imperium in imperio

The existence of an imperium in imperio which comes between them and their people is of course distasteful to the mandarins; and they are bent on curtailing its privileges.

From The Awakening of China by W. A. P. (William Alexander Parsons) Martin

The Borders really constituted an imperium in imperio, and the wardens, when presiding over their monthly convention, were to all intents and purposes absolute rulers within their own prescribed domain.

From Border Raids and Reivers by Robert Borland

The populace of the country was now organized, and an imperium in imperio formed, which, from its privacy and the numbers of which it consisted, was truly alarming.

From The Causes of the Rebellion in Ireland Disclosed In an Address to the People of England, in Which It Is Proved by Incontrovertible Facts, That the System for Some Years Pursued in That Country, Has Driven It into Its Present Dreadful Situation by Anonymous

The latter were opposed upon the specious argument that such extended rights would constitute an imperium in imperio, and thus a condition incompatible with the safety and the conservation of complete control.

From Origin of the Anglo-Boer War Revealed (2nd ed.) The Conspiracy of the 19th Century Unmasked by C. H. Thomas

It stood upon the grounds of the Naval Training Station, for apprentices, which considered itself defrauded of property and intruded upon by an alien jurisdiction—an imperium in imperio.

From From Sail to Steam, Recollections of Naval Life by A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan