after stating the facts: The alleged ground of the application for the removal of this action into the Circuit Court of the United States, as allowed by the statute (25 U. S. Stats, at Large, ch. 866, § 23), is that the plaintiff is a citizen of this State and the defendants are citizens of the State of "Virginia. To give the Circuit Court jurisdiction in cases where it depends upon the citizenship of the parties, as in this case, such citizenship must distinctly appear from positive averments in the pleadings, or affirmatively, and with equal clearness, in other parts of the record, and to have existed at the time the action began. And so, where cases are removed from a State Court, such citizenship must likewise clearly appear from the petition for removal, or elsewhere in the record, and that the same existed at the time of the commencement of the action, as well as when the application for removal was made. Otherwise, the Circuit Court could not have jurisdiction, and the action would be remanded to the State Court, there to be disposed of according to law. This is clearly settled by many decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, and they are authoritative. Gibson v. Bruce, 108 U. S. R., 501; Railway v. Snow, 111 U. S. R., 379; Cuhose v. Railway, 131 U. S. R., 240; Stevens v. Rubais, 130 U. S. R , 230 ; Jackson v. Allen, 132 U. S. R., 27.
The diverse citizenship of the parties at the time the action began is not alleged in the petition, nor does it at all appear in any part of the record. It is essential that it should so appear. The motion was, therefore, properly denied.
The allegation in the petition that the defendants “believe that, from local prejudice, they will not be able to obtain justice in the State Courts,” &c., has no pertinency or force in this application. Applications to remove actions for that *220cause should be made in the appropriate Circuit Court of the United States. 25 U. S. Stats, at Large, ch. 866, § 2.
There is no error. Let this opinion be certified to the Superior Court according to law.
It is so ordered. No error.