state. ($ 54.) The crews on board the public vessels are under their native laws, but on shore, if guilty of acts of aggression or hostility, can be opposed by force and arrested. So also the vessel itself must pay respect to the port and health laws.* Crimes committed on shore expose persons belonging to such vessels not only to complaint before their own sovereign, but, also to arrest and trial. Of armies in transit, wher Armies in transit, such a right is conceded, Vattel says (III. 8, § 130) that "the grant of passage includes that of every particular thing connected with the passage of troops, and of things without which it would not be practicable; such as the liberty of carrying whatever may be necessary to an army; that of exer cising military discipline on the officers and soldiers; and that of buying at a reasonable rate anything an army may want, unless a fear of scarcity renders an exception necessary, when the army must carry with them their provisions." If we are not deceived, crimes committed along the line of march, away from the body of the army, as pilfering and marauding, authorize arrest by the magistrates of the country, and a demand at least, that the commanding officers shall bring such crimes to a speedy trial. When the transit of troops is allowed, it is apt to be specially guarded by treaties. The crews of commercial vessels in foreign ports have in general no such exemption from the law of the place. By the law of France, however, crimes committed on board of foreign vessels in French ports, where none but the crew are concerned, are not considered as pertaining to the jurisdiction of the courts of France, while offences committed on the shore and against others than the vessels' crews, come before the tribunals of the kingdom. This is a compromise between territorial sovereignty and the principle or fiction that the ship is a part of the domain of its own nation, wherever found. Crews of commercial vessels French ports. Vessels driven in- Vessels, driven into foreign waters against but of their course the will of the master, are exempted from or to foreign harbors Ortolan, I. 218. dinary charges and jurisdiction, and allowed to depart un hindered.* $ 65. Exemptions to for eigners in certain Eastern countries. Exemption from local jurisdiction has been granted to for eigners 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 adminis tered 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 1860, 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 pow ers, and can punish by fine or imprisonment, or both, at discretion. 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 rebellior $ 66. Aliens losing in Foreign residents in most Christian countries can sustai 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 implies the renunciation of a former nationality, and the fact of entrance into a similar re Naturalization. lation 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 re turns 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 offender's court and according to the law of his country, 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 native 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. (Note 3.) * 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 allegiance 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 impor tant countries in regard to naturalization.† Rules of several nations as to natu In England it was formerly granted only by ralization. act of parliament; but by a statute of 1844, one of the prin cipal 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 bei.g 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- 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 suc ceeding his majority. Naturalization in a foreign country in volves 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 Aus tria, and perhaps elsewhere. In Prussia the higher adminis trative authorities have the right to naturalize strangers of good character who possess the means of subsistence, except ing Jews, subjects of other members of the Germanic confed eracy, and persons incapable of taking care of themselves. In Austria leave to exercise a profession, ten years of resi dence, and the consent of the authorities, are pre-requisites të 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 persons, 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 the United States, although not necessarily a citizen of any state in the Union. In inany 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 con fer important services on France. |