POLITICS, the science of government ; that part of ethics which consists in tho regulation and government of a nation or state, for the preservation of its safe ty, peace, and prosperity ; comprehend ing the defence of its independence and rights against foreign control or conquest, the augmentation of its strength and resources, and the protection of its citi zens in their rights, with the preservation and improvement of their tics, in its widest extent, is both the science and the art of government, or the science whose subject is the regula tion of man, in all his relations as the member of a state, and the application of this science. In other words, it is the theory and practice of obtaining the ends of civil society as perfectly as possible. The subjects which political science comprises have been arranged under the following beads :-1. Natural law ; abstract politics, that is the object of a state, and the relations between it and individual citizens; 3. political economy ;
4. the science of police, or municipal reg ulation : 5. practical politics, or the conduct of the immediate public affairs of a state; 6. history of politics; 7. his tory of the European system of states, being the only system in which the modern art of polities bas received a prae tical development ; 8. statistics ; 9. posi tive law relating to stale affairs, com monly called constitutional lilA• 10. prac tical late of nations ; 1 L diplomacy ; 12. the technical science of polities, an ac quaintance with the forms and style of public business in different countries. In common parlance we understand by the polities of a country the course of its gov ernment, more particularly as respects its relations with foreign nations.