SUBALTERN. A kind of officer who exercises his authority under the superintendence and control of a superior.

TO SUBDIVIDE. To divide a part of a thing which has already been divided. For example, when a person dies leaving children, and grandchildren, the children of one of his own who is dead, his property is divided into as many shares as he had children, including the deceased, and the share of the deceased is subdivided into as many shares as he had children.

SUBINFEUDATION, estates, English law. The act of an inferior lord by which he carved out a part of an estate which he held of a superior, and granted it to an inferior tenant to be held of himself.

2. It was an indirect mode of transferring the fief, and resorted to as an artifice to elude the feudal restraint upon alienation: this was forbidden by the statute of Quia Emptores, 18 Ed. I; 2 Bl. Com. 91; 3 Kent, Com. 406.

SUBJECT, contracts. The thing which is the object of an agreement. This term is used in the laws of Scotland.

SUBJECT, persons, government. An individual member of a nation, who is subject to the laws; this term is used in contradistiction to citizen, which is applied to the same individual when considering his political rights.

2. In monarchical governments, by subject is meant one who owes permanent allegiance to the monarch. Vide Body politic; Greenl. Ev. §286; Phil. & Am. on Ev. 732, n. 1.

SUBJECT-MATTER. The cause, the object, the thing in dispute.

2. It is a fatal objection to the jurisdiction of the court when it has not cognizance of the subject-matter of the action; as, if a cause exclusively of admiralty jurisdiction were brought in a court of common law, or a criminal proceeding in a court having jurisdiction of civil cases only. 10 Co. 68, 76 1 Ventr. 133; 8 Mass. 87; 12 Mass. 367. In such case, neither a plea to the jurisdiction, nor any other plea would be required to oust the court of jurisdiction. The cause might be dismissed upon motion, by the court, ex officio.