This contingence is not provided for expressly in the King's Regulations.

Considered as a question of construction;

obstruct officers of the navy in the due execution of the orders they may have received from the commissioners of his majesty's navy.

LAND FORCES WHEN SERVING AS MARINES.

The general regulations of the army do not expressly provide for this contingence, but should her majesty command it, or the exigence of her service at any time again require it, it may be confidently anticipated that this measure would be divested of any practical inconvenience by the mutual good feeling which the regulations above given at length are so evidently calculated to promote.

The entirety of the naval regulations under this head is the single paragraph which follows: "When any of her majesty's land forces shall be embarked in the fleet, to serve as marines, they shall be considered in every respect whatsoever as royal marines, except only as to pay, clothing, and stoppages, which will be governed by the regulations of the army."

It may be argued, as a question of verbal construction, that it is only meant that land forces, when embarked as marines, should be considered or requited for their services, where the financial regulations of the army do not interfere, in all respects, such as victualling and sharing seizures, in a similar manner to the royal marines when borne as part of the complement of the fleet, in whose advantages, in these respects, soldiers do not participate under other circumstances, and that it is not intended to subject

(1) Regulations for his majesty's service at sea. 1st January, 1833. Chapter x. § i.

On

the

123

in a manner

which, from a would seem the

consideration of the context,

intention,

the land forces to the discipline of the navy: on interpreted
the other hand, it has been asserted that whilst
the most ample and unreserved admission of
the principle contended for by military men has
been conceded, as regards the discipline of soldiers
when embarked for transport in her majesty's
ships, this provision for a case, which, it is
supposed, will not arise, was purposely drawn
up as a salvo to the pretensions which have
been put an end to by the existing regula-
tions for land forces embarked for passages.
a consideration of the whole chapter, and in
absence of any direct proof, as to the intention
of their lordships in framing these regulations,
this view of their meaning does not seem in any
way forced; the silence of the first section, as to
the powers exercised under the mutiny act, con-
trasted with the distinct recognition of them in
the succeeding section, may be fairly urged as
proof that the naval regulations would subject
soldiers, serving as marines, to the statutes for
the government of the forces at sea and to the
naval articles of war, and were there no other
evidence as to the merits of the question, this
might be conclusive.

a

were there not

other and conand enactments.

flicting orders

decided by

authority.

No troops have been embarked to serve as Not as yet marines since the war, and the case not having competent arisen, it is not believed that any reference has been made on the subject, and that it still continues an open question: and this being the case it may not be unacceptable to the reader to reproduce the argument as stated in former editions. To those of his brother officers who may resort to this work for the experience of an old soldier, the writer would point out the concluding

Whether offences against discipline, committed on board ships of

war, are to be

tried by military

Courts Martial;

Officers of the

land service,

observations, and would recommend them to undertake the consideration of this and any other apparently legal question, in no litigious spirit, but in that which animated the author, who, enthusiastically attached to his own profession, sought the good of the service with disinterested singleness of purpose, and in a temper equally remote from factious opposition or stolid servility combined, reverential loyalty for the sovereign and respectful deference to established authorities which are natural to gentlemen of well ordered mind, with that submission to the expressed intention of the legislature which is imposed upon officers, whether of the army or navy, by the constitution.

Offences against discipline, committed on board ships of war, by officers and soldiers of the land forces could, in the author's opinion, alone be tried, under the mutiny act and articles of war, by a military court martial; but the contrary has been strenuously maintained by many officers of high reputation in the navy, who conceive that officers and soldiers, so situated, are liable to the naval articles of war, and to trial by naval courts martial: this opinion is countenanced by Mr. M'Arthur, a writer of merited celebrity on courts martial, and has tacitly been assented to, under trying circumstances, by many officers of the army.

It is very certain that all officers and soldiers, on board ships of embarked on board ships of war, or other ships

war, are under

the command of

ship and of fleet,

senior officers of regularly commissioned, are, to all intents and purposes, under the orders of the superior officer of each particular ship, and of the superior officer of the fleet, and are bound to obey such

tion, how shall

be punished?

officers, and strictly to conform to all orders and regulations, whether established generally for the government and discipline of the ship, or directed particularly to an individual.' It is only as the only ques to the mode of enforcing that punishment, which disobedience a breach of discipline by an officer or soldier, on board a ship of war, must necessarily incur, that a difference of opinion can arise; and, in this respect, so far as the author can judge, the military articles of war, the statutes for the guidance of the navy, the orders of the lords commissioners of the admiralty, and those of his late royal highness the commander in chief, are in no point at variance.

the Mutiny Act and Marine

Mutiny Act

considered.

The mutiny act declares that officers and Provisions of soldiers, convicted of certain offences, whether committed upon land or upon sea, shall suffer death, or such other punishment as by a court martial shall be awarded. Now, the only courts martial recognised by the act are such as may be convened in accordance with it; which, for the sake of distinction, may be termed military courts martial. No exception is made with respect to troops embarked on board ships of war; whereas in the marine mutiny act, a clause is inserted specially subjecting marines, whilst borne on the books of any of her majesty's ships or vessels, either as part of the complement or as supernumeraries, or otherwise, to the laws for the government of her majesty's forces by sea, and to the rules and discipline of the royal navy, and rendering them amenable to punishment as officers and seamen employed in the navy." Hence it may be argued, that as the legislature

(1) 144 Art. War.

(2) Marine Mut. Act, Sec. 63.

Articles of War considered:

deemed the insertion of a special clause in the marine mutiny act necessary to render marines, whilst serving on board her majesty's ships, subject to naval law, the omission of such provision in the mutiny act must be conclusive on the subject; and, therefore, that her majesty's land forces are only subject to trial by military courts martial for offences against discipline "committed upon the land or upon sea." Both mutiny acts declare, that nothing in them shall protect officers and soldiers, or marines, from being proceeded against by the ordinary course of law; hence again it is evident, that in the view taken by the legislature, officers, soldiers, and marines, would, by the effect of the statutes in question, be held exempt from all other law, and not liable to procedure against, even by the ordinary laws under which they were born, but by virtue of the special declaration.

Mr. M'Arthur conceives that additional energy is given to the statute for the government and discipline of the navy, by the following article of war for the government of the forces, which was added by his majesty, in 1795, and has been continued without alteration to the present day; it now constitutes the one hundred and fortyfourth article: "Whenever any of our forces shall be embarked on board our ships of war, or any other ships which may have been regularly commissioned by us, and which may be employed in the transportation of our troops; our will and pleasure is, that the officers and soldiers of such forces, from the time of embarkation on board any ship as above described, shall strictly conform themselves to the laws and regulations established