NATURALIZATION 



5655 



NATURAL THEOLOGY 



Naturalization. Term u-.-,i m 

 l.tu I., den. ite tin- pi "i -ess whereby 

 an alii-ii I'eeotneM a milijei I In 

 aim. >st e\ei\ civilised country 



lli. -I. an- ir<u n.ii in ii|/.ition laws. 



In tin- I'micd Kingdom it was, 

 until isTn, necessary for an alien 

 who ill , in il to become a natural- 

 ized Uiiti-li subject to procure the 

 passing of an Act of Parliament in 



Ills favour. 



Naturalization in the I'nited 

 Kingdom is now governed by the 

 Biiti^h Nationality and Status of 

 Aliens Act, 1914, as amended by 

 8 & 9 Geo. 5, c. 38. By these statutes 

 tlu> Inline secretary may grant a 

 certificate of naturalization to any 

 alien who applies for one, if the 

 applirant satisfies the home secre- 

 tary (") that he has resided in 

 British (imninions for five years at 

 least, of which the last year before 

 the application must be in the 

 I'm ted Kingdom, and four years 

 within the preceding eight years in 

 any part of the British dominions ; 

 in I IMS been in the service of the 

 crown for at least five years within 

 the preceding eight years ; (6) that 

 he is of good character and has an 

 adequate knowledge of the English 

 language; (c) that he intends to 

 reside in the British dominions or 

 to continue in the service of the 

 crown. The certificate has no effect 

 until the applicant has taken the 

 oath of allegiance. A woman who 

 lost her British nationality by mar- 

 rying an alien and whose husband 

 is dead, or marriage dissolved, may 

 apply without evidence of resi- 

 dence. In special cases, the home 

 secretary may grant a certificate, 

 although the four years' residence 

 or five years' service have not been 

 within the preceding eight years. 



A naturalized alien is in the 

 same position as a natural born 

 subject. Alien infant children be- 

 come naturalized by their father's 

 naturalization, if included in the 

 father's application ; but on attain- 

 ing 21 may make a declaration re- 

 nouncing British nationality. A 

 minor may be naturalized on a 

 special application for special 

 reasons. An alien naturalized be- 

 fore 1914 may apply for a certifi- 

 cate under the Act of 1914. The 

 home secretary's power to refuse 

 to naturalize is absolute, and cannot, 

 be challenged in a court of law. 



If t he home secretary is satisfied 

 that a naturalization certificate has 

 been obtained by false representa- 

 tion or fraud or material conceal- 

 ment, or that the naturalized person 

 has shown himself disloyal by act 

 or speech, he may cancel the certi- 

 ficate ; and he shall do so if (a) 

 during any war the person has un- 

 lawfully traded or communicated 

 with the enemy, or been associated 



l.n..\unly with any buaineM car- 

 ried on in such a manner a* to 

 assist the enemy ; (b) within five 

 years of the date of the certificate 

 the person is sentenced in any 

 court in the British dominions to 

 (1) a fine of 100, or (2) imprison- 

 ment for 12 months, or (3) penal 

 servitude; (r) was not of good 

 character at the date of the certifi- 

 cate ; (d) since the certificate has 

 lived for at least seven years out of 

 British dominions, except as busi- 

 ness representative of a British 

 subject, firm, or company, or in 

 the service of the crown ; (e) re- 

 mains, according to the law of that 

 state, a subject of a state at war 

 with his Majesty. 



Canada, Australia, New Zealand, 

 South Africa, and Newfoundland 

 have power to issue Imperial cer- 

 tificates of naturalization to per- 

 sons qualified, with slight modifica- 

 tions, under the above statute. In 

 the U.S.A. an alien can only be 

 naturalized two years after his de- 

 claration on oath before a court of 

 his intention of being naturalized, 

 and after five years' residence in 

 the country. He must specifically 

 renounce allegiance to every foreign 

 power, including that to which he 

 formerly belonged, and must also 

 renounce any title of nobility. 



See Alien. R. Storry Deans 



Natural Philosophy. Term 

 originally meaning the study of 

 the material world as a whole, now 

 usually called natural science. In a 

 restricted sense the term, which in 

 general use tends to become obso- 

 lete owing to the sharper disjunc- 

 tion now drawn between philo- 

 sophy and science, is retained in 

 the sense of physics (q.v.) at Ox- 

 ford, Cambridge, Dublin, and the 

 Scottish universities. 



Natural Region. Term used in 

 geography to indicate a unit area 

 of a definite type. The Mediter- 

 ranean region is a unit area with a 

 definite physical and climatic 

 character and, consequently, with 

 a definite type of natural vegeta- 

 tion ; and the application to it of 

 the term " natural region " im- 

 plies first, that it may be inferred 

 that similar physical and climatic 

 conditions, such as prevail in Cali- 

 fornia, would necessarily produce 

 a similar natural flora, and secondly, 

 that the control of human develop- 

 ment exercised by the Mediter- 

 ranean area with its specific limi- 

 tations will be exerted similarly 

 wherever regions of this type 

 occur. See Geography. 



Natural Theology. Branch of 

 theology concerned with proofs of 

 the existence and nature of God, 

 apart from revelation. It is claimed 

 that if God had not revealed Him- 

 self to man through the Bible or in 



any other way, we should still have 

 sufficient reason, if nt proof, for 

 believing in His existence. 



The ontological argument in 

 based on Plato's theory of universal 

 and necessary ideas, developed by 

 8. Anselm and advocated in a 

 rather different sense by Descartes. 

 All men, it is argued, possess or can 

 possess the notion of a perfect 

 being. But perfection implies ex- 

 istence, for a non-existent being 

 lacks something, viz. existence, 

 and is therefore not perfect. There- 

 fore a perfect Being must exist. The 

 validity of this argument was 

 criticised by Kant, who argued that 

 we can conceive perfection either 

 as existent or non-existent. 



The cosmological argument 

 views the universe as an effect, and 

 maintains that its existence neces- 

 sarily implies a cause, i.e. God. 

 Or, expressing it differently, the 

 universe exists contingently and 

 dependently ; and this implies the 

 existence of the absolute and inde- 

 pendent. This argument assumes 

 the contingency of the universe, 

 but fails to prove it. 



The teleological argument may 

 be stated thus : The more we study 

 the world of phenomena, the more 

 we see how everything tends to 

 some end and serves some purpose. 

 Hence we have evidence on all 

 hands that phenomena are the 

 result of design on the part of an 

 intelligent designer, i.e. God. The 

 Bridge water Treatises and other 

 more or less scientific works were 

 written in support of this thesis, 

 but the discovery of the laws of 

 evolution has thrown A very differ- 

 ent light on the subject. 



Another argument points out 

 that mankind gives a general con- 

 sent to the idea of a God, and urges 

 that what is universally believed 

 cannot be without foundation. But 

 a general notion may conceivably 

 be erroneous. Another argument 

 is based upon design in history, 

 and urges that the whole course 

 of events points to a controlling 

 influence from without. 



It has also been urged notably 

 by Kant that the moral nature of 

 man points to a categorical im- 

 perative external to himself, whose 

 authority he is unable to ignore. 

 Man feels that he ought to do this 

 and ought not to do that irre- 

 spective of his personal wishes or 

 immediate advantage. See Deism ; 

 God ; Theism ; Theology. 



W. J. Wintle 



Bibliography* Natural Theology, 

 W. Paley, 1802 ; Natural Religion, 

 F. Max Miiller, 1889 ; Theism, R. 

 Flint, 1895 ; Studies in the History 

 of Natural Theology, C. C. J. Webb, 

 1915 ; Theism and Humanism 

 (Gifford Lectures, 1914), A. J. 

 Balfour, 1915. 



