Provisions
The Act provided that:
- People accused of treason should have the right to be represented by up to two counsel.
- Nobody could be convicted of treason except by the evidence of two witnesses to the same offence (but not necessarily the same overt act of the offence). (This rule, previously enacted in the Treason Act 1547, the Treason Act 1554 and the Sedition Act 1661, was inherited by the United States and incorporated into Article III, Section 3 of the United States Constitution, which added that both witnesses had to have witnessed the same overt act.)
- Nobody could be prosecuted or punished for treason or misprision of treason unless the indictment was signed by the grand jury within three years of the crime being committed (except in cases of an attempt on the life of the King, or treason outside England and Wales).
- A defendant should be allowed to have a copy of the indictment against him (at his own expense).
- No evidence could be used against him except what was pleaded in the indictment.
However the Act did not apply to forgery (some kinds of forgery were classed as high treason by the Treason Act 1351), or to petty treason.
Read more about this topic: Treason Act 1695
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—James Madison (1751–1836)
“Drinking tents were full, glasses began to clink in carriages, hampers to be unpacked, tempting provisions to be set forth, knives and forks to rattle, champagne corks to fly, eyes to brighten that were not dull before, and pickpockets to count their gains during the last heat. The attention so recently strained on one object of interest, was now divided among a hundred; and, look where you would, there was a motley assemblage of feasting, talking, begging, gambling and mummery.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)