His Excellency the Governor-General, the Most Honourable Bo Register, Marquess of Mobile, Lord of St. George, Baron Von Servers of Fayette, GSB, has introduced into both Houses of Parliament a bill designed to combat potential actions against Her Majesty, or Her Majesty's representative in the Dominion of British West Florida. The Bill addresses actions against the person, reputation, or liberty of the Queen or the Governor-General. The text of the bill is as follows.
My Lords and Ladies of this House,
I present to you a Bill on behalf of the Crown, asking of you your considered advise, and swift assent.
The Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons assembled in Parliament deeply weighing and considering the miseries and calamities of over two hundred and twenty years before your Majesties happy Return and withal reflecting upon the causes & occasions of so great and deplorable confusions do in all humility and thankfulness acknowledge Your Majesties incomparable Grace and Goodness to Your People.
Your Majesty hath enflamed the hearts of us Your Subjects with an ardent desire to express all possible zeal and duty in the care and preservation of Your Majesties Person in whose Honour and Happiness consists the good and welfare of Your People and in preventing (as much as may be) all Treasonable and Seditious Practices and Attempts for the time to come. And because the growth and increase of the late troubles & disorders did in a very great measure proceed from a multitude of seditious Sermons, Pamphlets and Speeches daily preached printed and published with a transcendent boldness defaming the Person and Government of your Majesties Royall Ancestor, His Majesty King George III, wherein men were to much encouraged and (above all) from a willful mistake of the Supreme and lawful Authority whilst men were forward to cry up and maintain those Orders and Ordinances Oaths and Covenants to be Acts legal and warrantable which in themselves had not the least colour of Law or Justice to support them from which kind of distempers as the present Age is not yet wholly freed so Posterity may be apt to relapse into them if a timely remedy be not provided.
I.Certain Offences declared to be High Treason.
We therefore the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled having duly considered the previous, and seeking to restore the Native Sovereignty of our People under God and the Crown, and proclaiming the necessity of religion, the wisdom of tradition, the authority of the family, and the advantages of legitimate monarchy, and remembering that in the Thirteenth year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth I of ever blessed memory, a right good and profitable Law was made for preservation of Her Majesty's Person, do most humbly beseech Your most Excellent Majesty that it may be Enacted - And be it Enacted - by the Grace of the Queen's most Excellent Majesty by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by Authority of the same:
That if any person or persons whatsoever after the ninth day of June in the year of our Lord Two thousand and eight during the natural life of our most Gracious Sovereign Lady the Queen (whom Almighty God preserve and bless with a long and prosperous Reign) or her successors according to law, shall within this Realm or without compass, imagine, invent, devise, or intend death or destruction, or any bodily harm tending to death, or maim, or wounding, or imprisonment, or restraint of the Person of the same our Sovereign Lady the Queen, or to deprive or depose her from the Stile Honour or Royal Name of the Imperial Crown of this Realm or of any of Her Majesty's Dominions or Realms, or Countries, or to levy war against Her Majesty within this Realm or without, or to move or stir any Foreigner or Strangers with force to invade this Realm or any other of Her Majesties Dominions or Countries being under His Majesties Obeisance, being legally convicted thereof upon the Oaths of two lawful and credible Witnesses upon trial or otherwise convicted or attainted by due course of Law then every such person and persons so as aforesaid offending shall be deemed, declared, and adjudged to be High Traitors and shall suffer pains of death and also loose and forfeit as in all cases of High Treason
That if such Compassings, Imaginations, Inventions, Devices ,or Intentions, or any, or all of them be expressed, uttered, or declared by any Printing, Writing, Preaching, or Other Communication, or Malicious and advised speaking, that person, or those persons, having made such expressions, utterances, or declarations, being legally convicted thereof upon the Oaths of two lawful and credible Witnesses upon trial or otherwise convicted or attainted by due course of Law then every such person and persons so as aforesaid offending shall be deemed, declared, and adjudged to be High Traitors and shall suffer pains of death and also loose and forfeit as in all cases of High Treason.
That if any person within this Realm or without compass, imagine, invent, devise, or intend death or destruction, or any bodily harm tending to death, or maim, or wounding, or imprisonment, or restraint of the Person of the Governor-General or to prevent him from acting as Her Majesty's Governor-General save as permitted according to law, being legally convicted thereof upon the Oaths of two lawful and credible Witnesses upon trial or otherwise convicted or attainted by due course of Law shall likewise be deemed, declared, and adjudged to be High Traitors and shall suffer pains of death and also loose and forfeit as in all cases of High Treason.
II. Certain Offences, during Her Majesty's Life, to disable Persons to bear any Office.
And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That if any person or persons at any time after the ninth day of June in the year of our Lord Two thousand eight and one during Her Majesty's life shall maliciously and advisedly publish or affirm the Queen to be an Heretick or advisedly by writing, printing, preaching, speaking, or other means of communication express, publish, utter, or declare any Words Sentences or other thing or things to incite or stir up the people to hatred or dislike of the Person of Her Majesty or the established Government then every such person and persons being thereof legally convicted shall be disabled to have or enjoy and is hereby disabled and made incapable of having holding enjoying or exercising any place Office or promotion: Ecclesiastical, Civil, or Military or any other Employment in Church or State other then that of his Peerage and shall likewise be liable to such further and other punishments as by the Common Laws or Statutes of this Realm may be inflicted in such cases
III. No Person to be prosecuted for any Offences in this Act (other than Treason) unless by special Order from Her Majesty. Limitation of Prosecution.
Provided always That no person be prosecuted for any of the offences in this Act mentioned (other then such as are made and declared to be high Treason) unless it be by Order of the Queen's Majesty, or Her Heirs or Successors under her or their Sign Manual or by Order of the Privy Council of Her Majesty's Governor-General in this Realm, and directed unto the Solicitor-General for the time being or some other of the Council learned to Her Majesty, or Her Heirs or Successors for the time being, nor shall any person or persons by virtue of this present Act incur any of the penalties herein before mentioned unless he or they be prosecuted within six months next after the Offence committed and indicted thereupon within three months. Any thing herein contained to the contrary notwithstanding
IV. Treasons and Offences within this Act to be proved by Two Witnesses viva voce.
Provided always and be it Enacted That no person or persons shall be indicted, arraigned, condemned, convicted, or attainted for any of the Treasons or Offences aforesaid unless the same Offender or Offenders be thereof accused by the Testimony and deposition of two lawful and credible Witnesses upon Oath which Witnesses at the time of the said Offender or Offenders arraignment shall be brought in person before him or them face to face and shall openly avow and maintain upon Oath what they have to say against him or them concerning the Treason or Offences contained in the said Indictment unless the party or parties arraigned shall willingly without violence confess the same
V. Proviso for Privilege of Debate in Parliament;
Provided likewise and be it Enacted That this Act or any thing therein contained shall not extend to deprive either of the Houses of Parliament or any of their Members of their just, and ancient Freedom and priviledge of debating any matters or business which shall be propounded or debated in either of the said Houses or at any Conferences or Committees of both or either of the said Houses of Parliament or touching the repeal or alteration of any old or preparing any new Laws or the redressing any publique grievance but that the said Members of either of the said Houses and the Assistants of the House of Peers and every of them shall have the same freedom of speech and all other Priviledges whatsoever as they had before the making of this Act Any thing in this Act to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding.
VI. Proviso for Trial and Pardon of Peers, &c.
Provided always and be it Ordained and Enacted That no Peer of this Realm shall be tried for any offence against this Act but by his Peers and further That every Peer who shall be convicted of any offence against this Act after such conviction be disabled during his life to sit in Parliament unless Her Majesty or Her Governor-General in this Realm shall graciously be pleased to pardon him. And if Her Majesty shall grant pardon to any Peer of this Realm or Commoner convicted of any offence against this Act after such Pardon granted the Peer or Commoner so pardoned shall be restored to all intents and purposes as if he had never been convicted Any thing in this Law to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding.
VII. Short Title &c.
This bill shall be referred to as the High Treason Felony Act of 2008.
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