Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/590

582 EMIGRATION EMINENT DOMAIN 1851, owing chiefly to the great exodus follow- ing the famine of 1846, it had decreased to 6,551,970. In 1861 it was 5,792,055, and in 1871 5,402,759, or more than half a million (535,097) less than it was in 1811. In Great Britain protection is extended by the govern- ment to emigrants, especially those destined to the British possessions. Emigration is regu- lated to a considerable extent by the govern- ment, acting through the land and emigration commissioners. Acts have been passed at va- rious times for regulating the number of pas- sengers in each ship and providing for their proper accommodation on board, and for pro- tecting them from the numerous frauds to which they are exposed. To enforce the pro- visions of these acts, and generally to protect the interests of emigrants, government agents are stationed at the principal ports of embar- kation, and at the chief colonial ports to which emigration is directed. The German emigra- tion is chiefly to the United States, and its principal points of departure are the ports of Hamburg and Bremen. As early as 1819 efforts were made in Brazil to attract emi- gration from Germany and Switzerland, but the treatment of the emigrants by the large property holders prevented the success of the enterprise. In 1850 an act was passed offering great inducements to colonists, and the immi- gration of settlers from Europe, particularly Germans and Swiss, has been otherwise en- couraged by the government. These efforts have been attended with but partial success, as only about 50,000 persons have settled in the empire, chiefly in the southern provinces. There has been an immigration of some impor- tance during recent years into the Argentine Republic. This amounted for 14 years ending Jan. 1, 1871, to 204,451 persons, who were mostly from Italy, Spain, and France. In order to encourage immigration, the government of Buenos Ayres in 1873 offered a premium of $50 each to the first 100,000 immigrants between the ages of 12 and 45, to be paid at the expira- tion of 18 months after arrival. Formerly the doctrine was held by Great Britain and other European powers that a subject could not throw off his allegiance by emigrating there- from ; and whether he became a naturalized citizen of another country or not, his own still retained its claim upon him. Treaties, how- ever, have been recently concluded between the United States and Great Britain, Sweden and Norway, Denmark, Belgium, the late North German Confederation, Austria, Hungary, Ba- den, Bavaria, Hesse-Darmstadt, Wurtemberg, and Mexico, which provide that subjects of these powers who have become naturalized citizens of the United States, and have resided uninterruptedly therein for five years, shall be held to be citizens thereof. The treaties with Belgium and Great Britain do not require a residence of five years within the United States, but recognize citizenship if sooner acquired. It seems to be the opinion of French jurists that a French subject can at any time by his own act transfer his allegiance to any country which consents to naturalize him. He thus, according to the Code Napoleon, u loses the quality of a Frenchman." Italy, Spain, Nor- way, and Greece follow substantially the Code Napoleon, and treat nationality as lost by nat- uralization id a foreign country, or by entering without royal license into its civil or military service. A Russian subject cannot emigrate or become naturalized in a foreign country without the permission of the emperor ; if he does so, he commits an offence for which he may be for ever excluded from the Russian dominions. Nor can a subject of the Ottoman empire divest himself of that character without the authority of the imperial government. EMINENT DOMAIN (in the Roman law, domi- nium eminens), the right of property possessed by a state, which is higher over all the goods and valuables within the state than that of any individual. Dominus and magister are both translated by the word "master;" but domi- nus means master by the right of property, while magister means master by the right of superiority. Hence dominium as a law term is quite accurately represented by the word property. The phrase eminent domain means, in practice, the right inherent in any sovereign- ty of taking possession of any valuable thing, be it real or personal, and using it for a public purpose. Where, in the theory of the law, all property is held by tenure from the sovereign, the exercise of this right may be regarded as only a resumption of that which it originally granted ; and all property may be supposed to rest on a title to which the condition was an- nexed that it might be thus resumed by the original grantor. In this country, as in all other republics, the right of eminent domain rests on the paramount right of the public wel- fare. "Whatever be its ground, it is entirely cer- tain that the right of eminent domain, or the right to take private property for public use, is distinctly asserted and frequently exercised, both by the national government and by that of the several states. One condition is always affixed to it, viz., that the public good requires that private property should thus be taken for public use ; and this fact must be ascertained under legislative authority. Another condi- tion is annexed to the exercise of this power by the constitution of the United States, and by that of many states a condition which is universal in practice, and would doubtless be held to be always implied in law; it is that adequate compensation be made to those from whom the property is taken. The most com- mon instances of the exercise of this power are in the case of lands taken for roads or ca- nals ; but it is, we conceive, quite certain that the principle itself is wholly unlimited, and that by virtue of it any property may be taken by the sovereign power from any owner, provided it is required for public use, and compensa- tion is made to the owner from whom the prop-