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MILITAKY PUNISHMENTS. 



MILITIA. 



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him to suffer the bastinado. It appears from Polybius (vi. Ex. 2) that 

 the tribune having gently touched the offender with his staff as a 

 signal, the persons appointed to inflict the chastisement fell upon him 

 and struck him repeatedly with sticks or stones, frequently with such 

 violence as to cause his death : the culprit was allowed to escape by 

 flight if able; but in this case he was never permitted to return 

 to his country, or, if he did return, no person dared to afford him 

 shelter or relief. 



Punishments of a like nature, but less severe, were inflicted upon a 

 soldier who was guilty of theft, or of giving false testimony either in 

 his own favour or against a comrade. For certain breaches of disci- 

 pline the offender suffered a temporary deprivation of his pay, the 

 forfeiture of his arms, or degradation from his rank. Sometimes he 

 was sentenced to remain outside of the camp exposed to the chance of 

 being taken by the enemy, or he was made to stand for a certain time 

 in an unmilitary dress before the praetorium. In some cases a culprit 

 waa sentenced to perform hard labour, to exchange into a corps of 

 inferior rank, or to be entirely dismissed from the service with disgrace. 

 Punishment was also inflicted on a soldier for cowardice or for losing 

 his arms. A centurion guilty of a breach of discipline was deprived 

 of the staff (a vine branch) which he carried as an emblem of 

 authority. 



A dictator could sentence to death any offender against military 

 regulations ; and the consuls had the power of exercising summary 

 jurisdiction in capital cases. Punishments were ordered by the 

 legionary tribunes, and by the prefects of the allies, with the con- 

 currence of a council 



Among the nations of modern Europe the punishments for military 

 offences were, till lately, no less severe than they were among the 

 Romans. Besides the infliction of a certain number of lashes with 

 cords, soldiers convicted of theft, marauding, or any other breach of 

 discipline which was not punishable with death, were sentenced to run 

 the gauntelope as it was called. For the execution of this sentence the 

 regiment was drawn up in a double line ; and each man being furnished 

 with a small stick, generally of osier (except the grenadiers, who used 

 their belts instead of the sticks), the culprit, naked to the waist, was 

 either marched slowly or allowed to run as fast as he could, according 

 to circumstances, from the head to the rear extremity between the 

 two lines, each man striking him as he passed along. In certain cases 

 the offender was afterwards expelled from the regiment, and sometimes 

 also from the town or district with a charge never to appear there 

 again under pain of death. The punishment of the knout, in the 

 Russian army, is inflicted with a leathern belt on the naked back of the 

 offender. 



Cavalry soldiers were formerly frequently punished by the picket, 

 as it was called ; this consisted in the man being made to hang by 

 his hands from a beam during a certain time, a stake with its upper 

 end made sharp being planted in the ground under him ; so that, 

 when from weariness he could no longer keep himself up, his foot was 

 pierced by the stake : this kind of punishment has been long since 

 abolished. 



Confinement without light during a certain number of hours was, 

 and still is, a frequent punishment for being absent without leave from 

 parade, either on account of drunkenness or from any other cause. 

 Formerly the pillory was a punishment awarded to offences of this 

 nature. 



Besides the punishments of death and transportation, which, for 

 great crimes, are within the scope of military law, in the British army, 

 breaches of discipline are visited by flagellation, temporary imprison- 

 ment, extra drills, extra guards, and the performance of fatigue duties ; 

 but punishments consisting of protracted periods of confinement to 

 barracks accompanied with laborious employments, inflicted at the 

 discretion of commanders of regiments, have been abolished for many 

 years, not however before the most serious mortality in consequence 

 had made it absolutely necessary. 



While an army is hi the field, breaches of discipline must be punished 

 with promptitude and more than ordinary severity. It might be pre- 

 sumed that acts of treachery will seldom be committed ; desertions 

 to the enemy however do occasionally take place ; but the more usual 

 crime is that of quitting the ranks on a lawless expedition of plunder, 

 which is generally accompanied with gross acts of outrage, violation of 

 chastity, often murders, committed on the defenceless people of the 

 country ; and no doubt can exist that soldiers guilty of such crimes 

 should be shot or hanged on the spot. Even when the crime is less 

 heinous, the well-being and perhaps the safety of the army may be 

 perilled in consequence of the resentment excited among the sur- 

 rounding inhabitant* ; such disorders must therefore be repressed by 

 making signal examples of the offenders. In the presence of an enemy 

 there can scarcely be a more serious offence than intoxication ; mis- 

 carriage of an enterprise, and defeat, with the loss of numbers of 

 gallant men in an action, may be the fatal consequences of indulgence 

 under such circumstances. Trial, and on conviction punishment, 

 should be if possible immediate ; the army may change its position or 

 cantonments ; delay takes place, and the necessary witnesses are at a 

 distance, or in the mean time removed by the accidents of war. A 

 long interval between the commission of a crime and its punishment 

 diminishes the fear of the latter by opening to the culprit another 

 chance of escape ; it moreover diminishes the effect of the punishment 



as a warning : the impression produced by the crime wears off, and 

 the punishment assumes, in some measure, the appearance of an 

 act of cruelty. Employment of the accused meanwhile in any of 

 the duties of the camp or field is a condonation of his offence 

 that makes his subsequent punishment inhuman, and unmilitary, if not 

 quite illegal. 



The circumstances of an army in peace, and in war, or rather when 

 in the presence of an enemy, are very different : in the former case 

 soldiers have no opportunity to commit treason or to pillage a country ; 

 and since the generality of the men who then enter the army are such 

 as have a fair moral character, great crimes among them are as 

 unfrequent as they are among an equal number of men in any other 

 condition of life : the punishments for such offences as may then be 

 committed may therefore with propriety be of the same nature and 

 degree as those which would be adjudged for corresponding offences 

 by the ordinary courts of justice. Imprisonment for a time, employ- 

 ment in laborious tasks, but particularly a forfeiture of pay and 

 pension, where the offender is without a family depending on him for 

 support, might, probably with advantage, be made the punishment for 

 military offences. 



Serious breaches of discipline are still punished with the lash ; but 

 the maximum number of lashes that may be'inflicted is now these 

 several years past reduced to fifty. But the objections to this descrip- 

 tion of punishment are of a kind not to be removed or modified by any 

 modification in the degree of severity with which it is inflicted. It is 

 both cruel and disgusting ; it is permanently degrading, leaving on the 

 character an indelible impression, and on the skin for life the marks 

 of disgrace which, if discovered by any accident, cannot fail to produce 

 a prejudice against the individual, how well soever he may have con- 

 ducted himself subsequently to the infliction. It falls, moreover, with 

 unequal effect on different persons according to the state of their 

 health, or of their nervous systems at the time ; and not unfrequently, 

 according to the will of the person who administers or who superin- 

 tends the punishment. It may be added that many of the soldiers 

 who are drawn up to witness it, can neither avoid sympathising with 

 the culprit nor becoming dissatisfied with a service in which they are 

 exposed to such disgrace and suffering. 



Happily the terrible scenes that used to be exhibited at the triangles 

 in the British army have now ceased for ever. General Sir Charles 

 Napier, in his ' Remarks on Military Law,' states that forty years 

 before the time at which he wrote (1837), he frequently saw from 

 600 to 1000 lashes inflicted under sentence by merely regimental 

 courts-martial; and in those days a man who had suffered a part 

 of the punishment was often brought from an hospital when the 

 wounds were barely healed, to receive the remainder. A milder code 

 is happily substituted in these days for the preservation of military 

 discipline. The practice of giving rewards for good behaviour, now so 

 happily introduced in the military service, and the instruction ob- 

 taini-d at the regimental schools, will in time, it is hoped, operate a 

 beneficial change in the characters of such men as have not, from 

 nature or from early education, a just sense of moral rectitude and of 

 the obligations all are under of punctually and faithfully discharging 

 the duties they owe to their country. The existing code is par- 

 ticularly described in the article MUTINY ACT, post. (See Sir C. 

 Napier's Remarks on Military Law.) 



MILITARY TENURES. [FEUDAL SYSTEM.] 



MILITIA. The body of soldiers raised for the defence of a nation 

 may be called the militia of that nation ; but in Great Britain and 

 Ireland the term is applied particularly to those men who are either 

 chosen by ballot or volunteer to serve for a certain number of years 

 within the limits of these realms. The regulations of the militia service 

 differ widely from those of the conscription on the Continent ; since under 

 the latter the troops become members of the regular army, and may be 

 marched beyond the frontiers .of the state ; whereas the militia is 

 enrolled only for home service, and may be said to constitute a 

 domestic guard. Nothing corresponding to modern militia can be said 

 to have existed among the ancients. In the Grecian states every 

 citizen was a soldier ; and every person, between certain ages, in the 

 city and in the provinces, was obliged to serve in the Roman armies 

 wherever they might be employed. 



The military force in this country in the time of the Saxons was 

 formed by a species of militia, and every five hydes of laud were 

 charged with the equipment of a man for the service. The ceorles, 

 or peasants, were enrolled in bodies and placed under the command of 

 the Ealdermen or chiefs, who were elected by the people in the folk- 

 motes. 



After the Norman conquest of the country the proprietors of 

 land were compelled, by providing men and arms in proportion to 

 their estates, to contribute to the defence of the realm in the event of 

 a threatened invasion. The troops were raised under the authority of 

 commiisiimi of array, which were issued by the crown ; and the com- 

 mand was sometimes vested in the persons to whom the commissions 

 were granted ; though frequently the high constables, or the sheriffs 

 of the counties, commanded in their own districts. This militia 

 seems, at first to have been liable to be marched to any part of the 

 kingdom at pleasure, but in the reign of Edward III. it was decreed 

 by a statute that no man thus raised should be sent out of his county, 

 except in times of public danger. From the reign of Philip and Mary 



