That is not true.

What Froude says is, "A practice which by the law was always forbidden could be palliated only by a danger so great that the nation had become like an army in the field.

It was repudiated on the return of calmer times, and the employment of it rests a stain on the memory of those by whom it was used.

It is none the less certain, however, that the danger was real and terrible, and the same causes which relieve a commander in active service from the restraints of the common law apply to the conduct of statesmen who are dealing with organised treason.

The law is made for the nation, not the nation for the law.