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He invalidated the evidence of Goodman's examination. He observed that the indictment mentioned a conspiracy to call in a foreign power; but as this conspiracy had not been put in practice, such an agreement was not a sufficient overt-act of treason, according to the opinion of Hawles the solicitor-general, concerned in this very prosecution.
The bill provided, that persons indicted for high treason, or misprison of treason, should be furnished with a copy of the indictment five days before the trial; and indulged with council to plead in their defence; that no person should be indicted but upon the oaths of two lawful witnesses swearing to overt-acts; that in two or more distinct treasons of divers kinds, alleged in one bill of indictment, one witness to one, and another witness to another, should not be deemed two witnesses; that no person should be prosecuted for any such crime, unless the indictment be found within three years after the offence committed, except in case of a design or attempt to assassinate or poison the king, where this limitation should not take place; that persons indicted for treason, or misprison of treason, should bo supplied with copies of the panel of the jurors, two days at least before the trial, and have process to compel their witnesses to appear; that no evidence should be admitted of any overt-act not expressly laid in the indictment; that this act should not extend to any impeachment, or other proceeding in parliament; nor to any indictment for counterfeiting his majesty's coin, his great seal, privy seal, sign manual, or signet.
The queen wrote instantly to her brother to bring up the young king to London, with a train of two thousand horse: a fact allowed by historians, and which, whether a prudent caution or not, was the first overt-act of the new reign; and likely to strike, as it did strike, the duke of Gloucester and the antient nobility with a jealousy, that the queen intended to exclude them from the administration, and to govern in concert with her own family.
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