sistence of such soldier, upon application in writing signed by any Justice within whose jurisdiction such place of confinement shall be locally situated, together with a copy of the order of commitment, and which sum of 1s. or of 6d. per diem, as the case may be, shall be carried to the credit of the fund from which the expense of such place of confinement is defrayed. In India the expenses incurred under the provisions of this section shall be paid in the same manner as the other expenses of such prison, or as may be provided by the laws or regulations to be made in that behalf.

33. Every gaoler or keeper of any public prison, gaol, house of correction, or other place of confinement, to whom any notice shall have been given, or who shall have reason to know or believe, that any person in his custody for any offence, civil or military, is a soldier liable to serve Her Majesty on the expiration of his imprisonment, shall forthwith, or as soon as may be, give, if in Great Britain to the Secretary of State for the War Department, and if in Ireland to the general commanding Her Majesty's forces in Ireland, or if in India to the Adjutant-General of the army, or to the nearest military authority with whom it may be convenient to communicate, notice of the day and hour on which the imprisonment of such person will expire; and every such gaoler or keeper is hereby required to use his best endeavours to ascertain and report in all cases where practicable the particular regiment or corps, battalion of a regiment or battery of artillery, to which such soldier belongs, and also whether he belongs to the depot or the head-quarters of his regiment; and in the event of his being a recruit who has not joined it may be so stated in his report, together with the name of the place where the man enlisted. In all cases where the soldier in custody is under sentence to be discharged from the service on the completion of his term of imprisonment, and the discharge document is in the hands of the gaoler, such gaoler shall not be required to make any report thereof to the Secretary of State for War, or to the military authorities herein before referred to.

34. Upon reasonable suspicion that a person is a deserter it shall be lawful for any constable, or if no constable can be immediately met with, then for any officer or soldier in Her Majesty's service, or other person, to apprehend or cause to be apprehended such suspected person, and forthwith to bring him or cause him to be brought before any Justice living in or near the place where he was so apprehended and acting for the county or borough wherein such place is situate or for the county adjoining such first-mentioned county or such borough; and such Justice is hereby authorized and required to inquire whether such suspected person is a deserter, and from time to time to defer the said inquiry and to remand the said suspected person in the manner prescribed by an VOL. XLIII.-STAT.

Act, 11 & 12 Vict. c. 42. s. 21, and subject to every provision therein contained; and if it shall appear to the satisfaction of such Justice by the testimony of one or more witnesses, taken upon oath, or by the confession of such suspected person, confirmed by some corroborative evidence upon oath or by the knowledge of such Justice, that such suspected person is a deserter, such Justice shall forthwith cause him to be conveyed in civil custody to the head-quarters or depot of the regiment or corps to which he belongs, if stationed within a convenient and easily accessible distance from the place of commitment, or if not so stationed then to the nearest or most convenient public prison (other than a military prison set apart under the authority of this Act) or police station legally provided as a lock-up house for temporary confinement of persons taken into custody, whether such prison or police station be in the county or borough in which such suspected person was apprehended or in which he was committed, or not; or if the deserter has been apprehended by a party of soldiers of his own regiment or corps in charge of a commissioned officer, such Justice may deliver him up to such party, unless the officer shall deem it necessary to have the deserter committed to prison for safe custody; and such Justice shall transmit an account of the proceedings, in the form prescribed in the Schedule annexed to this Act, to the Secretary of State for the War Department, specifying therein whether such deserter was delivered to his regiment or corps, or to the party of his regiment or corps, in order to his being taken to the headquarters or depot of his regiment or corps, or whether such deserter was committed to prison, to the end that the person so committed may be removed by an order from the office of the said Secretary of State, and proceeded against according to law; and such Justice shall also send to the said Secretary of State a report stating the names of the persons by whom or by or through whose means the deserter was apprehended and secured; and the said Secretary of State shall transmit to such Justice an order for the payment to such persons of such sum not exceeding 40s. as the said Secretary of State shall be satisfied they are entitled to according to the true intent and meaning of this Act; and for such information, commitment, and report as aforesaid the clerk of the said Justice shall be entitled to a fee of 2s. and no more; and every gaoler and other person into whose custody any person charged with desertion is committed shall immediately upon the receipt of the person so charged into his custody pay such fee of 2s., and also upon the production of a receipt from the medical practitioner who, in the absence of a military medical officer, may have been required to examine such suspected person, a fee of 2s. 6d., and shall notify the fact to the Secretary of State for the War Department, and transmit also to the said Secretary of State a copy of the commitment, to the end that such Secretary of State may order repayment of such fees; and when

D

any such person shall be apprehended and committed as a deserter in any part of Her Majesty's foreign dominions the Justice shall forthwith cause him to be conveyed to some public prison, if the regiment or corps to which he is suspected to belong shall not be in such part, or, if the regiment or corps be in such part, the Justice may deliver him into custody at the nearest military post if within reasonable distance, although the regiment to which such person is suspected to belong may not be stationed at such military post; and such Justice shall in every case transmit to the general or other officer commanding a descriptive return in the form prescribed in the Schedule to this Act annexed, to the end that such person may be removed by order of such officer, and proceeded against according to law; and such descriptive return, purporting to be duly made and subscribed in accordance with the Act, shall, in the absence of proof to the contrary, be deemed sufficient evidence of the facts and matters therein stated: Provided always, that any such person so committed as a deserter in any part of Her Majesty's dominions shall, subject to the provisions hereinafter contained, be liable to be transferred by order of the general or other officer commanding to serve in any regiment or corps or depot nearest to the place where he shall have been apprehended, or to any other regiment or corps to which Her Majesty may deem it desirable that he should be transferred, and shall also be liable after such transfer of service to be tried and punished as a deserter.

35. Every gaoler or keeper of any public prison, gaol, house of correction, lock-up house, or other place of confinement in any part of Her Majesty's dominions, is hereby required to receive and confine therein every deserter who shall be delivered into his custody by any soldier or other person conveying such deserter under lawful authority, on production of the warrant of the Justice of the Peace on which such deserter shall have been taken, or some order from the office of the Secretary of State for the War Department, which order shall continue in force until the deserter shall have arrived at his destination; and such gaoler or keeper shall be entitled to 1s. for the safe custody of the said deserter while halted on the march, and to such subsistence for his maintenance as shall be directed by Her Majesty's regulations.

36. Any recruit for Her Majesty's army who, having been attested or received pay other than enlisting money, shall desert before joining the regiment or corps for which he has enlisted, shall, on being apprehended, and committed for such desertion by any Justice of the Peace upon the testimony of one or more witnesses upon oath, or upon his own confession, forfeit his personal bounty, and be liable to be transferred to any regiment or corps or depot nearest to the place where he shall have been apprehended, or to any other regiment or corps to which Her Majesty may

deem it more desirable that he should be transferred: Provided always, that such deserters thus transferred shall not be liable to other punishment for the offence, or to any other penalty except the forfeiture of their personal bounty.

37. Any person who shall confess himself to be a deserter from Her Majesty's forces, or from the embodied militia, shall be liable to be taken before any two Justices of the Peace acting for the county, district, city, burgh, or place where any such person shall at any time happen to be when he shall be brought before them, and on proof that any such confession as aforesaid was false, shall by the said Justices be adjudged to be punished, if in England, as a rogue and vagabond, and if elsewhere by commitment to some prison or house of correction, there to be kept to hard labour for any time not exceeding three calendar months; and if, when such person shall be brought before the said Justices, it shall be proved to their satisfaction that such confession has been made, but evidence of the truth or falsehood of such confession shall not at that time be forthcoming, such Justices within the United Kingdom are hereby required to remand such person in the manner herein before mentioned, and to transmit a statement of the case to the Secretary of State for the War Department, with a request to be informed whether such person appears to belong or to have belonged to the regiment or corps from which he shall have so confessed himself to have deserted; and a letter from the War Office in reply thereto, referring to such statement, and purporting to be signed by or on behalf of the Secretary of State for the War Department, shall be admissible in evidence against such person, and shall be deemed to be legal evidence of the facts stated therein, and on the receipt thereof the said Justices shall forthwith proceed to adjudicate upon the case.

38. When there shall not be any military officer of rank not inferior to captain, or any adjutant of regular militia, within convenient distance of the place where any non-commissioned officer or soldier on furlough shall be detained by sickness or other casualty rendering necessary any extension of such furlough, it shall be lawful for any Justice who shall be satisfied of such necessity to grant an extension of furlough for a period not exceeding one month; and the said Justice shall by letter immediately certify such extension and the cause thereof to the commanding officer of the corps or detachment to which such non-commissioned officer or soldier belongs, if known, and if not then to the agent of the regiment or corps, in order that the proper sum may be remitted to such non-commissioned officer or soldier, who shall not during the period of such extension of furlough be liable to be treated as a deserter: Provided always, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to exempt any soldier from trial and punishment, according to the provisions of this Act, for any

false representation made by him in that behalf to the said Justice, or for any breach of discipline committed by him in applying for and obtaining the said extension of furlough.

39. No person subject to this Act, having been acquitted or convicted of any crime or offence by the civil magistrate, or by the verdict of a jury, shall be liable to be again convicted for the same crime or offence by a court-martial, or to be punished for the same otherwise than by cashiering in the case of a commissioned officer, or in the case of a warrant officer by reduction to an inferior class or to the rank of a private soldier by order of the Commander-in-Chief, or in the case of a non-commissioned officer by reduction to the ranks by order of the Commander-in-Chief or of the colonel, or in the militia by order of the appointed commandant of the regiment or corps; and whenever any officer or soldier shall have been tried by any Court of ordinary criminal jurisdiction, the clerk of such Court or other officer having the custody of the records of such Court, or the deputy of such clerk, shall, if required by the officer commanding the regiment or corps to which such officer or soldier shall belong, transmit to him a certificate, setting forth the offence of which the prisoner was convicted, together with the judgment of the Court thereon if such officer or soldier shall have been convicted, or of the acquittal of such officer or soldier, and shall be allowed for such certificate a fee of 3s.

40. Any person attested for Her Majesty's army, or serving on the permanent staff of the disembodied militia or volunteers other than as a commissioned officer, shall be liable to be taken out of Her Majesty's service only by process or execution on account of any charge of felony or of misdemeanor, or of any crime or offence other than the misdemeanor of absenting himself from his service, or neglecting to fulfil his contract, or otherwise misconducting himself respecting the same, or the misdemeanor of refusing to comply with an order of Justices for the payment of money, or on account of an original debt proved by affidavit of the plaintiff or of some one on his behalf to amount to the value of 301. at the least, over and above all costs of suit, such affidavit to be sworn, without payment of any fee, before some Judge of the court out of which process or execution shall issue, or before some person authorized to take affidavits in such court, of which affidavit, when duly filed in such court, a memorandum shall, without fee, be indorsed upon the back of such process, stating the facts sworn to, and the day of filing such affidavit; but no soldier or other person as aforesaid shall be liable by any process whatever to appear before any Justice of the Peace or other authority whatever, or to be taken out of Her Majesty's service by any writ, summons, warrant, order, judgment, execution, or any process what

soever issued by or by the authority of any Court of law, or any Magistrate, Justice or Justices of the Peace, or any other authority whatsoever, for any original debt not amounting to 30l., or for not supporting or maintaining, or for not having supported or maintained, or for leaving or having left chargeable to any parish, township, or place, or to the common fund of any union, any relation or child which such soldier or person might, if not in Her Majesty's service, be compellable by law to relieve or maintain, or for neglecting to pay to the mother of any bastard child, or to any person who may have been appointed to have the custody of such child, any sum to be paid in pursuance of an order on that behalf, or for the breach of any contract, covenant, agreement, or other engagement whatever, by parol or in writing, or for having left or deserted his employer or master, or his contract, work, or labour, or misconducting himself respecting the same, except in the case of an apprentice, or of an indentured labourer, as hereinafter described; and all summonses, warrants, commitments, indictments, convictions, judgments, and sentences, on account of any of the matters for which it is herein declared that a soldier or other person as aforesaid is not liable to be taken out of Her Majesty's service, shall be utterly illegal, and null and void, to all intents and purposes; and any Judge of any such Court may examine into any complaint made by a soldier or by his superior officer, and by warrant under his hand discharge such soldier, without fee, he being shewn to have been arrested contrary to the intent of this Act, and shall award reasonable costs to such complainant, who shall have for the recovery thereof the like remedy as would have been applicable to the recovery of any costs which might have been awarded against the complainant in any judgment or execution as aforesaid, or a writ of habeas corpus ad subjiciendum shall be awarded or issued, and the discharge of any such soldier out of custody shall be ordered thereupon; provided that any plaintiff, upon notice of the cause of action first given in writing to any soldier, or left at his last quarters, may proceed in any action or suit to judgment, and have execution other than against the body or military necessaries or equipments of such soldier; provided also, that nothing herein contained relating to the leaving or deserting a master or employer, or to the breach of any contract, agreement, or engagement, shall apply to persons who shall be really and bona fide apprentices, duly bound, under the age of twentyone years, or to indentured labourers, as hereinafter prescribed.

41. No person who shall be commissioned and in full pay as an officer shall be capable of being nominated or elected to be sheriff of any county, borough, or other place, or to be mayor, portreeve, alderman, or to hold any office in any municipal corporation in any city, borough, or place in Great Britain or Ireland.

42. Every person authorized to enlist recruits shall first ask the person offering to enlist, whether he belongs to the militia, and also such other questions as the military authorities may direct to be put to recruits, and shall immediately after giving him enlisting money serve him with a notice in the form set forth in the Schedule to this Act annexed.

43. Every person who shall receive enlisting money in manner aforesaid, knowing it to be such, shall, subject to the provisions hereinafter contained, upon such receipt be deemed to be enlisted as a soldier in Her Majesty's service, and while he shall remain with the recruiting party shall be entitled to be billeted.

44. Every person so enlisted as aforesaid shall within ninety-six hours (any intervening Sunday, Christmas Day, or Good Friday not included), but not sooner than twenty-four hours after such enlistment, appear, together with some person employed in the recruiting service, before a Justice of the Peace, not being an officer of the army, in order that he may be attested by making the declaration and taking the oath hereinafter mentioned, or may have an opportunity of objecting to his enlistment; and upon such appearance the Justice or some person deputed by him shall fill up the declaration set forth in the Schedule to this Act annexed, first asking the recruit the questions that are requisite for that purpose, and cautioning him that if he should make any wilfully false answer thereto, he will be liable to be punished as a rogue and vagabond.

45. When a recruit upon appearing before a Justice for the purposes aforesaid shall dissent from or object to his enlistment, and shall satisfy the Justice that the same was effected in any respect irregularly, he shall forthwith discharge the recruit absolutely, and shall report such discharge to the inspecting field officer of the district, or in the case of a recruit enlisted at the head-quarters or depot of a regiment to the officer commanding the same; but if the recruit so dissenting shall not allege or shall not satisfy the Justice that the enlistment was effected irregularly, nevertheless, upon repayment of the enlisting money, and of any sum received by him in respect of pay, and of a further sum of 20s. as smart money, he will be entitled to be discharged, and the sum paid by such recruit upon his discharge shall be kept by the Justice, and, after deducting therefrom 18. as the fee for reporting the payment to the Secretary of State for the War Department and to the inspecting field officer of the district, shall be paid over to any person belonging to the recruiting party who may demand the same; and the Justice who shall discharge any recruit shall in every case give a certificate thereof, signed with his hand, to the recruit, specifying the cause thereof.

46. If the recruit on appearing before a Justice shall not dissent from his enlistment, or dissenting shall within twenty-four hours return and declare that he is unable to pay the sums mentioned in the last section, the Justice shall require him to make the declaration herein before mentioned in the usual manner, and shall then administer to him the oath of allegiance in the form set forth in the Schedule to this Act annexed; and when the recruit shall have signed the said declaration, and taken the said oath, the Justice shall attest the same by his signature, and shall deliver to the recruiting officer the declaration so signed and attested; and the fee for such attestation, including the declaration and oath, shall be 1s. and no more; and any recruit shall, if he so wish, be furnished with a certified copy of the above-mentioned declaration by the officer who finally approved of him for the service.

47. No recruit, unless he shall have been attested or shall have received pay other than enlisting money, shall be liable to be tried by court-martial; but if any recruit, previously to his being attested, shall by means of any false answer obtain enlistment money, or shall make any false statement in his declaration, or shall refuse to answer any question duly authorized to be put to recruits for the purpose of filling up such declaration, or shall refuse or neglect to go before a Justice for the purposes aforesaid, or, having dissented from his enlistment, shall wilfully omit to return and pay such money as aforesaid, in any of such cases it shall be lawful for any two Justices within the United Kingdom, or for any one Justice out of the United Kingdom, acting for the county, district, city, burgh, or place where any such recruit shall at any time happen to be, to adjudge such recruit, when he shall be brought before them or him, if in England, to be a rogue and vagabond, and to sentence him to be punished accordingly, and if in Scotland or Ireland, or elsewhere in Her Majesty's dominions, to be imprisoned with hard labour in any prison or house of correction for any period not exceeding three calendar months; and the declaration made by the recruit on his attestation purporting to be made and subscribed in accordance with the Schedule to this Act annexed shall, in the absence of proof to the contrary, be deemed sufficient evidence of such recruit having represented the several particulars as stated in such declaration.

48. Any recruit who shall have been attested, and who shall afterwards be discovered to have given any wilfully false answer to any question directed to be put to recruits, or shall have made any wilfully false statement in the declaration herein before mentioned, shall be liable, at the discretion of the proper military authorities, to be proceeded against before two Justices in the manner herein before mentioned, and by them sentenced accordingly, or to be tried by a district or garrison court-martial for the same, and punished in such manner as such Court shall direct.

49. If any recruit shall abscond, so that it is not possible immediately to apprehend and bring him before a Justice for attestation, the recruiting party shall produce to the Justice before whom the recruit ought regularly to have been brought for that purpose a certificate of the name and place of residence, and description of such recruit, and of his having absconded, and shall declare the same to be true; and the Justice to whom such certificate shall be produced shall transmit a duplicate thereof to the Secretary of State for the War Department, in order that the same may appear in the Police Gazette.

50. If any man while belonging to a militia regiment shall enlist in and be attested for Her Majesty's army, he shall be liable to be tried before a court-martial on a charge for desertion ; but it shall be lawful for the Secretary of State for the War Department, on the confession thereof by such man, to order that in lieu of his being so tried he shall be subjected to a stoppage of 1d. a day of his pay for eighteen calendar months, to be applied as the said Secretary of State shall direct, and further to determine whether such man shall be returned to his militia regiment after such sum shall have been made good, or shall be deemed to be a soldier, in the same manner as he would have been if he had not been a militiaman at the time of his attestation, in which latter case his service as a soldier shall not be reckoned for pension until the day on which his engagement for the militia would have expired: Provided that if the regiment of militia from which the man has deserted be within the United Kingdom the Secretary of State for the War Department shall not make such order without the consent of the commanding officer of such regiment. If any non-commissioned officer of the Volunteer Permanent Staff enlists in Her Majesty's army he may be tried and punished as a deserter, but if he confesses his desertion, the Secretary of State for the War Department, instead of causing him to be tried and punished as a deserter, may cause him to be returned to his service on the Volunteer Permanent Staff, to be there put under stoppages from his pay until he has repaid the amount of any bounty received by him and the expenses attending his enlistment, and also the value of any arms, &c. issued to him while on the Volunteer Permanent Staff and not duly delivered up by him; or may cause him to be held to his service in Her Majesty's army, with a direction, if it seems fit, that his time of service therein shall not be reckoned for pension until the time when his engagement on the Volunteer Permanent Staff would have expired; and may further cause him to be put under stoppages of 1d. a day of his pay until he has repaid the expense attending his engagement or attestation on the Volunteer Permanent Staff, and also the value of any arms, clothing, or appointments issued to him while on the Volunteer Permanent Staff and not duly delivered up by him.

51. Every person subject to this Act who shall wilfully act contrary to any of its provisions in any matter relating to the enlisting or attesting of recruits for Her Majesty's army shall be liable to be tried for such offence before a general, district, or garrison court-martial, and to be sentenced to such punishments other than death or penal servitude as such Courts may award.

52. It shall be lawful for any Justice of the Peace or person exercising the office of a Magistrate within any of Her Majesty's dominions abroad, or in any colony for any other person duly authorized in that behalf by the governor or officer administering the government of such colony, or in Her Majesty's dominions in India for any person duly authorized in that behalf by the Governor General or lieutenant governor or other officer administering the government of any presidency, division, or province, or within the territories of any foreign state in India for the person performing the duties of the office of British Resident therein, or for any other person duly authorized in that behalf by the Governor General, to eulist and attest or to re-engage within the local limits of their several authorities any soldiers or persons desirous of enlisting or re-engaging in Her Majesty's army; and any such Magistrate or person as aforesaid shall have the same powers in that behalf as are by this or any other Act of Parliament given to Justices in the United Kingdom for all such purposes of enlistment and attestation; but no such Magistrate or other person authorized to enlist and attest as above mentioned shall be a general officer or hold any regimental commission; 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 attested 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 attested certificate of transfer shall be delivered to the soldier.

53. It shall be lawful for the Commander-inChief, or for any officer authorized by him in that behalf, to direct that any soldier attested for any one branch of the service shall, on the application of his commanding officer, and with his own consent, be transferred to some other branch of the service, or to some other regiment or corps in the same branch of the service, either within the United Kingdom or elsewhere; and every soldier so transferred shall be deemed to be discharged from his former corps, and shall have a certificate