User:Cbabeshobo/sandbox

The Aliens Act 1793 (33 Geo 3 c 4) was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain regulating immigration into the country. The Act was given high priority at the beginning of the parliamentary session, being introduced into the House of Lords by Lord Grenville on 19 December 1792. Despite concerns of Opposition party, the Act became law on 8 January 1793. The Act was temporary, and was renewed and revised by a series of subsequent changes. The Act was inspired by a sharp increase in refugees from the French Revolution seeking asylum in Great Britain. The number of refugees fleeing into Britain reached its climax in autumn of 1792. In September alone, a total of nearly 4000 refugees landed in Britain. The uncontrolled influx of foreigners created significant anxiety in government circles. Particularly, the British Government feared the presence of spies and Jacobin agents disguised as refugees. J.W. Bruges, secretary at the Foreign Office, wrote to Lord Grenville on 14 September: “By what I can learn, the majority of  these people are of a suspicious description, and very likely either to do mischief of  their own accord, or to be fit  tools  of  those  who  may  be  desirous of creating  confusion”. Additionally, the newspapers during the latter part of 1972 emphasized strong public suspicions of “Frenchmen in England” and demanded some control and security measures. In the response to the extraordinary and totally uncontrolled immigration, the government  started to assess whether the King of Great Britain (executive) had the power, without parliamentary sanction, to exclude or expel foreigners from the country. The answer was not clear. The opinion of the Crown lawyers seems to have been that the king did have a general power to prevent aliens from entering the kingdom or remaining there, but that this power had been so little used that it would be advisable to have recourse to an act of parliament. The Act was aimed to protect and strengthen the country internally. It declared that it was the prerogative of the Crown to forbid foreigners to enter or reside within the realm. The Act also required that aliens be recorded upon arrival and to register with the local justice of the peace. More specifically, those who arrived in Great Britain after January 1793 were required to give their names, ranks, occupations, and addresses. Even those who housed or roomed with an alien had to send similar details. It further held that violators of the act could be held without bail or mainprise, either to be deported or as punishment, a provision that caused critics to decry it as a suspension of habeas corpus; indeed, its sponsor in Parliament had earlier called it "a bill for suspending the Habeas Corpus Act, as far as it should relate to the persons of foreigners." During the war period, the ACT gave an extraordinary power to the government and placed all foreigners in the country at the mercy of the executive. There were more than fifty deportations of aliens per year in the seventeen-nineties. The aliens were deported because of their political views, security reasons, and simply because they were regarded as undesirable persons. After the war period, the number of deported aliens was significantly decreased. There were only sixteen deportations between 1816 and 1821 and only one after 1821. The Act was not renewed in 1826. An important remark about the Act was that while it did limit and regulate who could enter Great Britain, it did not completely prohibit immigrants, unlike the Aliens Act of 1905. Additionally, the Act was applied during the war period and was expired after war ended.