testimony,
or to listen to it with bias, when, if the punishment were only
proportioned to the injury, men would feel it their inclination, as well
as their duty, to see the laws observed.

For rendering crimes and punishments, therefore, more proportionate to
each other.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly, that no crime shall be henceforth
punished by deprivation of life or limb,* except those hereinafter
ordained to be so punished.

* This takes away the punishment of cutting off the hand of
a person striking another, or drawing his sword in one of
the superior courts of justice. Stamf. P. C. 38; 33 H. 8. c.
12. In an earlier stage of the Common law, it was death.
_'Gif hwa gefeohte on Cyninges huse sy he scyldig ealles his
yrfes, and sy on Cyninges dome hwsether he lif age de nage:
si quis in regis domo pugnet, perdat omnem suam
ha; reditatem, et in regis sit arbitrio, possideat vitarn an
non possideat.'_ LI. Inae. 6. &c.

*If a man do levy war** against the Commonwealth [_in the same_], or
be adherent to the enemies of the Commonwealth [_within the same_],***
giving to them aid or comfort in the Commonwealth, or elsewhere, and
thereof be convicted of open deed, by the evidence of two sufficient
witnesses, or his own voluntary confession, the said cases, and no
others,**** shall be adjudged treasons which extend to the Commonwealth,
and the person so convicted shall suffer death by hanging,***** and
shall forfeit his lands and goods to the Commonwealth.

* 25 E 3. st. 5. c. 2; 7 W. 3. c. 3, Sec. 2.

** Though the crime of an accomplice in treason is not here
described yet Lord Coke says, the partaking and maintaining
a treason herein described makes him a principal in that
treason. It being a rule that in treason all are principals.
3 inst. 138; 2 Inst. 590; H. 6. c. 5.

*** These words in the English statute narrow its operation.
A man adhering to the enemies of the Commonwealth, in a
foreign country, would certainly not be guilty of treason
with us, if these words be retained. The convictions of
treason of that kind in England, have been under that branch
of the statute which makes the compassing the king's death
treason. Foster, 196, 197. But as we omit that branch, we
must by other means reach this flagrant case.

**** The stat. 25 E. 3. directs all other cases of treason