Foreign Enlistment

Foreign Enlistment, the offence of desertion, or seducing to desert, from the army or navy. These offences are now mainly dealt with by the "Naval Discipline Act, 1866," and the "Army Act, 1881," as amended by the successive annual Acts, by which Acts (when the offender is subject to their provisions) he may be tried by a court-martial, who may inflict such punishment as therein prescribed. In addition, however, to the above there are statutes - passed in the reign of George III - which enact that any person maliciously endeavouring to seduce any person serving in the Royal forces by sea or land from their allegiance, or stirring up such persons to mutiny or to any traitorous or mutinous practice, shall be guilty of felony. Under these Acts he was made punishable with death, but by the effect of later statutes he is now liable, if convicted, to penal servitude for life, or any term not less than five years; or to be imprisoned, with or without hard labour or solitary confinement, for any term not more than two years.