and the poffibility of endangering innocence: but, nevertheless, there is some reason to think it deferves to be reconfidered; for though it continues the severity of the law against the impetuous and the imprudent offender, it must sometimes afford protection to the cautious and the cunning villain, who watched his opportunity, lay in wait for his adversary, and flew him with guile and circumspection. ADDI 616 ADDITIONAL CASES. N° 91.. March 3. 1712. Her MAJESTY'S ADVOCATE, AGAINST Mr JAMES DUNDAS Advocate. Leafing-making.-Sedition.-Afferting the Pretender's right, &c. TH HREE libels were executed fucceffively against the pannel, all of "That where, by the law of God, and the laws of this and all other well-governed realms, every foul ought to be fubject unto the higher powers, as ordained of God, and none ought to revile or curfe the ruler of the people, but all ought to fubmit themfelves dutifully to the ordinances of man, for the Lord's fake, whether it be to the King, as fupreme, or to governors, as unto them that are fent by him; and all ought to honour the King: Likeas by the laws and acts of parliament it is statute; and first, by the act of parliament King James I. parl. 2. cap. 43. That leafing-makers, and tellers of them, to the engendering of discord between the King and his people, tyne [forfeit] life and goods to the King; which, by the act of parliament, Ja. V. parl. 6. cap. 83. is extended to fuch as make evil information of the King to his lieges, as well as to thofe that make leafings to the King of his lieges: Likeas by the act of parliament, Queen Mary, parl. 6. cap. 60. fpeaks of unreasonable communing, to the occafioning of confpiracy against the Prince, or of, fedition, are to be punished at the Queen's pleafure: and by the act of parliament, Ja. VI. parl. 8. cap. 134. all fuch as, privately or publicly, in fermons, declarations, or otherwife, utter flanderous or untrue fpeeches, to the reproach of his Majefty, his council, and proceedings, proceedings, or to the dishonour and hurt of his Highness, or who meddle in the affairs of his Highnefs, and his eftate, prefent, bygone, and in time coming, are to be punished as leafing-makers: and by the act of parliament. Ja. VI. parl. 1o. cap. 1o. it is ftatute, That none depreciate his Majesty's laws and acts of parliament, nor mifconftrue his proceedings, to the moving of any ftrife betwixt his Highness and his fubjects, under the pain of death: And all these acts ratified Ja. VI. parl. 14. cap. 205.: And these acts alfo extended against the authors and publishers of flanderous fpeeches or writs of the estate, people, or country of England, or any counsellor thereof, to the hindering the then intended union, or whereby hatred may be fostered, or mifliking raised, between his Majesty's fubjects of this ifland; and all fuch are ordered and ordained to be feverely punished in their perfons and goods at his Majesty's pleasure, Ja. VI. parl. 22. cap. 9.: Likeas by our act of parliament 1703, cap. 4. it is ordained, That for hereafter the crimes above mentioned shall be punished by fining, imprisonment, or banishment; or if the tranfgreffors be poor, corporally: Likeas by the first acts of the parliament 1702 and 1703, our royal power and authority, and our undoubted right and title, are fully afferted and recognised. And further, by the Common law, as well as by the forefaid laws and acts of parliament, injuries, flanders, reproaches, and defamations, to the engendering of discords between the King and his people, or the occafioning of confpiracy against the Prince, or of fedition, or to the dishonour or hurt of his Highnefs, or to the moving diflike between his Majesty and his subjects, may be done, perpetrate, and committed, not only by words and writing, and printing, but also by things themfelves, as fcandalous, feditious, pernicious medals, pictures, or the like, with their difloyal and wicked inscriptions; and the actors or acceffories to the faid crimes, fo committed, ought to be feverely punished by the pains of law. Nevertheless, it is of verity, That you, the faid Mr James Dundas Advocate, is guilty, art and part, of all and every, or one or. other, of the forefaid crimes: In fua far as the faid Mr James Dundas, fhaking off all fear of God, and regard to us and our laws, did first upon the 30th, or one or other of the days of June or July laft bypast, in an extraordinary meeting of the faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh, where-a medal of the Pretender (the very fame, or like to that which is now configned in the clerk's hands, that Mr Dundas may fee it) was brought, and prefented, and noticed in its infcriptions and mottoes, which were, the island of Great Britain and Ireland, encompaffed with the fea, and fhips, on the one fide, with the motto Reddite, and having on the reverse a face, said to be the Pretender's; that is, the perfon pretended to be the Prince of Wales during the life of the late King James, and fince his decease pretending to be, and taking on him, the style and title of our dominions, with the motto Cujus eft; and which medal was faid to be prefented to the Faculty by the Duchefs of Gordon, to be put in the collection of their medals: the faid Mr James Dundas did then, and there, not only contend and plead for the fame, but though it was by fome objected, That the medal was injurious to, and reflecting upon us, and our right and government; yet he opposed, and alledged, That being the medal of the Pretender, who had the right of blood, and which right he faid was good, or words to this purpose, it ought to have been received, and the oppofition made to it by mushroms or fcoundrels, or words to this purpose, ought not to be regarded; and fo it was in a manner acquiefced to by the meeting, that the medal fhould be received, and thanks returned for it: Which practice of Mr Dundas, upon the matter, and according to the nature of the thing, was a moft fcandalous, feditious, and pernicious, reproach upon us, our government, and right thereto, tending to the engendering discord between us and our people, and to occafion confpiracy or fedition against us. Likeas it also was a moft criminal reflection upon, and misconstructing of, the proceeding of us and our parliaments for fettling the fucceffion, contrary to the very oath of abjuration that he the faid Mr Dundas had taken, and clearly tending to move dif like between us and our fubjects. But the faid Mr Dundas, not refting in this his wicked practice, hath, upon one or other of the `days days of Auguft laft, further proceeded to the making or publishing of a most scandalous, pernicious, and feditious pamphlet, under the title of The Faculty of Advocates loyalty, in a letter to us, by one of the Dean of Faculty's council. Which pamphlet, and most infamous libel, is a heap of lies, villanies, and mischief; whereof his written copy, with the printed copy printed by his order, and so published, is put in the clerk of court his hands, that he may fee it; and a double alfo of the fame, held as here repeated, and given out to him to answer: As, first, and in the first paragraph thereof, where, abufing a very tender and facred principle and pofition of government, as to non-resistance, he ftretches the fame moft wickedly and maliciously to the condemning of the late happy revolution; and then proceeding, he villanously reflects upon the very first happy times of our reformation from Popery, directly accufing both our noble regents and worthy reformers, and also the English, then our friendly affiftants, of rebellion and tyranny against the then Queen Mary; adding, that after her decease we fubmitted to the next in blood; but then he plainly afferts, against our right and title, and the fucceffion to the crown, as now fettled by act of parliament, that relation, kindred, and the rights of blood, are fo facred, that no crime, nor no power on earth, could take them away: Thereafter he goes on with his malicious ftrictures upon the times of the late King Charles I. and upon things long fince happily buried by feveral acts of indemnity, and that not without moft rude reflections on the English as cowards: and where, in a word, he makes the whole English nation either profeffed Jacobites, that is, enemies to us, or fuch villains, as he calls them, as to profefs only loyalty in fhew, when they are at the bottom abominable hypocrites, falfe friends, and traitors. Then he goes on to reflect again upon the late happy Revolution, which he reckons no better than a curfe, and the late King William, of ever-glorious memory, no better than a Nebuchadnezzar; and that to him we were all made flaves; and thence he takes a new flight against the late King William's memory, whom he falfely accufes of alienating the bishops rents to profane uses, |