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ALLEGIANCE ALLEINE 327 were otherwise forced to assume the duties of subjects of their states of birth, and they in- voked the protection of the United States by virtue of their status as American citizens. In 1857, in the case of Ernst, a subject of Hanover, naturalized here, who on his return was forced into the Hanoverian army, Attorney General Black gave to the president a very clear and convincing opinion, in which he advised him that Ernst was an American citizen ; that by the public law of the world we have the un- doubted right to naturalize a foreigner, whether his natural sovereign consents to his emigra- tion or not ; and that Hanover could not jus- tify Ernst's arrest, even by showing that he emigrated contrary to the laws of that coun- try, unless it could be proved that the original right of expatriation depended on the consent of the natural sovereign; and as to the last proposition, he added that he was sure that it could not be established. In a case in the same year, that of Amther, Mr. Black's opinion was to the same effect on a reversed state of facts. Amther, a Bavarian subject, after being natu- ralized here, returned to Bavaria and sought to recover his original status as a citizen of that country. The authorities there doubted whether he could throw off his allegiance to this country, but the attorney general of the United States was of the clear opinion that he could ; that by our law any citizen, native or naturalized, might sever his political connec- tion with this government at his pleasure, pro- vided it was for a purpose and at a time which were not injurious to our interests. He was of the opinion, therefore, that Amther might be reinstated as a citizen of Bavaria, and that, as a condition to such restitution of his citizen- ship, the Bavarian government was at liberty to compel him to abjure his allegiance to the United States in any form that its laws re- quired. Doctrines quite as emphatic were pronounced by Mr. Marcy, secretary of state in 1853, in the famous case of Koszta. In a letter to the American minister to Prussia in 1859, concerning cases then in hand, Mr. Cass declared that the right of expatriation could not at this moment be doubted or denied in this country, and that the doctrine of per- petual allegiance was a relic of barbarism which was fast disappearing from Christen- dom. In 1866 Attorney General Stanbery de- clined to discuss the general question of the right of expatriation under our law, on the ground that the practice of the United States had long since rendered that question a mere abstraction. It should be observed, however, that our government, in its dealings with other nations on this subject, has not claimed that the right to renounce allegiance is ab- solute under all circumstances. It has been willing to concede that our naturalization did not give full rights of American citizenship to aliens whose removal from their native country bore the character of an escape or flight from civil or political obligations already fixed upon them ; so that, while it would not recognize any validity in the general right to claim mili- tary service, for example, the actual perform- ance of which had not been demanded when the foreign subject left his country, yet it would concede that there was a just force in the claim of the foreign state, when the subject had been already conscripted into the army, and had deserted from it, or had otherwise run away from actually existing obligations. The whole subject has been finally closed, so far as the law of the United States about it is con- cerned, by a very explicit and vigorous statute passed in July, 1868. Its preamble recites that the right of expatriation is a natural and in- herent right of all people, indispensable to the enjoyment of the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ; that in the recognition of this principle, this government has freely received emigrants from all nations and in- vested them with the right of citizenship ; that it is necessary for the maintenance of public peace that the claim of foreign allegiance as to such adopted citizens should be promptly and finally disavowed; and it is therefore enacted that any declaration, opinion, order, or deci- sion of any ofiicer of this government which denies, impairs, restricts, or questions the right of expatriation, is inconsistent with the funda- mental principles of the government. The statute further enacts that all naturalized citi- zens of the United States, while in foreign states, are entitled to and shall receive from this government the same protection of person and property that is accorded to native-born citizens in like circumstances. At last, in 1870, Great Britain by the naturalization act of that year (May 12) revised all her own laws upon alienage, expatriation, and naturalization, and for the first time in her history recognized the right of her subjects to renounce their allegi- ance to the crown. (See NATURALIZATION.) ALLEGRI, Antonio. See CORREGGIO. ALLEGRI, Gregorio, an Italian ecclesiastic and composer of church music, born in Rome about 1580, died there in February, 1652. He was the pupil of Nanini, and on terms of intimacy with Palestrina. His voice was not remarkable, but he was a perfect master of harmony, and was made one of the singers in the pope's chapel in 1629. The famous Miserere, performed yearly on "Wednesday and Friday of Passion Week, in the papal chapel, is his composition. ALLEINE, or Allein. I. Joseph, an English nonconformist minister and author, born at Devizes in 1633, died in 1668. He received his education at Oxford, and was a man of extensive literary acquirements. Though ejected from his curacy and imprisoned for nonconformity, he yet preserved his reverence for the ecclesiastical authorities, and his loyalty to the king. His principal work, "An Alarm to Unconverted Sinners," has passed through numerous edi- tions. II. Richard, an English nonconforming clergyman, born at Ditchet, Somersetshire, in 1611, died in 1681. He was educated at Oxford,