Billeting, or CANTONING, is a mode of feeding and lodging soldiers and their horses by quartering them upon the inhabitants of a town. As this system obviates the necessity of carrying food, forage, fuel, and camp equipment, it is resorted to as much as possible during a campaign, especially in its earlier stages, when collision with the enemy is not imminent, and therefore concentration has not become necessary. One or two men or the same number of horses are billeted for several nights on each hearth or family, which may be taken as four or five persons; for a single night the number per hearth would be greater. Billeting is also used on the Continent during the army manoeuvres, as many as nine men and three horses being allotted to each hearth, but the food and forage provided by the commissariat. In the United Kingdom the system has always been most unpopular, from the time when monarchs were wont to quarter their troops on the monasteries, and later when soldiers compelled the inhabitants of towns to receive and support them, the authorities being either unable or unwilling to interfere. The civil population naturally resented billeting, and one of the provisions of the Petition of Right (1628) was directed against the practice. The Mutiny Act, passed for the first time in 1689, declared that no housekeepers should be compelled to accommodate soldiers except on a recognised and fairly administered system. The chief civil magistrate of a town, on requisition from the military authorities, quartered the soldiers on the inhabitants as fairly as he could. This continued, in England, until 1745, when the liability to provide billets was limited to certain traders, and has so continued ever since; but the alteration was not made in Scotland until 1857.
The Army Act of 1881 enacts that only the keepers of public-houses of any description, if licensed to sell beer, wine, or cider to be drunk on the premises, are liable to have soldiers billeted on them, and livery-stable keepers to take in troop horses. The exceptions are cauteens, and houses kept by foreign consuls or Vintners of the city of London. The prices to be paid for food, forage, and accommodation are fixed for each year by the Army Annual Act. Before the present barracks were built at the headquarters of each regimental district, it was usual to billet militia, when called out for their month's training, in some convenient town, but this is no longer necessary. The cases in which billeting is resorted to in the United Kingdom are either when troops are called out in aid of the civil power, or when mounted troops are marching for several days; but whenever practicable, they would be lodged in barracks, and dismounted troops are always moved by rail or sea for any distance exceeding one day's march. The order for the march is the authority for drawing billets. It is issued by the Secretary of State for War, and specifies the exact number of men and horses for which billets may be drawn, and the dates on which they are to be at each town. This document is called a 'route.' A billeting party of two or three non-commissioned officers precedes the main body by one day's march, and presents the 'route' to the billet-master (usually the chief constable) at the first halting-place. This official has a list of persons liable to have soldiers billeted on them, and from it he selects those whose turn it is to take them. The men and horses are told off to their billets by the billeting party in order that no delay may arise when the main body enters. After its arrival, the soldiers go to the houses on which they are billeted; all those belonging to one troop being quartered as near together as may be, for convenience of muster, and the horses near the men. The licensed victualler is bound to provide each billet-holder with food, drink, bed, and accommodation, either in his own house or somewhere near at hand, and the livery-stable keeper has to provide straw, hay, and oats of good quality for each horse. The officers visit the houses, to see that the men really have one hot meal per day, instead of taking the value of it in money. The soldier may demand facilities for cleaning his arms and accoutrements. The quartermaster of the regiment makes the payments. Disputes often arise between the innkeeper or others and the officers of the regiment, and there are provisions of the Army Act framed to prevent irregularities on either side, but especially to safeguard the rights of the innkeeper.
In the United States, a provision of the constitution specifies that no soldier shall in time of peace be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war but in a manner to be prescribed by law.