104 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONVENTION [1776.

or upon Sundays between the hours of ten and one o'clock on
penalty of being dismissed from all future suttling.

50. No officer commanding in any camp, garrison, fort or other
station, shall lay any duty or imposition upon, or be interested in,
the sale of any victuals, liquors, or other necessaries of life, or
merchandize which are brought or offered for sale for the use of
the soldiers, nor shall receive or have any gratuity or reward for
any license to any suttler, on penalty of being discharged from
the service.

51. Any commissioned officer who shall be guilty of any fraud
or embezzlement, shall forfeit all his pay due at the lime of his
conviction, make restitution, and be discharged from the service.

52. Any non-commissioned officer or soldier, who shall embez-
zle or destroy ammunition, provision, tools, or any other thing be-
longing to the public stores, shall be punished as may be adjudged.

53. Any officer or soldier, who shall wilfully, or through negli-
gence disobey any general or special orders, shall be punished as
may be adjudged.

54. That no general court-martial shall consist of a less number
than thirteen, none of whom shall be of a less degree than a com-
missioned officer, and the president shall be a field officer; which
general court-martial shall be appointed, when and as often as oc-
casion shall require, by the council of safety, or the colonel or com-
manding officer of the said battalion; and the president shall ad-
minister an oath to the other members of the same court, and the
member next in rank to the president shall administer an oath to
him, before the said court shall proceed to determine or hear any
cease, in the words following, to wit: "You, A. B. do swear, that
you will well and truly try, and impartially determine the cause of
tlhe prisoner now to be tried, according to the rules for regulating
and governing the forces in the service of this province. So help

you God." Provided, That when any person is to be tried for his
life, the council of safety shall appoint twenty-four members at least,

two of which to be field officers, and ten at least to be captains, out
of a list of whom the offender may strike all above the number of
fifteen, leaving at least one field officer and five captains; and sen-
tence of death shall not be pronounced, unless twelve of the court
martial concur in such sentence.

55. That no inferior court-martial shall consist of a less number
than five commissioned officers, unless in such cases where that
that number cannot be conveniently assembled, when three shall
be sufficient; but no person on or against whom the offence is al-
leged to have been committed, shall be a member of any court-