MUTINY ACT. 



MUZABAB. 



851 



it, or not giving information thereof without delay to his commanding 

 officer ; in misbehaving before an enemy ; shamefully abandoning or 

 delivering to the enemy any garrison, fortress or post ; compelling the 

 governor of such garrison to do so ; using means to induce any one to 

 misbehave before the enemy, or shamefully to abandon or deliver up 

 any garrison fortress, or post committed to his charge; quitting his post 

 without leave, or sleeping at his post ; holding correspondence with, 

 or giving advice or intelligence to the enemy ; or entering into terms 

 with any enemy or rebel without licence ; using or offering violence to 

 a superior officer, or disobeying his lawful commands ; or offering 

 violence, whilst confined in a military prison, to any visitor or superior 

 officer in the execution of his duty ; and, finally, in deserting the 

 service. For all these offences the Act prescribes " death, or such 

 other 'punishment as a general court-martial shall award;" provided 

 always that two-thirds of the court do concur in any judgment of 

 death. The Act then enumerates the military offences of minor 

 importance, and the punishments which may be assigned in respect of 

 each. Embezzlement, fraudulent misapplication, wilful damage, theft 

 or connivance at the same, of money, provisions, forage, arms, clothing, 

 ammunition, or other stores, by any paymaster, commissioned officer, or 

 other person employed in the war department or concerned with the 

 care or distribution of such property, makes the offender liable to not 

 less than four years' penal servitude, or to fine, imprisonment, dis- 

 missal from the service, reduction of warrant or non-commissioned 

 officer to the ranks, with incapacity to serve her Majesty, as a general 

 court-martial shall think fit, in addition to his liability to make good 

 the loss. It is in the power of any court-martial to award corporal 

 punishment, not exceeding fifty lashes, for disgraceful conduct, mis- 

 behaviour, or neglect of duty ; of any general, district, or garrison 

 court-martial to award in addition imprisonment with or without hard 

 labour, or solitary confinement; of any general court-martial in 

 addition to award forfeiture of additional pay, good conduct pay, 

 pension on discharge, annuity or medal for past or future services ; 

 and such additional forfeiture may be awarded by any district or 

 garrison court-martial for desertion or for disgraceful conduct by the 

 offender in wilfully maiming himself ; tampering with his eyes; wilfully 

 by any act producing or aggravating disease or delaying his cure ; 

 malingering, or feigning disease ; stealing government stores ; stealing 

 from any officer or comrade, regimental mess or band, or feloniously 

 receiving the products of such offence ; making or procuring false 

 accounts; embezzling public money ; committing any other offence of a 

 felonious or fraudulent nature, or for any disgraceful conduct being of 

 a cruel, indecent, or unnatural kind. He is also liable to forfeit his 

 pay when absent from duty improperly, or in consequence of his 

 offences, and to be subjected to stoppage of pay to make good bounties 

 fraudulently obtained or loss or damage inflicted by his offence. There 

 is also power to dismiss a soldier from the service with ignominy, or 

 mark a deserter with the letter D in ink or powder indelibly, and the 

 terms of imprisonment which may be awarded by the different courts- 

 martial are specifically ascertained. 



Besides the above laws, which relate particularly to the discipline of 

 the army, the Act defines the constitution and powers of courts-martial 

 [COURTS-MARTIAL] ; it contains provisions relating to the enlistment 

 of recruits [DISCIPLINE ; ENLISTMENT], the issue of pay and march- 

 ing money, the quartering of soldiers, and the supplying of carriages 

 for the conveyance of troops and baggage. The Act moreover contains 

 a repetition of the original clause in which it is declared that the 

 ordinary course of law is not to be interfered with when a soldier is 

 accused of any felony or misdemeanor or any crime or offence, other 

 than the misdemeanor of refusing to comply with an order of 

 justices for the payment of money, provided that no soldier be taken 

 out of the service for a debt under SOL or for breach of contract, except 

 by desertion as an apprentice from his master when_bound to him for 

 seven yean. 



The Mutiny Act is declared to be applicable to all persons employed 

 in the recruiting-service ; to the forces of the Indian army while in 

 any part of the United Kingdom, and till their arrival in India ; to 

 the officers and men employed in the service of the artillery and 

 engineers ; to the corps of the sappers and miners ; to the military sur- 

 veyors and draughtsmen in the ordnance department; to foreign 

 troops serving in any part of the British dominions abroad ; and to all 

 storekeepers and all civil officers of or under the war department at 

 hony; or abroad. Its provisions also extend to the islands of Guernsey, 

 Jersey, Alderney, Sark, and Man ; but not to any of the militia forces, 

 or yeomanry, or volunteer corps of Great Britain or Ireland. It applies 

 also to officers holding rank by brevet, though not to such as are on 

 half -pay. An effort was made in 1749, when the bill was introduced 

 as usual into parliament, to subject officers of this latter class to 

 martial law, but the clause was abandoned by the minister. Before 

 the union of Ireland with Great Britain there was a separate Mutiny 

 Act for the former country, but now the same Act applies to both. 

 The officers and troops of the Indian army are subject to their own 

 Mutiny Act, which however agrees generally with that of the forces of 

 the British army. 



Previously to the year 1750 the members of courts-martial were 

 bound by an oath not to disclose the ground on which they gave their 

 votes ; but in that year the Act was so far mitigated as to release them 

 from such oath when required to give evidence in any court of justice 



or court-martial. The power of disclosing, in that case only, the 

 votes or opinions given is implied in the forms of the oaths which are 

 now taken by the judge-advocate and members of the court-martial, 

 and which are printed among the schedules to which the Act refers. 

 The Act of the same year also contains a clause, in which it is stated 

 that no sentence pronounced by a court-martial, and signed by the 

 president, shall be more than once revised ; previously to that time a 

 general-officer had power to order the revisal of any sentence as often 

 as he pleased, and thus he might retain in confinement a man who had 

 been acquitted on a fair trial. 



The gradual extension of the provisions of the Mutiny Act to those 

 military offences which may be considered as secondary in the scale, 

 does not seem to have been noticed on behalf of the crown further 

 than by the occasional reservation of its right to make Articles of War 

 for the better government of the forces, which is expressed in the acts 

 passed during the reign of Queen Anne. In the first year of George I. 

 this right of the crown was formally allowed ; and the clause contain- 

 ing it has been repeated in all subsequent Mutiny Acts, with the 

 provision that no person within the United Kingdom and British Isles 

 shall be subject to penal servitude, or to aay punishment affect- 

 ing life or limb, for crimes specified in the Articles of War, 

 except such as by the Mutiny Act itself are liable to the same 

 punishments. 



The Articles of War which are at present in force, and which have 

 from time to time been promulgated, are divided into five sections 

 comprising together 160 articles. Many of these correspond exactly to 

 clauses in the Mutiny Act; others, though relating to subjects in the 

 latter, define the particulars of the crime and the punishment applic- 

 able to it with more precision ; and there are articles which have no 

 counterparts in the act. The first section relates to the duties and 

 obligations of officers and men, including the forms of enlistment ; the 

 second to crimes and punishments, being necessarily much more 

 specific and detailed than the statute, the object of the latter being 

 generally to confer powers and ascertain the limits of their exercise ; 

 the third to courts-martial ; the fourth to rank among officers ; and 

 the fifth to the persons who are subject to the Articles of War. 



The above articles, being made by the crown as head of the army, 

 are to be obeyed as being the commands of a superior officer ; but in 

 the opinion of writers on military law, the legality of the articles may 

 itself become the subject of examination in a court-martial ; whereas 

 the Mutiny Act must be obeyed without inquiry. 



The Marine Mutiny Act, closely resembling that which has already 

 been described, is also a statute passed annually, and is applicable to 

 the marines when they are on shore. 



The Act on which are founded the Articles of War for the Navy 

 was passed in the 22nd Geo. II., and this consolidated all the laws pre- 

 viously made for the government of the ships and vessels bearing royal 

 commissions, as also of the forces at sea. Among the offences which 

 in the Act constitute the crime of mutiny, are, the running away with 

 the ship, or with any ordnance, ammunition, or stores belonging to the 

 same ; neglect of duty ; joining in or using means to produce any 

 mutinous assemblage of persons ; uttering mutinous or seditious words, 

 or concealing any mutinous intention ; and striking an officer or dis- 

 obeying his lawful commands. Of the thirty-six articles, nine relate 

 to crimes for which the punishment of death, without discretion in the 

 court-martial, is awarded ; and there are twelve to which are assigned 

 " death, or such other punishment as the nature and degree of the 

 crime shall be found to deserve." Two of these were originally in the 

 former class, and the qualifying clause was added in the 19th Geo. III. 

 Except this alteration, none has been made in the Navy Act since it 

 was passed. 



SJ MUZARAB, that is, a Christian living under the sway of the Arabs. 

 Various etymologies have been assigned to this word, but the real 

 derivation of the word Muzarab is the Arabic Mustarab, afterwards 

 corrupted into Mufarab, which means a man who tries to imitate the 

 Arabs, or to become one in his manners, language, and habits ; and 

 who, although knowing Arabic, speaks it like a foreigner. This name 

 was given by the Moors of Spain to all Christians living under 

 Moslem jurisdiction in Cordova, Seville, Granada, Toledo, and other 

 large cities. 



But the word Muzarab is better known to us as connected with the 

 ancient liturgy of the Goths, which governed the Spanish church down 

 to the 12th century, and was called " Muzarabic office" ('Missal 

 Muzarabe '), owing to its being preserved by the Muzarab Christians of 

 Toledo during the tune of their subjection to the Arabs. The fate of 

 the Muzarabic liturgy is singular enough. Though involving the same 

 doctrines, it differed widely from the other offices of the church ; it 

 also contained many hymns composed by St. Eugenius, St. Ildefonso, 

 St. Julian, St. Leander, and other great luminaries of the Visigoths. 

 To produce uniformity in this respect, and substitute the Roman for 

 the Spanish missal, became the principal aim of the holy see. Early in 

 the 10th century a legate arrived in the Peninsula from Rome, sent by 

 John X. ; but the report which he made on his return proved to be a 

 favourable one, and by the decision of a council, held at Rome in 924, 

 the Muzarabic office was not only sanctioned, but even praised. 

 Another attempt, made in 1064, under Alexander II., had a similar 

 result. Again, in 1067, new legates were sent, with a positive injunc- 

 tion to insist on the abolition of the ancient service ; but the Spanish 



