OCEANOGRAPHY, SAND, SANDSTONE, etc. (P. G. H. B. ) SEDITION, in law, an attempt to disturb the tranquillity of the State. In English law it is a very elastic term, including offences ranging from libel to treason (q.v.). It is rarely used except in its adjectival form, e.g., seditious libel, seditious meet ing or seditious conspiracy. Sedition is a common law indictable misdemeanour, and embraces everything whether by word, deed or writing which is calculated to disturb the tranquillity of the State, and lead ignorant persons to endeavour to subvert the Government and laws of the empire.
The principal enactments now in force dealing with seditious offences were all passed during the last 25 years of the reign of George III. They are the Unlawful Oaths Act 1797, prohibiting the administering or taking of unlawful oaths (see OATH) or the belonging to an unlawful confederacy; the Unlawful Drilling Act 1819, which prohibited unlawful drilling and military exer cises; and the Acts for the suppression of corresponding societies, the Unlawful Societies Act 1799 and the Seditious Meetings Act 1817. No proceedings can be instituted under these last two Acts
without the authority of the law officers of the Crown. By the Prison Act 1877, any prisoner under sentence for sedition or seditious libel is to be treated as a misdemeanant of the first division.
In the United States, Congress has passed sedition acts for the supposed protection of the Government. The Alien and Sedition laws passed during the administration of President Adams were partly responsible for the defeat of the Federalist party. During the World War, Congress passed with the approval of President Wilson sedition measures for the purposes of minimizing domestic opposition to the war.