Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/179

 NATURALIZATION 171 invention, or by opening or improving a public road ; and they are generally dispensed with in the case of mariners, as it has been the constant policy of Portugal to encourage foreigners to enter and augment its marine. In Spain, by the ancient law of the realm, no foreigner could be naturalized. The constitutions of 1837 and 1845, however, included in their classification of Spanish subjects those who should receive letters of naturalization, and provided for the enactment of a law declaratory of the condi- tions upon which such letters would be granted. The present state of the law appears to be unsettled or difficult to ascertain. Before the various Italian states were formed into the kingdom of Italy, each state had its own reg- ulations in respect to naturalization. In the Two Sicilies ten years' consecutive residence was required, but special naturalization might be granted after one year's residence to any one who had rendered important service to the state. In Sardinia it was granted after five years' resi- dence if the applicant had purchased real estate or was engaged in some useful commercial busi- ness. The pope in the Papal States and the king in the Neapolitan dominions might natu- ralize whom they thought proper ; but the ex- ercise of the power was rare, and when it took place was usually upon the same conditions as in Sardinia, except that none could be admitted but Roman Catholics, while in Sardinia no' dis- tinction was made on the ground of religion. According to the revised code of the kingdom of Italy of 1866, aliens may become naturalized citizens either by a special act of parliament or by a royal decree. The decree to be effectual must within six months after its date be regis- tered with the proper civil authority of the state in the place where the alien has estab- lished or intends to establish his domicile, and the alien must also within that period take an oath before the same authorities that he will be faithful to the king and observe the statutes and laws of the realm. The code does not contain any further regulations on the subject, but the government has discretionary power for taking such informations as each application may seem to require. Hence the necessity of a special act of parliament or a royal decree for each individual naturalization. There is in Italy, besides the national citizen- ship, a local one, as every Italian citizen must be enrolled in the lists of the district in which he is subject to taxation and conscription; citizenship in fact being of the same general nature as the German burgher right. By the national code above referred to of 1866, if the father is unknown, the child of a citizen mother is a citizen ; and if the mother is un- known and the child was born in the kingdom, it is a citizen. A child of an alien who has had an uninterrupted domicile in th6 kingdom for ten years is a citizen ; also the child of a citi- zen who has lost his citizenship before the birth of the child, if the child was born and resides in the kingdom. In such cases, however, the child may elect to be considered an alien, upon making a declaration to that effect in a mode prescribed. A child born abroad before his father lost his citizenship is an alien ; but he may elect to take the quality of a citizen by making a declaration in a form prescribed and establishing a domicile in Italy for a year ; or he is regarded as a citizen if he has served in the Italian army or navy, or accepted public employment in the kingdom, or satisfied the requirements of the conscription without seek- ing exemption as an alien. If an alien has not established his domicile for ten years, his child is an alien, but by making the prescribed dec- laration may become a citizen. Citizenship is lost: 1, by making a formal renunciation of it before the civil authority of the province where the person resides and emigrating; 2, by ac- cepting employment from a foreign state or entering its army, without permission of the Italian government; 3, by naturalization in a foreign country. The wife and minor children of one who has lost his citizenship are aliens, unless they have continued to reside in the realm. Citizenship may be restored: 1, by returning to the realm with the permission of the government; 2, by renouncing foreign citizenship, or the employment or military ser- vice of a foreign power; 3, by declaring an intention before the proper authority to estab- lish a domicile in the realm, and establishing it within a year. In Greece, by a law passed May 15, 1835, any foreigner may become a Greek citizen by making a declaration of his intention before the authorities of the deme in which he resides, and after a continued residence in the country for three years from the day when he declared his intention. Upon the expiration of the three years he is natural- ized by taking an oath before the prefect of obedience to the laws and of fidelity to the king. From the period of declaring his inten- tion he enjoys all civil rights, and Grecian cit- izenship may be conferred without expense upon any foreigner who has rendered' dis- tinguished service to the state. Any person born in Greece of foreign parents may, when arriving of age, become a Greek citizen by declaring his intention to make Greece his per- manent home, and registering his name in a deme, or, if residing abroad, by making a simi- lar declaration, and returning within one year thereafter to Greece and registering his name as above. Every one born abroad of a Greek father is a citizen of Greece ; or if the father has lost his nationality, the son may become a citizen by making the declaration and register- ing his name as above stated. This law de- clares Greek citizens to be those born in the kingdom and of parents having the Greek na- tionality, and those who have acquired it by de- claring their intention to become citizens ; and that the nationality is lost by becoming a citi- zen of a foreign country, by bearing arms against Greece, or by entering the civil or military service of another nation without ob-