to be a Deserter shall be serving at the Time in any of Her Majesty's Forces, he shall be deemed to be and shall be dealt with as a Deserter.

Recruits deserting liable to be

transferred to

XXIV. And be it enacted, That any Recruit who shall desert prior to joining the Regiment for which he has enlisted shall, on being apprehended, and committed for such Deser- the nearest tion by any Justice of the Peace upon the Testimony of One Regiment or Depôt. or more Witnesses upon Oath, or upon his own Confession, be liable to be transferred to any Regiment or Depôt nearest to the Place where he shall have been apprehended, or to any other Regiment to which Her Majesty may deem it more desirable that he should be transferred: Provided always, that all Cavalry Recruits so committed for Desertion shall be transferred to Cavalry Regiments, and Infantry Recruits to Infantry Regiments; and that such Deserters thus transferred shall not be liable to other Punishment for the Offence, nor to any other Penalty, except the Forfeiture of their personal Bounty, reserving only for them that Part of the Bounty which is applicable to and required for the Provision of Necessaries.

XXV. And be it enacted, That every Person who shall, in any Part of Her Majesty's Dominions, directly or indirectly persuade any Soldier to desert, shall suffer such Punishment by Fine or Imprisonment, or both, as the Court before which the Conviction may take place shall adjudge; and every Person who shall assist any Deserter, knowing him to be such, in deserting or in concealing himself, shall forfeit for every such Offence the Sum of Twenty Pounds.

Penalty for in

ducing or assist.

ing to desert.

XXVI. And be it enacted, That every Commissioned Officer Penalty for who shall, without Warrant from One or more of Her Majesty's forcible Entry. Justices, forcibly enter into or break open the Dwelling House or Outhouses of any Person whomsoever, under Pretence of searching for Deserters, shall, upon due Proof thereof, forfeit the Sum of Twenty Pounds.

XXVII. And be it enacted, That every Gaoler and Keeper of any Prison or House of Correction in every Part of Her Majesty's Dominions shall, upon the Order in Writing of any Commanding Officer of a District, Garrison, Regiment, or Corps, (as the Case may be,) receive into his Custody any Soldier under Sentence of Imprisonment by a General or other Court-martial, and keep him in a proper Place of Confinement, with or without hard Labour, according to the Sentence of the Court, and during the Time specified in the said Order, or until he be discharged, or shall, although the Period for which the Soldier was originally committed may not have expired, deliver him up to any Person producing an Order in Writing to that Effect from any such Commanding Officer as aforesaid; and every such Gaoler who shall refuse to receive and to confine any such Non-commissioned Officer or Soldier in manner as aforesaid shall forfeit for every such Offence the Sum of One hundred Pounds.

Custody of
Offenders under
Sentence.

a Military

XXVIII. And be it enacted, That the Gaoler or Person Custody and having the immediate Inspection of any Prison, Gaol, or House Subsistence of

Deserters.

of

Notice of Ex

prisonment.

of Correction in every Part of Her Majesty's Dominions shall diet and supply every Soldier with Fuel and other Necessaries according to the Regulations of the Prison to which he shall be committed, and shall receive on account of every Soldier, during the Period of his Imprisonment, Sixpence per Diem, which the Secretary at War shall cause to be issued out of the Subsistence of such Soldier, upon Application in Writing signed by any Justice within whose Jurisdiction such Place of Confinement shall be locally situated, together with a Copy of the Order of Commitment, and which Sum of Sixpence per Diem shall be carried to the Credit of the Fund from which the Expence of such Prison or House of Correction is defrayed; and such Gaoler is hereby required to receive and confine every Deserter who shall be delivered into his Custody by any Soldier conveying such Deserter under lawful Authority, on Production of the Warrant of the Justice of the Peace on which such Deserter shall have been taken, or some Order from the Office of the Secretary at War, which Order shall continue in force until the Deserter shall have arrived at his Destination, and such Gaoler shall be entitled to One Shilling for the safe Custody of the said Deserter while halted on the March, and to such Subsistence for his Maintenance as shall be directed by Her Majesty's Regulations.

XXIX. And be it enacted, That every Gaoler to whom any piration of Im- Notice shall have been given that any Person in his Custody for any Offence is a Soldier liable to serve Her Majesty on the Expiration of his Imprisonment, shall give One Month's Notice of the Period of such Expiration of Imprisonment, or if there shall not be sufficient Time for a Month's Notice, then the longest practicable Notice thereof, to the Secretary at War.

Persons subject to this Act.

XXX. And be it enacted, That all the Provisions of this Act shall apply to all Persons employed on the Recruiting Service receiving Pay in respect of such Service, and to the Forces of the East India Company while they shall be in any Part of the United Kingdom, and until their Arrival in the Territories of the East India Company, and to the Officers and Persons who are or shall be serving and hired to be employed in the Royal Artillery and Field Train, and to Master Gunners and Gunners, and Conductors of Stores, and to all Officers and Persons who are or shall be serving in the Regiment of Royal Engineers and the Corps of Royal Sappers and Miners, and in the Corps of Royal Military Surveyors and Draftsmen, and to Persons in the Ordnance and in the Commissariat Departments, who are or shall be serving with any Part of Her Majesty's Forces, at Home or Abroad, under the Command of any Officer having Commission from Her Majesty, or from His late Majesty King William the Fourth, and to all Storekeepers and other Civil Officers who are or shall be employed by or act under the Ordnance at any of Her Majesty's Ordnance Establishments at Foreign Stations; provided that nothing in this Act contained shall extend to affect any Security which has been given by such Storekeeper, Barrack Master, or other Officer, or their Sureties,

Sureties, for the due Performance of their respective Offices, under the Provisions of an Act passed in the Fiftieth Year of the Reign of His Majesty King George the Third, to regulate the taking of Securities in all Offices, but that such Bonds and other Securities shall be and remain in full Force and Effect.

XXXI. And be it enacted, That all Officers and Soldiers of Foreign Troops any Troops, being mustered and in pay, which shall be raised in this Country. and serving in any of Her Majesty's Dominions Abroad, or in Places in Possession of or occupied by Her Majesty's Subjects, under the Command of any Officer having any Commission immediately from Her Majesty, shall be liable to Martial Law in like Manner as Her Majesty's other Forces are; and if such Officers and Soldiers, having been made Prisoners, be sent into England or Ireland, although not allowed to serve therein, all the Provisions of this Act in regard to billetting Soldiers shall apply to such Officers and Soldiers.

XXXII. And be it enacted, That nothing in this Act con- Militia and Yeomanry. tained shall in anywise be construed to extend to any of the Militia Forces or Yeomanry or Volunteer Corps in Great Britain or Ireland, excepting only in such Cases wherein, by any Act or Acts for regulating any of the said Forces or Corps, the Provisions contained in any Act for punishing Mutiny and Desertion shall be specifically made applicable to the said Corps.

Islands.

XXXIII. And be it enacted, That this Act shall be con- Act to extend strued to extend to the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, to certain Sark, and Man, and the Islands thereto belonging, as to the Provisions therein for enlisting of Recruits, whether Minors or of full Age, and swearing and attesting such Recruits, and for mustering and paying, and to the Provisions for the Trial and Punishment of Officers and Soldiers who shall be charged with Mutiny and Desertion, or any other of the Offences which are by this Act declared to be punishable by the Sentence of a Court-martial, and also to the Provisions which relate to the Punishment of Persons who shall conceal Deserters, or shall knowingly buy, exchange, or otherwise receive any Arms, Clothes, Military Furniture, or Regimental Necessaries from any Soldier or Deserter, or who shall cause the Colour of any such Clothes to be changed, and also as to the Exemption from Arrest for Debts under Thirty Pounds of Soldiers in the said Islands.

Recruits.

XXXIV. And be it enacted, That every Person who shall Enlisting and receive Enlisting Money from any Person employed in the swearing of Recruiting Service, he being an Officer, Non-commissioned Officer, or an attested Soldier, shall be deemed to be enlisted as a Soldier in Her Majesty's Service, and while he shall remain with the Recruiting Party shall be entitled to be billetted; and every Person who shall enlist any Recruit shall first ask the Person offering to enlist whether he does or does not belong to the Militia, and shall cause to be taken down in Writing the Name and Place of Abode of such Recruit; and (if such Recruit shall not reside in or in the Vicinity of the Town or Place where he offered to enlist) the Place also at which he shall

declare

Dissent and
Relief from
Enlistment.

declare that he intends to sleep, in order that within Fortyeight but not sooner than Twenty-four Hours, any intervening Sunday not included, after his having received the Enlisting Money, Notice of his having so enlisted be given to the Recruit or left at his usual Place of Abode, or at the Place where he stated that it was his Intention to sleep; and when any Person shall be enlisted as a Soldier in Her Majesty's Land Service he shall within Four Days, any intervening Sunday not included, but not sooner than Twenty-four Hours after such Enlisting, appear, together with some Person employed in the Recruiting Service of the Party with which he shall have enlisted, before a Justice, or, in Scotland, before any Baillie of a Royal Burgh, residing within the Vicinity of the Place, and acting for the Division or District where such Recruit shall have been enlisted, and not being an Officer in the Army; and if such Recruit shall declare his having voluntarily enlisted, the said Justice shall put to him the several Questions contained in the Schedule to this Act annexed, and shall record or cause to be recorded in Writing his Answers thereunto; and the said Justice is hereby required forthwith to cause the Answers so recorded in Writing, and the First and Second Articles of the Second Section of the Articles of War against Mutiny and Desertion, to be read over in his own Presence to such Recruit, and to administer to such Recruit the Oath in the Schedule to this Act annexed for limited or unlimited Service, or for Service in the Forces of the East India Company, as may be applicable to the Case of the Recruit, and no other Oaths, any thing in any Acts to the contrary notwithstanding; and the said Justice is hereby required to give, under his Hand, the Certificate in the Schedule to this Act annexed; and if any such Recruit so to be certified shall refuse to take the Oath in the Schedule to this Act annexed before the said Justice, it shall be lawful for the Officer or Non-commissioned Officer with whom he enlisted to detain and confine such Person until he shall take the said Oath of Fidelity.

XXXV. And be it enacted, That any Recruit appearing as aforesaid before such Justice shall be at liberty to declare his Dissent to such Enlisting, and upon such Declaration, and returning the Enlisting Money, and also paying the Sum of Twenty Shillings for the Charges expended upon him, together with the full Amount of Subsistence and Beer Money which shall have been paid to such Recruit subsequent to the Period of his having been enlisted, shall be forthwith discharged and set at liberty in the Presence of such Justice; but if such Person shall refuse or neglect, within the Space of Twenty-four Hours after so declaring his Dissent, to return and pay such Money as aforesaid, he shall be deemed and taken to be enlisted as if he had given his Assent thereto before the said Justice: Provided also, that it shall be lawful for any Justice to discharge any Person who shall have hastily enlisted, and who shall apply to him to declare his Dissent within such Four Days as aforesaid, upon Payment of the Sum of Money required to be paid by

any

any Recruit declaring his Dissent under this Act, notwithstanding no Person belonging to the Recruiting Party shall be with the Recruit, if it shall appear to such Justice, upon Proof to his Satisfaction, that the Recruiting Party has left the Place where such Recruit was enlisted, or that the Recruit could not procure any Person belonging to such Party to go with him before the Justice; and the Sum paid by such Recruit upon his Discharge shall be kept by the Justice, and paid to any Person belonging to the Recruiting Party entitled thereto demanding the same; provided that no Recruit who has been actually, though erroneously, discharged by the Justice before the Expiration of Twenty-four Hours after the Time of his Enlistment, shall be liable on that Account to be proceeded against as having deserted from Her Majesty's Service; and the Justice who shall discharge any Recruit shall in every Case give a Certificate thereof, signed with his Hand, to the Recruit, specifying the Cause thereof.

Enlistment.

XXXVI. And be it enacted, That if any Recruit shall receive Offences conthe Enlisting Money from any Person employed in the Re- nected with cruiting Service (knowing it to be such), and shall abscond or refuse to go before such Justice, or shall thereafter absent himself from the Recruiting Party or Person with whom he enlisted, and shall not voluntarily return to go before some Justice within such Period of Four Days aforesaid, such Recruit shall be deemed to be enlisted and a Soldier in Her Majesty's Service, as fully to all Intents and Purposes as if he had been duly attested, and may be apprehended and punished as a Deserter, or for being absent without Leave, under any Articles of War made for Punishment of Mutiny and Desertion; and such Recruit shall .not be discharged by any Justice of the Peace after the Expiration of such Four Days as aforesaid, unless it shall be proved to the Satisfaction of such Justice that the true Name and Residence of the Recruit were disclosed and known to the Recruiting Party, and that no Notice was given to the Recruit, or left at his usual Place of Abode, of his having so enlisted; provided that in every Case wherein any Recruit shall have received Enlisting Money, and shall have absconded from the Party, so that it shall not be possible immediately to apprehend and bring him before a Justice, the Officer or Noncommissioned Officer commanding the Party shall produce to the Justice before whom the Recruit ought regularly to have been brought for Attestation a Certificate of the Name and Place of Residence of such Recruit; and the Justice to whom such Certificate shall be produced shall, after satisfying himself that the Recruit who had absconded cannot be found and apprehended, transmit a Duplicate thereof to Her Majesty's Secretary at War, in order that, in the event of such Recruit being afterwards apprehended and reported as a Deserter, the Facts of his having received Enlisting Money, and having absconded after having been enlisted, may be ascertained, before he be finally adjudged to be a Deserter; and any Recruit who shall enlist into Her Majesty's Forces, and who shall be discovered to

be