within the jurisdiction (m), and that service of the writ on the head officer of the English branch of the business is a proper service. In America (U.S.) a Corporation may be sued by service on its agencies in States other than that of its creation-though, as a general rule, it has no legal existence out of the State by which it is created. A corporation created in one State of the American Union can make no valid contract in another State without the sanction, express or implied, of the latter; and hence laws restricting or prohibiting the exercise of legal rights by Foreign Corporations are constitutional (n).

(m) Newby v. Van Oppen and the Cotts Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company, 7 Law Rep. Q. B. 293.

In this case the law laid down by Lord St. Leonards, in the Carron Iron Company v. Maclaren, as to there being two domicils for forensic purposes, one here, and one in the foreign country, is approved of. In the case of the Princess of Reuss v. Bos (L. R. s. Eng. and Ir., App. p. 176), the House of Lords held that an association might be registered as a joint-stock company in England and thereupon incorporated by English law, though the seven shareholders who made the application were resident abroad. The first directors nominated were foreigners, only one having even a temporary residence in England, and the main objects of the Company were to be carried into execution abroad; and it was ruled that upon such a registration the usual effects would follow, and the Company might be wound up like any ordinary English company.

(n) Wharton, § 48 a, and cases there cited.

CHAPTER XII.

DOMICIL OF CHOICE.

CCIII. IT remains to consider the Domicil of Choice, which may be conveniently considered under the question of Change of Domicil, the subject of this chapter.

CCIV. It may be taken as a general maxim of European and American Law (a) that every person sui juris is at liberty to choose his Domicil and to change it according to his inclination.

CCV. An exception to this rule was made, in the time of Grotius, with respect to the subjects of Russia (b); but the laws of that country, with respect to naturalisation, allegiance, and nationality, subjects closely connected with domicil, have undergone a great change since 1864 (c).

(a) Nihil est impedimento quo minus quis ubi velit, habeat domicilium quod ei interdictum non sit.—Dig. lib. 1. t. i. s. 31, Ad Municip. Domicilium re et facto transfertur non nudâ contestatione sicut in his exigitur qui negant se posse ad munera ut incolas vocari.-S. 20, ibid. Incola jam muneribus publicis destinatus, nisi perfecto munere, incolatui renuntiare non potest.-S. 34, eod. Non tibi obest, si cum incola esses, aliquod munus suscepisti, modo si antequam ad alios honores vocareris domicilium transtulisti.-Code x. t. xl. 1. i. De Incolis. Vide antè.

(b) Grotius says (l. ii. c. v. s. 34, De Jure Belli et Pacis): "Solet hic illud quæri an civibus de civitate abscedere liceat, veniâ non impetratâ. Scimus populos esse ubi id non liceat, ut apud Moschos: nec negamus talibus pactis iniri posse societatem civilem, et mores vim pacti accipere. Romanis legibus, saltem posterioribus, domicilium quidem transferre licebat: sed non eo minus qui transtulerat municipii sui muneribus obligabatur: verum in quos id constitutum erat, ii manebant intra fines imperii Romani: atque ea ipsa constitutio specialem spectabat utilitatem tributariæ præstationis.'

(c) See note at the end of this chapter. VOL. IV.

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CCVI. According to the Roman Law, if the change of abode were made to avoid discharging the offices, or paying the taxes of the place of domicil, two things were required— one that the change of domicil should be real and bonâ fide; another, that it should have been made before the nomination to the office or the assessment of the tax had taken place.

CCVII. Questions as to change of domicil may be classed under two divisions,-1. Change of Domicil from one town or one province to another within the same country; 2. Change of Domicil from one country to another. But as the same principles apply to both, it will be convenient to consider them together.

CCVIII. Whenever the facts and circumstances are such as to beget a doubt whether a domicil has been acquired or not, recourse must be had to probable conjectures (d) (conjecturæ probabiles); and though all cases must in a great measure be dependent on their particular circumstances, yet it is most important to bear in mind that the opinion of jurists and the decisions of Courts of Justice have impressed a character upon certain circumstances, as affording the best criteria of Domicil, as legal presumptions of the intention of the party deduced from his acts. "In allegations" (says Lord Chancellor Cottenham) "depending upon intention, "difficulties may arise in coming to a conclusion upon the "facts of any particular case; but those difficulties will be "much diminished by keeping steadily in view the principle

(d) "Quoties autem non certo constat ubi quis domicilium habeat, et an animus sit inde non discedendi, ad conjecturas probabiles recurrendum, ex variis circumstantiis petitas, etsi non omnes æquè firmæ, aut singulæ solæ consideratæ non æquè urgentes sint, sed multum in iis valeat judicis prudentis et circumspecti arbitrium."—J. Voet, l. v. t. i. s. 97. De Judiciis, &c. "Dans les faits que les lois Romaines signalent comme des signes caracteristiques de domicile.”—Duranton, t. i. p. 100. See, too, the speech of the Avocat-Général in the case of Mademoiselle de Choiseul.-"Mais comment connaître le fait de l'habitation réelle; comment avoir des preuves de la volonté ? &c. &c. Les juges ne peuvent donc en décider que par des conjectures.”—Denisart, Domicile, 11.

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"which ought to guide the decision as to the application of "the facts" (e). In the case of Moorhouse v. Lord (ƒ), Lord Cranworth said, "In order to acquire a new domicilaccording to an expression which I believe I used on a "former occasion, and which I shall not shrink on that "account from repeating, because I think it is a correct "statement of the law-a man must intend quatenus in illo ""exuere patriam' (g). It is not enough that you merely "mean to take another house in some other place, and that, on account of your health or for some other reason, you "think it tolerably certain that you had better remain there "all the days of your life. That does not signify; you do "not lose your domicil of origin, or your resumed domicil, "merely because you go to some other place that suits your "health better, unless, indeed, you mean, either on account "of your health, or for some other motive, to cease to be a "Scotchman and become an Englishman, or a Frenchman, or "a German. In that case, if you give up everything you " left behind you, and establish yourself elsewhere, you may change your domicil. But it would be a most dangerous thing in this age, when persons are so much in the habit of going to a better climate on account of health, or to another "country for a variety of reasons-for the education of their "children, or from caprice, or for enjoyment-to say that by "going and living elsewhere, still retaining all your posses"sions here, and keeping up your house in the country, as "this gentleman kept up his house at Clippens, you make yourself a foreigner instead of a native. It is quite clear "that that is quite inconsistent with all the modern improved "views of domicil."

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CCIX. The circumstances which appear principally to be relied upon as affording evidence of the intention (animus manendi) are the following.

(e) Munro v. Munro, 7 Clarke & Finnelly's Reports of Cases in the House of Lords, p. 877.

(f) 10 House of Lords Rep. p. 283 (A.D. 1863).

(g) Whicker v. Hume, 7 II. L. Cas. 159.

CCX. 1. Place of Birth and Origin.

2. Oral and Written Declarations.

3. The Place of Death.

4. The Place of Wife and Family.

5. The House of Trade.

6. The depository of Family Papers and Memorials.

7. The Mansion House.

8. Description in Legal Documents.

9. Possession and exercise of Political Rights and Privileges.

10. Possession of Real Estate.

11. Length of residence and lapse of Time (h).

(h) New Law of Domicil and Naturalization of Russia. Imperial Ukase, dated March 6, 1864.

(Extract from Letter from Lord Napier, H.M.'s. Minister at St. Petersburg.)

St. Petersburg, March 30, 1864.

MY LORD,-An Act has recently received the sanction of the Emperor, and been published in the Russian papers, regulating the position of foreigners claiming to obtain certain rights in this country. The law will no doubt be shortly inserted in the Journal de St. Pétersbourg in French. I beg to submit to your Lordship at present the substance of the measure :—

A. (1.) A foreigner must be domiciled in the Empire before he can be admitted as a Russian subject.

(2.) A foreigner wishing to become domiciled in Russia must inform the Governor of the Province in which he wishes to reside of his desire to do so, explaining the nature of his occupation in his own country, and the pursuits he purposes to follow in Russia. On the receipt of such declaration the petitioner is considered to be domiciled in Russia, but will nevertheless be accounted a foreigner until he shall have taken the oath of allegiance.

(3.) Foreigners already resident in Russia, distinguished in art, trade, commerce, or in any other pursuit, may prove their domiciliation by other means than those specified in § 2.

(4.) A foreigner, after being domiciled five years in Russia, may apply to be admitted to Russian allegiance.

(5.) Foreign married women cannot become Russian subjects without their husbands.