They were usually rejected by both houses or, what was the same thing, ordered to lie on the table. 3 Treason -- In an act of March 30, 1778, the operation of the English law, so far as it related to the manner of putting offenders to death, was characterized as " marked by Circumstances of Savage Cruelty, unnecessary for the Purposes of public Justice, and manifestly repugnant to that Spirit of Humanity, which should ever distinguish, a free, a civilized, and Christian People." Instead thereof, the judgment was to be hanging by the neck until death. The legislature also abolished the barbarous punishment inflicted upon persons arraigned for who refused to put themselves on felony, ordinary trial, but who obstinately stood mute the form -- known as peine forte et dure, commonly pressing to death by great weights put upon the prostrate body. Refusal to plead was to be adjudged a denial of the facts alleged, and such persons were to be tried in regular form, as though they had • October 7, 10, 1778. December 28, 1778; January 2, 1779. Examples of these petitions are in Assembly Papers > -- Miscellaneous, vol. i, pp. 161, 169. Their disposition by the legislature can be traced in the printed Votes of both senate and assembly.

6o State of New York

duly pleaded their cause. 1 Thomas Cummings, convicted of treason, was pardoned by a special act of October 8, 1779. 2 The relations of the commissioners for conspiracies to phases of felony and treason have been shown under former topical headings. The Albany board summoned persons to give testimony which might convict others of high treason, 3 and even required enlarged persons to make known all