having given notice to the magistrate of his intention of emigrating He wrote to his relations once after the lapse of one year, when during several years he gave no further news about himself. After having entered, in 1852, the age when he became liable to military service, he was summoned to appear, like every other citizen liable to serve in the army; at his non-appearance he was once more invited through the public papers to return; and, finally, on the 19th February, 1855, he was condemned as a military absentee by the criminal court at Hildesheim, in pursuance of the Hanoverian legislation on the subject.

On the 11th February, 1854, the appointed guardians of said Ernst, whose father died on the 26th May, 1852, delivered a notarial act, issued on the 27th December, 1853, at Evansville, Vanderburg county, Indiana, to the purport of obtaining his liberation from his allegiance to the Hanoverian Government. However, at the then state of the affair, that petition could not be taken into consideration.

The legal sentence has been published, put into execution as far as possible, and the name of said Ernst inscribed at his native place on the black-board (hue and cry) as a deserter.

On the 4th May of the present year the magistrate of Peine got notice that said Ernst had come back to his native place. The high bailiff of Hildesheim having been consulted, ordered the magistrate to produce said Ernst for the subsequent fulfilment of his military duties. The latter was induced, on the 18th May, to put said Ernst under provisional arrest, after his having received a sum of money from his guardians, and after his having given to understand that he intended to leave the country immediately, in order to avoid irremediable annoyances. On the 20th May he was sent under escort to Nordheim, where he was incorporated, on the 22nd of the same month, into the 2nd battalion of the 3rd regiment of infantry, and where he is in actual service.

Such is the exact state of things.

Now, in passing to the contents of the despatch addressed on the 8th July, of the present year, by the Under Secretary of State of The United States, at Washington, to his Excellency the Minister at Berlin, the following arguments may be humbly submitted:

The naturalization in general exists in the Kingdom of Hanover and in the other States of the German Confederation just as in The United States. The same may be said of the permission granted to subjects for emigrating; which, in fact, is guaranteed by section 43 of the Hanoverian Constitution, under the condition of a due observance of the legal formalities on the subject.

The naturalization of foreigners commonly depends upon certain suppositions. Now the citizenship of a country implying both

rights and obligations for the citizens, the freedom of emigration is subject to certain limitations until said obligations have been fulfilled or dispensed with.

The laws concerning citizenship vary in the different countries, nor can they be expected to be uniform since the peculiarities of every individual State require different considerations according to its internal constitution. Thus it may happen that immigrants into Hanover from a certain State are considered as Hanoverian subjects, according to the Hanoverian law, whilst in their native country they are still legally considered as subjects of that country, and although being citizens of a foreign State, and still liable to fulfil civic obligations in their native country.

The promulgation of laws and regulations respecting naturalization and emigration is undoubtedly the own (or domestic) affair of the respective Governments; and, considering the diversity that exists between the laws on that subject, the intention of putting a foreign law in force in another country without taking notice of the legislation of that same country, must be looked at as an encroachment upon the rights of every individual State.

The principles adopted in Hanover with regard to emigration may be said to be the most liberal of all the States of the German Confederation. They may be resumed in the following few words:

The freedom of emigration (with the exception of crimes, &c., committed, and not yet punished,) is subject to certain restrictions with respect to the male population in consequence of the general military obligations to which every subject is liable. The fulfilment of military duty is not required from sons emigrating with their fathers before they enter the age of conscription (21st year), nor from natural children emigrating with their mother. Those who want to emigrate without their parents, before having fulfilled their military duties, require the permission of a magistrate (a certificate of emigration), which is granted without difficulty up to the year preceding the year when the conscription takes place, and which, even in that very same year is not refused, provided it be shown that the interested party finds a better provision for the future abroad. Said grant is not to be eluded by the simple reason because it serves to distinguish honest emigrants from those who evade their military duties by flight. When within the age of military conscription (from 21st to 27th year), those subjects are alone allowed to emigrate, who, having not yet entered the military service, do not, by their departure, endanger the rights of other parties liable to serve in the army. Even those subjects to whom, under such circumstances, said permission might be refused, may obtain the same, after having procured a substitute, nay, after

having given a sufficient security for finding a substitute, in case the young men should be called out for military service.

In applying the above principles to the present case, the following result is obtained:

Christian Ernst, born in 1831, left the Hanoverian territory about Easter, in 1850, leaving his father behind; therefore, if he intended to give up his rights as a Hanoverian subject, and to settle in The United States, he required a certificate of emigration, which, up to the 1st January, 1852, would not have been withheld. That intention, however, not having been evinced, the certificate was not granted; consequently, the said Ernst could but be condemned, like every other refractory absentee, as a deserter, and at his return be treated as such.

The sentence having been brought to public notice, his name having besides been inscribed on the black-board (hue and cry), said Ernst could well know by himself or others what he might expect in the Kingdom of Hanover. He therefore must attribute to himself alone the disagreeable consequences arising therefrom for him.

If the Government of The United States would not consent to naturalize a foreigner before his having shown that he duly fulfilled his obligations to his native country-as generally done, under terms of reciprocity, by the different Governments of Europe-a naturalized American citizen at his return to his native country could never happen to be claimed for not having fulfilled his duties at home.

Now, according to the contents of said despatch, the right of the foreign State of admonishing naturalized American citizens returning to their native country to fulfil obligations preceding the time of their emigration to The United States, is generally recognized. This, however, is done with certain restrictions, based upon considerations of laws existing in The United States, but not in the respective foreign State. Thus said despatch, with respect to the violation of the military duty, uses an argument which is entirely contrary to the Hanoverian principles, viz.: it says that such a violation is only committed by him who leaves the country after having entered the military service, or after having been duly summoned to enter the same. From that argument, the inference is drawn that said Ernst, who acquired the American citizenship only on the 24th February of the present year, thus being up to that period only a Hanoverian subject, sojourning in The United States, has illegally been forced to enter the military service.

The natural relation between independent States seems to require that the State granting letters of naturalization to the subject of another State can only do this, provided those obligations, the mili

tary duties included, which the interested party has yet to fulfil in his native country, according to its laws, should continue, and that the said State should consequently not try to prevent naturalized American citizens from being required to fulfil those obligations at their voluntary return to their native country.

Consequently, the proceedings of the Hanoverian authorities against said Christian Ernst are quite legal, and the demand of the Government of The United States to liberate said Ernst from the military service might, according to the state of things, be considered as an encroachment upon the internal affairs of the Hanoverian Government, a supposition against which the said despatch itself protests.

Nevertheless, the Royal Hanoverian Government, anxious to show the greatest possible compliance with the wishes of a friendly Power united by so many ties with Hanover, is most ready to come to an agreement with the Government of The United States for the purpose of preventing the frequent complications of a similar nature. Should the Royal Government, as done before, render the liberation from the military service dependent on his finding a substitute, such a course would be equivalent to a refusal to pardon, since the price of substitutes in the present unsettled political state of things has reached such a height as to bring such a sum without the reach of said Ernst. The Royal Hanoverian Government, therefore, does not hesitate to remit at once the penalty incurred by said Ernst, by granting him a full pardon, and to cause him to be dismissed from the military service. The necessary measures have been taken for that purpose.

The recurrence, however, of similar conflicts can only be prevented by the Government of The United States renouncing to its own views on the subject, which do not agree with international relations, or by arriving at a certain agreement, the above representation offering certain openings which it must be left to the initiative of the Government of The United States to make the proper use of.

Finally, concerning the pretended ill-treatment of said Ernst, the explanations required from the various authorities have not yet entirely come in; as far, however, as they go, it appears that all the proceedings against said Ernst have been entirely legal, and that said Ernst has no reason to complain of an unfair treatment.

The Undersigned having the honour to deliver, most respectfully, the present communication to his Excellency the Minister, Mr. Wright, avails, &c.

J. A. Wright, Esq.

REITZENSTEIN.

[1861-62. LII.]

4 R

SIR,

No. 59.-Mr. Wright to Mr. Cass.

Berlin, August 31, 1859. THE promised reply of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hanover, on the subject of the treatment, arrest, and satisfaction to Mr. Ernst, has not come to hand.

I have written to Mr. Ernst for information, and received no reply.

As the despatch from the Hanoverian Government surrendering Mr. Ernst alludes to the settlement of this vexed question, and says the initiative must come from The United States, I would respectfully suggest to the consideration of the President the following propositions:

1. The abandonment of all military service where their subjects have been absent for 5 years from the land of their birth, and have become citizens of The United States.

2. The suspension of all judicial proceedings against those residing in The United States for any neglect of military duty.

3. No citizen of The United States to be ordered out of the country without personal notice and trial in a court of record, with the right of appeal to the highest tribunals of the land.

4. Total exemption of citizens of The United States residing in Hanover, Prussia, &c., from liability to support in any manner soldiers, officers, and those connected with the military service of the country.

I hope by next mail to send the department a copy of my reply to the Hanoverian Minister on the subject of the satisfaction due to Mr. Ernst, &c.

Hon. Lewis Cass.

I have, &c.

JOSEPH A. WRIGHT.

SIR,

No. 60.-Mr. Cass to Mr. Wright.

Washington, September 15, 1859.

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch of August 24, 1859, announcing the discharge of Christian Ernst.

The President has received this intelligence with great satisfaction, and approves the promptitude and energy with which you presented the case for the consideration of the Hanoverian Government. While he appreciates, also, the comity and good will towards The United States, which were manifested in the pardon and discharge of Ernst, and are expressed in the communication of Baron Reitzenstein, he regrets that the views of the Government of Hanover on the subject of expatriation are not more fully in accordance with those of this Government. It is hoped that upon a further consideration of the subject, it may be led so far to modify its present opinions as to prevent any future disagreement between