OATH OF ALLEGIANCE.

"I, A. B., do sincerely promise and swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to her Majesty Queen Victoria as lawful sovereign of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the colony of Queensland, dependent and belonging to the said United Kingdom, and that I will defend her to the utmost of my power against all traitorous conspiracies and attempts whatsoever, which shall be made agaist her person, crown, and dignity; and that I will do my utmost endeavor to make known to her Majesty, her heirs and successors, all treasons and traitorous conspira cies and attempts which I shall know to be against her or any of them. So help me God."

The fees under this act are remarkably small, viz: oath, 18.; filing record, 18.; certificate, 2s. 6d.; so that any white alien can be naturalized for 48. 6d.

ST. KITTS AND ANGUILA.'

By a local act, No. 127, passed on the 3d February, 1857, all domiciled or resident liberated Africans are to be deemed to be natural-born subjects, and capable of holding and conveying real and personal estate. The children, wherever born, of a mother a natural-born subject are made capable of taking real or personal estate by purchase or descent; and wives of natural-born or naturalized subjects are to be deemed to be naturalized.

Aliens, subjects of a friendly state, may acquire and hold either real or personal estate as effectually as natural-born subjects, but they are not thereby made capable of becoming members of the council or of the assembly, nor of voting at the election of members of the assembly.

SIERRA LEONE.1

By the imperial act, 16 and 17 Vict., cap. 86, (20 Aug., 1853,) liberated Africans domiciled or resident in Sierra Leone are to be deemed within the colony to be natural-born subjects as from the date of their arrival, and to be capable of holding and transmitting any estate, real or personal, within the colony. Power is given to the local legis lature to alter or repeal any of the provisions of the act so far as they relate to the right to real property. Liberated Africans are also to be considered as British subjects for the purposes of treaties with native chiefs.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

By the colonial amending and consolidating act, No. 5, of 1864, every person born of a mother who is a natural-born or naturalized subject is capable of holding real or personal estate.

Friendly aliens may hold every description of property whether real or personal. A certificate of naturalization may be applied for by any alien, and upon receipt of such application, countersigned by a justice of the peace, the governor, if he think it shall direct the applicant to take the oath of allegiance before one of the judges of the superior court, and, on such oath being taken, he shall issue letters of naturaliza tion. The fee for obtaining the certificate in duplicate is 17. 18.

The effect of this certificate is to vest all the rights and privileges of a natural-born British subject in such naturalized alien.

A subsequent act, 23 and 24 Vict., No. 20, provides that aliens who obtain certificates of naturalization in any British colony or possession may obtain the privileges of naturalization in South Australia on lodging with the registrar-general of the colony ther original certificates of naturalization together with a true copy thereof. The original is then returned with an indorsement that the alien had made the declaration and taken the oath of allegiance prescribed by the act.

The fee for this process is fixed at 108. 6d.

TASMANIA.1

By a colonial act, 25 Vict., No. 2, passed in November, 1861, repealing 5 Will. 4, No. 4, the governor in council is empowered, on the presentation of a memorial, stating par ticulars, to issue a certificate granting all the rights and capacities of a natural-bora British subject within the colony, such certificate to be enrolled in the supreme court, and an oath of allegiance to be taken before a judge or commissioner of the supreme

Colonization Circular, 1868.

court, (within 60 days from the date of the certificate,) who will grant a certificate of the taking and subscribing the oath. The cost of the whole process is 6s.

TRINIDAD.'

In this island a special ordinance of naturalization is required on each occasion, to obtain which the alien must present a petition to the governor. When the ordinance has been passed, and the alien has taken the oath of allegiance before the governor, he becomes entitled, within the limits of the colony, to all the privileges of a natural-born subject.

The taking of the oath is to be immediately certified by the governor, and the certificate is to be recorded in the registrar-general's office.

These ordinances are reserved for Her Majesty's pleasure, and do not take effect until it has been signified.

TURK'S ISLAND AND CAICOS ISLAND.1

By the colonial act, No. 1, Vict., c. 4, passed 22d March, 1848, aliens become naturalized upon taking the oath of allegiance and obtaining a certificate from the president in council, under the great seal of the colony, that the oath has been taken. The certificate is obtainable on presentation to the president of a memorial setting forth the grounds on which the privileges of naturalization are sought, and when obtained it must be recorded in the office of the public secretary and registrar of records. The fees are to be regulated by the president in council.

By ordinance No. 8, of 1857, (passed 17th October, 1857, and confirmed 13th February, 1858,) aliens may hold lands, salt ponds, &c., (except salt ponds at Turk's Island,) on lease not exceeding 21 years, which lease may be renewed at the end of the term.

VICTORIA.1

The colonial act, 28 Vict., No. 256, which came into operation on the 1st of June, 1865, and is called "The Alien's Statute, 1865," repeals the previous acts, 24 Vict., No. 112, and 26 Vict., No. 166. It provides that alien friends resident in the colony may inherit, acquire, hold, and dispose of every description of property, whether real or personal, in the same manner as natural-born subjects of the Crown; and all dispositions made before the passing of this act to or by such aliens are declared to be valid. The governor may, if he thinks fit, grant under the seal of the colony letters of naturalization to resident alien friends, provided they be of good repute and take the oath of allegiance to the British Crown. But they are rendered incapable of being members of the legislative council and the legislative assembly.

To obtain naturalization, the alien is to present a memorial to the governor, signed by himself, and verified on oath, stating his name, age, birthplace, occupation, length of his residence in the colony, and his desire to settle therein. The memorial must be accompanied by a certificate, sigued by a warden, police magistrate, or justice of the peace, that the applicant is known to him, and is a person of good repute.

If the application be favorably entertained, the alien must take the oath of allegiance before a judge of the supreme court, or of a county court, or court of mines, or police magistrate, and, on production of a certificate from the judge or magistrate to that effect, the governor in council issues the letters of naturalization; they, and a certified copy of the certificate, are then to be recorded by the chief secretary, for which a fee of Il. is to be paid.

The penalty for false statements in the memorial is the avoidance of the letters of naturalization (except against purchasers for valuable considerations) superadded to the penalties of perjury.

The alien wives of natural-born or naturalized subjects are to be deemed naturalized. Persons resident in Victoria who have been naturalized in the United Kingdom, or in any British colony in Australia, (including Tasmania and New Zealand,) Africa, or America, may, if the governor thinks fit, be naturalized in Victoria on exhibiting the certificate of naturalization, and stating in their memorials that such certificate has been obtained without fraud or intentional false statement, and that the signature and seal, if any thereto, are, to the best of their belief, genuine.

WESTERN AUSTRALIA.1

Aliens can become naturalized by local ordinance, which is introduced on their own application, and on payment of 51. for expenses of preparing the bill. The ordinance does not become law until it has received the confirmation of the Crown.

'Colonization Circular, 1868.

Naturalized aliens may hold lands and enjoy all the rights within the colony of a natural-born subject, except the right of holding any place or office of trust in the courts of law or connected with the treasury.

PART II.-LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES.

[For the summaries of the laws and discussions on this subject which were in the appendix to the Commissioner's Report it has been thought best to substitute the statutes themselves; an explanation of the provisions of the various treaties with other powers; and a copy of theinstructions to consuls on the subject of protection and passports.]

A.-Report of the Examiner of Claims upon the provisions of the statutes and Constitution respecting naturalization and expatriation.

BUREAU OF CLAIMS, November 4, 1873.

SIR: In this compilation of the laws on the subject of naturalization and expatriation all acts and parts of acts which have been repealed, or that have become obsolete either by time or by the circumstances which gave rise to their enactment, having ceased to exist, are omitted.

The last two provisos of Section I, act of 14th of April, 1802, are obsolete, and section II is repealed by the first section of act of May 24, 1828, which latter act is also omitted as obsolete. The act of March 22, 1816, is omitted, the first section being repealed by section I of act of May 24, 1828, and the second section being obsolete.

Section XIII of the act of March 3, 1813, providing penalty for forg ing certificates of naturalization, is omitted, as being repealed by implication by the act of July 14, 1870.

Hon. HAMILTON FISH,

Secretary of State.

HENRY O'CONNOR

NATURALIZATION LAWS.

AN ACT to establish an uniform rule of naturalization, and to repeal the acts heretofore passed on

that subject.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That any alien, being a free white person, may be admitted to become a citizen of the United States, or any of them, on the following conditions, and not otherwise:

First. That he shall have declared, on oath or affirmation, before the supreme, supe rior, district, or circuit court of some one of the States or of the territorial districts of the United States, or a circuit or district court of the United States, three years at least before his admission, that it was, bona fide, his intention to become a citizen of the United States, and to renounce forever all allegiance and fidelity to any foreiga prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty whatever, and particularly, by name, the prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty whereof such alien may, at the time, be a citizen or subject.

Secondly. That he shall, at the time of his application to be admitted, declare, on oath or affirmation, before some one of the courts aforesaid, that he will support the Constitution of the United States, and that he doth absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to every foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty whatever, and particularly, by name, the prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty whereof he was before a citizen or subject; which proceedings shall be recorded by the clerk of the court.

Thirdly. That the court admitting such alien shall be satisfied that he has resided within the United States five years at least, and within the State or Territory where

such court is at the time held, one year at least; and it shall further appear to their satisfaction, that during that time he has behaved as a man of a good moral character, attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States, and well-disposed to the good order and happiness of the same: Provided, That the oath of the applicant shall in no case be allowed to prove his residence.

Fourthly. That in case the alien applying to be admitted to citizenship shall have borne any hereditary title, or been of any of the orders of nobility in the kingdom or state from which he came, he shall, in addition to the above requisites, make an express renunciation of his title or order of nobility in the court to which his application shall be made; which renunciation shall be recorded in the said court: Provided, That no alien who shall be a native citizen, denizen, or subject of any country, state, or sovereign with whom the United States shall be at war at the time of his application, shall be then admitted to be a citizen of the United States.

SEC. 3. And whereas doubts have arisen whether certain courts of record in some of the States are included within the description of district or circuit courts: Be it further enacted, That every court of record in any individual State having common law jurisdiction, and a seal and clerk or prothonotary, shall be considered as a district court within the meaning of this act; and every alien who may have been naturalized in any such court shall enjoy, from and after the passing of the act, the same rights and privileges as if he had been naturalized in a district or circuit court of the United States. SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That the children of persons duly naturalized under any of the laws of the United States, or who, previous to the passing of any law on that subject by the Government of the United States, may have become citizens of any one of the said States, under the laws thereof, being under the age of twenty-one years at the time of their parents being so naturalized or admitted to the rights of citizenship, shall, if dwelling in the United States, be considered as citizens of the United States; and the children of persons who now are or have been citizens of the United States shall, though born out of the limits and jurisdiction of the United States, be considered as citizens of the United States: Provided, That the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons whose fathers have never resided within the United States: Provided falso, That no person heretofore proscribed by any State, or who has been legally convicted of having joined the army of Great Britain during the late war, shall be admitted a citizen as aforesaid without the consent of the legislature of the State in which such person was proscribed.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That all acts heretofore passed respecting naturalization be, and the same are hereby, repealed. Approved April 14, 1802.

AN ACT in addition to an act entitled "An act to establish an uniform rule of naturalization, and to repeal the acts heretofore passed on that subject."

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That when any alien who shall have complied with the first condition specified in the first section of the said original act, and who shall have pursued the directions prescribed in the second section of the said act, may die before he is actually naturalized, the widow and the children of such alien shall be considered as citizens of the United States, and shall be entitled to all rights and privileges as such, upon taking the oaths prescribed by law. Approved March 26, 1804.

AN ACT for the regulation of seamen on board the public and private vessels of the United States. SEC. 12. And be it further enacted, That no person who shall arrive in the United States from and after the time when this act shall take effect, shall be admitted to become a citizen of the United States, who shall not for the continued term of five years next preceding his admission as aforesaid have resided within the United States, without being at any time during the said five years out of the territory of the United States. Approved March 3, 1813.

AN ACT in further addition to "An act to establish an uniform rule of naturalization, and to repeal the acts heretofore passed on that subject."

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That any alien, being a free white person, and a minor, under the age of twenty-one years, who shall have resided in the United States three years next preceding his arriving at the age of twenty-one years, and who shall have continued to reside therein to the time he may make application to be admitted a citizen thereof, may, after he arrives at the age of twenty-one years, and after he shall have resided

five years within the United States, including the three years of his minority, be admitted a citizen of the United States without having made the declaration required in the first condition of the first section of the act to which this is an addition, three years previous to his admission: Provided, Such alien shall make the declaration required therein at the time of his or her admission; and shall further declare, on oath, and prove, to the satisfaction of the court, that for three years next preceding it has been the bona-fide intention of such alien to become a citizen of the United States, and shall in all other respects comply with the laws in regard to naturalization.

SEC. 2. And be further enacted, That no certificates of citizenship or naturalization heretofore obtained from any court of record within the United States shall be deemed invalid in consequence of an omission to comply with the requisition of the first seetion of the act entitled "An act relative to evidence in cases of naturalization," passed the twenty-second day of March, one thousand eight hundred and sixteen. SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the declaration required by the first condition specified in the first section of the act to which this is an addition, shall, if the same has been bona fide made before the clerk of either of the courts in the said condition named, be as valid as if it had been made before the said courts respectively.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That a declaration by any alien, being a free white person, of his intended application to be admitted a citizen of the United States, made in the manner and form prescribed in the first condition specified in the first section of the act to which this is in addition, two years before his admission, shall be a sufficient compliance with said condition, anything in the said act, or in any subsequent act, to the contrary notwithstanding.

Approved May 26, 1824.

AN ACT to amend the act entitled "An act for the regulation of seamen on board the public and pri vate vessels of the United States," passed the third of March, eighteen hundred and thirteen.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the last clause of the twelfth section of the act hereby amended, consisting of the following words, to wit, "without being at any time during the said five years out of the territory of the United States," be, and the same is hereby, repealed Approved June 26, 1848.

AN ACT to secure the right of citizenship to children of citizens of the United States born out of the limits thereof.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That persons heretofore born, or hereafter to be born, out of the limits and jurisdiction of the United States, whose fathers were or shall be at the time of their birth citizens of the United States, shall be deemed and considered and are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States: Provided, however, That the rights of citizenship shall not descend to persons whose fathers never resided in the United States.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That any woman who might lawfully be naturalized under the existing laws, married, or who shall be married to a citizen of the United States, shall be deemed and taken to be a citizen.

Approved February 10, 1855.

Second Session, Thirty-seventh Congress, chap. 200.

SECTION 21. And be it further enacted, That any alien of the age of twenty-one years and upwards, who has enlisted or shall enlist in the armies of the United States, either the regular or the volunteer forces, and has been or shall be hereafter honorably discharged, may be admitted to become a citizen of the United States upon his petition, without any previous declaration of his intention to become a citizen of the United States, and that he shall not be required to prove more than one year's residence within the United States previous to his application to become such citizen; and that the court admitting such alien shall, in addition to such proof of residence and good moral character as is now provided by law, be satisfied by competent proof of such person having been honorably discharged from the service of the United States as aforesaid. Approved July 17, 1862.