(8) A person, though sentenced or acquitted by court martial, may afterwards (in cases triable by a civil court) be tried by a civil court, but any military punishment he may have already received must be taken into consideration in awarding punishment. (g)

(9) A person acquitted by a civil court of competent jurisdiction is not liable to be tried by court martial on the same charge. (h)

(10) The Crown is empowered to make Articles of War for

the better government of officers and soldiers, and these are to be taken notice of judicially in all the Courts. (i)

(11) Assignments of, or charges on, their pay or pension made by officers or soldiers are void unless made in pursuance of a royal warrant or by statutory authority. (k)

(12) Officers and soldiers when on duty or on the march are exempt from tolls. (1)

(13) All soldiers are exempt from serving on juries. (m) (14) Officers and soldiers have the right of voting for and sitting as members of Parliament; soldiers are, however, subject to certain statutory regulations with regard to remaining in barracks during parliamentary elections except for the purpose of their military duties, or for giving their votes. (n)

(15) An officer on the active list may not be appointed sheriff, and may not be mayor or alderman or hold any post in any municipal corporation. (0) Officers are not, however, disqualified from being county councillors. (p)

The Judge Advocate General. The judge advocate general acted as secretary and legal adviser to the Board of General Officers through which the Crown carried on

(g) S. 162 (1) (2).

(i) S. 69.

(1) S. 143.

(h) S. 162 (6).

(k) S. 141.

(m) S. 147.

(n) See 10 & 11 Vict. c. 21; 26 & 27 Vict. c. 12.

(0) Army Act, 1881, s. 146; 52 Vict. c. 3, s. 6.

(p) 54 Vict. c. 5, s. 8.

the administration of military matters down to the year 1793. In that year the commander-in-chief of the army took the place of the Board, the judge advocate general remaining his chief legal adviser, but ceasing to perform secretarial duties.

Down to the year 1892 the office was political, and the holder of it a member of the ministry and a privy councillor. (q) Since 1892 the office has been conferred upon the president of the Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty Division, who is invariably a privy councillor. The office is conferred by letters-patent, and the duties of the judge advocate general's department are discharged by two deputy judge advocates general, who are salaried officials appointed by the judge advocate general acting under his letters-patent. (r) The duties of the department are to review the proceedings of all field-general, general, and district courts martial held in the United Kingdom, and advise the sovereign, or the officer authorized to act as confirming officer under the Army Act, 1881, (s) as to the confirmation of the finding and sentence.

In cases where a commissioned officer is sentenced to death or penal servitude, or to be cashiered, dismissed, or discharged by a court martial held outside the United Kingdom, except in India, the proceedings are sent to be reviewed by the judge advocate general's department; (t) and any confirming officer outside the United Kingdom may send the proceedings to be so reviewed if he elects to do so. (u)

The proceedings of general and district courts martial must be sent to the department and there kept for not less than seven years in the case of a general, and three years in the case of a district court martial. (x) Within these times persons who have been tried by such courts martial may have a copy of the proceedings (including revision and confirmation) on payment of the prescribed fees. (y)

(q) See Simmons on Courts Martial, 462 n.

(r) For the form of these letters patent, see Simmons on Courts Martial, 1279.

(8) See Army Act, 1881, s. 54.

(t) Simmons on Courts Martial, 462 n. (it) Ib.

(x) Rules of Procedure, 1899, rr. 97, 98. The record of the proceedings of regimental courts martial are sent to the convening officer and kept with the regimental records for three years. Ib. r. 98 (B).

(y) Ib. r. 99.

Judge Advocates.-At all general courts martial the convening officer must, and at district courts martial he may, if he chooses, summon a judge advocate to attend the proceedings, (2) and these judge advocates are such persons as are appointed either by commission under the sign manual, or as deputies (permanent or special) by the judge advocate general acting under his letters patent, or by the convening officer himself, where he is empowered to do so by the terms of his warrant. (a)

Formerly the officiating judge advocate acted as prosecutor, but this practice was discontinued in 1860. (b) The duties of this officer, and his qualifications when appointed by the convening officer, are now regulated by the Rules of Procedure made under the authority of the Army Act, 1881. (c) Generally speaking, his duties are to act as adviser to the court on all questions of law, procedure, evidence, etc., and to make a record of the proceedings and forward the same to the judge advocate general's department.

Army Organization.

Defects of the Old System. From the general outline given above it will be seen that a great many matters relating to the army are regulated by statute, whether such statutory authority is essentially necessary from a constitutional standpoint or not. Such matters, generally speaking, are the maintenance of a standing army; the number of troops to be raised; the exercise of the supreme command by the Crown; the subjection of the troops when raised to military law; the constitution, formation, and procedure of courts martial and the codes of crimes and penalties to which the soldier is subject; the persons subject to military law; the general mode of enlistment and term of service; the division of the forces into regulars, reserves, and territorial forces; the times and manner of calling out the reserves and auxiliary forces; with

(z) Rules of Procedure, r. 101 (A).

(a) Ib.; and see Simmons on Courts Martial, s. 462.

(b) Simmons on Courts Martial, s. 461 n.

(c) See Rules of Procedure, 1899, rr. 95–103 (St. R. & O. 1899, pp. 1448-1451).

many other matters relating to such subjects as billeting, impressment of carriages, military prisons, pay, and the holding of military manoeuvres.

Outside of such statutory regulations, however, the administration of the army is left in the hands of the Crown, acting upon the advice of its constitutional ministers, either the Cabinet or the secretary of state for war. The very wide and important powers thus left to the Crown in the exercise. of its discretionary prerogative are concerned with the interior organization and control of the army, and relate to such matters as the appointment and functions of the officers to whom the supreme command is delegated, the terms upon which recruits are to be enlisted with regard to the period to be served with the colours and in the reserve, the arrangement and grouping of battalions at home and abroad and the supply of drafts to battalions stationed abroad, the housing, feeding, clothing, and arming of the troops, and generally all matters connected with the interior economy and the efficiency of the troops on a peace and war footing.

The reorganization of the War Office in the year 1904, and the creation of the Army Council to perform the functions formerly exercised by the commander-in-chief has already been considered, (d) and certain changes in the organization of the army were at the same period determined upon by his Majesty's government in consequence of the defects in the system, as previously existing, which were brought to light during the course of the war in South Africa. A short consideration of the previous defects and the changes which were effected may not be out of place owing to the vast importance of the subject from a national standpoint; they may be found fully set out in a memorandum issued in 1904 by the secretary of state for war. (e)

The defects of the old system as set forth in the memorandum were briefly as follows :—

(1) Owing to the short term of service with the colours

for which the whole army was previously enlisted (the term being three years with the colours and the residue of the period of twelve years in the reserve)

(d) See ante, p. 205.

(e) Published in the Times, the 16th of July, 1904.

and the general reluctance on the part of the men to extend that term, it was found that when battalions had to be sent out on active service they were composed largely of raw recruits, who were not fit to be sent to the front. Such immature soldiers had therefore to be left behind without arrangements for their subsequent organization, whilst their places had to be filled by men of the reserve, which was therefore prevented to a large extent from fulfilling its true function, and became a substitute for, and not a supplement to, the regular line battalions. A further consequence of such a state of things was the impossibility of furnishing a single complete battalion for active service without mobilizing the whole of the reserve.

(2) The system of linked battalions, under which battalions stationed abroad were furnished with drafts from a corresponding linked battalion at home, was found to be unworkable and the cause of much confusion, owing to the fact that many more battalions were stationed abroad than at home, with a consequent shortage in the number of home battalions to supply the necessary drafts.

(3) The territorial system, under which a battalion at home was to be stationed in the particular district from which the recruits were drawn to furnish that battalion, was a territorial system in name only, regiments being usually to be found stationed anywhere rather than in their appropriate territorial districts.

(4) The want of a settled prospect of obtaining civil employment at the end of a period of long service prevented men from enlisting for long terms of service with the colours, or extending that period after enlistment, and led to a tendency to confine recruiting to men who were either reckless or improvident.

(5) The then existing regimental depôts were extremely unsatisfactory owing to the fact that officers in command of the depôt were usually such as lacked military ambition, and did not anticipate further

C.L.E.

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