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Bills, notwith

20.

of this Act, any Sum or Sums of Money not exceeding in the the Credit of whole the Sum of One million seven hundred and fifty thousand standing Pounds; anything in an Act passed in the Fifth and Sixth 5 & 6 W. & M. Years of the Reign of King William and Queen Mary, intituled An Act for granting to Their Majesties several Rates and Duties upon Tonnage of Ships and Vessels, and upon Beer, Ale, and other Liquors; and for securing certain Recompences and Advantages in the said Act mentioned to such Persons as shall voluntarily advance the Sum of One million five hundred thousand Pounds towards carrying on the War against France, or in any subsequent Act, to the contrary thereof in anywise notwithstanding.

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CAP. IV.

An Act for punishing Mutiny and Desertion, and for
the better Payment of the Army and their Quarters.
[23d March 1854.]
WHEREAS the raising or keeping a Standing Army

within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland ' in Time of Peace, unless it be with the Consent of Parliament, is against Law: And whereas it is adjudged necessary by Her Majesty and this present Parliament that a Body of Forces should be continued for the Safety of the United Kingdom, 'the Defence of the Possessions of Her Majesty's Crown, and the Preservation of the Balance of Power in Europe, and that

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the whole Number of such Forces should consist of One Numbers. hundred and twenty-seven thousand nine hundred and seventyseven Men, exclusive of the Officers and Men belonging to 'the Regiments employed in the Territorial Possessions of the • East India Company, but including the Officers and Men of the Troops and Companies recruiting for those Regiments: And whereas no Man can be forejudged of Life or Limb, or subjected in Time of Peace to any Kind of Punishment within this Realm, by Martial Law, or in any other Manner than by Judgment of his Peers, and according to the known and established Laws of this Realm; yet nevertheless it being requisite, for the retaining all the before-mentioned Forces in ' their Duty, that an exact Discipline be observed, and that Soldiers who shall mutiny or stir up Sedition, or shall desert 'Her Majesty's Service, or be guilty of Crimes and Offences to the Prejudice of good Order and Military Discipline, be brought to a more exemplary and speedy Punishment than the usual Forms of the Law will allow :' Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, That

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I. It shall be lawful for Her Majesty to make Articles of Articles of War War for the better Government of Her Majesty's Forces, which made by Her Majesty to be

Articles

notice of

judicially taken Articles shall be judicially taken notice of by all Judges and in all Courts whatsoever; and Copies of the same, printed by the Queen's Printer, shall, as soon as may be after the same shall have been made and established by Her Majesty, be transmitted by Her Majesty's Secretary-at-War to the Judges of Her Majesty's Superior Courts at Westminster, Dublin, and Edinburgh respectively, and also to the Governors of Her Majesty's Dominions abroad; provided that no Person within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, or the British Isles, shall by such Articles of War be subject to be transported as a Felon, or to suffer any Punishment extending to Life or Limb, except for Crimes which are by this Act expressly made liable to such Transportation or to such Punishment as aforesaid, or shall be subject, with reference to any Crimes made punishable by this Act, to be punished in any Manner which shall not accord with the Provisions of this Act.

Persons subject to this Act.

Act to extend to Jersey, Guernsey, &c.

II. All the Provisions of this Act shall apply to all Persons who are or shall be commissioned or in Pay as an Officer, or who are or shall be listed or in Pay as a Non-commissioned Officer or Soldier, and to all Persons employed on the Recruiting Service receiving Pay in respect of such Service, and to the Officers and Soldiers belonging to the Forces of the East India Company while such Officers or Soldiers shall be in any Part of the United Kingdom, 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 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 in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and the Islands thereto belonging, or 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, 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.

III. This Act shall extend to the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, 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,

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 fraudulently confess themselves to be Deserters, or 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, or who shall aid in the Escape of a Prisoner from a Military Prison, or who shall introduce forbidden Articles into such Prison, or shall carry out any such Articles, or who shall assault any Officer of such Prison, and also to the Provisions for exempting Soldiers from being taken out of Her Majesty's Service for not supporting or for leaving chargeable to any Parish any Wife or Child or Children, or on account of any Breach of Contract to serve or work for any Employer, or on account of any Debts under Thirty Pounds in the said Islands.

IV. All Officers and Soldiers of any Troops, being mustered Foreign Troops and in Pay, which shall be raised and serving in any of Her in this Country. 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 subject to the Provisions of this Act and of Her Majesty's Articles of War, 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 billeting Soldiers shall apply to such Officers and Soldiers.

V. Nothing in this Act contained shall in anywise be con- Militia and strued to extend to any Militia Forces or Yeomanry or Yeomanry. 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.

VI. For the Purpose of bringing Offenders against this Act Power to conand the Articles of War to Justice, Her Majesty may from stitute CourtsTime to Time, in like Manner as has been heretofore used, martial. grant Commissions under the Royal Sign Manual for the holding Courts-martial within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and may grant Commissions or Warrants under the said Royal Sign Manual to the Chief Governor or Governors of Ireland, the Commander of the Forces, or the Person or Persons commanding in chief, or commanding for the Time being, any Body of Her Majesty's Forces, as well within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the British Isles, as in any of Her Majesty's Garrisons and Dominions or

elsewhere

General Courts. martial.

District or
Garrison
Courts-martial.

elsewhere beyond Seas, for convening Courts-martial, and for
authorizing any Officer under their respective Commands to
convene Courts martial, as Occasion may require, for the Trial
of Offences committed by any of the Forces under the Command
of
any such last-mentioned Officer, whether the same shall have
been committed before or after such Officer shall have taken
upon him such Command; the Officer so authorized not being,
however, below the Degree of a Field Officer, except in the
Settlements on the Western Coast of Africa, where a Captain
may be authorized to convene District or Garrison Courts-
martial; and any Person subject to this Act who shall, in
any Part of Her Majesty's Dominions or elsewhere, commit
any of the Offences for which he may be liable to be tried
by Court-martial by virtue of this Act or of the Articles of
War, may be tried and punished for the same in any Part of Her
Majesty's Dominions or elsewhere where he may have come or
be after the Commission of the Offence, as if the Offence had
been committed where such Trial shall take place.

VII. A General Court-martial convened in Saint Helena, the Settlements on the Western Coast of Africa, Honduras, New Zealand, the Australian Colonies, Hong Kong, and the Settlements on the Coast of China, and Prince of Wales Island, Singapore, and Malacca, shall consist of not less than Five Commissioned Officers; if convened in Jamaica, the Windward and Leeward Islands, British Guiana, Newfoundland, Bermuda, the Bahamas, the Cape of Good Hope or other Settlements in Southern Africa, or in any Part out of the Queen's Dominions, excepting the Ionian Islands and the Parts before mentioned, it shall consist of not less than Seven, and if convened in any other Part of the Queen's Dominions, or in the Ionian Islands or in the Settlements of the East India Company, it shall consist of not less than Thirteen Commissioned Officers; and shall have Power to sentence any Officer or Soldier to suffer Death, Transportation, or any other Punishment which shall accord with the Provisions of this Act.

VIII. A District or Garrison Court-martial shall consist of not less than Seven Commissioned Officers, except in Bermuda, the Bahamas, the Cape of Good Hope or other Settlements in Southern Africa, Saint Helena, Jamaica, Honduras, Newfoundland, New Zealand, the Australian Colonies, the Windward and Leeward Islands, British Guiana, Hong Kong, and the Settlements on the Coast of China, where it may consist of not less than Five Commissioned Officers, and in the Settlements on the Western Coast of Africa, where it may consist of not less than Three Commissioned Officers; and such Court-martial shall have the same Power as a General Court-martial to sentence any Soldier to such Punishments as shall accord with the Provisions of this Act: Provided always, that such Court-martial shall not have Power to try a Commissioned Officer, nor to pass any Sentence of Death or Transportation.

Detachment

IX. A Regimental or Detachment Court-martial shall consist Regimental and of not less than Five Officers, unless it is found to be imprac- Courts-martial. ticable to assemble that Number, when Three may be sufficient, and shall have Power to sentence any Soldier to Corporal Punishment, or to Imprisonment, and to Forfeiture of Pay, in such Manner as shall accord with the Provisions of this Act.

any

on Line of March or in

Troop Ships.

X. In Cases of Mutiny and gross Insubordination or other Courts-martial Offences committed on the Line of March, or on board Transport Ship, Convict Ship, Merchant Vessel, or Troop Ship, not in Commission, the Offender may be tried by a Regimental or Detachment Court-martial, and the Sentence confirmed and carried into execution on the Spot by the Officer in the immediate Command of the Troops, provided that the Sentence shall not exceed that which a Regimental Court-martial is competent to award.

out of the

XI. It shall be lawful for any Officer commanding any Courts-martial Detachment or Portion of Her Majesty's Troops which may at in special Cases any Time be serving out of Her Majesty's Dominions, upon Queen's DomiComplaint made to him of any Offence committed against the nions. Property or Person of any Inhabitant of or Resident in any such Countries, by any Person serving with or belonging to Her Majesty's Armies, being under the immediate Command of any such Officer, to convene a Detachment General Courtmartial, which shall consist of not less than Three Officers, for the Purpose of trying any such Person; and every such Court-martial shall have the same Powers in regard to Sentence upon Offenders as are granted by this Act to General Courtsmartial Provided always, that no Sentence of any such Court-martial shall be executed until the General commanding the Army to which the Division, Brigade, Detachment, or Party to which any Person so tried, convicted, and adjudged to suffer Punishment shall belong shall have approved and confirmed the same.

East India

XII. Where necessary or expedient, Officers of Her Majesty's Mixed CourtsRoyal Marines, or Officers in the Service of the East India martial in case Company, or Officers of both such Services, may sit on Courts- of Marines and martial together with Officers of Her Majesty's Land Forces, Company. whether the Commanding Officer by whose Order such Courtmartial is assembled belongs to the Land or to the Marine Forces; and when the Person to be tried shall belong to the Land Forces, then the Proceedings of such Court shall be regulated, to all Intents and Purposes, as if the Court was composed of Officers of Her Majesty's Land forces only, and the Provisions of this Act, and the Oaths hereby prescribed, shall be applicable to the Proceedings of such Court; but where the Person to be tried shall belong to Her Majesty's Royal Marines, then the Provisions of an Act passed in the present Session of Parliament, for the Regulation of Her Majesty's Royal Marine Forces while on shore, and the Oaths therein prescribed, shall be applicable; and where the Person to be tried shall be in the Service of the East India Company, the Provisions of an Act passed in the

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