Militia, the national soldiery, as distinguished from the regular forces or standing army, being the inhabitants, or, as they have been sometimes called, the trained bands of a town or county, who are armed on a short notice for their own defence. as to its origin see Hall, Cons. Hist. iii. p. 259. The statutes on this subject make service compulsory upon all men between eighteen and thirty, who are to be selected by ballot (23 & 24 Vict. c. 120, s. 7), with exceptions for peers, clergymen, articled clerks, officers on half pay, apprentices, poor men having more than one child born in wedlock and other persons (42 Geo. 3, c. 90, s. 43); but by Acts dating from 10 Geo. 4, c. 10, the making of lists and the ballots and enrolments for the Militia were from time to time suspended.
Finally in 1865, by the (English) Militia (Ballot Suspension) Act, 1865--a temporary Act, continued annually from time to time by successive Expiring Laws Continuance Acts--these statutes were suspended, subject to a power in the Crown to revive them by Order in Council.
Voluntary enlistment in the Militia, which was the practice long before the Suspension Act was passed, was regulated by the (English) Militia Act, 1882, replacing the (English) Militia (Voluntary Enlistment) Act, 1875, the schedule of which contains a long list of repealed (English) Militia Acts. The (English) Act of 1882, s. 12, and the (English) Reserve Forces and Militia Act, 1898, reserve the Militia for service in the United Kingdom except as regards volunteers for service elsewhere.
The term Militia is now applied to that part of the Army Reserve which was formerly called the (English) 'Super Reserve' (Territorial Army and Militia Act, 1921, s. 2; (English) Reserve Forces Act, 1882, s. 12). This reserve force can be used in times of emergency and danger where required, but any member of this force can volunteer for service at other times than these. [See also Territorial and Reserve Forces Act, 1907, s. 30]
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