Section II.—Offences of a treasonable Nature.
I. Rebellion, is an attempt to violate the divine order of things on earth; for as the fruits of the earth are produced in regular succession under the influence of the presiding Spirit, so is their distribution among the people regulated by the Sovereign, who is the sacred successor to the seat of his ancestors: resisting and conspiring against him is, therefore, unspeakable outrage, and a disturbance of the peace of an the universe.
II. Disloyalty, is evinced by an attempt to destroy the imperial temples, tombs, or palaces; for as the imperial temples and tombs are intended to perpetuate the memory, and to receive the remains, of former Sovereigns, so the imperial palaces, being designed for the use of the reigning monarch, are equally sacred and inviolable.
III. Desertion, is a term which may be applied to the offence of undertaking to quit, or betray the interests of, the empire, in order to submit or adhere to a foreign power, and may be considered as exemplified in the cafe of betraying a military post, or exciting the people to emigration.
IV. Parricide, is the denomination under which the murder of a father or mother, of an uncle, aunt, grandfather or grandmother is comprehended, and is a crime of the deepest dye; for such a violation of the ties of nature, which are constituted by the Divine Will, is in every case an evidence of the most unprincipled depravity.
V. Massacre, is held to be the murder of three or more persons in one family, and comprehends other crimes sanguinary and enormous in one in a similar degree.
