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Soldiers liable

to be taken out of Her Majesty's Service

only for Felony,

Misdemeanor, or for Debts amounting to 30l. and upwards.

Soldiers not liable to be taken out of Her Majesty's Service for Debts under

304, or for not their Families, or for Breach

of Contract.

17 VICT belong, transmit to him a Certificate, containing the Substance and Effect only of the Indictment, omitting the formal Part, and containing also a Copy of the Entry of the Judgment of the Court thereon if such Officer or Soldier shall have been convicted, or of the Acquittal of such Officer or Soldier, and shall be allowed for such Certificate a Fee of Three Shillings.

LII. Any Person enlisted into Her Majesty's Service as a Soldier, or serving as a Non-commissioned Officer or Drummer on the permanent Staff of the Disembodied Militia, shall be liable to be taken out of Her Majesty's Service only by Process or Execution on account of any Charge of Felony or of Misdemeanor, other than the Misdemeanor of refusing to comply with an Order of Justices for the Payment of Money, or on account of an original Debt proved by Affidavit of the Plaintiff or of some one on his Behalf to amount to the Value of Thirty Pounds at the least, over and above all Costs of Suit in the Action or Actions, such Affidavit to be sworn, without Payment of any Fee, before some Judge of the Court out of which Process or Execution shall issue, or before some Person authorized to take Affidavits in such Court, of which Affidavit, when duly filed in such Court, a Memorandum shall, without Fee, be endorsed upon the Back of such Process, stating the Facts sworn to, and the Day of filing such Affidavit; but no Soldier or other Person as aforesaid shall be liable to be summoned before any Justice of the Peace or other Authority whatever, or to be taken out of Her Majesty's Service, by any Capias, Writ, Summons, Order, Judgment, Process, or Execution issued by or by the Authority of any Court or Inferior Court for any original Debt not amounting to Thirty Pounds, or for not supporting or maintaining, or for not having supported or maintained, or for deserting or having deserted, or for leaving or having left chargeable to any Parish, Township, or Union, any Wife, or any Child or Children, legitimate or illegitimate, or other Relation, which such Soldier or Person would, if not in Her Majesty's Service, be liable by Law to support or maintain, or for the Breach of any Contract, Covenant, Agreement, or other Engagement whatever, by Parol or in Writing, or for having left or deserted his Employer or Master, or his Contract, Work, or Labour, except in the Case of an Apprentice, or of an indentured Labourer, as herein-after described; and all Summonses, Warrants, Commitments, Indictments, Convictions, Judgments, and Sentences, on account of any of the Matters for which it is herein declared that a Soldier or other Person as aforesaid is not liable to be taken out of Her Majesty's Service shall be utterly illegal, and null and void, to all Intents and Purposes; and any Judge of any such Court may examine into any Complaints made by a Soldier or by his Superior Officer, and by Warrant under his Hand discharge such Soldier, without Fee, he being shown to have been arrested contrary to the Intent of this Act, and shall award reasonable Costs to such Complainant, who shall have for the Recovery thereof the like Remedy

Remedy as would have been applicable to the Recovery of any Costs which might have been awarded against the Complainant in any Judgment or Execution as aforesaid, or a Writ of Habeas corpus ad subjiciendum shall be awarded or issued, and the Discharge of any such Soldier out of Custody shall be ordered thereupon; provided that any Plaintiff, upon Notice of the Cause of Action first given in Writing to any Soldier, or left at his last Quarters, may proceed in any Action or Suit to Judgment, and have Execution other than against the Body: provided also, that nothing herein contained, relating to the leaving or deserting a Master or Employer, or to the Breach of any Contract, Agreement, or Engagement, shall apply to Persons who shall be really and bond fide Apprentices, duly bound, under the Age of Twenty-one Years, or to indentured Labourers, as herein-after prescribed.

LIII. No Officer of Her Majesty's Forces residing in Barracks or elsewhere under Military Law shall be deemed liable to have any Parish poor Child bound Apprentice to him.

Officers not
Parish Ap-

liable to take

prentices.

LIV. No Person who shall be commissioned and in Full Officers not t Pay as an Officer shall be capable of being nominated or elected be Sheriffs or Mayors. to be Sheriff of any County or other Place, or to be Mayor, Portreeve, Alderman, or shall be capable of holding any Office in any Municipal Corporation in any City, Borough, or Place in Great Britain or Ireland.

LV. Every Person who shall receive Enlisting Money, Enlisting and knowing it to be such, from any Person employed in the swearing of Recruiting Service, and being an Officer, Non-commissioned Recruits. Officer, an attested Soldier, or an Out-Pensioner of Chelsea Hospital authorized to enlist Recruits, 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 billeted 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 within Twelve Hours after the Receipt of the Enlisting Money 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 that he intends to sleep, in order that within Forty-eight 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 in the Form prescribed in the Schedule to this Act annexed, 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 Ninety-six Hours (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 any Justice or other Magistrate residing

Dissent and
Relief from
Enlistment.

in the Vicinity of the Place where such Person shall have enlisted, or before any Justice or other Magistrate acting for the Division, District, or Place 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 then and there, and in the Presence of the said Recruit, record or cause to be recorded in Writing his Answers thereunto; and the said Justice is hereby required forthwith to read over, or cause his Clerk in his Presence to read over, to such Recruit, the Fortieth and Forty-sixth Articles of the Articles of War against Mutiny and Desertion, and to administer to such Recruit the Oath in the Schedule to this Act annexed, 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; and the Fee for administering each Oath shall be One Shilling and no more; 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 Justice, at the Request of 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.

LVI. 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 as Smart Money, together with the full Amount of any Pay 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 always, 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 Ninety-six Hours as aforesaid, upon Payment of the Sum of Money required to be paid by 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 after deducting One Shilling as the Fee to his Clerk for reporting the Payment to the Secretary-at-War, shall be paid to any Person belonging to the Recruiting Party entitled

thereto

thereto demanding the same; and 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.

nected with

LVII. If any Recruit shall receive the Enlisting Money Offences confrom any Person employed in the Recruiting Service (knowing Enlistment. 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 Ninety-six Hours as aforesaid, such Recruit shall be deemed to be enlisted and a Soldier in Her Majesty's Service, or in the Service of the East India Company, 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 Ninety-six Hours 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, or that the true Name and Residence of the Recruit were not taken down in Writing: Provided always, 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 Non-commissioned 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 have enlisted into and been attested for Her Majesty's Forces, and who shall be discovered to be incapable of active Service by reason of any Infirmity concealed or not declared by such Recruit before the Justice at the Time of his Attestation, may be transferred to any Garrison or Veteran or Invalid Battalion or Company, notwithstanding he shall have enlisted for any particular Regi

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ment, and shall be entitled to receive such Proportion or Residue of Bounty only as Her Majesty may allow in that Behalf, instead of the Bounty upon which such Man shall have been enlisted, anything in any Act or Acts, or any Rules and Regulations relating to Soldiers, to the contrary notwithstanding; and it shall be lawful for any Two Justices acting for the County, District, City, Burgh, or Place where any such Recruit shall at any Time happen to be when any such Recruit shall be brought, and shall be proved upon Oath before them upon being attested to have concealed his having been a Soldier and discharged, or to have concealed his having been discharged upon any prior Enlistment, or to have wilfully concealed any such Infirmity, or to have designedly made any false Representation, to adjudge such Recruit, if in England, to be a Rogue and Vagabond, and to sentence him to such Punishment as by any Law in force may be inflicted upon Rogues and Vagabonds, and to adjudge such Person, if in Scotland or Ireland, to be imprisoned, with Hard Labour, in any Prison or House of Correction for any Period not exceeding Three Months; and any Recruit who shall designedly make any false Representation of any Particular contained in the Oaths and Certificates in the Schedule to this Act annexed, before the Justice, at the Time of his Attestation, and shall obtain any Enlisting Money or Bounty for entering into Her Majesty's Service, or into the Service of the East India Company, or any other Money, shall be deemed guilty of obtaining Money under false Pretences, within the true Intent and Meaning, if in England, of an Act passed in the Seventh and Eighth Years of His Majesty King George the Fourth, intituled 7&8 G.4.c. 29. An Act for consolidating and amending the Laws in England relative to Larceny and other Offences connected therewith, and if in Ireland, of an Act passed in the Ninth Year of the Reign of His Majesty King George the Fourth, intituled An Act for consolidating and amending the Laws in Ireland relative to Larceny and other Offences connected therewith, and such Recruit, if in Scotland, shall be deemed guilty of Falsehood, Fraud, and wilful Imposition; and any attested Recruit who shall in any Part of Her Majesty's Dominions or elsewhere have committed any of the before-mentioned Offences regarding Enlistment may be summarily punished or prosecuted, tried and convicted, for any such Öffence, at any Time during the Continuance of the Service for which he shall have enlisted, and in any County or Place where he may happen to be when such summary Proceeding or Prosecution shall be instituted and the Production of the Oath in the Schedule to this Act annexed, taken by the Recruit on his Attestation, and the Certificate then signed by the Justice before whom the Recruit was attested, certifying that the Questions and Answers contained in the Attestation were in his Presence put to and given by such Recruit, shall, in the Absence of Proof to the contrary, be deemed and taken to be sufficient Evidence of

G. 4. c. 55.

such

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