Act for Improving the Union of the Two Kingdoms, 1708

This act is popularly called the "Treason Act". It conformed the Scottish law of treason with that of England. Paragraph X of the act promised to limit the effects of attainder after the death of King James III and VIII. The provisions of this paragraph were postponed by the Act Against Correspondence with the Pretender's Sons, 1744.

A printed version of the act can be found on pages 509 through 513 of volume 11 of The Statutes at Large, edited by Danby Pickering (Cambridge: Printed for Joseph Bentham, 1764).

Whereas nothing can more conduce to the improving the union of the two kingdoms, which by Her Majesty's great wisdom and goodness has been happily effected, than that the laws of both parts of Great Britain should agree as near as may be, especially those laws which relate to high treason and the proceedings thereupon, as to the nature of the crime, the method of prosecution and trial, and also the forfeitures and punishments of that offence, which are of the greatest concern both to the Crown and to the subjects: to the end therefore that the said union may be more effectually improved, be it enacted by 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 the authority of the same, that from and after the first day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and nine, such crimes and offences which are high treason or misprision of high treason within England, shall be construed, adjudged, and taken to be high treason and misprision of high treason within Scotland; and that from thenceforth no crimes or offences shall be high treason or misprision of high treason within Scotland, but those that are high treason or misprision of high treason in England; and that from and after the said first day of July, in the said year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and nine, the Queen's majesty, her heirs and successors, may issue out commissions of oyer and terminer in Scotland, under the seal of Great Britain, to such persons as Her Majesty, her heirs and successors, shall think fit, and that three of the lords of the justiciary be in the said commission of oyer and terminer, whereof one to be of the quorum, to enquire of, hear and determine such high treasons and misprision of high treason, in such manner as is used in England.

II. Provided always, and be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that where any commission of oyer and terminer shall issue pursuant to this act, and is to be executed within any district where there is a justice general or person having right of justiciary, who had jurisdiction in cases of high treason and misprision of high treason at the time of the making of this act, from and after the time that such right be made appear before the Lords of Session, and by them certified to the Lord Chancellor of Great Britain, such justice general, or such person having right of justiciary, or their respective deputy, shall be in the said commission, and one of the quorum.

III. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that from and after the said first day of July, one thousand seven hundred and nine, the justice court and other courts having power to judge in cases of high treason and misprision of high treason in Scotland, shall have full power and authority, and are hereby required, to enquire by the oaths of twelve or more good and lawful men of the county, shire, or stewartry where the respective courts shall sit, or all high treasons and misprisions of high treason committed within the said counties, shires, or stewartries, and thereupon to proceed, hear, and determine the said offences whereof any person shall be indicted before them, in such manner as the the court of Queen's Bench of justices of oyer and terminer in England may do by the laws of England: and if any person be indicted of high treason or misprision of high treason before any justice of oyer and terminer, or in the circuit courts, or other courts having power to judge in case of high treason or misprision of high treason in Scotland, then upon the request of the Queen's Advocate General to the Lord High Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of Great Britain for the time being, the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper shall award Her Majesty's writ of certiorari under the said Great Seal, directed to the justices of oyer and terminer, or the justices of the circuit courts, and such other courts, thereby commanding them or any of them, to certify such indictment into the justice court; which court shall have full power and authority, and is hereby required, to proceed upon, hear, and determine the same, as the court of Queen's Bench in England may do upon indictments removed or certified into the said court; and that from and after the said first day of July, in the said year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and nine, all persons convicted or attainted of high treason or misprision of high treason in Scotland, shall be subject and liable to the same corruption of blood, pains, penalties, and forfeitures, as persons convicted or attainted of high treason or misprision of high treason in England.

IV. Provided always, that where any person now is, or shall be, before the said first day of July, seized or any messuages, lands, seigniories, rents, tenements, or hereditaments in Scotland, of an estate tail, that is to say, an estate tailzie, affected with irritant and resolutive, or prohibitive clauses, and is, or before the said first day of July, shall be married, if any issue of that marriage be living, or there be possibility of such issue at the time of the high treason committed, that then in such case the said messuages, lands, seigniories, rents, tenements, and hereditaments, shall not be forfeited upon the attainder of such person for high treason, (but during the life of the person so attainted only) so that the issue and heirs in tail of such marriage shall inherit the same, the said attainder notwithstanding.

V. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that all treasons and misprisions of treason, which from and after the said first day of July shall be done or committed by any native of Scotland upon the high sea, or in any place out of this realm of Great Britain, shall be enquired of, heard and determined before the said justice court, or before such commissioners of oyer and terminer, and in such shire, stewartry, or county of Great Britain, as shall be assigned by the Queen's commission, and by good and lawful men of the same shire, in like manner to all intents and purposes as if such treasons or misprisions of treason had been done or committed in the same shire where they shall be enquired of, heard, and determined, as aforesaid; and that from and after the said first day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and nine, no person accused of any capital offence, or other crime in Scotland, shall suffer, or be subject or liable to any torture, provided that this act shall not extend to take away that judgement which is given in England against persons indicted of felony, who shall refuse to plead, or decline trial.

VI. Provided also, and be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that every person may be summoned and returned to be a juryman in any such trials, as aforesaid, who shall at the time of such trial have and be seized in his own right, or in the right of his wife, of lands or tenements, of an estate of inheritance, or for his or her life, or for the life of some other person, within the county, stewartry, or place where any such trial shall be, or from whence the jury is to come, of the yearly value of forty shillings at least; and for want thereof, or for any other lawful cause, shall be subject to be challenged and set aside.

VII. And whereas the crimes after-mentioned are by several acts of Parliament in Scotland declared to be treason, and the committers thereof are appointed to be punished with the same pains and forfeitures as committers of treason, and that after the first day of July aforesaid, the aforesaid act of Parliament in Scotland will have no force nor effect, seeing no facts nor offences are to be deemed treason within Scotland after that time, but such as are so by the acts and statutes now in force in England; be it therefore by the authority aforesaid further enacted, that theft in landed men, murder under trust, wilful fire-raising, firing coalheughs, and assassination, which were declared to be treason by particular statutes in Scotland, shall after the aforesaid time be only adjudged and deemed to be capital offences, and the committers thereof shall be only liable to such pains and punishments as by the law of Scotland are to be inflicted upon the committers of capital crimes and offences, and the persons committers thereof are to punished and tried in the same manner as by the laws of Scotland is provided in the cases of other capital crimes; anything in this act to the contrary notwithstanding.

VIII. And be it also enacted by the authority aforesaid, that if any person shall, from and after the said first day of July, slay any of the Lords of Session, lords of judiciary, sitting in judgement in the exercise of their office within Scotland, that the doing thereof shall be construed, adjudged, and taken to be high treason.

IX. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that from and after the first day of July, if any person counterfeit Her Majesty's seals appointed by the twenty fourth article of the union, to be kept, used, and continued in Scotland, that the doing thereof shall be construed and adjudged to be high treason.

X. Provided always, and be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that after the decease of the person who pretended to be Prince of Wales during the life of the late King James, and since pretends to be King of Great Britain, and at the end of the term of three years after the immediate succession to the crown, upon the demise of her present Majesty, shall take effect, as the same is and stands limited by an act made in the first year of the reign of their late majesties King William and Queen Mary, intitled, An act for declaring the rights and liberties of the subject, and settling the succession of the Crown, and by one other act made in the twelfth year of the reign of his late majesty King William III, intitled, An act for the further limitation of the Crown, and better securing the rights and liberties of the subject, no attainder for treason shall extend to the disinheriting of any heir, nor to the prejudice of the right or title of any person or persons, other than the right or title of the offender or offenders, during his, her, or their natural lives, only; and that it shall and may be lawful to every person or persons to whom the right or interest of any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, after the death of any such offender or offenders, should or might have appertained, if no such attainder had been, to enter into the same.

XI. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that from and after the decease of the person who pretended to be Prince of Wales during the life of the late King James, and since pretends to be King of Great Britain, and at the end of the term of three yeas after the immediate succession to the Crown, upon the demise of her present Majesty, shall take effect, as the same is and stands limited by an act made in the first year of the reign of their late majesties King William and Queen Mary, intitled, An act for declaring the rights and liberties of the subject, and settling the succession of the Crown, and by one other act made in the twelfth year of the reign of his late majesty King William III, intitled, An act for the further limitation of the Crown, and better securing the rights and liberties of the subject, when any person is indicted for high treason or misprision of treason, a list of the witnesses that shall be produced on the trial, for proving the said indictment, and of the jury, mentioning the name, professions, and place of abode of the said witnesses and jurors, be also given at the same time that the copy of the indictment is delivered to the party indicted; and that copies of all indictments for the offences aforesaid, with such lists, shall be delivered to the party indicted, ten days before the trial, and in presence of two or more credible witnesses; any law or statute to the contrary notwithstanding.