An Act to Impower His Majesty to Secure and Detain Persons Charged with, or Suspected of, the Crime of High Treason, Committed in any of his Majesty's Colonies or Plantations in America, or on the High Seas, or the Crime of Piracy

London: Charles Eyre and William Strahan, 1777. Near Fine. [2], 311-312 p.; 31 cm. (folio). Disbound. Title page reads "Anno Regni Georgii III. . . . At the Parliament begun and holden at Westminster, the Twenty-ninth Day of November, Anno Domini 1774, in the Fifteenth Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third . . . And from thence continued, by several Prorogations, to the Thirty-first Day of October, 1776; Being the Third Session of the Fourteenth Parliament of Great Britain." Woodcut royal coat of arms above the imprint. Woodcut headpiece and historiated initial at the beginning of the act. "Whereas a Rebellion and War have been openly and traiterously levied and carried on in certain of His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations in America, and Acts of Treason and Piracy have been committed on the High Seas, and upon the Ships and Goods of His Majesty's Subjects, and many Persons have been seised and taken, who are expressly charged or strongly suspected of such Treasons and Felonies, and many more such Persons may be hereafter so seised and taken." An act allowing magistrates to hold until January 1778 anyone who had committed or was suspected of having committed treason in the American colonies. Any participation in or support for the Revolution was considered treason against Great Britain. In Near Fine Condition: disbound; small chip at tail of spine; clean and bright. Very scarce.