be already defined beyond the possibility of doubt, error, or
misconception--even in such cases, questions occasionally arise which
scarcely admit of any satisfactory solution--questions in which the
fifteen judges, to whom they may be referred, often find it impossible
to agree, and which may therefore be reasonably supposed to be
sufficiently perplexing to the rest of the world. State offences, such
as treason and sedition, which are of comparatively rare occurrence,
present many questions of greater intricacy than any other class of
crimes. In treason especially, a well-founded jealousy of the power
and prerogatives of the crown has intrenched the subject behind a line
of outposts, in the shape of forms and preliminary proceedings; the
accused, for his greater security against a power which, if unwatched,
might become arbitrary and oppressive, has been invested with rights
which must be respected and complied with, and by the neglect of which
the whole proceedings are rendered null and void. At this moment, in
all treasons, except attempts upon the person of the sovereign, "the
prisoner," in the language of Lord Erskine, "is covered all over with
the armour of the law;" and there must be twice the amount of evidence
which would be legally competent to establish his guilt in a criminal
prosecution for any other offence, even by the meanest and most
helpless of mankind. Sedition is a head of crime of a somewhat vague
and indeterminate character, and, in many cases, it may he extremely
difficult, even for an acute and practised lawyer, to decide whether
the circumstances amount to sedition. Mr East, in his pleas of the
crown, says, that "sedition is understood in a more general sense than
treason, and extends to other offences, not capital, of a like
tendency, but without any actual design against the king in
contemplation, such as contempts of the king and his government,
riotous assemblings for political purposes, and the like; and in
general all contemptuous, indecent, or malicious observations upon his