Harris to The Lord Stanley , M. P, July 10, 1868
[Untitled]
My Lord: On receipt of your lordship’s dispatch of June 16, I lost no time in soliciting of this government full information respecting the disabilities, civil and political, under which aliens resident in the Netherlands labor.
M. Roert Van Limburg in his reply, copy of which I have now the honor to inclose, makes frequent reference to the “code civil” and to the “code de procedure civil” in force in this kingdom. Of these works no translations from the Dutch exist, a want that, however, is the less felt as the whole body of statute law of this country is based on the “Code Napoléon,” promulgated in 1810.
Of the recent Dutch legislation on this subject, to which M. Roert Van Limburg calls attention, I have appended translations of those laws and articles the bearing of which, upon the condition of an alien in Holland, is not sufficiently explained in the text of his excellency’s dispatch.
In the event of the members of the “naturalization commission” requiring further information on the subject, I would venture to refer them to M. de St. Joseph’s “Concordances entre les Codes Civils Étrangers et le Code Napoléon,” a work published at Paris in 1856, and furnished with an excellent index, showing at a glance the divergencies of legislation in different countries on any given point.
I have, &c.,
The Lord Stanley, M. P.
Article 19 of the law of August 13, 1849.
The enactments of this law are not applicable to aliens who, under article 8 of the “Code Civil,” are assimilated to Netherlands subjects; and, with reference to this law, those aliens are considered admitted to Netherlands citizenship who are domiciled within the kingdom and married to Netherlands women, or who, having been married to Netherlands women, have by them had issue born within the Netherlands.
Extracts from code of civil procedure.
No. 127. An alien may, even when not domiciled in the Netherlands, be cited before a Netherlands tribunal for crimes committed by him against a Netherlands subject either within or without the limits of the kingdom.
No. 585.—10th. Aliens not domiciled within the Netherlands are liable to imprisonment for debt for any debt contracted with a Netherlands subject.
No. 710.—1st. Aliens not domiciled within the Netherlands are excluded from participating in the advantages of cession of property.
No. 768. Aliens not domiciled within the Netherlands may, without sentence in a court of justice, be seized for debts due to a Netherlands subject on an order of the justices of the arrondissement.
No. 769. Bail (on good securities for both debt and costs) may be accepted.
No. 770. Aliens, non-domiciled, are liable to seizure for debt, if payment of a debt on application is not made in eight days,
Article 8 of the civil code.
Aliens are assimilated to Netherlands subjects in the two following cases: 1st. When, in virtue of permission from the King, they have established their domicile in the kingdom, and made the communal administration acquainted with such permission.
2d. When, after having established their domicile in a commune of the kingdom, and retained it in the same commune for six years, they shall have announced to the communal administration their intention to establish themselves in the kingdom.