Context
French Emigration (1789-1815)
French Emigration (1789-1815) refers to the mass movement of citizens from France to neighbouring countries in reaction to the bloodshed and upheaval caused by the French Revolution and Napoleonic rule. To escape political tensions and save their lives, many people left France and settled in the neighbouring countries (chiefly Great Britain, Germany, Austria, and Prussia), and a few went to the United States.
The number of refugees fleeing into Britain reached its climax in autumn of 1792. In September alone, a total of nearly 4,000 refugees landed in Britain. [1] The country appealed to people because it had a channel separating them from the revolutionaries and because it was known for being tolerant. [2]
Emigrants primarily settled in London and Soho, the latter had grown into a thriving French cultural district, complete with French hotels and cuisine, although it had long been a haven for French exiles, housing many thousands of Frenchmen from the last mass migration, of Huguenots, which occurred in reaction to the 1685 revocation of the Edict of Nantes, [2] and the ensuing Foreign Protestants Naturalization Act 1708.
British fears about the French refugees
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 in the country. J. W. Bruges, secretary of 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". [1]
Additionally, the newspapers during the latter part of 1792 emphasized strong public suspicions of "Frenchmen in England" and demanded that high control and security measures be placed onto Britain. [1]
The 1793 Act
The act enforced that aliens be recorded upon arrival and 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. [3] 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." [3]
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 government. All immigrants feared deportation because of either their political views or security reasons, or, simply because they were regarded as an undesirable persons. [4]
The French Revolution was a period of political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789, and ended with the coup of 18 Brumaire in November 1799 and the formation of the French Consulate. Many of its ideas are considered fundamental principles of liberal democracy, while its values and institutions remain central to modern French political discourse.
The London Corresponding Society (LCS) was a federation of local reading and debating clubs that in the decade following the French Revolution agitated for the democratic reform of the British Parliament. In contrast to other reform associations of the period, it drew largely upon working men and was itself organised on a formal democratic basis.
Charles-François du Périer Dumouriez was a French military officer, minister of Foreign Affairs, minister of War in a Girondin cabinet and army general during the French Revolutionary War. Dumouriez is one of the names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe, on Column 3.
The Society of the Friends of the Constitution, renamed the Society of the Jacobins, Friends of Freedom and Equality after 1792 and commonly known as the Jacobin Club or simply the Jacobins, was the most influential political club during the French Revolution of 1789. The period of its political ascendancy includes the Reign of Terror, during which well over 10,000 people were put on trial and executed in France, many for political crimes.
Jacques Pierre Brissot, also known as Brissot de Warville was a French journalist, abolitionist, and revolutionary leading the faction of Girondins at the National Convention in Paris. The Girondins favored exporting the revolution and opposed a concentration of power in Paris. He collaborated on the Mercure de France and the Courier de l'Europe, which sympathized with the insurgents in the American colonies.
The Girondins, or Girondists, were a political group during the French Revolution. From 1791 to 1793, the Girondins were active in the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention. Together with the Montagnards, they initially were part of the Jacobin movement. They campaigned for the end of the monarchy, but then resisted the spiraling momentum of the Revolution, which caused a conflict with the more radical Montagnards. They dominated the movement until their fall in the insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793, which resulted in the domination of the Montagnards and the purge and eventual mass execution of the Girondins. This event is considered to mark the beginning of the Reign of Terror.
The Mountain was a political group during the French Revolution. Its members, called the Montagnards, sat on the highest benches in the National Convention. The term, first used during a session of the Legislative Assembly, came into general use in 1793. By the summer of 1793, that pair of opposed minority groups divided the National Convention. That year, the Montagnards were influential in what is commonly known as the Reign of Terror.
This glossary of the French Revolution generally does not explicate names of individual people or their political associations; those can be found in List of people associated with the French Revolution.
The Society of the Friends of the People was an organisation in Great Britain that was focused on advocating for parliamentary reform. It was founded by the Whig Party in 1792.
James Maitland, 8th Earl of Lauderdale, was Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland and a Scottish representative peer in the House of Lords.
William Wickham PC PC (Ire) was a British spymaster and a director of internal security services during the French Revolutionary Wars. He was credited with disrupting radical conspiracies in England but, appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland, failed in 1803 to anticipate a republican insurrection in Dublin. He ended his career in government service in 1804, resigning his post in Ireland where, privately, he denounced government policy as "unjust" and "oppressive".
The 1794 Treason Trials, arranged by the administration of William Pitt, were intended to cripple the British radical movement of the 1790s. Over thirty radicals were arrested; three were tried for high treason: Thomas Hardy, John Horne Tooke and John Thelwall. In a repudiation of the government's policies, they were acquitted by three separate juries in November 1794 to public rejoicing. The treason trials were an extension of the sedition trials of 1792 and 1793 against parliamentary reformers in both England and Scotland.
John Reeves was a legal historian, civil servant, British magistrate, conservative activist, and the first Chief Justice of Newfoundland. In 1792 he founded the Association for Preserving Liberty and Property against Republicans and Levellers, for the purpose suppressing the "seditious publications" authored by British supporters of the French Revolution—most famously, Thomas Paine's Rights of Man. Because of his counter-revolutionary actions he was regarded by many of his contemporaries as "the saviour of the British state"; in the years after his death, he was warmly remembered as the saviour of ultra-Toryism.
After Adolf Hitler came into power in 1933 and enacted policies that would culminate in the Holocaust, Jews began to escape German-occupied Europe and the United Kingdom was one of the destinations. Some came on transit visas, which meant that they stayed in Britain temporarily, while waiting to be accepted by another country. Others entered the country by having obtained employment or a guarantor, or via Kindertransport. There were about 70,000 Jewish refugees who were accepted into Britain by the start of World War II on 1 September 1939, and an additional 10,000 people who made it to Britain during the war.
The French Revolution had a major impact on Europe and the New World. Historians widely regard the Revolution as one of the most important events in European history. In the short-term, France lost thousands of its countrymen in the form of émigrés, or emigrants who wished to escape political tensions and save their lives. A number of individuals settled in the neighboring countries, while some settled in Russia, and many also went to Canada and the United States. The displacement of these Frenchmen led to a spread of French culture, policies regulating immigration, and a safe haven for Royalists and other counterrevolutionaries to outlast the violence of the French Revolution. The long-term impact on France was profound, shaping politics, society, religion and ideas, and politics for more than a century. The closer other countries were, the greater and deeper was the French impact, bringing liberalism, but also practices such as direct democracy and revolutionary terror along with the end of many feudal or traditional laws and practices. However, there was also a conservative counter-reaction that defeated Napoleon, reinstalled the Bourbon kings, and in some ways reversed the new reforms.
The Alien Office was formed in 1793 to implement the Aliens Act 1793, which was the first statutory control of foreign visitors created to control the influx of French refugees and suspected revolutionaries. It was created as sub-department of the Home Office, which itself had only come into existence in 1782. The first Superintendent of Aliens appointed was William Huskisson. In July 1798, the Alien Office relocated from the Home Office building in Whitehall to 20 Crown Street, Westminster which ran parallel to Downing Street.
French emigration from the years 1789 to 1815 refers to the mass movement of citizens from France to neighboring countries, in reaction to the instability and upheaval caused by the French Revolution and the succeeding Napoleonic rule. Although began in 1789 as a peaceful effort led by the Bourgeoisie to increase political equality for the Third Estate, the Revolution soon turned into a violent, popular movement. To escape political tensions and, mainly during the Reign of Terror, to save their lives, a number of individuals emigrated from France and settled in the neighboring countries, though a few also went to the Americas.
Fong Yue Ting v. United States, 149 U.S. 698 (1893), decided by the United States Supreme Court on May 15, 1893, was a case challenging provisions in Section 6 of the Geary Act of 1892 that extended and amended the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The provisions in question required Chinese in the United States to obtain certificates of residency and allowed for the arrest and the deportation of Chinese who had failed to obtain these certificates, even if they had not violated any other laws. The case involved writs of habeas corpus from Fong Yue Ting and two other Chinese citizens residing in New York City who were arrested and detained for not having certificates. The Supreme Court decision was in favor of the United States government, upholding the Geary Act and denying the writs of habeas corpus.
Wong Wing v. United States, 163 U.S. 228 (1896), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court found that the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution forbid the imprisonment at hard labor without a jury trial for noncitizens convicted of illegal entry to or presence in the United States.
Department of Homeland Security v. Thuraissigiam, 591 U.S. ___ (2020), was a United States Supreme Court case involving whether the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which limits habeas corpus judicial review of the decisions of immigration officers, violates the Suspension Clause of Article One of the U.S. Constitution. In the 7–2 opinion, the Court ruled that the law does not violate the Suspension Clause.
