Page:Essay on the government of dependencies.djvu/15

 this sort destroy wealth, divert labour from useful objects, disturb commerce and credit, arrest the progress of internal improvements, shake the confidence of men in one another and in their government, and paralyse the energy of the wise and good by making them despair of the cause of human advancement.

The only effectual security against the occurrence of such wars is to be found in an improved international morality, and a more faithful observance of its maxims. But though such wars are mainly to be prevented by an improvement in the relations of independent communities, they are also in some measure to be prevented by an improvement in the relations of dominant and dependent communities. If, therefore, the following essay should assist in explaining the nature of the relation between a dominant and a dependent community, in showing the extent of the advantages which the former community can derive from its supremacy, and in indicating the sources of the disputes likely to arise between them, it would tend to diminish the chances of the greatest calamity to which the civilized world is now exposed.

It might likewise contribute to the same end, by exhibiting the nature and extent of the political evils which are inherent in the condition of a dependency. If the inhabitants of dependencies were conscious that many of the inconveniences of their lot are not imputable to the neglect, or ignorance, or selfishness of their rulers, but are the necessary con-