such Recruit having represented the several Particulars as in the Oath sworn by him; and Proof by the Oath of one or more credible Witnesses that the Person so prosecuted hath voluntarily acknowledged that at the Time of his Enlistment he belonged to any Regiment in Her Majesty's Service, or to Her Majesty's Ordnance, Navy, or Marines, or to the Forces of the East India Company, shall be deemed and taken as Evidence of the Fact so by him acknowledged, without Production of any Roll or other Document to prove the same; and such Proof of such Acknowledgment shall be certified to the Secretary-at-War by the Justice before whom such Proof shall have been given; and any Man having been enrolled as a Volunteer under the Act Fifteenth and Sixteenth Victoria, Chapter Fifty, or any subsequent Acts, to serve in the Militia, who at the Time of offering to enlist into Her Majesty's Forces, Army, Ordnance, or Marines, or into the Forces of the East India Company, or to enter into Her Majesty's Navy, shall deny that he is a Militia Man then actually enrolled and engaged to serve in the Militia, and who shall not have completed his Engagement by Attestation or by being entered on the Books of the Navy, shall, upon Conviction thereof before any One Justice of the Peace in the United Kingdom, either upon the Oath of One Witness or upon his own Confession, be committed to the Common Gaol or House of Correction for any Time not exceeding Fourteen Days; and any Man enrolled as aforesaid who may have denied or shall hereafter deny, or who may have confessed or shall hereafter confess, to the Justice before whom he shall have been or shall be attested for the Army, Ordnance, or Marine Forces, or for the Forces of the East India Company, or who may have denied or shall hereafter deny, or who may have confessed or shall hereafter confess, on the Completion of his Engagement to enter the Navy, that he belongs to the Militia, shall not be liable to Imprisonment for such Offence, but shall, upon Conviction thereof before any One Justice in the United Kingdom, or before a Regimental or Naval Court of Inquiry, either upon his own Confession or upon the Oath of One Witness, forfeit all Militia Bounty which would have become payable to him during the Period of his belonging to Her Majesty's Regular Forces, or to the Forces of the East India Company, or to the Royal Navy, if he had not therein enlisted or entered, and be subjected to a Stoppage of One Penny a Day from his Pay for Eighteen Calendar Months, to be applied as the Secretaryat-War shall direct; or if enrolled in the Militia as a balloted Man or Substitute shall, if convicted before any One Justice as aforesaid, be committed to the Common Gaol or House of Correction, there to remain without Bail or Mainprise for and during any Time not exceeding Six Calendar Months, over and above any Penalty or Punishment to which such Person so offending may be otherwise liable; and such Person, whether he shall have been enrolled as a Volunteer or as a balloted C 4 Man Punishment of Officers offending against Enlistment. Man or Substitute, shall, from the Day on which his Engagement to serve in the Militia shall end, and not sooner, belong as a Soldier to the Corps of Her Majesty's Regular Forces, or of the East India Company's Forces into which he shall have so enlisted: Provided always, that every such Person shall be liable to serve within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in any Regiment, Battalion, or Corps of Her Majesty's Regular Forces, or of the East India Company's Forces, in which he has so enlisted, during all the Time the Militia to which he shall belong shall remain disembodied, or shall not be called out for Training or Exercise, and shall during all such Time be subject to all the Provisions of this Act, and liable to be apprehended and dealt with and punished as a Deserter from the Corps in which he shall have so enlisted if he shall neglect or refuse to join and serve in such Corps as aforesaid. LVIII. Every Military Officer who shall wilfully act contrary to the Provisions of this Act in any respect regarding Laws regarding the enlisting and attesting of Recruits for Her Majesty's Service or for the Service of the East India Company shall, upon Proof thereof upon Oath by Two Witnesses before a General Court-martial, be cashiered, and disabled to hold any Civil or Military Office or Employment in Her Majesty's Service. Enlistment and Re-enlistment abroad. LIX. And whereas it is expedient that Provision should be made for enlisting and attesting of Soldiers desirous of re-enlisting and others desirous of enlisting abroad: Be it therefore enacted, That it shall be lawful for Her Majesty, by any Warrant signed by the Secretary-at-War in that Behalf, to authorize the Governors of Colonies, and of the several Presidencies in India, to appoint any Person, not being a General Officer nor holding any Regimental Commission, to enlist or attest, or for any Justice of the Peace or Magistrate acting for the Place of such Re-enlistment or Enlistment, and not being a General Officer, nor holding any Regimental Commission, to enlist and attest, out of Great Britain or Ireland, any Soldiers or Persons desirous of enlisting or re-enlisting into Her Majesty's Service; and any Person so appointed shall have the same Powers in that Behalf as are given to Justices in the United Kingdom for all such Purposes of Enlistment and Attestation; and all such Appointments, past and future, and everything done or to be done under them, shall be valid and of full Effect, notwithstanding the Expiration of this Act or of any other Act of Parliament; and any Person so enlisted or re-enlisted shall be deemed to be an attested Soldier; and as often as any Corps shall be relieved or disbanded at any Station beyond the Seas it shall be lawful for any Officers thereunto authorized by the Officer commanding in chief at such Station to receive as Transfers as many of the Soldiers belonging to the Corps leaving the Station as shall be willing and fit for Service for any Corps appointed to remain; and every Soldier so transferred is hereby deemed to be discharged from his former Corps, and an an attested Certificate of Transfer shall be delivered to the Soldier; and every Infantry Soldier consenting to be transferred to the Cavalry or Artillery shall upon such Transfer become liable to serve the limited Period prescribed for the Cavalry or Artillery, as the Case may be, notwithstanding his original Engagement to serve in the Infantry for a shorter Period. LX. All Negroes or Persons of Colour who, although not Enlistment of born in any of Her Majesty's Colonies, Territories, or Posses- Negroes. sions, shall have voluntarily enlisted into Her Majesty's Service, shall, while serving, be deemed to be Soldiers legally enlisted into Her Majesty's Service, and entitled to all the Privileges of natural-born Subjects; and all Negroes purchased by or on account of Her Majesty previous to the total Abolition of Slavery throughout the British Colonies, and serving in any of Her Majesty's Forces, and all Negroes who have been seized and condemned as Prize under the Slave Trade Acts, and appointed to serve in Her Majesty's Army, shall be deemed to be and shall be entitled to all the Advantages of Negroes or Persons of Colour voluntarily enlisted to serve as Soldiers in any of Her Majesty's Colonial Forces. liable to serve LXI. Any Person duly bound as an Apprentice in Great Apprentice Britain or Ireland, or as an indentured Labourer in any of enlisting to be Her Majesty's Colonies or Possessions abroad, who shall enlist after the Expias a Soldier in Her Majesty's or the East India Company's ration of his Service, and shall state to the Magistrate before whom he shall Apprenticeship. be carried and attested that he is not an Apprentice or indentured Labourer as aforesaid, shall be deemed guilty of obtaining Money under false Pretences within the true Intent and Meaning of the before-recited Acts, if in England or in Ireland, or in the Colonies or Possessions aforesaid, and of Falsehood, Fraud, and wilful Imposition, if in Scotland, and shall after the Expiration of his Apprenticeship, or of his Indenture as a Labourer, whether he shall have been so convicted and punished or not, be liable to serve as a Soldier in any of Her Majesty's Regular Forces, or in the Forces of the East India Company, according to the Terms of the Enlistment, and if on the Expiration of his Apprenticeship, or of his Indenture as a Labourer, he shall not deliver himself up to some Officer authorized to receive Recruits, may be taken as a Deserter from Her Majesty's Forces. Masters to LXII. No Master shall be entitled to claim an Apprentice Claims of or an indentured Labourer as aforesaid who shall enlist as a Soldier in Her Majesty's or the East India Company's Service, unless he shall, within One Calendar Month after such Apprentice or indentured Labourer shall have left his Service, go before some Justice, and take the Oath mentioned in the Schedule to this Act annexed, and produce the Certificate of such Justice of his having taken such Oath, which Certificate such Justice is required to give in the Form in the Schedule to this Act annexed, and unless such Apprentice shall have been bound, if in England, for the full Term of Seven Years, not having been above the Age of Fourteen when so bound, and if in Ireland Punishment of Apprentices enlisting. 17 VICT. Ireland or in the British Isles, for the full Term of Five Years at the least, not having been above the Age of Sixteen when so bound, and if in Scotland, for the full Term at least of Four Years, by a regular Contract or Indenture of Apprenticeship, duly extended, signed, and tested, and binding on both Parties by the Law of Scotland, prior to the Period of Enlistment, and unless such Contract or Indenture in Scotland shall, within Three Months after the Commencement of the Apprenticeship, and before the Period of Enlistment, have been produced to a Justice of the Peace of the County in Scotland wherein the Parties reside, and there shall have been endorsed thereon by such Justice a Certificate or Declaration signed by him, specifying the Date when and the Person by whom such Contract or Indenture shall have been so produced, which Certificate or Declaration such Justice of the Peace is hereby required to endorse and sign, and unless such Apprentice shall, when claimed by such Master, be under Twenty-one Years of Age: Provided always, that any Master of an Apprentice indentured for the Sea Service, or of any indentured Labourer in Her Majesty's Colonies or Possessions abroad, shall be entitled to claim and recover him in the Form and Manner above directed, notwithstanding such Apprentice or indentured Labourer may have been bound for a less Term than Seven, Five, or Four Years as aforesaid: Provided also, that any Master who shall give up the Indentures of his Apprentice or of his Labourer as aforesaid within One Month after the enlisting of such Apprentice or indentured Labourer shall be entitled to receive to his own Use so much of the Bounty payable to such Recruit, after deducting therefrom Two Guineas to provide him with Necessaries, as shall not have been paid to such Recruit before Notice given of his being an Apprentice or an indentured Labourer. LXIII. No Apprentice or indentured Labourer as aforesaid claimed by his Master shall be taken from any Corps or Recruiting Party but under a Warrant of a Justice residing near, and within whose Jurisdiction such Apprentice or indentured Labourer shall then happen to be, before whom he shall be carried; and such Justice shall inquire into the Matter upon Oath, which Oath he is hereby empowered to administer, and shall require the Production and Proof of the Indenture, and that Notice of the said Warrant has been given to the Commanding Officer, and a Copy thereof left with some Officer or Non-commissioned Officer of the Party, and that such Person so enlisted declared that he was no Apprentice or indentured Labourer; and such Justice, if required by such Officer or Noncommissioned Officer, shall commit the Offender to the Common Gaol of the said Place, and shall keep the Indenture to be produced when required, and shall bind over such Person as he may think proper to give Evidence against the Offender, who shall be tried at the next or at the Sessions immediately succeeding the next General or Quarter Sessions of the County, Division, Division, or Place, unless the Court shall on just Cause put off the Trial; and the Production of the Indenture, with the Certificate of the Justices that the same was proved, shall be sufficient Evidence of the said Indenture; and every such Offender, in Scotland, may be tried by the Judge Ordinary in the County or Stewartry, in such and the like Manner as any Person may be tried in Scotland for any Offence not inferring a Capital Punishment: Provided always, that any Justice not required as aforesaid to commit such Apprentice or indentured Labourer may deliver him to his Master. LXIV. It shall be lawful for the Justice before whom any Wages of SerRecruit shall be attested before the Expiration of the Term of vants enlisting. Service for which he had been hired by his Master to adjudge to such Recruit a reasonable Proportion of his Wages for the Time he has actually served: and the said Justice shall make an Order for the Payment of the Amount so awarded, and in case of Neglect or Refusal to pay the same within Four Days shall issue his Warrant for levying the same by Distress and Sale of the Goods and Chattels of the Master. Attestation of LXV. And whereas certain Soldiers who have heretofore Removal of been duly enlisted, and who have voluntarily taken the Oath Doubts as to of Allegiance and Fidelity, and are now receiving Her Majesty's Soldiers. Pay, have been sworn and attested, but Doubts have arisen whether the Justices before whom the said Soldiers have been so sworn and attested were duly qualified to administer to such Soldiers the Oaths prescribed by the several Acts passed for the punishing Mutiny and Desertion, and for the better Payment of the Army and their Quarters: In every Case where any such Soldier, having been duly enlisted, shall have been so attested and sworn, and shall not have claimed to be discharged on or before the Seventeenth Day of March One thousand eight hundred and forty-six, he shall not be entitled to his Discharge by reason of such Informality, but shall be liable to all the Provisions of this Act, and of the Act passed during the last Session of Parliament for the punishing Mutiny and Desertion, and for the better Payment of the Army and their Quarters, where in force, and shall be entitled to the full Benefit of his past Service, and to all Pay and Pension in respect thereof, to all Intents and Purposes and in like Manner as if he had been duly attested and sworn. LXVI. No Secretary-at-War, Paymaster General of the Authorized Army, Paymaster, or any other Officer whatsoever, or their Deductions only to be under Officers, shall receive any Fees or make any Deductions made from the whatsoever, out of the Pay of any Officer or Soldier in Her Pay of the Majesty's Army, or from their Agents, which shall grow due Army. from and after the Twenty-fifth Day of April One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four other than the usual Deductions, or such other necessary Deductions as shall from Time to Time be required by Her Majesty's Regulations, or by Her Majesty's Order signified by the Secretary-at-War; and every Paymaster or other Officer having received any Officer's or Soldiers |