Newport Chartists Vol.23a, p.7

Description

of the several Treasons thereby created, consists
in the compassing, intending, devising, and
imagining the perpetration of the several acts
therein specified, not in the commission of
the acts themselves. But inasmuch as the
wicked imaginations of men's hearts are known
only to the Supreme Being, until they are
evidenced to man by outward act; so the
former Statute has required that before any
one should become subject to the penalties of
Treason, he shall be thereof proveably attained
of "open deed"; and again by the later Statute
it is enacted, "that before any one falls within
"the penalties, he shall express, utter, or declare
"such his compassings, imaginations, and
"Inventions, by publishing some printing or
"writing, or by some overt act or deed."
These overt acts therefore so required
by the Statutes, are the means by which
the particular Treason has been attempted
to be carried into effect: they are the instances
in which the guilty party has endeavoured
to compleat the reasonable design; they are
the Indicia or proof of the Treason, not
the Treason itself - it is obvious therefore that
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