(Militärgrenze), a tract of country in the Austrian dominions, extending along the borders of Turkey from the Adriatic to Transylvania, is Military or Martial Law bounded on the N. by Croatia, Slavonia, Hungary, and Transylvania, and S. by Bosnia, Servia, and Wallachia, having a length of nearly 1000 miles, and an area of about 16,000 square miles. This district derives its name from the military government by which it is ruled, and it serves to defend the Austrian empire against the sudden inroads of the Turks. The inhabitants are at once peasants and soldiers, and they compose a force of 45,000 men, constantly under arms in the time of peace. In 1815 there was a body of 62,000. They hold their land on condition of military service, and while at home receive no further remuneration; but when they are led to other parts they are entitled to the usual pay of the Austrian army. They are divided into 17 regiments of infantry and 1 of hussars, besides a battalion of boatmen, called Thaukisten, who cruise on the large rivers of the district in boats armed with guns. Each regiment consists of two battalions that serve in turn, and the colonel of the regiment exercises civil as well as military authority. The supreme government is in the hands of the Aulic council of war (Hofkriegsrath) at Vienna. Under this there are four general commandos, which have their seats at Agram, Temesvar, Peterwardein, and Hermannstadt. Every male between the ages of 18 and 60 is liable to military service, and is occupied with such duties for about eight months in the year. During the remainder of their time they are employed in agriculture and pastoral occupations; but, owing to the little time which they can spare from military duty, the agriculture of the district is in a very backward state. They live together in families, which possess land in common; and all the members are obliged to perform their share in the cultivation of the soil. The produce is divided equally among all the labourers; but the heads of the family receive a double share. Many of the families contain as many as eighty members. The people are for the most part of Slavonian origin; but there are also Croatians, Servians, Wallachians, and other tribes. They are intelligent and clever, patriotic, and strongly attached to the imperial family. The first establishment of this military government was in the sixteenth century, in the reign of Ferdinand I., who settled military colonists in a part of Croatia. The system was afterwards extended and perfected, especially by Prince Eugene of Savoy towards the end of the seventeenth, and by Field Marshal Lacy in the eighteenth century. The present system of government was established in 1807. The whole country is divided into four parts,—the Croatian, Slavonian, Hungarian, and Transylvanian Military Frontier. Pop. (1851) 1,009,109.

MILITARY or MARTIAL LAW, is that branch of the laws of war which respects military discipline, or the government and control of persons employed in the operations or for the purposes of war. Military law is not exclusive of the common law; for a man by becoming a soldier does not cease to be a citizen or a member of the British commonwealth. He is a citizen still, capable of performing the duties of a subject, and answerable in the ordinary course of law for his conduct in that capacity. Martial law is therefore a system of rule superadded to the common law, for regulating the citizen in his additional character of soldier; a temporary character assumed for a special end, and to be laid aside when that end has been attained, and when the disturbance which gave occasion to it has subsided. For, as the law knows nothing of a mere soldier, or one bred up to no other profession than that of arms, so a perpetual standing army is against the principles of the constitution, and if without consent of parliament, is clearly against law.

Throughout all Europe, in the feudal times, property was commonly held upon condition of military service; and the possessors of land were, by virtue of their rights at once its Military or cultivators in peace and its defenders in war. But the fetters of land under the feudal system were incompatible with a state of commerce, and the arbitrary power of lords over their vassals was adverse to civil liberty; its strictness declined; the services of tenants were commuted for money, and with money were purchased the services of mercenaries, who were ready to make war a trade. The disorders incident to the disbanding of these troops, the changes which had taken place in the mode of warfare, and the necessity of attending to the balance of power in Europe, all concurred to suggest the idea of a disciplined standing army, which was formed first in France, and then in the other states of Europe. The military despotism, however, which ensued on the continent was in this country happily prevented by the spirit of a free people; and at the Revolution it was asserted and declared, that the raising or keeping up a standing army within the kingdom, in time of peace, without consent of parliament, is contrary to law. The expediency of a standing army is admitted, and at the same time the liberties of the people are maintained. A standing army therefore exists, but primarily for the benefit, because only with the consent, of the people.

In early times the king's justiciar was capit legis et militiae; at the head not only of the law, but also of the military force of the kingdom. But in England, on the division of the aula regis, the constable and marischal presided over a court of chivalry for the determination of matters of honour and arms. From time to time, however, other tribunals were subsequently instituted for the administration of martial law; and at length, after the Revolution, when, in addition to the militia and other local troops of the kingdom, a regular standing army was judged necessary for the safety of the realm, for the defence of the possessions of the crown, and for the preservation of the balance of power in Europe, acts were passed for the maintenance of military order and discipline. Scotland differed from England in this respect, that there was here no distribution of the powers of the lord justiciar, such as took place in England, nor was there ever any court of chivalry. In other respects the two countries were, in as far as concerns martial law, very much alike.

The first of the military acts passed after the Revolution was occasioned by a mutiny in a body of English and Scotch troops (amongst whom were the regiment of dragoons now called the Scotch Greys, and the Royal Scotch regiment of foot), on being ordered to Holland to replace some of the troops of that country which King William had brought over with him. The circumstance was communicated to parliament, and on the 3d April 1689 an act was passed for punishing mutiny, desertion, &c., which has been renewed annually by parliament down to the present day. It authorized the king to grant commissions to certain officers to hold courts-martial for the trial of crimes committed by officers and soldiers; and this act, which has been renewed from time to time, has since the Union been extended to Scotland.

An act of the same nature was passed in the parliament of England, 13 Cha. II. stat. i. c. 9, authorizing the lord high admiral to grant commission to inferior vice-admirals, &c., to assemble courts-martial for the trial of offences committed at sea by officers, marines, or others in the king's naval service. But this statute was in many points altered by subsequent enactments, till at last all the laws relating to courts-martial for the sea service were reduced into one act, applying equally to the whole United Kingdom, namely, 22 Geo. II. c. 33, explained and amended by 19 Geo. III. c. 17.

The more recent statutes for the government of the forces, naval and military, are 1 Will. IV. c. 14, 15; 2 and 3 Will. IV. c. 23, 28; 3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 5, 6; 4 and 5 Will. IV. c. 4, 5, &c. During the reign of Victoria they have been as follows:—2 and 3 Vict. c. 5; 3 and 4 Vict. c. 6 and 37; 4 and 5 Vict. c. 2; 5 and 6 Vict. c. 12; 6 and 7 Vict. c. 3; 7 and 8 Vict. c. 9; 8 and 9 Vict. c. 8; 9 and 10 Vict. c. 11; 10 and 11 Vict. c. 12; 11 and 12 Vict. c. 11; 12 and 13 Vict. c. 10; 13 and 14 Vict. c. 5; 14 and 15 Vict. c. 6; 15 and 16 Vict. c. 7; 16 and 17 Vict. c. 9; 17 and 18 Vict. c. 4; 19 and 20 Vict. c. 10; 20 Vict. c. 13; which brings down the statutes respecting military law to March 21, 1857. The judgments of courts-martial, like those of other courts, are liable to be taken cognizance of in the superior courts of common law, and the members punished for illegal proceedings, and for all wilful and corrupt abuse of authority against the known, obvious, and common principles of justice. (See Grose's Military Antiquities; Tytler on Courts-Martial; Adye on Courts-Martial; M'Arthur on Courts-Martial; and Napier's Remarks on Military Law.)