Odger's English Common Law

Chapter II.
SEDITIOK.
Sedition is a crime closely akin to, but falling short of,
high treason. It is sedition to attempt by word, deed or
writing to bring the Sovereign, his ministers, officers or
judges into hatred or contempt, to stir up discontent and dis-
affection among his subjects, to attempt or to excite others
to attempt to subvert the Constitution, or to disturb the peace
and order of the realm, or, in the language of the Criminal
Libel Act of 1820, 1 to compose, print or publish any words
" tending to bring into hatred or contempt the person of His
Majesty, his heirs or successors, or the Kegent, or the Government
and Constitution of the United Kingdom as by law
established, or either House of Parliament, or to excite His
Majesty's subjects to attempt the alteration of any matter in
Church or State as by law established, otherwise than by
lawful means."
To do any such act or to publish any such words by speech
or writing is a high misdemeanour, for which either an
information or an indictment will lie ; and the offender may
be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of any length, 2 or to
a fine of any amount, or both ;
or in less serious cases he may
be required to find sureties for his good behaviour. 3
If two or
more agree together to do any such act or to publish any
such words, each is guilty of a seditious conspiracy. No
act, however, will be seditious unless its evil consequences
are felt over a considerable area or afford a bad example to a
considerable number of persons. An isolated breach of the
peace is not an act of sedition.
1
2
60 Geo. III. & 1 Geo. IV. c. 8, e. 1.
Such imprisonment, however, must be in the first division (40 & 41 Vict. o. 21,
b. 40).
3 Ex parte Seymour and Michael Davitt (1883), 12 L. B. Ir. 46 ; IB Cox, 212.