Lord Lieutenant of Ireland: That your excellency may have no doubts of the sentiment of the Kings confidential servants upon the question generally of the right which one state possesses to transport Its subjects into the territories of another. I am to inform you that we are clearly of opinion that o such right exists according to the law of nations. and consequently that His Majesty has not the power to banish any one of his subjects to the dominions of any other state or to authorize him to settle or land them there without the consent of the state having been first specifically obtained. Even in the absence of a statute dealing with the subject it was early settled that by the principles of international law our country could control the class of Immigrants admitted into our territory. Indeed. the right of a nation to perpetuate its existence presupposes the light of that nation to say what foreign peoples shall come into its territory and what shall not. The right of selfpreservation is the first law of nations as It is of the Individual.
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Immigrants