an English dependency. The English parliament, however, exercised a power of legislation over Ireland until 1782; so that, before that time, Ireland was an English dependency, and its houses of parliament formed, together with the English crown, a subordinate government. But in 1782, the British Parliament surrendered its legislative power over Ireland. In consequence of this surrender of power, Ireland became an independent. kingdom, whose king was also king of Great Britain; and the Irish houses of parliament, instead of forming part of a subordinate government, became a part of a sovereign government. The independ-. ence of Ireland lasted until 1800; and the Union of 1800 produced the same change in the political relations of Great Britain and Ireland, as the Union of 1707 had produced in the political relations of England and Scotland.* The subsisting relation between the governments of Hungary and Austria is similar to that which subsisted between the governments of England and Scotland in the seventeenth century, and to that which lately subsisted between the governments of Great Britain and Hanover; excepting that the Emperor of Austria possesses the entire sovereignty in the Austrian dominions, and is only a member of the sovereign body in Hungary. The princes of the house of Austria have attempted to exercise the entire sovereign power within the territory of Hungary, and to treat Hungary as an Austrian depen * See below, Ch. II. § 2. dency; but this pretension has been resisted by the Hungarian diet, and Hungary must now be considered as an independent kingdom, whose king is also Emperor of Austria. Some writers have maintained that the English colonies in America and the West Indies are connected with England by a political relation similar to that just described. They have asserted that the English parliament is not supreme in any of these colonies; and that a law can only be made therein by a body composed of the English king and the local legislature of the colony. According to this view, the colonial local legislature is not subordinate to, but co-ordinate with, the English houses of parliament; and the local legislature occupies in the colony the same position with respect to the crown, which the houses of parliament occupy with respect to it in England. It follows, of course, from this view, that the English colonies in which this system of government obtains are not dependencies of England.* the supreme There is likewise a question respecting the seat of 3. What is the sovereign power, in one species of dependencies, government which may be here examined. purposes of of a settlement esta blished on of another dent state? It sometimes happens that an independent state the territory establishes, on the territory of another independent indepen state, a factory, or other settlement for trade or industry; and prevails upon the supreme government of the state to allow to the inhabitants of such factory or settlement, certain exemptions * See note (G.) at the end of the volume. from the laws of the place, and the jurisdiction of the native courts. Having secured these exemptions for the precinct assigned to such settlement, the supreme government of the other state proceeds to organize for it a subordinate government, and even to exercise over it a control resembling that which such supreme government might exercise over one of its own proper dependencies. Instances of this sort of settlement are afforded by the factories of the Venetians and Genoese in Constantinople under the Greek, and subsequently under the Ottoman Empire; by the factories of the Portuguese, Dutch, French, and English in Hindostan; and by the factories of the Portuguese and English at Macao and Canton. The British settlement of Honduras seems to have been originally established on Spanish soil by the consent of the Spanish Government; at present, however, it is absolutely dependent upon England. Now, in each of the cases just stated, a subordinate government can be plainly discerned, which, though it may not possess a very complete organization, nevertheless suffices for the wants of the small community over which it presides. But it is less easy to determine what is the supreme government to which each of these local governments is subordinate; in other words, what is the supreme government upon which the dependency is dependent. Strictly speaking, the subordinate government of such a settlement is subject to the supreme govern ment of the country in which the settlement is situate. The supreme government of the country never surrenders its sovereignty over the territory. occupied by the settlement; and it can, at any time, resume the powers which it allows to be exercised · by the other government. But, so long as the. treaty or other agreement between the two supreme. governments is observed by the supreme government of the country, the subordinate government of the settlement is in practice influenced by the directions issued to it from the supreme government of the country which has established it. Thus, so long as the Chinese Government permitted the existence of an English factory at Canton, the English of the factory claimed and enjoyed certain exemptions from the jurisdiction of the Chinese Courts, and the English Parliament even made laws by which it affected to bind the inhabitants of the factory. But, nevertheless, the sovereignty of the Chinese Government over the English factory at Canton never could have been disputed by the English Government; and the power which the English Parliament exercised over it could only have been considered as exercised with the consent, and by the sufferance of the supreme Chinese Government. Dependencies of oriental monarchies. CHAPTER II. Examples of Dependencies. HAVING given in the preceding chapter a general § 1. Dependencies of the Oriental Monarchies, and of the The system of governing by means of dependencies existed to a great extent in the ancient world; indeed, it was one of the main characteristics of the ancient governments, both monarchical and republican. The ancient monarchies of Asia were generally aggregates of nations which had once been independent, but had been reduced by conquest to dependence on a common superior. The obvious and rude contrivance for maintaining this dependence was for the ruler of the conquering tribe to place a governor in each subject community, who collected a revenue from the inhabitants, and having first defrayed from it the expenses of his own government, paid over the surplus, as a tribute, to his |