MUTINY (Fr. matiner, from main, "Malin" is connected with the old French mente, still seen in gazente, a "sedition," and is therefore from the Latin morere, " to move" or "stir up." The supposition that the word is derived from the Latin ?natio, a " muttering," is a mistake). The term is used to denote behavior either by word or deed subversive of discipline, or tending to undermine superior authority. Till lately mutiny comprised speaking disrespectfully of the sovereign, royal family, or gen eral commanding, quarreling, and resisting arrest while quarreling; hut these offenses have now been reduced to the lesser crime of"mutinous conduct." The acts now con stituting mutiny proper are exciting, causing, or joining in any mutiny or sedition; when present thereat, failing to use the utmost effort to suppress it; when. knowing of a mutiny or intended mutiny, failing to give notice of it to the commanding officer; striking a superior officer, or using or offering any violence against him while in the execution of his duty: disobeying the lawful command of a superior officer. The pun ishment awarded ,hy the mutiny act,to these crimes is, if the culprit bean officer, death or such other punishment as a. general .Court-Martial Shall award; if a soldier, death,
penal servitude for not less than four years, or such other punishment as a general court martial shall award. As the crime of mutiny has a tendency to immediately destroy all authority and all cohesion in the naval or military body, commanding officers have strong powers to stop it summarily. A chitin-head court-martial may sentence an offender. and if the case be urgent, and the spread of the mutiny epprehentled, the immediate execution of the mutineer may follow within a few minutes of the detection of his crime. It, however, behooves commanding officers to exercise this extraordinnry power with great caution, as the use of so absolute an authority is narrowly and jealously watched. To prevent mutiny among men the officers should be strict without harshness, kind without familiarity, attentive to nil the just rights of their subordiumes, and, above all things, most particular in the carrying out to 'the very letter of any promise they may have made.