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Aliens.

Sect.

4.

By

Private Act of Pariiament.

which provide that

it must be preceded by a petition, with a copy proposed Bill attached, for leave to bring in the Bill (/). The standing orders further provide that a Naturalization Bill shall not be read a second time until the petitioner has produced a certificate from the Secretary of State as to his conduct and has taken the oath of allegiance at the Bar of the House, and that such a Bill shall not be read a second time unless the consent of the Crown has been previously signified (g).

of

of the

Part

IV.

— Loss Sect.

At common 1^^-

of British 1.

In General.

695. At common law a British subject could not by any voluntary own divest himself of his British nationality (li) So the grandson of an Englishman by birth, who had emigrated to the United States of America after the recognition of their independence, and who bad taken oaths of obedience to the American Government and of abjuration of all other allegiance, though born out of the King's dominions, was held capable of inheriting real act of his

estate as a British subject Loss of ^^^^^

lo^ of territory.

Nationality.

.

(i).

A

British subject could, however, lose his nationality by loss territory by the British Crown either by the severance of the Crown from the territory in which the British subject was born, by the laws of succession being different in the two countries, in

696.



which case he would cease to be a British subject and become that of the Prince who had succeeded to the territory in which he was born or by cession to a foreign country by conquest, treaty, or Act of Parliament. It is doubtful whether the Crown, without the authority of Parliament, possesses the right of alienating British territory by treaty not following the close of a war {k), and when Heligoland was ceded to the German Empire in 1890, the provisions of the treaty whereby it was ceded were expressly assented to by Act of Parliament (1), and in the case of the Treaty made with the United States of America, which was signed on September 3rd, 1783, a statute (m) was previously passed authorising the Crown to treat of and conclude a peace with the American Colonies. (/) Standing Orders, H. of L. 149—151. Standing Orders, H. of L. 179, 180. 1 Bl. Com. 370; H. v. ^neas Macdonald (1747), Post. 59. (i) Fitch V. Wehtr (1847), 6 Hare, 51. {j) Re The Stepney Election Petition, Isaacson v. Durant (1886), 17 Q. B. D. 54, wherein it was held that persons born in Hanover before the accession of Queen Victoria to the throne of the United Kingdom and not naturalized are aliens, though resident in the United Kingdom; and the dicta in Calvin's Case, Co. Bep., Part vii., p. 46, 27 b, were dissented from. (k) Porsyth's cases and opinions on Constitutional Law (1869), pp. 182, 336. See title Constitutional Law. (/) Anglo-German Agreement Act, 1890 (53 & 54 Yict. c. 32). (m) 22 G-eo. 3, c. 46. {y) {h)