[Exeter] Feb 20 [1777]. The American high treason bill having passed through two readings and to be printed, giving the king power to imprison any person suspected of favoring, aiding or abetting the Americans, without liberty of bail or mainprise, has raised an alarm in people's minds universally, as it suspends the habeas corpus act, that great bulwark of English liberty, as it is called; And it is supposed to aim at some characters obnoxious to administration. Such is the language of those .who do not effect the present ministerial measures respecting America, while the advocates on the other hand plead the necessity of such a bill to render kovernment secure, as without it those who are and shall be hereafter taken, cannot be kept in custody and brought to trial for what they call piracy and treason. May the remains of English liberty and the constitution not be overlooked and lost in this fatal quarrel. Charles James Fox said on this occasion, that four acts were over, and this was the first scene in the fifth act, (alluding to the enormous power given to the crown,) and shows the precarious tenure on which the liberty of England is held.
1. Journals and Letters of the late Samuel Curwen, An American Refugee in England, from 1775 to 1784 (New York, 1842), 98-99.
