a general appellation to denote not only offences against the king and government, but also that accumulation of guilt which arises whenever a superior reposes a confidence in a subject or inferior, between whom and himself there subsists a natural, a civil, or even a spiritual relation; and the inferior so abuses that confidence, so forgets the obligations of duty, subjection, and allegiance, as to destroy the life of any such superior or lord. It is a general name, in short, for treachery against the sovereign or liege lord. Treason was up to 1828 divided into high and petty treason. Now, however, petit treason has been abolished. High treason (which is equivalent to the crimen laesae majestatis of the Romans, as Glanville denominates it also in the English law) is an offence committed against the security of the king or kingdom, whether by imagination, word, or deed. In order to prevent the inconveniences which arose in England from a multitude of constructive treasons, the statute 25 Edw. III., stat. 5, c. 2, was made; which defines what offences only for the future should be held to be treason. Two late acts were passed in 1842 and 1848 for the protection of her Majesty's person.