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ALIEN. enemy denote, respectively, an alien whose country is at peace, or is at war, with the country where he is sojourning. In Great Britain the status of aliens is regulated by the Naturalization Act of 1870 (33 and 34 Vict. c. 14). In this country their status is determined generally by State laws, although these are subject to some modification by treaties between the Federal Government and that of a foreign country. An alien does not possess political rights, nor is he subject to the political duties of a citizen, and yet he may be required to serve in the militia or police of the country where he is residing, and to contribute to the support of such establishments. At common law an alien could not become an owner of real property, although a distinction was made between a case of title by purchase (q.v.) and by descent (q.v.). If an alien acquired title by purchase, as by a grant (q.v.), or devise (q.v.), he was allowed to hold it until office found (q.v.), that is, until his alienage was duly established, upon inquiry instituted by the proper official. while apparent title by descent was absolutely invalid. This common law disability has been removed in England, as well as in many of our States; and aliens may now acquire, convey, and transmit title to real and personal property in the same manner as citizens. An alien friend may contract, sue, and he sued as though he were a citizen while he is allowed to remain in the country; but he may be expelled or deported at any time, subject to treaty stipulations; his immigration may be prevented, or may be permitted, subject to imposed conditions. An alien enemy is not allowed to maintain an action in the courts of this country, unless he can show some special authority or license therefor; but he may be sued here. Nor can he enter into valid contracts with citizens which are inconsistent with a state of war. The tendency of modern law is to accord to alien enemies, who are permitted to remain in a country, all the rights and privileges of alien friends. Consult: Nelson, Select Cases, Statutes, and Orders Illustrative of the Principles of Private International Law (London, 1889); Cockburn, Nationality (London, 1869).

ALIEN AND SEDI'TION ACTS. A series of statutes enacted during the administration of John Adams (q.v.), occasioned largely by the desire of the party in power to stifle the more virulent forms of political opposition then prevalent, and to check the activities of those who sympathized with France. There were four statutes passed in execution of the policy of the Federalists (q.v.), of which two became especially notorious. The Alien Act, passed June 25, 1798, to remain in force two years, gave the President power to order the removal from the country of aliens judged to be dangerous, and provided that if those so notified did not leave the country or secure from the President a license to remain, they would be subject to imprisonment for not over three years, and be disqualified from ever becoming citizens of the United States. The President also might order the removal from the country of any alien thus imprisoned, and if such alien should thereafter be found in the country he might be imprisoned for as long a period as the President should deem the public safety required. The Sedition Act, passed July 14, 1798, to be in force until March 3, 1801, imposed penalties not exceeding a fine of $5000 and five years' imprisonment for conspiring against the government and its measures, and for interfering with the operations of the government. It imposed a penalty of imprisonment for not over two years and a fine of not over $2000 for printing scandalous material concerning the Federal Government, the President or Congress. There were also passed the Alien Enemies Act, July 6, 1798, providing for the treatment of aliens with whose government the United States might be at war, and the Naturalization Act, June 18, 1798, fixing fourteen years' residence as a qualification for the acquisition by foreigners of citizenship. The extreme character of these statutes and the partisan spirit which produced them caused an immediate and violent reaction, which was expressed in such forms as in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions (q.v.), and which hastened the overthrow of the Federalist party. See historical section under.

AL'IENA'TION (Lat. alienatio, the trans- ferring of the possession of a thing to another, from alienus, another's, foreign). A legal term to describe the transfer of title to land, or of any interest therein. The modes in which alienation is effected are numerous, ranging in our legal system from the feoffment (q.v.), or livery of seisin (q.v.), of old English law, to the modern transfer by deed (q.v.) or will (q.v.). (See .) The right of alienation is one of the two great incidents of the ownership of prop- erty, as now understood (the other being the right of inheritance); but this is a distinctly modern notion, and ownership may well exist, and has often existed, without the right to alien- ate the property owned. In English law the right of a freehold tenant to alienate his lands was long restricted by rules derived from the feudal system. Most of these restrictions were swept away by the third statute of West- minster (18 Edw. I., 1290), known as the Statute Quia Emptores (q.v.), which declared that from thenceforth "it should be lawful to every free- man to sell at his own pleasure his lands and tenements, or part of them," and the few that remained, by the statute of Military Tenures, passed in 1660 (12 Car. II., c. 24), which deprived the crown of the right to exact of its tenants in capite the obnoxious fines on alienation. But it was not until the thirty-second year of Henry VIII. (1527), that the right to alienate lands by will was finally conceded by Parliament. Now, however, the principle of the alienability of real property has become so firmly established, that we cannot conceive of absolute ownership without that quality, and it has long been a rule of our law, that a condition attached to the grant of a fee, forbidding or restraining its alienation, is void, as being repugnant to the estate granted. It should be said, however, that such conditions annexed to life estates and leaseholds are perfectly good and of frequent occurrence.

Alienation may be either voluntary or involuntary. The former comprehends the usual modes of conveyance, including transfers by will. The latter refers to the acquisition of title by judgment, execution, bankruptcy, and the other modes in which creditors have at different times and in different jurisdictions been permitted to satisfy their claims by legal process out of the real property of the debtor. See the authorities referred to under the title.

AL'IENIST. See.