The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1824-03-24 00:00:00

ALIEN BILL.

Mr. PEEL said, he ruse to ;Wu duty he considered to Le
imposed upon hint ma 31iniater of the ('mien, and to call upon the
House to continue to Government the powers *toted in them by ute
Albs Act. This subject had again and again been discussed, and
yet he was reluctant to remain silent, lest the possession of such a
power Amid be said to be of little Importance. Ile would, ther-
eon, briefly state to the House the grounds on which he meant to
call for this power on the present occasion. The precise ground of
the Bill of 1816 contained a modification of that in force during the
war, and required that the alied, on landing front any ship iti this
country, should give his pane, profession, and the country from
which he arrived, with a penalty fin any wilful neglect. tow, no
Wan, he thought, would consider such provisions as in the least
degree improper. But under that Act the Crown could direct en
alien, by proclamation or other order, to leave this country ; and if
he did not comply with the order, he might be Miro:nod a
month ; and the maximum of punishirent was twelve tin mint' no-
briaonnient fin a repetition of the offence. The Secretary of Stine,
esides, could force an alien away in the possession of a King's
messenger, with liberty, however, to the alien to assign reason to
the Privy Council why the Secretary's order should not be sus-
pended, or altogether set aside. This was • summary and brief
detail of the provisions of the Alien Act ; and he now proceeded to
meet sonic of the objections urged against the Alien Bill. The
first objection to this Acs was, that it went against all our former
policy towards aliens, and as being at the sante time a violation of
our hmpitality. Ile did not wish to have the alien improperly
treated, nor our hospitality lessened, but he thought there was no.
thing now done which could lessen our character for being the asy-
lum of the persecuted. It never was our policy to admit the alien
indiscriminately, and an if we consulted the interest of the alien and
nut that of our own country. history proved that there were ni-
tric-Ilona on this subject, notwithstanding the arguments de-
duced from the clause of Magna ('harts, which Lord Coke
Said only applied to merchant aliens, and not to aliens
indiscriminately. To prove how the facts were upon this topic, I e
begged to refer the House to the authority of SIMI: of our earlier
reigns, and he would begin by referring to that of Henry IV., to
a period too when we were at peace, and when the current opinion
on this subject could be best known and now most safely consulted.
Ile would not refer to any period of our history when we were en.
gaged in foreign war, because that very circumstance of itself con-
stituted a difference which could not be applicable to the present
question. Ile found then, that in the reign of Henry IV. several
letters were written to tile keeper of the port of Dover, which, first
declaring the evil consequences that resulted to the pesce and wel-
fare of the British people, from the irdiscriminate arrival of fo-
reigners, next went on to give directions—indeed lie should ra-
ther say strict orders—to pass strict watch on their arrival and
subsequent conduct, until the Kinie-e pleasure should be finally
made known. These orders of the King were not considered , vio-
lation of our hospitality to strangers, but merely to prevent their
indiscriminate arrival, and the great danger calculated to re-
sult from it to our own national and personal interest. The
letters of the King, like that of the authority addressing the Mayor
of Calais, opposite Dover, were not written in the purest or mast
clatsical and Cieeronlan Latin, but they still chewed plainly enough
what the object intended by them was. in the letters of nervy
the Fourth exceptions are made in favour of merchant slims,
meerotores; but not of aliens h discriminately. Of all the reigns,
however, which had been adduced as faavourite authodifm rot Ibis
option. tint of Queen Mbalsidir was by far the most Abed open.
But these peculiar circumstances attending the peaceable part of
her reign (for he now only spoke of periods, when this country was
not engaged in foreign war) were not sufficiently attended to. It
was the object of Queen Elizabeth to encourage the growth of Pm-
tertanism--ti growth subordinate, let it be considered, to her own
interest ; and it must be admitted, that her encouragement to the
Flemish exiles was liberal in the extreme. Not w, however, to
the Roman Catholics ; for here, perhaps, her conduct led to the
opposite extreme. Quern Elizabeth had peculiar notions on the
subject, and acted, as she thought wisely, for the'protectiun of the
Protestant interest, of which site was the principal patron. Her
conduct to aliens was always directed by national policy, and
never altogether merely to favour them. But still Queen Eliza-
beth 'hewed the distrust she sometimes felt at the residence
of aliens in this country, particularly when their conduct was at
varisuce with their religious professions. In 1573 he found that
letters were addnmed to the Lord Mayor of London, directing him
to transmit to her an account of the number of foreigners an his
jurisdiction, with directions, that unless they altered their conduct
they must no longer reside in the city, and that as several of them
had not regularly attended die,ne service, they should be dia.
timed to other places to be assigned them, or else leave this
kingdom altogether. Here, then, were restrictions which plainly
proved that ahem, though favoured, were not so highly favoured
as natural-born subjects, and he thought the policy was wise. In
sonic years afterwards another letter was sent to the then Lord
Mayor, that as there were above 1,500 persons (aliens) in the city,
who were of no church, they should all depart the realm, within a
time to be by them prescribed ; and that, although they might as.
sociate subsequently with the church, still that they should eventu-
ally depart the realm. Yet this was not stated to be a breath of
English hospitality ; different towns were even named fur the re-
sidence of aliens, and no one from that circumstance contended that
England was not the asylum for the persecuted. During Queen
Elizabeth's reign he also found a letter addressed to Lord Cob-
ham, stating, that as a greater number of aliens lived
at Sandwich than she thought consistent with the safety of her own
people, they must be removed to some place more distant from
the sea In 1754 some aliens wished to remove from Lynn to
Norwich, but an order from the Queen forbade them to do so; she
issued regulations for their conduct, with which, if they did not
comply, they were immediately to depart the realm. Thus the
Howie would set, that strangers were always placed under certain
restrictions, which were followed to the reign of James the First :
the same policy obtained at that time as in the reign of Queen
Elizabeth. Then let thee Home compare the present alien regula-
tions with those which fonnerly prevailed. I. ormerly aliens sere
not allowed to exercise any handicraft trade or occupation; they
were not allowed to sell any thing by retail, and what was the case
now ? That them restrictions were entirely done away. In the
reign of King James a special commission was issued to this erect,
that as the King was bound to be vigilant of the welfare of his
realm, it was the paramount consideration of his Majesty, and his
iiovernment, to impose restrictions on aliens coining to our shores,
' and that they were not to be more liberally treated dun the policy
of this country would justify. All aliens residing here were
ordered to be enrolled as the servants of the King, in order that
they might not draw to this country a number of luindicraftmen to
the injury of our own. Now only contrast the permission ulcerate
aliens in these reigns with the to:minion shewn them at this 11401110 M
No one then contended they were not treated with sufficient liberality,
and what was that when compered to the liberality of the present
times ? So much then for the historical facts bearing on the ques-
tion. The next objection made to the Alien Bill was, that the
power" it conferred were liable to be abused. Ile did not say
that all rich powers were not liable to be abused; but he asked,
if some 'entrants did not exist to prevent their being grossly
abused or lightly exercised ? The alien could appeal to the
Privy Council, who might suspend the order commending him
to leave the country ; and he had the further security, that no per-
son exercising the office of Secretary of State would anne down to
this House and demand the continuance of wers, of whose wan.
ton or improper use he had been consciourt. Facts were the best an.
ewers to this objection ; and the facts negative anything like abuse.
He did not, however, wan to say, that this nun.charge of abuse
was any reason for the continuance of the .'.lien Bill but then,
looking at the facts, he thought there could be no fair ground for
stating that the abuse of such a power was at all probable. The
whole number of aliens sent from this country since 1818, were
only 17 ; of these 11 or 12 were connected with Bonaparte ; their
banishment took place on v ry peculiar grounds : but in the course
of the last ten yeas only five or six persons were all together
sent away. This simple statement proved that the powers vested
in the executive had tint, at all events, been lavishly exercised. In
8122 not one was sent away ; in 11k:1, only one, ('ount Betters,
and he was sent away under circumstances which prevented the dou-
blecrime of assassination and suicide. Another objection made to ,
the Alien Bill was. that it was uncalled for by our dotnestic situ.
anon, and was oily made subservient to the policy of foreign na-
tions: the best answer again to that was a reicrenec to facts. Ile
multi net predict as to the future—he could not say it would be im-
possible. that on stone occasion or other the Alien Act might be
abused ; hut this he could say, that no offence was given to foreign
powers, in consequence of any part of our conduct under the ope-
ration of the .tlien .tet ; for they made no such requests, and if
they had, they would not have been atteoded to ; nor if any I
were made. were they complied with. Another objection was,
that the Alien Act discouraged foreigners from coining amongst
us, because it lett them little or no security for their permanent re-
sidence, or the protection of their industz;a2cte was said that fo-
reign
only hell even their lives by su , and, what was