NATIONAL PARK 



NATURALISATION 



407 



fied as a hymn, ' Yankee Doodle ' is the American 

 air, notwithstanding the more recent rival claims 

 of ' Hail Columbia ' and ' The Star-spangled 

 Banner,' neither of which have high intrinsic merit 

 or have taken any great popular hold. More like 

 a hymn is the song 'America,' which is sung^ to 

 the tune of 'God save the King.' The origin 

 of ' Yankee Doodle ' is as obscure and disputed a 

 point as that of 'God save the King.' The most 

 probable account ascribes to the tune an English 

 origin, and the words to Dr Schuckburgh, an arm} 1 

 surgeon, about 1755, soon after which, during the 

 American revolution, it came extensively into 

 vogue. It was first printed in Arnold's opera, 

 Two to One, in 1784. 



National Park. See YELLOWSTONE, and 

 YOSEMITE. In Canada a domain 26 miles by 10 in 

 extent has been set aside as a national park at 

 Banff in Alberta (by rail 562 miles NE. of Van- 

 couver and 920 W. by N. of Winnipeg). It 

 embraces one of the most beautiful sections of the 

 Kocky Mountains, contains hot sulphur-springs, 

 has a handsome railway hotel, and is popular as a 

 pleasure-resort. Roger's Pass, 135 miles to the 

 west, is also reserved as a government park. See 

 also NIAGARA. 



Nations, LAW OF. See INTERNATIONAL LAW. 



Nativity. See ASTROLOGY. 



Natrolite, one of the most common of the group 

 of minerals known as Zeolites (q.v.). 



Natron, or TRONA, an impure sesquicarbonate 

 of soda, which always contains sulphate of soda 

 ami chloride of sodium. It is obtained from the 

 margins of lakes in Egypt, Siberia, Tibet, &c., 

 and from the borders of the Black and Caspian 

 Seas. 



Natron Lakes, eight in number, are in a 

 depression to the west of the Damietta branch of 

 the Nile. The locality is renowned for four 

 monasteries, from whose libraries of Arabic, Coptic, 

 ami Syriac MSS. various European collections have 

 been enriched. In the time of St Pachomius 5000 

 anchorites dwelt here. 



Natterjack. See TOAD. 



Natural History, in its widest and oldest 

 sense, includes all the concrete sciences, but 

 psychology and sociology have been separated off 

 at the one end of the series, physics and chemistry 

 and all their branches at the other, so that natural 

 history liecame synonymous with the science of 

 living things. Most frequently, however, it simply 

 means zoology, especially in so far as that is con- 

 cerned with the life and habits of animals. See 

 BIOLOGY, BOTANY, EVOLUTION, SCIENCE, ZOOLOGY. 



Naturalisation is the process whereby an 

 alien is invested with the privileges and made 

 liable to the obligations of a natural-born citizen. 

 It implies the renunciation of one political status 

 and the adoption of another. Formerly many 

 states absolutely refused to recognise any act of 

 naturalisation as exempting the party naturalised 

 from the consequences of Jiis allegiance. Thus, 

 the maxim of English common law, A'emo potent 

 exuere patriam, precluded a natural-born subject 

 from adopting a new political status, and rendered 

 him liable to the penalties of treason if fniiml in 

 arms against his native country. The existence 

 of this principle gave rise to many disputes, more 

 particularly between Great Britain and the United 

 States. It wax not, however, till the Naturalisa- 

 tion Act of 1870 that the doctrine of the indelibility 

 of natural allegiance was formally abandoned by 

 Britain. In the same year a treaty was enteretl 

 into between Great Britain and the L'nited States, 

 which provided that British subjects liecoming 

 naturalised in the United States should be treated 



in all respects as United States citizens ; and a 

 corresponding provision was made with respect to 

 United States citizens becoming naturalised in 

 British dominions. 



The conditions on which naturalisation will be 

 allowed by the state to which the applicant seeks 

 to affiliate himself vary in different countries. In 

 Great Britain naturalisation is effected either 

 through a special act of parliament or under the 

 Naturalisation Act, 1870 (33 and 34 Viet. chap. 14). 

 This statute, wherein are embodied the present 

 regulations with reference to naturalisation, pro- 

 vides that any foreigner who has resided in the 

 United Kingdom for five years, or has for that 

 period held service under the crown, can obtain 

 a certificate of naturalisation from one of the 

 principal secretaries of state. On the granting of 

 this certificate he is entitled to all political and 

 other rights, powers, and privileges, and is subject 

 to all the obligations to which a natural-bom 

 British subject is entitled or subject. The only 

 qualification is that he shall not, when within the 

 limits of the foreign state of which he was pre- 

 viously a subject, be deemed to be a British citizen 

 nnless he has ceased to be a subject of that state. 

 British colonies have the power of making their 

 own regulations on the subject of naturalisation, 

 but such regulations have effect only within the 

 limits of the colony. In the United States a 

 foreigner must make a declaration on oath of his 

 intention to become naturalised. This oath may be 

 taken before any superior, district, or circuit court, 

 and the applicant must renounce any title of 

 nobility. After the lapse of two years from the date 

 of this declaration, ana after five years' residence in 

 the United States, he becomes an American citizen, 

 and a certificate of naturalisation is issued to him. 

 There is, however, no uniform system of registra- 

 tion of such certificates, and, as there are about 

 3000 federal and state courts having power to grant 

 them, great difficulties sometimes arise in proving 

 naturalisation. In France a foreigner who has 

 obtained permission to become domiciled in France 

 is entitled to letters of declaration of naturalisa- 

 tion after three years' residence. Also, by the 

 French Naturalisation Act, 1889, a foreigner who 

 1 1 ns resided in France for ten years may at once be 

 naturalised without preliminary ceremony. In Ger- 

 many naturalisation can be conferred only bv the 

 higher administrative authorities ; the applicant 

 must show that he is at liberty, under the laws of 

 his native country, to change his nationality, or, if 

 he is a minor, that his father or guardian has given 

 him the requisite permission, that he is leading a 

 respectable life, that he is domiciled in Germany, 

 and that he has the means of livelihood. In all 

 countries a married woman is held to be a citizen 

 of the state of which her husband is for the time 

 being a subject, nnd the naturalisation of a father 

 carries with it that of his children in minority. In 

 countries where military service is compulsory 

 naturalisation in fraud of this either is prohibited 

 or renders the offender liable to imprisonment, if 

 he returns, and forfeiture of all property sub- 

 sequently acquired in his native country. 



Certain privileges of British nationality may be 

 acquired by the issue to an alien of letters of 

 denization granted by the crown ; and for this 

 no previous residence is required. A denizen 

 acquires his limited privileges as from the date of 

 the letters, and not from the date of his birth ; a 

 naturalised person, on the other hand, is placed in 

 the same position as if he had been from birth a 

 British suliject. The difference was important so 

 long as aliens could not inherit land ; for a denizen, 

 being without inheritable blood, could not inherit 

 land, nor could his issue, born before his deniza- 

 tion, inherit it from him. Since the Naturalisation 



