e is of a transitory
and moveable nature; and, besides, this indulgence to strangers is
necessary for the advancement of trade. Aliens also may trade as
freely as other people; only they are subject to certain higher duties
at the custom-house: and there are also some obsolete statutes of
Henry VIII, prohibiting alien artificers to work for themselves in
this kingdom; but it is generally held they were virtually repealed by
statute 5 Eliz. c. 7. Also an alien may bring an action concerning
personal property, and may make a will, and dispose of his personal
estate[w]: not as it is in France, where the king at the death of an
alien is entitled to all he is worth, by the _droit d'aubaine_ or _jus
albinatus_[x], unless he has a peculiar exemption. When I mention
these rights of an alien, I must be understood of alien-friends only,
or such whose countries are in peace with ours; for alien-enemies
have no rights, no privileges, unless by the king's special favour,
during the time of war.

[Footnote s: Co. Litt. 2.]

[Footnote t: _Cod._ _l._ 11. _tit._ 55.]

[Footnote u: 7 Rep. 17.]

[Footnote w: Lutw. 34.]

[Footnote x: The word is derived from _alibi natus_; Spelm. Gl. 24.]

WHEN I say, that an alien is one who is born out of the king's
dominions, or allegiance, this also must be understood with some
restrictions. The common law indeed stood absolutely so; with only a
very few exceptions: so that a particular act of parliament became
necessary after the restoration[y], for the naturalization of children
of his majesty's English subjects, born in foreign countries during
the late troubles. And this maxim of the law proceeded upon a general
principle, that every man owes natural allegiance where he is born,
and cannot owe two such allegiances, or serve two masters, at once.
Yet the children of the king's embassadors born abroad were always
held to be natural subjects[z]: for as the father, though in a foreign
country, owes not even a local allegiance to the prince to whom he is
sent; so, with regard to the son also, he was held (by a kind of
_postliminium_) to be born under the king of England's allegiance,
represented by his father, the embassador. To encourage also foreign
commerce, it was enacted by statute 25 Edw. III. st. 2. that all
children born abroad, provided _both_ their parents were at the time
of the birth in allegiance to the king, and the mother had passed the
seas by her husband's consent, might inherit