to grant this certificate renders the overseer liable to a penalty of 201.; and any person forging a certificate, or making use of a certificate knowing it to be false, is to forfeit 50%. The hours for opening and closing beer-shops are now regulated by the above act. In London and Westminster, and within the boundaries of the metropolitan boroughs, they are not to be opened earlier than five in the morning, and the hour of closing is twelve o'clock, but eleven o'clock in any place within the Bills of Mortality, or any city, town, or place not containing above 2500 inhabitants; and in all smaller places, five o'clock is the hour for opening and ten o'clock for closing. On any Sunday, Good Friday, or Christmas-day, or any day appointed for a public fast or thanksgiving, the houses are not to be opened before one o'clock in the after noon. on the premises; in 1842 only 31,821; and in 1843 the number was 31,227. In 1839, after a gradual increase in the preceding three years, the number of retailers who sold beer for consumption elsewhere than on the premises was 5941, and the number has since regularly decreased to 4477 in 1842, and 4252 in 1843. The retailers in cider and perry under the acts for the sale of beer were 1913 in number in 1835, and only 438 in 1842. Number of licensed victuallers and beer retailers in England and Wales who brewed their own beer, in 1843:Licensed victuallers, 26,806; retailers of beer to be consumed on the premises, 12,761; retailers of beer not to be consumed on the premises, 1245. Malt consumed by the above:-By licensed victuallers, 7,567,945 bushels; by retailers for consumption on the premises,2,761,672; by retailers for consumption elsewhere, 397,188 bushels. In the Country Excise Collections one half the licensed victuallers brew; and in London there are only 10 who brew out of 4344. The houses of alehouse-keepers, otherwise called licensed victuallers, are not exempt from the window duty; but if the bar-room be used solely for the sale of their commodities, and not for the entertainment of guests, the window of The victuallers and keepers of beerthat room is to be exempt from duty. shops who do not brew are of course sup> (Communication from Chancellor of Ex-plied by brewers, of whom there were 2318 chequer to Liverpool Victuallers' Society, April, 1844.) The licensed victuallers are liable to have soldiers billeted upon them, and they consider the non-exemption from the window duty a grievance, as other traders, who have no such burdens, enjoy the benefits of this exemption. The keepers of beer-shops who sell ale to be consumed on the premises, are liable to have soldiers billeted on them. The number of licensed victuallers in England and Wales has increased from 50,947 in 1831 to 57,698 in 1843. The only year which shows a decrease on the preceding year was 1842, the number in 1841 having been 57,768. In 1840 there were 7610 houses occupied by licensed victuallers, the rental of which was under sl.; 10,769 houses under 107.; 20,185 under 207.; and 5335 at and above 501. The number of beer-shops of both classes was 44,134 in 1836, and they have gradually declined to 36,298 in 1842, and 35,479 in 1843. In 1836 there were 39,104 retailers of beer to be consumed LIBRARY in England and Wales in 1843, who used In In October, 1830, the duty of 9s. per barrel on strong beer, and 1s. 11d. on table and small beer, was abolished. In the previous year the consumption of England and Wales was 6,559,210 barrels of strong and 1,530,419 barrels of small beer, which allows for upwards of 21 gallons per head on the year's consumption. The produce of the duty was 3,217,8121. With the same rates of duty MICHIGE H 2 the produce of this branch of revenue was only 79,4147. in Scotland: the beer duty in Ireland ceased in 1795. The acts for closing public houses on Sunday mornings and other days of religious service, being limited to the metropolis and certain towns, the 11 & 12 Vict. c. 49 enacts that no person in other parts of Great Britain shall open his house for the sale of fermented or distilled liquors before half-past twelve o'clock, or till the close of the morning service in the principal place of worship. The children of ambassadors, and other official residents in foreign states, have always been held natives of the country which they represent and in whose service they are. This rule prevailed even at a time when the law of alienage was ALIEN. An alien is one who is born stricter than it now is. It has been since out of the ligeance (allegiance) of the so far extended by various enactments, king. (Littleton, 198.) The word is that all children born abroad, whose derived from the Latin alienus; but the fathers or grandfathers on the father's word used by the English or other law side were natural subjects, are now writers in Latin is alienegena. The con- deemed to be themselves natural-born dition of an alien, according to this de- subjects, unless their fathers were liable finition, is not determined by place, but to the penalties of treason or felony, or by allegiance [ALLEGIANCE], for a man were in the service of a prince at war may be born out of the realm of Eng-with this country. (25 Ed. III. st. 2; 7 land, or without the dominions of the king, Anne, c. 5; 4 Geo. II. c. 21 ; 13 Geo. III. and yet he may not be an alien. It is c. 21.) essential to alienage that the birth of the individual occurred in a situation and under circumstances which gave to the king of this country no claim to his allegiance. The following instances will serve to illustrate the description of an alien. The native subject of a foreign country continues to be an alien, though the country afterwards becomes a part of the British dominions. Thus, persons born in Scotland before the union of the crowns by the accession of James I., were aliens in England even after that event; but those who were born afterwards were adjudged to be natural-born subjects. This question was the subject of solemn discussion in the reign of that prince; and the reported judgment of the court has guided lawyers in all similar controversies. Persons born in those parts of France which formerly belonged to the crown of England, as Normandy, Guienne, and Gascony, were not considered as aliens so long as they continued so annexed; and, upon the same principle, persons born at this day in any of our colonial Dossessions are considered native subjects. A man, born and settled at Calais whilst it was in the possession of the English, The children of aliens born in England are, as a general rule, the same as natural-born subjects: they are entitled to the same rights and owe the same allegiance. But the children of a British mother by an alien are aliens if they are born out of the king's allegiance. It follows from the general principles of our law that a man may be subject to a double and conflicting allegiance; for, though he may become a citizen of another state (the United States of America, for instance), or the subject of another king, he cannot divest himself of the duty which he owes to his own. So that, in the event of a war between the two states. he can take no active part on behalf of one, without incurring the penalty of treason in the other. This predicament inay occur without any fault of the party; for the children of aliens are (except under peculiar circumstances) natural subjects of the state in which they were born: yet they may still be regarded as natural-born subjects of the state to which their parents owed allegiance. Except for the term of 21 years, by 7 & 8 V. c. 66, an alien cannot hold lands in England. If he purchase lands, he takes them, but they are forfeited to the king after the fact of purchase has been ascertained by a jury. These disabilities of an alien are founded on the nature of the tenure of land in England, which always implies fealty to some superior lord. It follows from the notion of an alien, that he cannot take land by descent, nor can he be entitled to land by the courtesy of England. An alien woman is not entitled to dower of her husband's lands, unless she has been either made a denizen or naturalized. It is also said that she is entitled to dower if she has married an Englishman by licence from the king. (Cruise, Digest, i. 159.) It has been said that an alien cannot take land by devise; but there seems to be no legal principle which shall prevent him from taking by devise, any more than from taking by purchase: the only question is, for whose benefit he takes, for he cannot hold it for his own benefit. (Ld. Hardwicke, Knight v. Duplessis, 2 Ves. 360.) An alien cannot be returned to serve on a jury, except where he is one de medietate linguae, that is, a jury of which one-half are foreigners. An alien may possess himself of goods, money in the funds, and other personal effects, to any extent. The law has, from a very early period, recognised his right to reside without molestation within the realm for commercial purposes. "All merchants shall have safe and secure conduct to go out and to come into England; and to stay there, and to pass as well by land as by water, to buy and sell by the ancient and allowed customs, without any evil tolls, except in time of war, or when they are of any nation at war with us." (Magna Charta, art. 48.) An alien merchant enjoys the right to occupy a house and premises, and may hold a lease for years for the convenience of merchandize, yet if he leaves the realm or dies, in the one case his assignees, and in the other case his executors or administrators, cannot have the lease, but it goes to the crown. It is usual in such cases for the crown to make a grant of the forfeited interest to some person who is the best entitled to it. By 3 & 4 Wm. IV. c. 54 and c. 55, aliens cannot hold British registered shipping nor shares therein. An alien who is settled in England as a merchant can only invest capital i foreign ships, which, in compliance with the navigation laws of other states, are of necessity manned with foreign seamen; and by a provision in our navigation laws a foreign ship can only import the productions of the country where she is registered. A naturalized person cannot enjoy the advantages of a British subject under commercial treaties with foreign countries until seven years after he has been naturalized. An alien cannot be a member of parliament, nor can he vote in the election of a member of parliament. (2 & 3 Wm. IV. c. 45.) But it has been established that the occupation of a dwelling-house by an alien gained him a settlement. (Rex v. Eastbourne, 4 East, 103.) The Municipal Corporations Act (5 & 6 Wm. IV. c. 76, s. 4) debars aliens from exercising the municipal privileges of a burgess. The statute of 32 Hen. VIII. c. 16, which makes void all leases of dwellinghouses or shops to alien artificers or handicraftsmen, and imposes a penalty of 100s. for granting such lease, is still unrepealed. An alien can and could from a very early period bring an action or suit in the English courts in respect of personal property or contracts. An alien may dispose of his property by will. The droit d'aubaine, or right of succeeding to the effects of a deceased alien, formerly claimed by the crown of France, never prevailed in this country. Nor was it customary to enforce it even in France, except as against the natives of a state in which a similar right was exercised. For some time previous to its abolition by the first Constituent Assembly in 1791, it was generally stipulated by foreign countries, in their treaties with France, that their subjects should be exempt from the law. [AUBAINE.] This doctrine of reciprocity was adopted by the French Code (Code Civil, art. 726), but was abrogated in 1819, so far as the right of succession is concerned: so that aliens are now on the same footing in this respect with native Frenchmen throughout that kingdom. Aliens who are subject to any criminal proceeding in our courts of jus tice are in most cases entitled to trial by a jury de medietate linguae. zen. The disabilities of aliens may be partially removed by the king's letterspatent_constituting the party a free deniFrom the date of the grant he is entitled to hold land, and transmit it to his after-born children, and to enjoy many other privileges of a native subject. But the most effectual method of naturalizing an alien is by act of parliament, called a Naturalization Bill, by which he is admitted to every right of a naturalborn subject, except the capacity of sitting in parliament or the privy council, or of holding grants and offices of trust under the crown; an exclusion dictated by the jealous policy of the legislature on the accession of the House of Orange. [DENIZATION; NATURALIZATION.] The rights of aliens, enumerated above, must be understood to apply only to alien friends. Alien enemies, or subjects of a foreign state at war with this country, are in a very different condition, and may be said to possess very few rights here. As examples of the policy which has at different times been pursued in this country with reference to aliens, the following historical notices may be interesting: Magna Charta stipulates, in the article already cited, for the free access of foreign merchants for the purposes of trade, and its provisions were enforced and extended under the reigns of succeeding princes. In the eighteenth year of Edward I. the parliament rolls contain a petition from the citizens of London, "that foreign merchants should be expelled from the city, because they get rich, to the impoverishment of the citizens;" to which the king replies, that "they are beneficial and useful, and he has no intention to expel them." In the reign of Edward III. several beneficial privileges were conferred on aliens for the encouragement of foreign trade. Under Richard II. and his successor statutes were made imposing various restraints on aliens trading within the realm, and especially prohibiting internal traffic with one another. Similar restrictions were introduced in the reign of Richard III., chiefly with a view to exclude them from retail trade; and in that of Henry VIII. violent insurrections against aliens were followed by repeated statutes, reciting the mischievous consequences attributed to the influx of foreigners, and laying greater impediments in the way of their settlement within the realm. Several acts of this description are still in force, though they have fallen into practical disuse; but the courts of law have always put on them a construction the most favourable to foreign commerce, agrecably to the opinion of Lord Chief Justice Hale, that “the law of England hath always been very gentle in the construction of the disability, and rather contracting than extending it severely." (Ventris's Reports, vol. i. p. 427.) In the reign of James I. the king was strongly petitioned to adopt exclusive measures against the aliens, who had flocked into the kingdom from the Low Countries; but James, though he acquiesced to a certain extent in the object of the petitioners, seems by no means to have participated in their feelings of enmity to aliens; for he professes his intention “to keep a due temperament between the interests of the petitioners and the foreigners;" and he especially commends "their industrious and sedulous courses, whereof he wished his own people would take example." In the reign of Charles II. aliens were invited to settle in this country, and to engage in certain trades, by an offer of the privileges of native subjects. (15 Charles II. c. 15.) This statute was repealed by 12 & 13 Wm. III. c. 2; but there is an unrepealed act of 6 Anne, which naturalizes all foreigners who shall serve for two years on board any ship of her majesty's navy or a British merchantship. In the early part of the last century (1708) a bill was brought into parliament for the general naturalization of all foreign Protestants upon their taking certain oaths and receiving the sacrament in any Protestant church, and it passed notwithstanding the strenuous opposition of the city of London, who represented that they would sustain loss by being obliged to remit certain dues which aliens were obliged to pay. After remaining in opera tion for three years, it was repealed on a suggestion of its injurious effects upon the interests of natural-born subjects; but a previous bill for effecting this object was rejected by the Lords. The reasons for and against the measure will be found in the fourth volume of Chandler's Commons' Debates, p. 119-122. In 1748 and 1751 a measure similar to the act of 1708 was brought forward, and in 1751 it was read a second time, but was dropped in consequence of the death of the Prince of Wales, which disarranged the public business. Upon a review of the history of our policy, the inference seems to be, that although the maxims prevalent in our courts of law have been generally favourable to aliens, and although the government appear to have been at all times sensible of the advantages resulting from a liberal reception of foreign settlers engaged in trade, yet popular prejudices have been on the whole successfully exerted in impressing upon the legislature a more jealous and exclusive system. The Alien Acts (33 Geo. III. c. 4; 34 Geo. III. c. 43, 67, and others) were passed entirely from political motives, and were mainly enacted on account of the great number of foreigners who came to England in 1792 and 1793. There is reason to believe that the crown has always had the power of banishing aliens from the realm, which these acts, however, expressly gave to it: at all events the power has undoubtedly been often exerted; and it seems almost to be included in the ampler prerogative of declaring war against the whole, or any part, of a foreign state. However, either from want of recent authentic precedents, or from a desire to accompany the measure with provisions not within the ordinary exercise of the prerogative, this power has not been exercised of late years without the sanction of parliament. In 1827 a measure was introduced (7 Geo. IV. c. 54) for the general registration of all aliens visiting this country, and every foreigner was required to present himself at the Alien-office. This act was repealed by 6 Wm. IV. c. 11, but new provisions of a similar character were introduced. By one clause masters of vessels arriving | from foreign parts are to declare what aliens (mariners navigating the vessel excepted) are on board or have landed, under a penalty, for omission or for false declaration, of 201., and 10l. for each alien omitted. Every foreigner on landing is required immediately to exhibit any passport in his possession to the chief officer of customs at the port of debarkation, and to state to him, either verbally or in writing, his name, birth-place, and the country he has come from, under a penalty, for neglect or refusal, of 21. The officer of customs is to register this declaration, deliver a certificate to the alien, and transmit a copy of the declaration to the secretary of state. On leaving the country the alien is required to transmit to the secretary of state the certificate granted him on landing. The act does not affect foreign ministers or their servants, nor aliens under fourteen years. The proof of non-alienage lies on the person alleged to be an alien. Under the former act aliens were required to present themselves at the Alien-office; but this is no longer necessary. The registration clause is generally disregarded by foreigners, and is never enforced, for there is no provision in the act for recovering the penalty. In 1842, out of 11,600 foreigners who were officially reported to have landed, 6084 only registered according to the act; but in the same year, out of 794 who landed at Hull, only one registered; at Southampton, out of 1174, not one; and of those who landed at London, not onehalf. At Liverpool no return was kept of the number of foreigners who landed, and there was no instance of one who registered. There are two alien clerks at the port of London, and one at Dover, but at other ports the business is done by the officers of customs. In the session of 1843 a bill was introduced for increasing the facilities afforded for the denization and naturalization of foreigners; but it met with opposition from the government, and was thrown out without a division. Under the Act 7 Geo. IV. c. 54, the number of foreigners who arrived and departed during the year was ascertained; but it is said that the papers have been destroyed. The returns under the census |