Former status abilities of aliens. Charta had no doubt conferred on aliens the privilege of and dis- entering, dwelling in, and departing from the realm, but this privilege was to exist only in time of peace, and was strictly confined to merchants engaged in commerce. As has been already seen1, an alien was incapacitated from holding land or real property of any description, with the sole exception that, if a merchant, he might lease a house for the purpose of habitation of himself and family, or the carrying on of his trade, this being an incident of commerce. The ordinary alien, not being a merchant, such as an artificer, could only occupy a house under an agreement, not amounting to a lease, such as a tenancy at will or from year to year, but any greater interest in land he might acquire was liable to forfeiture by the Crown. As he could hold no real property he could maintain no real or mixed action, but on the other hand an alien could acquire and hold any personal property, not being an interest in land, with the one exception of a British ship, or any share therein, by gift, trade, or other lawful means, and this property he could alienate during his life, or dispose of by will on his death, for in England the droit d'aubaine, prevalent in France, Italy, and other continental countries which vested in the Crown the possessions of a dead stranger, never existed. alien duty, even although he denization from the Crown2. The special taxation of aliens. He was liable to pay the had obtained letters of An alien friend could also 1 See supra, p. 110; The Return of the Jews to England, p. 62. The alien duties under the Lancastrian and Yorkist kings and earlier monarchs had taken the form of a poll-tax levied upon all foreigners resident in the country. Under Henry VI the rates were:-For (1) all merchant strangers, if not denizens-householders, 40s.; not householders, but resident six weeks within the realm, 20s.; if denizens by letters patent, 10 marks. (2) Others not merchants, householders, Is. 4d.; not householders, 6d. (see Dowell's History of Taxation in England, vol. I, p. 154). After the accession of the Tudors the poll-tax upon aliens does not seem to have remained a permanent feature in our national finance, but in many of the acts imposing taxation upon goods whether exported or imported a double rate was frequently levied upon the goods of aliens, though the additional duty for aliens was not always so great. maintain any personal action either for the protection of his property or the security of his person or reputation 1. But although the alien was thus in some ways treated as a natural-born subject his rights might be greatly curtailed by statute, such as the acts against alien artificers2 and the Navigation Act of 1660, which prohibited aliens from being factors or merchants in any of the extraEuropean possessions of the Crown, and he had no absolute right either to enter the country or remain in it, if the executive government ordered his departure. This right of a State to exclude or expel a foreigner from its territory is recognized in International Law, and is known under In the Act granting a subsidy of tonnage and poundage to King Charles II (12 Car. II, c. 4) and the rules annexed to it "all merchant strangers bringing in any sorts of the said wines are to pay thirty shillings in the tonne over and above the aforesaid rates which the native pays," and for lead, tin, and woollen clothes, &c., aliens had to pay double subsidy. At length in 1784 this "petty custom" or additional tax imposed upon aliens' goods was abolished by statute (24 Geo. III, sess. 2, c. 16). Since that time aliens have been taxed in the same way as natives, but while the alien duties remained in force they could not be evaded by obtaining letters of denization (see I Hen. VII, c. 2; 11 Hen. VII, c. 14; 22 Hen. VIII, c. 8; and 25 Car. II, c. 6). The attempt, for some time successful, of the Jews (many of whom had been made denizens) to escape these duties has been already referred to (supra, p. 164; The Return, &c., p. 116). It would seem that in pre-expulsion times the municipalities, which had a right of taxing those resident within their borders, were accustomed to make the Jews pay double the tax imposed on their Christian neighbours. My attention has been called to the following words in an address presented by the Dutch congregation of Sandwich to the mayor of that town in the year 1571: "the order for the head money was not taxed above a pence for a christian and but 4 pence for a jewe; which 2 pence we are hertely willing to pay. such as amongst our people doe goe for to passe the seas at this tyme do paye not onely 4 pence (which in tymes past was the taxe for a jewe)," &c. (Boys' History of Sandwich, p. 743). It has been suggested that this passage shows that a colony of Jews remained in the Cinque Ports after the expulsion in 1290 or else settled there between that date and the return of the Jews in the time of Charles II, but I see no difficulty in making the words "in tymes past" refer to a remote period before the edict of banishment had been issued. ... 1 See Tirlot v. Morris (1611), 1 Bulst. 134, and Yelverton, 198. 2 See the statutes 1 Ric. III, c. 9, and 14 & 15 Hen. VIII, c. 2, and 32 Hen. VIII, c. 16; and Henriques on Aliens and Naturalization, pp. 20–22. the name of "droit de renvoi." It was undoubtedly in early times maintained and acted upon in this country; for until comparatively recent times no foreigner was allowed to enter without a passport, and under the Registration of Aliens Act, 1836 (6 and 7 Will. IV, c. 11), which, though by no means strictly enforced, was only repealed by the Aliens Act of 1905 (5 Edw. VII, c. 13, s. 10), an alien on his arrival in the United Kingdom had to be registered. There is, however, no instance of the general expulsion of aliens by order of the Crown alone since the year 1575, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The right has thus been allowed to fall into desuetude, and can no longer be regarded as one of the prerogatives of the Crown; accordingly after the outbreak of the French Revolution, in consequence of the fears occasioned by the large number of refugees and other foreigners arriving in this country, it was found advisable to pass a temporary Act of Parliament empowering the Crown by proclamation or order in Council to order the expulsion of any alien or aliens, who might be within the realm, and also to regulate or prevent the landing of foreigners. The Act known as Lord Grenville's Alien Act, 1793 (33 Geo. III, c. 4), was a temporary one, but was renewed annually during the French war and even after the declaration of peace, though with considerable modifications, until the year 1826, when it was finally abandoned and the system of the registration of aliens adopted in its stead1. 1 The first Registration of Aliens Act is 7 Geo. IV, c. 54. In the revolutionary year of 1848 Parliament again vested in the principal Secretaries of State, but only for the space of one year, the power of ordering any alien to depart the realm (11 & 12 Vict., c. 20). The necessity of having legislation upon this subject shows that the Crown has lost the power it once claimed of closing the realm against alien friends and of sending foreigners out of the kingdom. It should be added that even after it was recognized that the right had been lost by desuetude in ordinary cases, it was thought to be still existing in the case of an alien charged with a crime committed abroad and demanded for extradition by his sovereign; see the opinion given to the government in 1792 by Serjeant Hill, quoted in Clarke on Extradition, p. 25; but in such cases Aliens, who were subject to the disabilities above Who are aliens by described, comprise all persons born out of the King's English dominions or allegiance; for the law of England has law. always adopted the feudal or territorial principle that all persons born in any of the dominions over which the King has at the time of their birth sovereign power, even although, as in the case of Hanover before 1837, he does not hold them in virtue of the Crown of England, owe allegiance to the King, and are consequently natural-born subjects of his realm. The contrary principle, founded on the Roman law and incorporated in the Code Napoleon and the jurisprudence of many modern nations, whereby children wherever born are always deemed to possess the nationality of their parents, has never in theory been adopted by English law. Nevertheless the class of natural-born subjects has been widened by statute by including in it persons born abroad, whose fathers, and whose grandfathers on the father's side, have been born within the realm 1. It will thus be seen that the Jews who originally settled here must have all been aliens, and, although their children born here would be natural-born subjects, so great has been the accession to the Jewish community of new comers the proceedings would have at the present time to be in strict accordance with the Extradition Act, 1870 (33 & 34 Vict., c. 52). (For this subject see Forsyth's Cases and Opinions on Constitutional Law, pp. 181 and 369 seq.; Dicey's Law of the Constitution, p. 220 (note); and Henriques on the Law of Aliens and Naturalization, pp. 13, 14.) as to See The Foreign Protestants' Naturalization Act, 1708 (7 Anne, c. 5), as explained by the British Nationality Act, 1730 (4 Geo. II, c. 21), and the British Nationality Act, 1772 (13 Geo. III, c. 21). It is by The reason of the adoption of the system of the Code Napoleon by Roumania Roumanian Law that the Jews of that country have been deprived of their rights of citizenship. A Jew born in that unhappy country may be told: "You aliens. are not a Roumanian, for, being a Jew, at one time or other your ancestors must have been foreigners; you have their nationality; therefore you are an alien, and require a special act of naturalization before you can become a citizen." And unfortunately the Roumanian government have never been liberal in granting naturalization to Jews, even though settled for generations in the country. How aliens can ac quire British nationality. from abroad, that it may be asserted that a very large proportion, if not a majority, of the Jews in England has always consisted of aliens. The machinery provided by our constitution, by which aliens may acquire some or all of the rights of native born subjects, has in consequence at all times been of the greatest importance to the Jews. In the early days of the resettlement this was in practice confined to obtaining letters patent of denization from the King. The grant of such letters patent under the Great Seal is an ancient prerogative of the Crown, whereby the sovereign is enabled to confer upon the alien many but not all the rights of a native of the realm. The letters patent may be temporary or conditional, and may either specify the privileges granted or confer all the rights of a subject, save and except such as the patent expressly or the law impliedly withholds, for the King cannot alter the law otherwise than by Act of Parliament. A denizen so created "ex donatione regis" is said to be "in a kind of middle state between an alien and a natural-born subject, and partakes of both of them," for his patent can have no retrospective effect, and therefore, before the alteration of the law, until the issue of his letters patent a denizen could have no inheritable blood, and at the present time his children born abroad before his denization do not become British subjects unless they are themselves made denizens by being expressly included in the letters of denization. As has been seen he was liable to pay the alien duties, and to any other restriction upon his rights which might be imposed by Act of Parliament. In particular the Act of Settlement, passed at a time when the jealousy of foreigners, fostered, as it had been, by the dislike of the partiality of William III to his foreign favourites, was rampant in the country, expressly excluded denizens and naturalized persons also from the exercise of all important political functions by providing that "no person born out of the kingdoms of England, Scotland, |