dinary charges and jurisdiction, and allowed to depart unhindered.*

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Exemptions to foreigners in certain

Eastern countries,

Exemption from local jurisdiction has been granted to foreigners from Christian lands, resident in certain oriental countries; the reasons for which lie in the fact, that the laws and usages there prevailing are quite unlike those of Christendom, and in the natural suspicion of Christian states, that justice will not be administered by the native courts, which leads them to obtain special privileges for their subjects. The arrangements for this purpose are contained in treaties which have a general resemblance to one another. In Turkey, and some other Mohammedan countries, foreigners form communities under their consuls, who exercise over them a jurisdiction, both in civil and criminal matters, which excludes that of the territorial courts. In civil cases an appeal lies to the courts at home, and in criminal, beyond the imposition of fines, the consul has power only to prepare a case for trial before the same tribunals. But the extent of power given to its functionaries each nation determines for itself.

The same system in general has been followed in the treaties of Christian states with China, of which that made by the United States in 1844, and spoken of below under the title of consuls, may serve as an example. Quite recently the same exterritorial jurisdiction has been granted by the government of Japan to functionaries of the United States resident in that country.+

* Comp. Heffter, § 79, and Webster's Letter to Ashburton respecting the Creole, Works, VI. 303–313.

+ Wheaton, El. II. 2, § 11.

An Act was passed by Congress, in 1850, to carry into effect certain stipulations in the treaties between the United States and China, Japan, Siam, Turkey, Persia, Tripoli, Tunis, Morocco, and Muscat, and by which our laws in criminal and civil matters are extended over American citizens in those countries; also the common law, including equity and admiralty. Ministers and consuls have full judicial powers, and can punish according to the magnitude of the offence. The President is authorized to appoint seven, Marshals to execute processes, one in Japan, four in China, one in Siam, and one in Turkey. Murder and insurrection, or rebellion

§ 66.

Aliens losing in

the character of

Foreign residents in most Christian countries can sustain, in the course of time, a closer or more distant part or entirely connection with the body politic within whose borders they live. They can acquire nationality, or in other words become naturalized, or they may remain in the territory as domiciliated strangers.

aliens.

Naturalization.

Naturalization implies the renunciation of a former nationality, and the fact of entrance into a similar relation towards a new body politic. It is possible for a person, without renouncing his country, or expatriating himself, to have the privileges of citizenship in a second country, although he cannot sustain the same obligations to both. Is it also possible for him to renounce his country, and become a citizen of another, so far as even to be bound, like his fellow citizens, to take up arms against the land of his birth? Most nations hold that this transfer of allegiance is possible, and embody the conditions of it in their naturalization laws. Even England, which retains the doctrine of indelible allegiance, admits strangers to citizenship by special act or grant. (§ 66 infra.) But inasmuch as the conditions of naturalization vary, there may arise here a conflict of laws, and two nations may at once claim the same man as sustaining to them the obligations of a citizen. International law has not undertaken to decide in such conflicts, and the question is scarcely one of practical importance, except when the naturalized person returns to his native country, and when he is caught fighting. against her. There is no doubt that a state, having undertaken to adopt a stranger, is bound to protect him like any other citizen. Should he return to his native soil, and be ap

against the government of either of said countries, with intent to subvert the same, are made capital offences, punishable with death. Our consuls or commercial agents on islands not inhabited by any civilized people, or whom we have not recognized by treaty, are also empowered to exercise judicial functions over American citizens. By the treaty with Japan, signed at Yedo, July 29, 1858, offences shall be tried in the offenders' court, when the American is the offending party, and the courts of each nation, that is, the consular and the Japanese, are open to creditors belonging to the other nationality.

prehended for the non-fulfilment of civic duties which devolved on him before his emigration, there would be no ground of complaint on that score. Should he be required anew to enter into the status of a citizen, this force must be regarded by his adopted country, on her theory of civic rights, as a wrong calling for redress. Should he be subjected to ill-treatment when a captive in war, on the ground of fighting against his nativė country, here, too, there would be reason for retaliation. In short, the nation which has naturalized, and thus bound itself to protect a person, cannot abandon its obligation, on account of views of civic obligations which another nation may entertain.

Whether anything short of completed naturalization can sunder the tie to the place of origin, may be a question. It is held that a domiciled stranger may not with impunity be found in arms against his native country.* For the effects of incipient naturalization, compare the case of Koszta in the appendix to this chapter. The English practice in the earlier part of this century, of impressing seamen from neutral vessels, on the ground that they owed allegiance to their native sovereign, was objectionable, whether this doctrine of inalienable allegiancę stands or falls; for to seize sailors on foreign vessels is to act the sovereign out of one's own territory; it is to execute one's own laws where the laws of another sovereign are supreme. (Comp. § 202.)

We add here the regulations of some of the more important countries in regard to naturalization.†

Rules of several nations as to natu

In England it was formerly granted only by ralization. ac; of parliament; but by a statute of 1844, one of the principal secretaries of state can, on petition from an alien desirous of being naturalized, grant him all the capacities and rights of a natural-born British subject, except the capacity of being a member of the privy council or a member of either house of Parliament. The Secretary may except other rights also. (Phillimore I. § 354.)

In France a stranger becomes a citizen, when after reach* Kent, I. 78, Lect. IV. † Fœlix (droit intern. privé, 3d ed.) I. 81–100.

ing the age of twenty-one, obtaining liberty of domicil, and declaring his intention to remain in France, he resides there for ten consecutive years. His naturalization must also be pronounced to be in force by the head of the state. In addition to this the child of foreign parents, born on French soil, may claim the quality of a Frenchman in the year succeeding his majority. Naturalization in a foreign country involves the loss of French citizenship.*

In Prussia an appointment to a public function brings the right of citizenship with it, and the same is the case in Austria, and perhaps elsewhere. In Prussia the higher administrative authorities have the right to naturalize strangers of good character who possess the means of subsistence, excepting Jews, subjects of other members of the Germanic confederacy, and persons incapable of taking care of themselves.

In Austria leave to exercise a profession, ten years of residence, and the consent of the authorities, are pre-requisites to naturalization.

In both of the last named states nationality is shaken off by emigration, for which permission has been obtained from the government.

In Russia an oath of allegiance to the emperor naturalizes, but naturalized strangers can at any time renounce their character, and return to their own country.

In the United States, the person wishing to be naturalized must make a declaration on oath, before certain judicial per sons, of an intent to become a citizen and to renounce his former nationality, two years at least after which, and after five years of residence, he may become a citizen in full of he United States, although not necessarily a citizen of any state in the Union.

In many countries, a woman on her marriage to a native acquires nationality, and loses it on her marriage to a foreigner. In the laws of some countries, wives and minor children follow,

* Demangeat on Fœlix, I. 88, gives the latest legislation on this subject. The term of ten years can be reduced to one in favor of inventors and others who confer important services on France.

as a thing of course, the status of the head of the family, and the son of a foreign resident born and brought up on the soil, has peculiar facilities of naturalization.

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Domicil, what?

Domicil being more a legal than a political term, has had nearly the same, although a somewhat vague definition, always and everywhere. A definition of Roman law is expressed in these terms: "In eo loco singulos habere domicilium non ambigitur, ubi quis larem rerumque ac fortunarum suarum summam constituit, unde rursus non sit discessurus si nihil avocat, unde quum profectus est peregrinari videtur, quo si rediit peregrinari jam destitit."* According to Savigny "it is the place which a man has freely chosen for his durable abode, and thereby also as the centre of his jural relations and of his business." But in the case of a minor, who can exercise no jural choice in the matter, his domicil is held to be that of his father. The domicil, says Vattel, “is the habitation fixed in any place, with the intention of always staying there. A man then does not establish his domicil in any place unless he makes sufficiently known his intention of fixing himself there, either tacitly or by an express declaration. However, this declaration is no reason why, if he afterward changes his mind, he may not remove his domicil elsewhere. In this sense, he who stops, even for a long time, in a place, for the management of his affairs, has only a simple habitation there, but no domicil." (I. § 218.) With the first part of this definition Story justly finds fault: few foreigners have the intention of always staying abroad; few, therefore, could have any domicil. "It would be more correct to say that that place is properly the domicil of a person in which his habitation is fixed without any present intention of removing therefrom." § "Two things must concur," says the same eminent jurist, "to constitute domicil,-first, residence, and secondly, intention of making it the home of the party," and

* C. J. C. 10. 39. I de incolis. + Fœlix I. 54.

+ System d. h. röm. Rechts, VIII. 58. § Conflict of Laws, Chap. III, § 43.