Page "Allegiance" Paragraph 4

The English doctrine, which was at one time adopted in the United States, asserted that allegiance was indelible: " Nemo potest exuere patriam ".

Accordingly, as the law stood before 1870, every person who by birth or naturalisation satisfied the conditions set forth, though he should be removed in infancy to another country where his family resided, owed an allegiance to the British crown which he could never resign or lose, except by act of parliament or by the recognition of the independence or the cession of the portion of British territory in which he resided.