APPROVAL, AND CONFIRMATION.

The approval of the officer, authorized thereunto, should appear at the foot of the sentence of the Court, instead of being, as has sometimes been the case, detached in the shape of an order on a separate paper.*

Vide also "REVISION."

In cases of capital punishment, the approval appears, as in ordinary cases, in orders; or a special warrant, enjoining the execution of the prisoner, is addressed to the officer commanding the garrison, &c. †

Her Majesty is empowered by the Mutiny Act to substitute transportation for capital punishment; but it is particularly to be observed that the only power given to officers by the Queen's warrant, is to suspend, mitigate, or remit the sentence of a Court Martial; it does not authorize them to alter the species of such punishment. This rule also applies to officers confirming the sentence of inferior Courts Martial; they may remit the whole, or any part of a sentence, with the exceptions previously noticed; but cannot, even with the consent of the party sentenced, commute, or change the punishment.†

In case of any irregularity in the sentence of a Court Martial, the responsibility will rest with the officer who approves, and confirms it, and must order it to be carried into execution.‡

* Tytler. Adye. † Simmons. Wellington. Hough.

APPEAL.

The appeal from the sentence of a Court Martial lies to the Supreme Civil Courts of Law, as the Courts of Queen's Bench, and Common Pleas in England and Ireland, and the Court of Session in Scotland.*

Should an appeal be made from an inferior court to a General Court Martial; the court being duly constituted, the parties in the trial are summoned to attend, together with all the witnesses.

The appellant sustains the part of prosecutor, and the party, in whose favor the inferior court has given its judgment, is defendant in the cause; the charges on the original trial being the matter at issue, on the truth, or falsehood of which the Court of Appeal is to decide. The witnesses who were examined on the previous trial, are entitled, before giving their evidence, to have their former statement read over to them, and they may, on oath, either confirm its tenor in all its parts, or dissent, or vary from the same, or add thereto what they may have previously omitted. They are likewise bound to answer all pertinent questions, put either by the appellant, defendant, or the Court. It is competent, moreover, for either of the parties in the appeal to bring forward additional evidence, either by the examination of new witnesses, or by the production of writings. The whole of the evidence being taken down in writing by the Judge Advocate, the Court deliberates thereon, and pronounces its opinion, and sentence, in the same manner as in ordinary trials.*

+ Tytler.

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