Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/613

Rh ALIEN 575 lias its foundation in mistaken views ot political economy. It arose from the impression that the produce of the energy and enterprise of any community is a limited quantity, of which each man s share will be the less the more com petitors there are ; superseding the just view that the wealth of a state depends on the number and energy of the producers. Thus the skilled workmen who would increase its riches have often been jealously kept out of a country. But, on the other hand, special temptations, including the gift of citizenship, have often been offered to skilled foreigners by states desiring to acquire them as citizens. Britain has occasionally received industrious and valuable citizens, driven forth by the folly or tyranny of other powers, as in the memorable instance of the revocation of the edict of Nantes, which sent the Spitalfields colony and many other Frenchmen to this country. Looking on the full benefit of Britisli citizenship as a transcendent boon, the principle of our older legislation on the subject has been to allow friendly aliens to possess at least a portion of it. There never existed in Britain a law so harsh as the Droit d Aubaine of France, which confiscated to the crown, all the property of a deceased alien. The courts of justice have ever been opened to them, and they have thus been entitled to protect themselves from any inequalities which do not apply to them by special law. It seems to be a rule of the general public law that an alien can be sent out of the realm by exercise of the crown s prero gative ; but in modern practice, whenever it has seemed necessary to extrude foreigners, a special Act of Parliament has been obtained for the purpose. (See Phillimore s Internal. Law, vol. i., p. 133; Forsyth s Cases and Opinions on Const. Law, p. 181.) Our law, save with the special exceptions mentioned afterwards, admits to the privileges of subjects all who are born within the British dominions. In the celebrated question of the post-nati in the reign of James I. of England, it was found, after solemn trial, that natives of Scotland born before the union of the crowns were aliens in England, but that those born subsequently enjoyed the privileges of English subjects. A child born abroad, whose father or whose grandfather on the father s side was a British subject, may claim the same privilege, unless at the time of his birth his father was a traitor or felon, or engaged in war against the British empire (4th Geo. II. c. 22). Owing to this exceptional provision, some sons of Jacobite refugees, born abroad, who joined in the rebellion of 1745, were admitted to the privilege of prisoners of war, because, as the conduct of their fathers deprived them of the privileges of citizenship, they were held not to be liable to its burdens. It has been enacted with regard to the national status of women and children that a married woman is held to be a citizen of the state of which her husband is for the time being a subject ; that a natural-born British woman, having become an alien by marriage, and thereafter being a widow, may be rehabilitated by certificate of the Secretary of State ; that where a father or a widow becomes an alien, the children in infancy becoming resident in the country where the parent is naturalised, and being naturalised by the local law, are held to be subjects of that country ; that those, of a father or of a widow readmitted to British nationality become British subjects also ; and that the children of a father or of a widow who obtains a certificate of naturalisation, becoming resident with such parent in the United Kingdom, become naturalised (33 and 34 Viet. c. 14, s. 10). The same statute provides that a declaration of alienage before a justice of peace or other competent judge, having the effect of divesting the declarant of tlie character of a British subject, may be made by a naturalised British subject desiriner to resume the nationality of the country to which he originally belonged, if there be a convention to that effect with that country ; by natural- born subjects who were also born subjects of another state according to its law ; or by persons born abroad having British fathers. The main characteristic disabilities to which aliens have been subjected are incompetency to exercise political pri vileges, such as that of electing or being elected to sit in Parliament, and incapacity to hold landed property. The privilege of sitting on a jury was also counted among the political rights from which they are excluded ; but when a foreigner is on trial, he had in England the privilege of the jury de medietate linguce, in which half the panel consisted of foreigners, a privilege which was taken away in 1870, and never existed in Scotland. An alien enemy can neither by himself nor assignee sue for the recovery of a debt clue to him in this country, unless by the Queen s special licence. But his right to do so revives when the war is terminated. (See Mr Justice Story s judgment in /Society for Propagation of the. Gospel v. Wheeler, 2 Gallison s Reports, 127, and Phillimore s Inter national Law, iii. 121). Many of the special disabilities to which aliens were subject under the Navigation Act and other laws connected with our old restrictive commercial policy, have been removed or neutralised by the free trade measures of later years ; but it is still impossible for an alien to be the owner of a British ship. In other respects the tendency has been to communicate some of the rights of citizenship to aliens, and to widen the definition of subjects. Most of the acts of Parliament passed with regard to ah ens during the last and the present centuries have been repealed by 33 & 34 Viet. c. 14 the Naturalisation Act, 1870. It enables aliens to take, acquire, hold, and dispose of real and personal property of every description (except British ships), and to transmit a title to land, in all respects as natural-born Britisli subjects. But the act expressly declares that this relaxation of the law does not qualify aliens for any office or any municipal, parliamentary, or other franchise, or confer any right of a British subject other than those above expressed in regard to property, nor does it affect interests vested in possession or expect ancy under dispositions made before the act, or by devolu tion of law on the death of any one dying before the act. The Act 6 & 7 Will. IV. c. 11 has not been repealed by the Act of 1870. It requires masters of vessels to intimate the arrival of all aliens, who are thereby bound to have their names registered and to obtain certificates of regis tration. It is believed that these conditions have seldom been complied with or enforced. It may be remarked that the repealed Act of 1864 (7 & 8 Viet. c. G6) was the first considerable relaxation of the alien law. It communicated to the children born abroad of a British mother the privilege of acquiring land by purchase or succession. It gave friendly aliens the privilege of holding leases for any time not exceeding twenty-one years. Before this act the rights of citizenship could only be conferred on aliens by statute ; and it was enacted at the commencement of the Hanover succession, that no private naturalisation bill should be brought in unless it contained a clause disqualifying the person it applied to from being a privy councillor or a member of Parliament, and from holding any office, civil or military, and from being a freeholder ; but this restriction is repealed by the act of 1844. Limited privileges could formerly be given by the sovereign s letters of denization ; but by the act of 1844 an alien intending to reside and settle in Britain was enabled, by application to the Home Secretary, to obtain a certificate giving him all the rights of a natural- born subject, with certain exceptions. Naturalisation,