_P._ I desired to understand what treason is, wherein no enumeration of facts can give me satisfaction. Treason is a crime of itself, _malum in se_, and therefore a crime at the common-law; and high-treason the highest crime at the common-law that can be. And therefore not the statute only, but reason without a statute makes it a crime. And this appears by the preamble, where it is intimated, that all men, though of divers opinions, did condemn it by the name of treason, though they knew not what treason meant, but were forced to request the King to determine it. That which I desire to know is, how treason might have been defined without the statute, by a man that has no other faculty to make the definition of it, than by mere natural reason. _L._ When none of the lawyers have done it, you are not to expect that I should undertake it on such a sudden. _P._ You know that _salus populi_ is _suprema lex_, that is to say, the safety of the people is the highest law; and that the safety of the people of a kingdom consisteth in the safety of the King, and of the strength necessary to defend his people, both against foreign enemies and rebellious subjects. And from this I infer, that to compass, that is, to design, the death of the then present King, was high treason before the making of this statute, as being a designing of a civil war and the destruction of the people. 2. That the design to kill the King’s wife, or to violate her chastity, as also to violate the chastity of the King’s heir-apparent, or of his eldest daughter unmarried, as tending to the destruction of the certainty of the King’s issue, and by consequence to the raising of contentions about the Crown, and destruction of the people in succeeding time by civil war, was therefore high-treason before this statute. 3. That to levy war against the King within the realm, and aiding the King’s enemies, either within or without the realm, are tending to the King’s destruction or disherison, and was high-treason, before this statute, by the common-law. 4. That counterfeiting the principal seals of the kingdom, by which the King governeth his people, tendeth to the confusion of government, and consequently to the destruction of the people, and was therefore treason before the statute. 5. If a soldier design the killing of his general or other officer in time of battle, or a captain hover doubtfully with his troops, with intention to gain the favour of him that shall chance to get the victory, it tendeth to the destruction both of King and people, whether the King be present or absent, and was high-treason before the statute. 6. If any man had imprisoned the King’s person, he had made him incapable of defending his people, and it was therefore high-treason before the statute. 7. If any man had, with design to raise rebellion against the King, by words written or advisedly uttered, denied the King regnant to be their lawful King, he that wrote, preached, or spoke such