Mutiny Act

Mutiny Act was an act passed by the British parliament from year to year, to regulate the government of the army. The navy and marines, when serving on a ship in commission, are under Naval Discipline Acts, 1861 and 1866, the successors of Articles of War first enacted under Charles II., which, unlike the Mutiny Act, remained in force for an indefinite time. By the Bill of Rights the maintenance of a standing army in time of peace, unless by consent of parliament, was declared illegal, and from that time the number of troops to be maintained, and the cost of the different branches of the service, have been regulated by an annual vote of the House of Commons. Soldiers, in time of war or rebellion, were always subject to military law; but the occurrence of a mutiny in certain Scottish regiments soon after the Revolution raised the question whether the same law could be enforced in time of peace; and it was decided that, in the absence of any statute to the contrary, a soldier in time of peace was only amenable to the common law: if he deserted, he was only liable for breach of contract; or if he struck his officer, to an indictment for assault. The authority of the legislature became indispensable to the maintenance of discipline; and parliament, from 1689 till 1879, conferred this and other powers in the Mutiny Act, limited in its duration at one time to six months, but latterly to a year. Although it was greatly changed from the form in which it first passed, the annual alterations were slight, and substantially it had a fixed form. The preamble quoting the above declaration from the Bill of Rights added that it was judged necessary that a force of specified strength should be continued, while it gave authority to the sovereign to enact Articles of War for the government of that force. The act specified the persons liable to its provisions, treated of courts-martial crimes and punishments, and of military prisons, furlough, Enlistment (q.v.), stoppages, billets, and the conveyance and entertainment of troops. For years prior to 1878 attention had been drawn in parliament and elsewhere to the shortcomings of the act, as well as to those of the Articles of War (q.v.) by which it was accompanied, explained, and amplified. These representations culminated in the appointment of a Parliamentary Committee, which in 1879 presented a Bill to supersede the Mutiny Act, and, like it, to be passed annually as the 'Army Discipline and Regulation Act.' The Marine Forces when serving on shore were under the Marine Mutiny Act up to 1879; then they were brought under the 'Army Discipline and Regulation Act.' In 1881 this act was slightly modified and called the 'Army Act of 1881.' It is brought into force annually by a short act called the Army Annual Act, which lays down the number of troops to be kept up for the ensuing twelve months, the prices to be paid in billets, and any amendments found to be necessary in the Army Act itself. The latter is accompanied by Rules of Procedure for its administration, and contains the whole military law of Great Britain.