113 



ALIKNS. 



points in the laws of England ami the Unites! Stairs 

 of America respecting aliens: In regard to each 

 country, an alien inny be defined to be a person born 

 out of tin- jurisdiction of the country, and not having 

 iicuiiired Hie rights of a citizen by naturalisation. 

 This, however,' is not strictly true; for children, 

 born out of the dominions of the British king, whose 

 grandfathers by the father's side, or whose fathers 

 were natural-horn subjects, are entitled to the rights 

 of native citizens, unless, at the time of their birth, 

 their fathers were In ihe service of an enemy. In 

 the United States, this same right is given by the 

 act of April, 1802, " to the children (born out of the 

 urisdiction of Uie United States) of persons who now 

 are or have been citizens of the United States." 

 " This clause," as chancellor Kent observes, (Com- 

 mentaries on American Law, vol. ii.), "applies only 

 to the children of persons who then were, or had 

 been, citizens, and consequently the benefit of this 

 provision narrows rapidly by the lapse of time ; and 

 the time will soon arrive, when the children of 

 American parents, born abroad, will be obliged to re- 

 sort for aid to the dormant and doubtful principles of 

 the English law." Minor children of naturalized 

 persons are also admitted to the privileges of citizens 

 in the United States. Aliens cannot acquire a title 

 to real property by descent or other mere operation 

 of law. They may purchase it or receive it by de- 

 vise, but the state has a right to take possession of it 

 as forfeited, whatever it is ascertained, by a proper 

 examination, to be the property of an alien. (In 

 point of fact, aliens often do own real property in the 

 United States, holding it in the name of a friend.) 

 They can acquire, hold, and transmit movable pro- 

 perty in the same manner as citizens, and they can 

 bring suits for the recovery and proteclion of such 

 property. They owe a local allegiance, and are 

 bound equally with natives to obey all general rules 

 for the preservation of order, which do not relate 

 specially to citizens. Even alien enemies may sue 

 and be sued, as in time of peace. Aliens may dis- 

 pose of their personal property by will, and, in case of 

 their dying intestate, their personal property is distri- 

 buted according to the law of distribution of the place 

 of their domicile at the time of their death. The un- 

 i fnst and inhospitable rule of the most polished states 

 of antiquity prevailed, in many parts of Europe, 

 down to the middle of the last century. The law, 

 which claimed for the benefit of the state the effects 

 of deceased foreigners, who left no heirs who were 

 natives existed in France till 1791, when it was 

 abolished by the first constituent assembly. Chan- 

 cellor Kent, in the second volume of his very valu- 

 able Commentaries on American LAW, observes, that 

 " the Napoleon Code seems to have revived the harsh 

 doctrine of the droit d'aubame, with the single ex- 

 ception, that aliens should be entitled to enjoy in 

 France the same civil rights as were secured to 

 Frenchmen, by treaty, in the country to which the 

 alien belongs. The law in France at present, is, 

 that a stranger cannot, except by special favour, dis- 

 pose of his property by will ; and, when he dies, the 

 sovereign succeeds, by right of inheritance, to his 

 estate." The remark on the revival of the droit 

 d'avbaine by the Code Napoleon, we suppose to be 

 correct ; but we believe that this " inhospitable rule," 

 as the learned judge justly terms it, lias been since 

 abolished. The article Aliens, in the German Con- 

 versations-Lexicon, states, that the droit d'aubaine, 

 in France, was wholly abolished, July 4, 1819, and 

 the Encyclopedic Moderne, in the article Stranger, 

 printed in 1828, says, that " aliens have been placed 

 again under the protection of the common law of the 

 country. They can now acquire and enjoy property, 

 ell it, transmit it to their heirs, and dispose of it, 



by testament or donation, like the other inhabitants 

 of the kingdom. They cannot, however, exercise 

 political rights, or be appointed to public offices, 

 previous to naturalization." An alien may, by let- 

 ters-patent ejc (loiialwne regit, be made an English 

 subject, iind is then called a cfefMMn, being in a mid- 

 dle state between a iiiitural-liorn subject and an alien. 

 He may now purchase lands, or possess them by de- 

 vise, but cannot take them by inheritance, although 

 his heirs may inherit from him ; the parent of uie 

 deni/en being held to have no inheritable blood, 

 which the denizen possesses after becoming such. 

 The full rights of a natural-Wii subject can be con- 

 ferred only oy an act of parliament. Even after natu- 

 ralization, an alien cannot become a member of Uie 

 house of commons or privy council, or hold offices or 

 grants under the crown. If the parliament wish to 

 confer these privileges, as is sometimes the case 

 when a foreign prince becomes connected, by mar- 

 riage, with the royal family, a double act of legisla- 

 tion is necessary. In the United States of America, 

 naturalization confers all the privileges of a native 

 citizen, except that of being a candidate for the office 

 of president of the Union. Previous to becoming a 

 citizen of the United States, an alien must have re- 

 sided in the country five years, and, two years before 

 the ceremony of naturalization takes place, he must 

 have abjured all allegiance to every other power. 

 England is the only country where an act of the 

 legislature is required for naturalization. In the 

 countries of Europe generally, with the above-men- 

 tioned exception of England, the right of naturaliza- 

 tion, in each particular case, belongs to the executive 

 branch of government It is so in France, in Bava- 

 ria, and in all the German states. In France, a 

 residence of ten years gives to the alien all the rights 

 of a citizen, even that of becoming a member or Uie 

 cliamber of deputies (e. g. Benjamin Constant). In 

 the states of the German confederacy, no German 

 can be treated as an alien ; e. g. the Prussian laws 

 grant the full rights of a citizen to every one who 

 takes up his residence in that state. The unjust 

 distinctions formerly made between aliens and na- 

 tives, in cases where the interests of the two came in 

 collision, are going continually out of use. As to the 

 right of aliens to own real estate, the laws of differ- 

 ent countries are very different. M r e have already 

 said, that this is not permitted in England and the 

 United States of America. France allows it without 

 limitation, like most of the German states. This 

 right is a fundamental principle of the German con- 

 federation. By the law of July 4, 1819 (which con- 

 tains a total abolition of the droit d'aubaine), every 

 alien lias an equal right of inheritance with native 

 Frenchmen in respect to all real and personal goods 

 in France ; only, when Frenchmen have to divide an 

 inheritance with foreign heirs, and the laws of the 

 foreign country do not allow them a proportionate 

 share of the property abroad, they receive in advance, 

 from the property in France, as much as is necessary 

 to the restoration of equality. In addition to what 

 we have already said on the laws of England and 

 the United States of America respecting aliens, we 

 will add a short account of certain acts passed by the 

 legislative bodies of Ihese countries, with a view of 

 guarding against the hostile attempts of aliens. In 

 England, certain alien acts of recent date (33 Geo. 

 III. c. 4. and 34 Geo. III. c. 43, 67) arose out of the 

 influx of strangers into that country from the conti- 

 nent during the French revolution. They compelled 

 the masters of ships arriving from foreign ports, un- 

 der certain penalties, to give an account at every 

 port of the number and names of the foreigners on 

 board to the custom-house officers, appointing justice? 

 and others to grant passports to such aliens, and 



