The Central Glamorgan Gazette, and General, Commercial, and Agricultural Advertiser. — 1870-01-14 (Bridgend, Mid Glamorgan, Wales)

AGAINST 80LDIEE8.—A War Office circular has just been issued on a subject to which eertain recent prozecutions have imparted cenoidereb e importance. It is dated January 1,1870, and promulgates regulations for carrying out legal p oceedings in connection with the army i-1. AU ("Maces committed by persons subject to the Mutiny Act against the ordinary criminal code of the country brought to the cognisance of the commanding officer should forthwith be notified by him to the local police, that the same may be duly investigated by their agency, and punished by the civil criminal tribunals. 2. Until the Secretary of State directs the solicitor to the War department to take charge of any legal proceedings, or to reimburse the cost, he will incur no responsibility on account thereof. 3. When authority is sought to commence or to defend legal proceedings either in the name or on behalf of the Secretary of State, a full statement of the facts must be sent up to the Under-Secretary of State, authenticated by the head of the department at home or by the general officer abroad. 3. Where officers or soldiers are made the defendants in either civil or criminal proceedings, the defence thereof will beconducted upon the sole responsibility of such defendant until the decision of the Secretary of State is given. 5. When, in such cases, any claim is preferred to the Secretary of State for assistance in . or for the reimbursement of the cost of the defence it must clearly be shown with reference to the declaration or indictment (of which a copy should be sent with the application), that the act complained of was one sanctioned by competent authority or clearly within the prescribed course of the defendant's duty. 6. At home, in cases of murder, where the accused and the deceased were both subject to the Mutiny Act, the commanding officer will request the magisrates forthwith to transmit a copy of depositions taken before them to the War Office; that the case may (if the Secretary of State deems it expedient that a more speedy trial of the accused should be had than the usual course of practice allows) be prepared for trial by the solicitor to the department, under the jurisdiction in Homicides Act, 1862. 7. Abroad, where the adoption or the defence of legal proceedings cannot wait the previous sanction of the Secretary of State, they should only be taken on the special authority of the general officer commanding, to whom a report of the circumstances of the case, together with a statement showing the probable expenses, will be addressed by the head of the department on whose recommendation the legal proceedings are proposed to be taken. 8. These reports, together with the letter of the general or other officer commanding, authorising legal proceedings, will be forwarded by the head of the department concerned to the Secretary of State for War for approval; and in no case will the expenses incurred be admitted as a charge against the item for "law charges," vote 17, unless they have received such approval. 9. When legal proceedings have been authorised, the head of the department concerned will from time to time furnish the legal adviser of the War department with each information and assistance as he may revile, and keep the Secretary of State advised as to the course being pursued. Ths other clauses relate to the charges of legal advisers, &a.