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[Sidenote: Test of Domicile.]
In determining the important question of Domicile, the animus manendi, or disposition to remain or settle in the land of the domicile, is the question to be determined.
If a man goes into a foreign country upon a visit, to travel for health, to settle a particular business, or for similar purposes, the residence naturally attendant on these circumstances is not generally regarded as a permanent residence.
But though a special purpose, such as the above, does not fix a domicile, yet these circumstances are not to be taken without respect to the time they may probably or actually do occupy. A general residence may grow upon a special purpose. It is difficult to fix the amount of time necessary to create a domicile, and it probably must be determined from each particular case. Thus, if a man remained in a hostile state after the outbreak, employed on some great work, which would occupy him many years, or beyond the probable termination of the war, or were unable to leave that particular climate on account of health, or were under any disability to return to his native country, the amount of time he had resided there would become an element of the question; against such a residence, the plea of an original special purpose, could not be averred; but it must be inferred, in such a case, that other purposes forced themselves upon him, mixed themselves with his original design, and impressed upon him the character of the country where he resided.
But, as an exception, a residence involuntary or constrained, however long, does not change the original character of the party, and give him a new and hostile one.
Domicile is fixed by a disclosed intention of permanent residence; if the emigrant employs his person, his life, his industry, for the benefit of the state under whose protection he lives; and if, war breaking out, he continues to reside there, pays his proportion of taxes, imposts, and revenues, equally with the natural-born subjects, no doubt he may be said to be domiciled in that country.
When these circumstances are ascertained, time ceases to be an element in the question, and the animus manendi, once ascertained, the recency of the establishment, though it may have been for a day only, is immaterial.
The intention is the real subject of enquiry; and the residence, once the domicile, is not changed by periodical absence, or even by occasional visits to the native country, if the intention of foreign domicile remains.
The native character, however, easily reverts; more so in the case of a native subject, than of one who is originally of another country. The moment an emigrant turns his back on his adopted country, with the intention of returning to (not simply visiting) his native country, he is in the act of resuming his original character, and must be again considered as a citizen of his native land;[68] even if he is forcibly detained in the country he is parting from, as was the case with British subjects on the breaking out of the War of 1804.[69]