This statute was to be in force only six months; and many of those who voted for it probably believed that it would, at the close of that period, be suffered to expire.

The bill passed rapidly and easily.

Not a single division was taken upon it in the House of Commons.

A mitigating clause indeed, which illustrates somewhat curiously the manners of that age, was added by way of rider after the third reading.

This clause provided that no court martial should pass sentence of death except between the hours of six in the morning and one in the afternoon.