dier drawing interest from the end of each year in which it accrues. The ruling of the Supreme Court in U. S. v. Landers (92 U. S. 77) is not opposed to this view, but, as construed by the same court in U. S. v. Kingsley (138 U. S. 87) shows that the "forfeiture" referred to in Secs. 1281 and 1282, Rev. Sts., was regarded by the court as meaning a loss of an acquired right. And the act of 1890, passed since this ruling, has confirmed this interpretation. Thus a soldier, in deserting, forfeits, with the main portion of his pay, the portion which has been retained, his right to this lesser portion being as much acquired and perfected as his right to the greater portion. Both forfeitures rest upon the same basis, and the aggregate forfeiture of both is appropriated by the statute to the support of the Soldiers' Home. 60, 13, June, 1893; 61, 486, October, 1893.

2334. A stoppage of twelve dollars was made against a soldier on account of the loss of a revolver. Subsequently he was tried for pawning the revolver and for desertion, and sentenced to dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances and confinement for three years. Later the revolver was recovered. Held, that the stoppage should be removed but that it would go to the Soldiers' Home as a forfeiture under the sentence and could not therefore be returned to

the man. Card 1500, July, 1895.

2335. There is no law expressly relating to the subject but the Secretary of War in the exercise of his general power over the movements of members of the army, may order a hospital attendant, an enlisted man, to accompany an invalid discharged soldier to the Soldiers' Home. Card 2592, September, 1896.

2336. Section 4745, Revised Statutes, should not be construed as prohibiting the practice by which transportation to the Soldiers' Home is furnished by it to a needy discharged soldier, with the understanding that the home will repay itself out of his pension when collected. This is not a pledge, etc., of his pension by a discharged soldier within the meaning of Sec. 4745, but a repayment by a governmental agency to itself out of money belonging to him and placed in his hands by law, of money advanced by it to him solely for his interest. Card 5922, February, 1899.

2337. The law of the United States for the District of Columbia is to the effect that where a person dies intestate, leaving an estate in the District and there is no relation of the intestate within the fifth degree, the estate shall belong to the United States. Under this law. whenever an inmate has died in the Soldiers' Home, at Washington, D. C., leaving money in bank in that city, or other moneys or personal effects, in the District, the same become the property of the United States; and all such property and effects other than money

M * *

should (by the proper proceedings in court) be converted into money, and then this, together with the money left by the soldier in bank or elsewhere in the District, should be turned into the United States Treasury by order of court, as money of estates escheated to the United States. Section 3689 of the United States Revised Statutes appropriates for the Soldiers' Home "out of any moneys in the Treasury, all moneys belonging to the estates of deceased soldiers". After, therefore, the moneys and the proceeds of the other effects of inmates of the home, have been paid by order of court into the United States Treasury as moneys of escheated estates, the Soldiers' Home is entitled to receive the same from the Treasury. The home is not however entitled to it until it shall have gone into the Treasury so that section 3689 can apply to and appropriate it to the use of the home. It is not the duty and probably not within the power of the Soldiers' Home to move in the matter of enforcing the law with regard to the moneys or property of any estate, whether the decedents were inmates of the home or not. But as it is the duty of the Attorney General of the United States (through the United States attorney of this district) to look after and collect all moneys and property the United States is entitled to under the law, whether the decedents are inmates of the home or whether they are civilians who reside elsewhere in the District, Advised that he be informed by the proper officials of the home of the death of all inmates who leave any money or property in the district and the whereabouts of the same, which it may be in his power to collect and turn into the Treasury as above indicated. Money so turned in should be obtained by the home by direct application to the Treasury for the Card 3493, September, 1897.

same.

2338. On the questions, (1), whether the Board of Commissioners of the Soldiers' Home has authority to establish a branch home; (2), whether the Secretary of War has legal authority to grant to the Soldiers' Home the right to locate a branch of the home on a military reservation and to occupy buildings erected for the military establishment; and (3), whether, if such right were granted, the board of commissioners would have authority to expend funds of the Soldiers' Home in keeping such buildings in repair-held, first, that it was the intention of the original legislation relating to the Soldiers' Home to establish it at one or more places, and no subsequent legislation has interfered with this, except as to one locality, and that under the legis lation as it now stands it would not be illegal to establish a branch; second, that the Secretary of War has no authority independently of congress to grant away any interests in buildings erected on military reservations, but that he may do so under legislation of July 28, 1892

(27 Stats., 321), which vests him with authority, "when in his discretion it will be for the public good, to lease for a period not exceeding five years, and revocable at any time, such property of the United States under his control as may not for the time be required for public use and for the leasing of which there is no authority under existing law"; and third, that if the Soldiers' Home may thus lease buildings. on a military reservation, to be used as a branch, the expenditure of funds of the home in keeping the buildings in a condition fitting them for this purpose would be a legal expenditure notwithstanding that the home could not, on the termination of the lease, recover any money so expended. Card 6818, July, 1899.

SOLDIERS' HOME-STATE.

2339. By act of Congress, approved Aug. 27, 1888 (25 Stats., 450) it is provided: "That all States and Territories which have established, or which shall hereafter establish, State homes for disabled soldiers and sailors of the United States who served in the war of the Rebellion, or in any previous war, who are disabled by age, disease or otherwise, and by reason of such disability are incapable of earning a living, provided such disability was not incurred in service against the United States, shall be paid for every such disabled soldier or sailor who may be admitted and cared for in such home at the rate of one hundred dollars per annum." Under this statute and the current appropriation (28 Stats., 955), the State or Territory establishing a home is to be paid for caring for the persons designated, and the United States is not concerned with the application of the moneys so paid. Aside from verifying the number of inmates cared for, the general government makes no inspections of or exercises any supervision over such State or Territorial home. Card 2222, April, 1898.

2340. The act of Aug. 27, 1888 (25 Stats., 450), further prescribes that the number of persons for whose care the State or Territory shall receive payment "shall be ascertained by the Board of Managers of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, under such regulations as it may prescribe," and the board has adopted a regulation recognizing the right of the States to payment for insane members cared for in insane asylums. Held, that such regulation is legal and proper. The word "home," as used in the statute, should not be narrowly construed. The insane man is still a member of the home and taken care of in it, within the meaning of the statute, when he is sent to and kept at an asylum at the expense of the home. There is a marked difference between the case of such insane inmate and that of an inmate who voluntarily leaves the institution to live with others. The latter abandons his right to the care of the home, while the former simply continues under its care. Card 3121. April, 1897.

SOLDIERS' HOME-NATIONAL VOLUNTEER.

2341. The act of March 3, 1891, c. 542, provides that "the accounts relating to the expenditure of such sums" (appropriated for the support of the National Volunteer Home), "as also all receipts by said home from whatever source, shall, in addition to the supervision now provided for, be reported to and supervised by the Secretary of War.” Held, that this provision called for an examination of the accounts by the Secretary, with a view to the correction of errors or unauthorized uses of the funds, and a formal approval in case none such were discovered; also that by the term "receipts" were included receipts not only from outside but from interior sources- as from the sale of flowers and provisions-so long as such continued to accrue. 51, 104, December, 1891.

2342. By the act of March 3, 1893, c. 210, it is provided that "the Secretary of War shall hereafter exercise the same supervision over all receipts and disbursements on account of the volunteer soldiers' homes as he is required by law to apply to the accounts of disbursing officers of the army." Held, that the supervision here indicated should be analogous to that prescribed by the act of April 20, 1874, c. 117, entitled "an act to provide for the inspection of the disbursements of appropriations made by officers of the army," and should be regulated by the provisions of titles LVIII and LXXII of the Army Regulations, so far as applicable. 58, 484, April, 1893.

2343. Held, later, that certain projected legislation, proposing to vest in the Secretary of War, a general supervision, that is to say, superintendence, direction and control, of all the affairs of the national volunteer homes, would be in direct conflict with the existing provision of Sec. 4825, Rev. Sts., fixing and defining the corporate powers of The National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers"; and that, if such legislation be adopted, it should properly provide for a repeal of so much of this section as gives the corporation control of its affairs. It may indeed well be questioned whether the recent provision of March 3, 1893, c. 210, giving the Secretary of War "supervision over all receipts and disbursements on account of the volunteer soldiers' homes," does not vest him with an authority greater than is consistent with the said corporate powers. 63, 61, December, 1893. 2344. Sec. 4835, Rev. Sts.. providing that the inmates of the "National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers" shall be "subject to the rules and Articles of War," held, to be clearly an unconstitutional enactment, such inmates not being any part of the armies of the United States, but civilians. The fact that they had once been members of the volunteer forces could not attach to them, after their final discharges, any amenability to the military jurisdiction. XXX, 286, April, 1870. 'See § 1038, ante, and note; also, as to jurisdiction of courts martial over civilians, § 1031, ante, and note.

1

SOLITARY CONFINEMENT.

2345. Held that a sentence of two months' confinement, which prescribed that the confinement for two days out of every three should be solitary, was unauthorized as transcending the proportion fixed by the Army Regulations; such sentence in fact requiring that the confinement should be solitary for forty days out of sixty, while the regulations authorize but eighty four days of solitary confinement in an entire year. XXVIII, 329, January, 1869.

SPY.

2

2346. Sec. 1343, Rev. Sts.,' is one of the few provisions of our statute law authorizing the trial, in time of war, of civilians, by military courts. The majority, however, of the persons brought to trial as spies during the civil war were members of the army of the enemy. The gravamen of the offence of the spy is the treachery or deception praetised the being in disguise or acting under false pretences. An officer or soldier of the enemy discovered "lurking" in or near a camp or post of our army, disguised in the uniform or overcoat of a U. S. soldier, is prima facie a spy, and liable to trial as such. XIV, 579, June, 1865. So an officer or soldier of the enemy who without authority and covertly penetrates within our lines disguised in the dress of a civilian, may ordinarily be presumed to have come in the character of a spy, unless, by satisfactory evidence that he came for some comparatively venial purpose, as to visit his family, and not for the purpose of obtaining information, he may rebut the presumption against him and show that his offence was a simple violation of the laws of war. II, 580, June, 1863; IV, 307, and V, 315, November, 1863; V, 572, and VII, 66, January, 1864.

2347. Where an officer of the enemy's army, arrested while lurking in the State of New York in the disguise of a citizen's dress, was shown to have been in the habit of passing, for hostile purposes, to and from Canada, where he held communication with agents of the enemy, and conveyed intelligence to them-held that he was amenable to trial as a spy before a military court under the statute. XI, 474, February, 1865.

2348. An officer of the enemy's army, having come secretly within our lines, proceeded from Baltimore through a part of the country

1 This section provides: "All persons who, in time of war, or of rebellion against the supreme authority of the United States, shall be found lurking or acting as spies, in or about any of the fortifications, posts, quarters, or encampments of any of the armies of the United States, or elsewhere, shall be triable by a general court-martial, or by a military commission, and shall, on conviction thereof, suffer death."

2 Halleck, Int. Law, 406-7.