Page:Essay on the government of dependencies.djvu/11



subjects comprised within the science of politics may be conveniently distributed under the three following main divisions:

1. The nature and form of a sovereign government, and its relations with the persons directly subject to it.

2. The relations between the sovereign governments of independent communities; (viz., international law or morality).

3. The relations of a dominant and a dependent community; or, in other words, the relation of supremacy and dependence.

The first of these three subjects comprehends the nature, origin, and form of a sovereign government, and its relations with its immediate subjects constituting a single political community. The various departments of this extensive subject have been treated by a long series of writers, ancient and modern, beginning with Plato and Aristotle, and reaching to the present time.

The second subject, comprehending the relations between the sovereign governments of independent states, has been treated by a numerous class of modem writers, from Grotius downwards.

The third subject is the relation of supremacy