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168 NATURALIZATION ern Australia, British Guiana, Barbadoes, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Grenada, Trinidad, and generally in the minor West India islands. In Antigua, Grenada, and St. Vincent immigrants from the United States and British North America, of African descent, who have served under a contract for a year, can after three years' residence become naturalized by taking the oath of allegiance before the governor and secretary of the colony. In Sierra Leone it is regulated by an act of the imperial parliament. In New South Wales, Bermuda, and Honduras, it is, making the necessary changes, the same as under the English act of 1844. In the fol- lowing colonies it is regulated by a general lo- cal law : Canada, St. Christopher and Anguilla, Turk's and Caicos islands, and Cape Colony. In Canada and Cape Colony a certain period of residence is required. In all the colonies an oath of allegiance is taken and a few other for- malities are requisite. In Canada an oath by the applicant of three years' residence with intent to settle, and an oath of allegiance, are taken be- fore a justice of the peace. The justice trans- mits a certificate that the requisite oaths have been taken to the court of the city or place where the applicant resided on the first day of its sitting ; this is publicly read in court, and if no valid objection is made the certificate is filed and the act of naturalization is complete. The effect of naturalization by the local government of a colony or country forming part of the do- minions of the crown of England, was consid- ered iu a case arising in the reign of Charles II., Craw against Ramsey, reported in Vaughan's Reports. It was declared in that case that a person naturalized by the parliament of Ire- land, or naturalized in Scotland, which at that period was an independent kingdom, connected with England only by the circumstance that the crowns of both kingdoms centred in one person, did not thereby become a naturalized subject in England; that the effect of such a naturalization did not extend beyond the limits of the country where it was conferred, and that this applied to all the colonies or de- pendencies of the crown of England. It was also held in two cases before the privy council, in 1834 and 1837, one of which arose in the island of Mauritius and the other in Canada, that the status or political condition of a per- son resident in one of the British dependencies was to be determined by the law of Great Britain, but that the rights or liabilities which attached to it, when ascertained, depended upon the law of the particular colony. The policy of France upon this subject has been restrictive, which may be traced in a great de- gree to the unfavorable influence exercised by foreigners at various periods of her history. Many Italian adventurers were naturalized in the reign of Charles VIII., but their characters were so worthless that their certificates of naturalization were annulled -by his successor Louis XII. in 1499. At the time of the league great numbers of naturalized Spaniards and Italians mingled in public affairs, and gave such offence, especially as a branch of the clergy, that a law was passed in 1579 prohibit- ing foreigners from holding ecclesiastical of- fices. Their participation in the civil adminis- tration of the state reached its climax when the notorious Italian Concini, the protege of Maria de' Medici, became a marshal without ever having drawn a sword, and minister, ruling with capricious insolence a people of whose laws he was ignorant. After his tragical end in 1617, an act was passed debarring for- eigners from holding a seat in the administra- tion; and the mischief wrought by Mazarin and his foreign camarilla led to a still more stringent law in 1651. No material change took place until the revolution, when in 1791 the legislative assembly was authorized to nat- uralize foreigners upon the condition that they fixed their residence in the country and took an oath of allegiance. In 1793 a law was enacted admitting all to the rights of French citizens who had been domiciled in the country one year, over the age of 21, who supported themselves by their labor, or acquired prop- erty, or who should marry a native, or adopt a French infant, or support an aged person, and all others whom the convention regarded as meriting well of humanity. In 1798 a res- idence of seven consecutive years was made necessary; and as the country gravitated to- ward monarchy in 1800, the residence was ex- tended to ten consecutive years. In 1803 the residence was reduced to one year, if the alien had rendered important service to the state by his talents, inventions, useful industry, or by forming large establishments therein. In 1808 it was provided that naturalization upon the ground of important services to the state, thereafter known as la grande naturalisation, should be conferred by a decree ratified by the council of state. In 1814 it was declared that no naturalized subject should be eligible to a seat in the legislative chambers, unless he had received the grand naturalization. Af- ter the revolution of 1848 the term of resi- dence was reduced to five years, and in 1867 it was further reduced to three years. As the law now stands, the grand naturalization after the residence of a year, in the cases already men- tioned, is conferred by a decree of the execu- tive, and ratified by the legislature. In other cases the alien must have attained the age of 21, must have resided in France for three consecutive years under the authorization of the government, and have declared his inten- tion of fixing his residence there ; and the ap- plication must be made in the manner pro- vided for by the decree of 1809. A child born in France of foreign parents, or the child of French parents born abroad, may reclaim the rights of citizenship on attaining the age of 21, if he resides in France and declares his in- tention of there fixing his domicile, or if, re- siding abroad, he makes a similar declara- tion and establishes himself in France within