delay. A commanding officer who, under any circumstances, not unavoidable, delays to bring forward charges, or permits charges to lie dormant, fails in a most essential duty to the service.

53. An officer who may be placed in arrest has no right to demand a court-martial upon himself, or to persist in considering himself under the restraint of such arrest, or to refuse to return to the exercise of his duty, after he shall have been released by proper authority. It by no means follows that an officer conceiving himself to have been wrongfully put in arrest, or otherwise aggrieved, is without remedy; a complaint is afterwards open to him, if preferred in a proper manner, and provision for that purpose is made in the Articles of War. An officer in close arrest is not allowed to leave his quarters or tent. If he be in arrest at large, he may be permitted by superior authority to take exercise within defined limits, viz., not beyond the barracks, or if in camp, not beyond the quarter guard, and then only at stated periods; but he is not to appear in his own or in any other mess premises, nor at any place of amusement or public resort, and he is on no pretext to quit his room, or tent, dressed otherwise than in uniform, but without his sash and sword. When placed in arrest, he should be deprived of his sword until released. When an officer is placed in arrest by his commanding officer, the circumstances of the case should immediately be brought to the notice of the general officer commanding.

54. Whenever general officers, or colonels, are available as presidents of general courts-martial no officer of inferior rank is to be placed on that duty.

55. Whenever it can be arranged without serious inconvenience to the service, the members of a court-martial assembled for the trial of an officer are to be of equal, if not superior, rank to the prisoner; and in no case but one of necessity is a colonel to sit upon the trial of a general officer, or a captain on that of a field officer, or a subaltern officer on that of a captain. On the trial of subaltern officers, two officers of that rank are considered a sufficient proportion to be detailed as members of the court. The members of a court may however be of any rank superior to that of the prisoner.

56. When the commanding officer of a corps is brought to trial, care is to be taken that as many members of the court as possible shall be officers who have themselves held, or who are holding commands equivalent to that held by the prisoner.

57. All official books and orders having reference to courtsmartial are to be laid before every court when sitting.

58. Upon any trial by court-martial being ordered, the commanding officer of the corps to which the accused belongs or is attached, will be held responsible that the accused be furnished.

by the Adjutant or by a commissioned officer, with a copy of the charge or charges preferred against him, at least twenty-four hours before the court is to assemble, unless the exigencies of the service render this impossible. To a soldier who cannot read the charge is to be read, and, if necessary, explained by the person who warns him for trial, and a list of all witnesses for the prosecution is at the same time to be given to the prisoner.

59. The attention of general and commanding officers is particularly called to the 78th Article of War, which prohibits the trial of private soldiers by regimental court-martial, for drunkenness not on duty, but provides for their being brought to trial by a district or garrison court-martial under certain conditions therein prescribed. If, however, a soldier commits that offence, in combination with some other crime for which it is intended to bring him to trial before a regimental court-martial, the act of drunkenness is not to be added to the charge on which he is to be arraigned; but, as it is necessary that the drunkenness should be recorded, in order to compute the fines which may have to be subsequently levied, commanding officers should award punishment for that offence before the prisoner is brought to trial on the other charge.

60. When a soldier is required as a witness before a court-martial, and is not serving in the district in which the court is to be held, application is to be made by the commanding officer to the Adjutant General for the attendance of such soldier, naming the probable day of the assembly of the court.

61. A certificate, showing the state of health of the prisoner on the day of trial, is to be laid before the court and attached to the proceedings. The certificate is to be in the handwriting of a medical officer, according to the following form:

"I certify that No.

A.B. of the

Regiment is [or is "not] in a good state of health, and fit [or unfit] to undergo [the words "corporal punishment" to be here inserted in the case of a soldier "tried whilst on active service in the field] imprisonment, solitary or "otherwise, and with or without hard labour; and that his present

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appearance and previous medical history both justify the belief that "hard labour employment will neither be likely to originate nor to re"produce disease of any description." [If the Prisoner is to be tried for desertion, the certificate is also to state whether the soldier is physically fit [or unfit] for the service.]

The certificate is to be renewed in the event of any change taking place in the state of health of the prisoner during the sitting of the

court.

62. When a soldier has been tried and sentenced by courtmartial, and his punishment has been wholly remitted, there is to be no remission of any penalty consequent on his conviction, such as forfeiture of service, good-conduct pay, &c. &c.; but when the proceedings of a court are quashed on account of their illegality, or from any other circumstances, the soldier is to be relieved from all consequences of his trial, and all record of it is to be erased.

63. When militia regiments report the fraudulent enlistment of a militia-man into the army, they are required to furnish the corps in which the man is serving with a duplicate of his militia attestation, and a certificate as follows:

has not been

and that the

"I hereby certify that regimental No. "released from his engagement to serve in the "officer commanding the regiment has no objection to his being retained "to serve in Her Majesty's Army.

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Signed

Adjutant.
Militia."

Commanding officers will, on the receipt of these documents take the necessary steps for dealing with such men, in accordance with the provisions of the 50th section of the Mutiny Act, without reference to the Adjutant General. Reports of the result are in each case to be made direct to the militia regiments. Care is to be taken, in every case, that the certificate of the consent of the militia commanding officer to the man's retention to serve in the army is attached to his army attestation.

64. A soldier who has forfeited his service towards good-conduct pay and pension, will be eligible to be recommended for the restoration of such service when he establishes his claim thereto by uninterrupted good conduct (as shown by his having no entries in the Regimental Defaulter Book) for five years in case of a first conviction entailing loss of service, for seven years in case of a second conviction of the same nature, and for ten years should any circumstance of an aggravated character have attended the commission of the offence on account of which he had incurred the penalties in question. Fraudulent enlistment while belonging to the Militia will be considered as a conviction, for this purpose only, although the man may not have been tried for the offence. A soldier may, however, be recommended for such restoration within half the periods here prescribed, provided he has shown not only unremitting good conduct, but has also given good, faithful, or gallant service of a constant and sustained character in

rules and regulations of Her Majesty's service, and if any doubt shall arise, according to my conscience, the best of my understanding, and the custom of the service in like cases.

167. 1 IF any soldier shall have been illegally absent from his duty for the space of twenty-one days,2 a court of inquiry of three officers shall forthwith assemble, [who3 are hereby empowered to examine witnesses upon oath respecting the fact of such absence], and the deficiency, if any, in the articles of his kit; and, having

received proof on oath of the facts, they shall declare such absence and the period thereof, and the deficiency, if any, in the articles of his kit; and the officer commanding the corps shall enter a record of such absence, and of such deficiency in his kit, and of the declaration of such court of inquiry thereon, in the regimental books; and if such soldier should not afterwards surrender or be apprehended, such record shall have the legal effect of a conviction for desertion; 4[and if such soldier should surrender or be apprehended after such record shall have been so entered, such record, or a copy thereof, purporting to bear the signature of the officer having the custody of the regimental books, shall, on the trial of such soldier be admissible in evidence of the facts therein recorded;

and on proof of the identity of the prisoner with the soldier therein mentioned, he may be found guilty of the charge or charges;] and if he be convicted of desertion, the sentence of any such court shall be inserted in the soldier's discharge.

FORFEITURE OF PAY, SERVICE, MEDALS, ANNUITIES,
GRATUITIES, PENSIONS, &c.

168. EVERY soldier found guilty by a court-martial of the following offences:

Desertion:

or

Wilfully maiming or injuring himself or any other soldier, whether at the instance of such other soldier or not, causing himself to be maimed or injured by any other person, -with intent thereby to render himself, or such other soldier, unfit for service:

1 Chap. XII. par. 21.

2 Two months in years prior to 1868.

3 This power was given in 1858 (Art. 147). 4 Added in 1857 (Art. 147. * If the Regiment be abroad a copy of this should be sent to the depot. 1872, G. O. 100.

6 These offences are not so rare as some are desirous of thinking. Within a few months, the case of a Militiaman who had cut off his trigger-finger to get out of the Militia without pay, 188. Gd., for his discharge came before me. And another where a Soldier was eating soap to induce disease in the lungs or heart to get from the Army.

Tampering with his eyes, with intent thereby to render himself

unfit for service:

Such finding having been confirmed; ———

AND every soldier who may have been sentenced to penal servitude, or who has been discharged with ignominy;

AND every soldier who has been found guilty of felony in any court of ordinary criminal jurisdiction in England or Ireland,-or of any crime or offence in any court of criminal judicature in any part of the United Kingdom, or in any dominion, territory, colony, settlement, or island belonging to or occupied by Her Majesty out of the United Kingdom, which would, if committed in England, amount to felony;

SHALL thereupon forfeit all advantage as to good-conduct pay, and pension on discharge, which might have otherwise accrued from the length of his former service;

ALSO, all medals and decorations whatsoever which he may be in possession of and authorized to wear, together with the annuity or gratuity, if any, thereto appertaining.

169. ANY soldier who shall have forfeited the whole or any part of his service towards pay and pension, either upon conviction or sentence as aforesaid, or by sentence of a court-martial, or upon his trial for desertion being dispensed with, may, if he shall have subsequently performed good, faithful, or gallant services in our army, on the same being duly certified by our Commander-in-Chief, be eligible to be restored to the benefit of the whole or of any part of his service; and should the restoration be approved by us, our order for the same will be signified to our Commander-in-Chief through our Secretary of State for War.

170. NO soldier shall be entitled to pay or to reckon service towards pay or pension when in confinement under a sentence of any court, or during any absence from duty by commitment or confinement as a deserter by confession, or under any charge on which he shall be afterwards convicted, either by court-martial or by any court of ordinary criminal jurisdiction, or whilst in confinement for debt.

171. NO soldier shall be entitled to pay, or to reckon service towards pay or pension, during the period of his absence as a

1

G. O. 26 July 1810 authorized a stoppage of sixpence a day, but this originated in 1815, men often being taken prisoners by intention or carelessness. See 55 Geo. III. c. 108, s. 125; and Art. 65 ante.