date] shall have Copies of the Panel of the Jurors who are to try them, duly returned by the Sheriff and delivered unto them and every of them so accused and indicted respectively, Two Days at the least before he or they shall be tried for the same, And that all Persons so accused and indicted for any such Treason as aforesaid shall have the like Process of the Court where they shall be tried to compel their Witnesses to appear for them at any such Trial or Trials as is usually granted to compel Witnesses against them. VIII. And be it further enacted, That no Evidence shall be admitted or given of any overt Act that is not expressly laid in the Indictment against any Person or Persons whatsoever. IX. Provided also, . . . That no Indictment for any of the Offences aforesaid nor any Process or Return thereupon shall be quashed on the Motion of the Prisoner or his Counsel for miswriting misspelling false or improper Latin, unless Exception concerning the same be taken and made in the respective Court where such Trial shall be by the Prisoner or his Council assigned before any Evidence given in open Court upon such Indictment; Nor shall any such miswriting, misspelling, false or improper Latin after the Conviction on such Indictment be any Cause to stay or arrest Judgement thereupon; But nevertheless any Judgement given upon such Indictment shall and may be liable to be reversed upon a Writ of Error in the same manner and no other than as if this Act had not been made. X. And whereas by the good Laws of this Kingdom in Cases of Trials of Commoners for their Lives a Jury of Twelve Freeholders must all agree in one Opinion before they can bring a Verdict either for Acquittal or Condemnation of the Prisoner. And whereas upon the Trials of Peers or Peeresses a Major Vote is sufficient either to acquit or condemn, Be it further enacted . . . That upon the Trial of any Peer or Peeress either for Treason or Misprision all the Peers who have a right to sit and vote in Parliament shall be duly summoned Twenty Days at least before every such Trial, And that every Peer so summoned and appearing at such Trial shall vote in the Trial of such Peer or Peeress so to be tried, every such Peer first taking the Oaths mentioned in an Act of Parliament made in the First Year of the Reign of King William and Queen Mary. . . And also every such Peer subscribing and audibly repeating the Declaration mentioned in an Act2 for the more effectual preserving the Kings Person and Government by disabling Papists from sitting in either House of Parliament and made in the Thirtieth Year of the Reign of the late King Charles the Second. XI. Provided always That neither this Act nor any thing therein contained shall any ways extend or be construed to extend to any Impeachment or other Proceedings in Parliament in any Kind whatever.3 XII. Provided also That neither this Act nor any thing therein contained shall any ways extend to any Indictment of High Treason nor to any Proceedings thereupon for counterfeiting His Majesty's Coin, His Great Seal or Privy Seal, His Sign Manual or Privy Signet.1 (Hallam, C.H. iii. 150 et seq.; Macaulay, H.E. ii. 312; Stephen, H.C.L. i. xi.) XX THE ACT OF SETTLEMENT 12 and 13 Will. III. Cap. 2,5 1701. An Act for the further Limitation of the Crown and better securing the Rights and Liberties of the Subject. I. Whereas in the First Year of the Reign of Your Majesty and of our late most gracious Sovereign Lady Queen Mary (of blessed Memory) An Act of Parliament was made intituled An Act for declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and for settling the Succession of the Crown wherein it was (amongst other things) enacted established and declared That the Crown and Regal Government of the Kingdoms of England France and Ireland and the Dominions thereunto belonging should be and continue to Your 1 Will. and Mar. c. 8 (see p. 69). 2 30 Cha. II. Stat. 2, c. i. Repealed 34 and 35 Vict. c. 48. 3 See 20 Geo. II. c. 30. * See 2 and 3 Anne, c. 20, § 43. Repealed 30 and 31 Vict. c. 59. 61 W. and M. Sess. 2, c. 2. |