The oppressive constructi...
The oppressive construction put upon the Alien Bill, to wlich allusion was made a good many weeks since in this paper, has not yet been properly amnendedl. It will be re- collected, thatby the last edition of the Alien Act, an Alien rs,fiding seven years or upwatrds in the kingdom, was to be exetnpt from the law-that is, from depoftattol? at will. The clerks, however, of the Home or Alien-ofice, were wiser in their generation than the law itself. They inter- preted the measure in such a way, that a foreign merchant who had lived for tweii ty years in England, and could not swear that he had never beers for 2' hours absent from it in all that period, should not enjoy the benefits of the ex- emption. This was not, ana could not be, the meaning of the Act of Parliament-bad enough in all conscience the men in office painted it (like the Devil sometimes) blacker than it is. Tei HomeSecretarybeing himnselfin town, more- over,when thatanswer tothealienapplicantswastransmitted, withoit reference to him, some proof was thereby furnished that the harsh construction of the act ha(i been ready cut and Iryfortheclerksbytheirsuperiors. On ,thedayonwhich our notice of the grievance appeared, a bint was thrown out by an evening paper that the imatter might be remedied by a second application to the same office, on a proper statement from the parties. A few days only elapsed before the hint was taken by a foreign gentleman, and in the interval Mr- PEEL left town, The answer to interrogatorics now is, that nothing can be done until the Home Secretary's re- turn ; whence it seems clear that the 241 hours' absence is no longer to constitute a bar to the security of the Alien; and if so, we mnust protest ngainst the condluct of the Home Department as mionstrouly inconsiderate andl unfeeling-as most disrespectful, mnoreover, to the country, by leaving the protection of the foreigner and the execution of the law contingent uipon the amusemelnts of a Minister.