regulations and orders of the army have for many years pointed out that "the nature and extent of punishment must of course vary according to locality, and particularly according to climate, as extremes of heat and cold equally prescribe caution. But it is very desirable that these punishments should not be extended too far. Two months solitary confinement be considered sufficient in most cases, and six months imprisonment with hard labour equally so." may Cashiering; to bed ismissed the service (with incapacity to serve again, for embezzlement only); loss of rank; reprimand or admonition; and in the East India Company's service, suspension from rank, and loss of pay, transportation, and death are the only punishments inflicted on officers. Warrant officers are liable to death, transportation, fine, imprisonment, discharge, and to be reduced. Non-commissioned officers, when a capital punishment is not awarded, are first reduced to the ranks, and after that are subject to any of the punishments appointed to private soldiers. Private soldiers can be adjudged to death; corporal punishment, not exceeding two hundred lashes; imprisonment, with or without hard labour; imprisonment, part of which may be solitary; loss of pay; loss of pay and pension, in addition to other punishments; forfeiture of all additional pay whilst serving, and of pension on discharge; marking with the letter D, as a second additional punishment for desertion; deprivation of liquor where issued in kind, or beer, or liquor money, and pay, for drunkenness; fines of one penny a day, not exceeding thirty days, for drunkenness on parade, or on line of march; and on conviction of disgraceful conduct, the court may, as a cumulative punishment, recommend that the prisoner be discharged with ignominy.† * Simmons, p. 352; Queen's Reg., p. 229, par. 21. Sentence of Death. Military Although the majority of a single vote is sufficient to convict a prisoner of a crime not punishable by death, yet that punishment cannot be inflicted, except with the concurrence of two thirds of the members of the court. "By this admirable regulation, sufficient assurance seems to be given that the last sentence of the law shall not be passed where it is not clearly merited; at the same time that the custom requiring the concurrence of all the jurors in a trial by jury, is avoided. Capital punishment is rarely resorted to in the British Army, except on active service. During the Peninsular war it became necessary to inflict it oftener than had been usual, to repress the crimes of desertion and plundering, which had become more frequent from the example of the foreign soldiers introduced into our ranks."† Military Executions are attended with great parade and Execution. solemnity; and in no service or country is the ceremony so awful and impressiveas in the British. It usually takes place by shooting. An execution party, consisting of ten or twelve men, commanded by a sergeant, (usually of the doomed man's regiment,) is placed under the order of the provostmarshal. All the guards of the garrison and advanced posts leave their sentries at their respective stations, and repair to the provost-marshal's guard, at an appointed hour, to escort the prisoner to the place of his execution. All the guards, as well as the execution parties, under the immediate direction of the provost-marshal, are commanded by the field-officer of the day. The several corps of the line, at the appointed hour and place, parade three deep, and are prepared to draw up, so as to form three sides of a square facing inwards. The prisoner, *Mutiny Act, sec. 20. † Law Mag. escorted by a detachment, is brought to the ground. The provost-marshal heads the procession, followed by the band of the prisoner's regiment, with drums muffled, playing the "Dead March in Saul;" the execution party comes next; then four men, bearing on their shoulders the prisoner's coffin, which he, usually attended by a chaplain, follows; the escort brings up the rear. The procession passes along the front of the three faces of the open square; at the flank of each regiment, the band of that regiment plays the "Dead March in Saul," as long as the procession is in front of it. On arriving at the open space left on the fourth side of the square, where the coffiin is deposited, the music suddenly ceases: at that spot the prisoner stands,-it is the spot of his execution; the dread ceremony is then drawing to a close; in the midst of the deepest silence, the sentence and order of death are read aloud—the chaplain rises from his knees and retires from the prisoner-the signal is given-and the fire of the execution parties puts an end to the prisoner's existence. SECTION IX. The nature Authority. Before the On the Exercise of Authority. One of the most important questions both for the soldier of Military and the public to comprehend is, the extent and mode of application of military and naval authority, in operations against the enemy, as well as when the military power is called upon to suppress civil commotion. Cases occur in which the power accorded to the commander of a military force is, and ought to be, unbounded, and demands for its exercise implicit obedience from the subordinate officer and the soldier. A subordinate officer must not judge of the danger, propriety, expedience, or consequence of the order he receives; he must obey: nothing can excuse him but a physical impossibility. A forlorn hope is devotedmany gallant officers have been devoted; fleets have been saved, and victories obtained, by ordering particular ships upon desperate services, with almost a certainty of death or capture. In the day of battle, commanders must act upon delicate suspicions, upon the evidence of their own eye; they may find it necessary to give desperate commands; and they must require instantaneous obedience. Thus, incident to situations, the greatest power and the widest latitude is accorded to the commanding officer: the abuse of his power seems to be the only boundary limiting the extent of authority. Lord Mansfield says: "there is a wide difference between indulging to situation a latitude touching the extent of power, and touching the abuse of it. Cases may be put of situations so critical that the power ought to be unbounded; but it is impossible to state a case where it is necessary it should be abused; and it is the felicity of those who live under a free government, that it is equally impossible to state a case where it can be abused with impunity." Authority. The same learned judge explains with equal precision and Abuse of clearness what is exactly meant by an abuse of authority. He says:-"In trying the legality of acts done by military officers in the exercise of their duty, particularly beyond the seas, where cases may occur without the possibility of application for proper advice, great latitude ought to be allowed, and they ought not to suffer for a slip of form, if the intention appears to have been upright; it is the same as when complaints are brought against inferior civil magistrates, such as justices of the peace, for acts done by them in the exercise of their civil duty. There the principal enquiry to be made by a court of justice is, how the heart stood? and if there appears to be nothing wrong there, great latitude will be allowed for misapprehension or mistake. But on the other hand, if the heart is wrong, if cruelty, malice, and oppression, appear to have occasioned or aggravated the imprisonment, or other injury complained of, they are not allowed to cover themselves with the thin veil of legal forms, nor escape under justification, the most technically regular, from punish ment." "Thus, for example, if an officer in delicate health leaves his post, trusting to the benevolence of his superior to consider the circumstances, there being no enemy-no mutinyno danger of escape, it may be the duty of the superior to *Sutton v. Johnstone, 1 Term R. 504. |