o_199m9vaui14ib1cnu10di10pocoj4h.pdf

;
MEASURES IN PARLIAMENT 205
of preventing the seduction from their allegiance of his
Majesty's forces, both on land and at sea. The message
was read on 1 June, and an address was at once returned,
promising that the required measures should be taken.
On the same day Pitt brought forward a bill based on the
suggestion contained in the King's message. He
pointed out the need for some further legislation in
opposition to the mutiny ; no member could doubt that
the seamen had been seduced from their duty, or that
attempts had been made to seduce the soldiers, and these
facts alone proved that the existing laws against seditious
practices were inadequate. " The indignation of the
Houses of Parliament," he said, " ought to be more
strongly directed against the instigators than against the
misguided and deluded men, who for a time, and he
trusted, only for a time, had been seduced." 1 Moreover,
it was at that time an aggravated misdemeanour to
persuade soldiers and sailors to desert, whereas it was
only a common misdemeanour to persuade them to
mutiny. The offence could not easily be defined, for
it was usually committed in secret, and no hard and
fast line could be drawn between inciting to mutiny and
merely expressing discontent with the existing system.
Pitt therefore made his definition very broad and general,
and moderated the penalty accordingly. He proposed
11
to treat any attempt to excite sedition and mutiny in
his Majesty's service, or to withdraw any part of his
Majesty's forces by sea or land from their duty and
allegiance, as an aggravated species of misdemeanour,
leaving to the discretion of the court the power of inflicting,
not only the penalties of fine and imprisonment, as
in other cases of misdemeanour, but as circumstances
might require and penalties of banishment and transportation
also." 2
1. Pari. Hist, xxxiii, 798.
2. For the debates on the King's message and the tr'H for preventing
the seduction of sailors and soldiers, see Pari. Hist xxxiii, 796-810
and Ann. Beg., p. 217.