chances of injus from superior authority, and who considers the necessity that exists in those cases of more than tice greater. ever supporting the immediate commanding officer, could admit the principle that it is "always" in the prisoner's power to insist upon the reference of his case to a general officer. This must be the conclusion he would arrive at, even if it were not the fact that officers, if they do occasionally err from the want of due consideration, are nevertheless, when their attention is arrested, with very rare exceptions, actuated by a conscientious desire to do justice; and that the charges adjudicated by regimental courts are, for the most part, too clear to admit of much doubt, and too simple to demand great experience. appeals fatal The indiscriminate allowance of appeals would Indiscriminate be fatal to discipline; the convicted offender to discipline. would appeal with the certainty of the delay of punishment, and the hope of its abandonment, well aware of the difficulty, in many cases, attending the assembly of a general court martial and of the impossibility, in some circumstances, of again producing the witnesses necessary to his conviction. The necessary reference to superior authority of a claim, or even of a petition for an appeal, would be but little less prejudicial in its consequences. The ill-disposed would run riot, punishment might still await the guilty, but could then have no effect in antici (1) This does not by any means arrogate that officers are better than other men, or that the queen's commission can improve their natures: the commission however introduces them to the messtable, and if the tone of the army, and the influence of its society, cannot make a bad heart act rightly, or a weak head think justly, the fear of reproach will, at all events, be some check on the one, and the force of example will often control the other. but would seem admissible under pating crime; and the moral force, which is based on the unquestioned power of a prompt and energetic application of punishment, would be at an end. These objections would not seem to apply certain restric. if the commanding officer had the power of tions; overruling claims for appeal at his own discretion; it would still remain to repress a litigious spirit, by strictly defining the only grounds upon which a commanding officer might be justified in forwarding a case of appeal, and this would seem nothing less than the assertion on the part of the prisoner of his entire innocence of the whole of the charges, and his urging that he could bring forward such evidence as would prove it on a second hearing. Neither irregularity in the proceedings, imagined severity in the sentence, nor alleged innocence of a part of the charge, (unless, perhaps,' that part only imputed dishonest, or other disgraceful conduct,) should be held sufficient: these circumstances may with propriety, call for the animadversion of superior authority; but whilst the scale of punishment in the power of regimental courts martial is so confined, can scarcely entail so great a hardship on the prisoner, as to counterbalance the inconvenience and injury the service might sustain from the frequency of appeals, if they were admitted in these cases. (1) Let those who would doubt that private soldiers have a becoming sense of honor, though it does not show itself in impertinence, and a more becoming pride in their station than the wouldbe reformer who strives to raise himself by an attempt to degrade them, ask the opinion of officers of any observation who have been present at a punishment parade, when the culprit was paying the penalty of theft, or who has heard in some roundabout way of the dirty attempts at imposture which, at the risk of being themselves confined, soldiers will still visit with a cobbing, if they think there is no chance of a sergeant catching them during the operation. increase the It is not apprehended that the recognised not likely to admission of appeals, under these limitations, number. would add to their number; on the contrary, it is imagined that those here supposed are extreme cases, even now, and would be still less liable to occur were this closely restricted contingence once understood. The absence of appeals would then be a criterion of its soundness, which the officers of the army could not but refer to with pride, nor the soldiery without satisfaction. the other hand, it is gratifying to know, if they are put a stop to, that substantial justice can but little suffer, and that, by the question of right being set at rest, there will be an end to that mischievous spirit of litigation which must be subversive of the very rudiments of discipline, and which must be upheld by the present uncertainty of the practice in this respect. On of Regimental It would be difficult, and, so far as the author's Essential equity experience has extended, impossible to quote a Courts Martial. single case where the equity of conviction by a regimental court martial had been questioned, either directly or by insinuation; though it must be admitted, that informalities, particularly as to the admission of evidence, and the manner of eliciting it, are of frequent occurrence. Indeed, this charge is scarcely less applicable to general courts martial, though a greater attention to form is there paid; it has not however been remarked that courts have been less exempt from irregularity when attended by a lawyer as deputy judge advocate, than when that office has been filled by military men. The charges usually enquired into by regimental courts martial are generally supported by the most direct and Detachment rily discon tinued. unquestionable testimony, and therefore admit of little doubt in the decision; and, so far as essential justice is concerned in their jurisdiction, it may not perhaps be desirable that a more strict adherence to form should embarrass them; but, in as much as they must be considered the school in which the minds of military men are trained to the attainment of judicial knowledge, to be applied on trials by general courts martial, where very refined questions of law and evidence occasionally arise, and on the correct disposition of which the due dispensation of justice depends, it is to be regretted that more attention is not paid to the general rules of evidence, which are admitted to be binding on general courts martial. DETACHMENT COURTS MARTIAL. The court now denominated a detachment were tempora- court martial, (from the temporary suspension of which the inconvenience to be apprehended from its permanent abrogation may be judged,) had formerly been termed garrison, district, line, brigade, detachment, or camp court martial; its distinctive appellation being derived from the nature of the command with which the officer convening the court may have been invested. Detachment These courts are held without any other authority than that afforded by the articles of war, by order of the senior officer in command Convention of, of the district, station, garrison, barrack, island or colony, provided he be not under the rank of (1) The articles of war bearing date 24th March, 1829, contained no provision for the constitution of a court martial of this description; the omission was supplied by a supplementary article in the November following. Officer, except on board ship; field officer; or, in case of embarkation on board limited to Field any transport or merchant vessel, by the appointment of the senior on board, whatever be his rank,' limited, nevertheless, to the rank of President. captain, since no officer of inferior rank to that 2 of captain can be president. They are not to composition. consist of less than five officers, unless it be found impracticable to assemble that number, when three are sufficient. They enquire into such Jurisdiction. disputes, and criminal matters, as may come before them, according to the rules and limitations observed by regimental courts martial. The Execution of sentence, to be efficacious, must be confirmed by the superior officer on the spot, not being a member of the court. sentence. Detachment and identical; The constitution, jurisdiction and powers of Jurisdiction of detachment and regimental courts martial are Courts Martial precisely identical, except that the one may be composed of officers of different corps, and may entertain charges against a soldier of any corps ; the other only against soldiers of the particular regiment in which the court is formed. Since the power of regimental courts martial has been considered, it is only necessary to mark the distinction made by the articles of war, as to the rank of the officers authorized to convene detachment and regimental courts martial. A Detachment detachment court martial cannot be convened, excepting on board ship, by an officer below the (1) 86 Art. War. Courts Martial convened only by a Field Officer, |