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The Lias of England was laid down in conditions very similar to those which obtained at the same time in north France and north Germany, that is to say, on the floor of a shallow sea; but in the Alpine region limestones are developed upon a much greater scale. Many of the limestones are red and crystalline marbles such as the "ammonitico-rosso-inferiore" of the Apennines; a grey, laminated limestone is known as the "Fleckenmergel." The whitish "Hierlatzkalke," the Adnet beds and the "Grestener beds" in the eastern Alps and Balkan Mountains are important phases of Alpine Lias. The Grestener beds contain a considerable amount of coal. The Lias of Spain and the Pyrenees contains much dolomitic limestone. This formation is widely spread in western Europe; besides the localities already cited it occurs in Swabia, the Rhenish provinces, Alsace-Lorraine, Luxemburg, Ardennes, Normandy, Austria-Hungary, the Balkan States, Greece and Scania. It has not been found north of Kharkov in Russia, but it is present in the south and in the Caucasus, in Anatolia, Persia and the Himalayas. It appears on the eastern side of Japan, in Borneo, Timor, New Caledonia and New Zealand ; in Algeria, Tunisia and elsewhere in North Africa, and on the west coast of Madagascar. In South America it is found in the Bolivian Andes, in Chile and Argentina; it appears also on the Pacific coast of North America.

The economic products of the Lias are of considerable importance. In the Lower Lias of Lincolnshire and the Middle Lias of Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Yorkshire the beds of ironstone are of great value. Most of these ores are limestones that have been converted into iron carbonate with some admixture of silicates; they weather near the surface into hydrated peroxide. At Frodingham in Lincolnshire the oolitic iron ore reaches 30 ft. in thickness, of which 12 ft. are workable. In Gloucestershire the top beds of the Lower Lias and lower beds of the Middle division are the most ferruginous; the best ores near Woodstock and Banbury and between Market Harborough and Leicester are at the summit of the Middle Lias in the Marlstone or Rock bed. The ironstone of Fawler is sometimes known as Blenheim ore. The ores of the Cleveland district in Yorkshire have a great reputation; the main seam is 11 ft. thick at Eston, where it rests directly upon the Pecten Seam, the two together aggregating 15 ft. 6 in. Similar iron ores of this age are worked at Meurthe-et-Moselle, Villerupt, Marbache, Longuy, Champagneulles, &c. Some of the Liassic limestones are used as building stones, the more important ones being the Lower Lias Sutton stone of Glamorganshire and Middle Lias Hornton stone, the best of the Lias building stones, from Edge Hill. The limestones are often used for paving. The limestones of the Lower Lias are much used for the production of hydraulic cement and "Blue Lias" lime at Rugby, Barrow-on-Soar, Barnstone, Lyme Regis, Abertham and many other places. Roman cement has been made from the nodules in the Upper Lias of Yorkshire; alum is obtained from the same horizon. A considerable trade was formerly done in jet, the best quality being obtained from the "Serpentinus" beds, but "bastard" or soft jet is found in many of the other strata in the Yorkshire Lias. Both Lower and Upper Lias clays have been used in making bricks and tiles.

Certain dark limestones with regular bedding which occur in the Carboniferous System are sometimes called "Black Lias" by quarrymen.

LIBANIUS , Greek sophist and rhetorician, was born at Antioch, the capital of Syria. He studied at Athens, and spent most of his earlier manhood in Constantinople and Nicomedia. His private classes at Constantinople were much more popular than those of the public professors, who had him expelled in 346 on the charge of studying magic. He removed his school to Nicomedia, where he remained five years. After another attempt to settle in Constantinople, he finally retired to Antioch . Though a pagan, he enjoyed the favour of the Christian emperors. When Julian, his special patron, restored paganism as the state religion, Libanius showed no intolerance. Among his pupils he numbered John Chrysostom, Basil and Ammianus Marcellinus. His works, consisting chiefly of orations , declamations on set topics, letters, life of Demosthenes, and arguments to all his orations are voluminous. He devoted much time to the classical Greek writers, and had a thorough contempt for Rome and all things Roman. His speeches and letters throw considerable light on the political and literary history of the age. The letters number 1607 in the Greek original; with these were formerly included some 400 in Latin, purporting to be a translation, but now proved to be a forgery by the Italian humanist F. Zambeccari .

LIBATION , a drink offering, the pouring out of a small quantity of wine, milk or other liquid as a ceremonial act. Such an act was performed in honour of the dead , in making of treaties , and particularly in honour of the gods . Such libations to the gods were made as part of the daily ritual of domestic worship, or at banquets or feasts to the Lares, or to special deities, as by the Greeks to Hermes, the god of sleep, when going to rest.

LIBAU , a seaport of Russia, in the government of Courland, 145 m. by rail S.W. of Riga, at the northern extremity of a narrow sandy peninsula which separates Lake Libau from the Baltic Sea. Its population has more than doubled since 1881 , being 64,505 in 1897. The town is well built of stone, with good gardens, and has a naval cathedral . The harbour was 2 m. S. of the town until a canal was dug through the peninsula in 1697; it is now deepened to 23 ft., and is mostly free from ice throughout the year. Since being brought, in 1872, into railway connexion with Moscow, Orel and Kharkov, Libau has become an important port. New Libau possesses large factories for colours, explosives, machinery belts, sails and ropes, tobacco, furniture, matches, as well as iron works, agricultural machinery works, tin-plate works, soap works, saw-mills, breweries, oil-mills, cork and linoleum factories and flour-mills. The exports reach the annual value of ?3,250,000 to ?5,500,000, oats being the chief export, with flour, wheat, rye, butter, eggs, spirits, flax, linseed, oilcake, pork, timber, horses and petroleum. The imports average ?1,500,000 to ?2,000,000 annually. Shipbuilding, including steamers for open-sea navigation, is on the increase. North of the commercial harbour and enclosing it the Russian government made a very extensive fortified naval port, protected by moles and breakwaters. Libau is visited for sea-bathing in summer.

The action for libel is not restricted in the same way as that for slander. Originally there appears to have been no essential distinction between them, but the establishment of libel as a criminal offence had probably considerable influence, and it soon became settled that written defamatory statements, or pictures and other signs which bore a defamatory meaning, implied greater malice and deliberation, and were generally fraught with greater injury than those made by word of mouth. The result has been that the action for libel is not limited to special grounds, or by the necessity of proving special damage. It may be founded on any statement which disparages a man's private or professional character, or which tends to hold him up to hatred, contempt or ridicule. In one of the leading cases, for example, the plaintiff obtained damages because it was said of him that he was a hypocrite, and had used the cloak of religion for unworthy purposes. In another case a charge of ingratitude was held sufficient. In civil cases the libel must be published by being brought by the defendant under the notice of a third party; it has been held that it is sufficient if this has been done by gross carelessness, without deliberate intention to publish. Every person is liable to an action who is concerned in the publication of a libel, whether he be the author, printer or publisher; and the extent and manner of the publication, although not affecting the ground of the action, is a material element in estimating the damages.

It is not necessary that the defamatory character of the words or writing complained of should be apparent on their face. They may be couched in the form of an insinuation, or may derive their sting from a reference to circumstances understood by the persons to whom they are addressed. In such a case the plaintiff must make the injurious sense clear by an averment called an innuendo, and it is for the jury to say whether the words bore the meaning thus ascribed to them.

Both absolute and qualified privilege are given to newspaper reports under certain conditions by the Law of Libel Amendment Act 1888. The reports must, however, be published in a newspaper as defined in the Newspaper Libel and Registration Act 1881. Under this act a newspaper must be published "at intervals not exceeding twenty-six days."

In a few instances in which an action cannot be maintained even by the averment of malice, the plaintiff may maintain an action by averring not only malice but also want of reasonable and probable cause. The most common instances of this kind are malicious charges made in the ordinary course of justice and malicious prosecutions. In such cases it would be contrary to public policy to punish or prevent every charge which was made from a purely malicious motive, but there is no reason for protecting accusations which are not only malicious, but destitute of all reasonable probability.

An important dispute about the powers of the jury in cases of libel arose during the 19th century in connexion with some well-known trials for seditious libels. The point is familiar to readers of Macaulay in connexion with the trial of the seven bishops, but the cases in which it was brought most prominently forward, and which led to its final settlement, were those against Woodfall , Wilkes and others, and especially the case against Shipley, the dean of St Asaph , in which the question was fought by Lord Erskine with extraordinary energy and ability. The controversy turned upon the question whether the jury were to be strictly confined to matters of fact which required to be proved by evidence, or whether in every case they were entitled to form their own opinion upon the libellous character of the publication and the intention of the author. The jury, if they pleased, had it in their power to return a general verdict of guilty or not guilty, but both in theory and practice they were subject in law to the directions of the court, and had to be informed by it as to what they were to take into consideration in determining upon their verdict. There is no difficulty about the general application of this principle in criminal trials. If the crime is one which is inferred by law from certain facts, the jury are only concerned with these facts, and must accept the construction put upon them by law. Applying these principles to the case of libel, juries were directed that it was for the court to determine whether the publication fell within the definition of libel, and whether the case was one in which malice was to be inferred by construction of law. If the case were one in which malice was inferred by law, the only facts left to the jury were the fact of publication and the meaning averred by innuendoes; they could not go into the question of intention, unless the case were one of privilege, in which express malice had to be proved. In general principle, therefore, the decisions of the court were in accordance with the ordinary principles of criminal law. But there were undoubtedly some peculiarities in the case of libel. The sense of words, the inferences to be drawn from them, and the effect which they produce are not so easily defined as gross matters of fact. They seem to belong to those cases in which the impression made upon a jury is more to be trusted than the decision of a judge. Further, owing to the mode of procedure, the defendant was often punished before the question of law was determined. But, nevertheless, the question would scarcely have been raised had the libels related merely to private matters. The real ground of dispute was the liberty to be accorded to political discussion. Had the judges taken as wide a view of privilege in discussing matters of public interest as they do now, the question could scarcely have arisen; for Erskine's whole contention really amounted to this, that the jury were entitled to take into consideration the good or bad intent of the authors, which is precisely the question which would now be put before them in any matter which concerned the public. But at that time the notion of a special privilege attaching to political discussion had scarcely arisen, or was confined within very narrow limits, and the cause of free political discussion seemed to be more safely entrusted to juries than to courts. The question was finally settled by the Libel Act 1792, by which the jury were entitled to give a general verdict on the whole matter put in issue.

It is impossible here to write in detail the later history of the Liberal party, but the salient facts will be found in such articles as those on Mr Gladstone, Mr J. Chamberlain, Lord Rosebery, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Mr H. H. Asquith and Mr David Lloyd George.

LIBERIA, a negro republic in West Africa, extending along the coast of northern Guinea about 300 m., between the British colony of Sierra Leone on the N.W. and the French colony of the Ivory Coast on the S.E. The westernmost point of Liberia lies in about 6? 55? N. and 11? 32? W. The southernmost point of Liberia, and at the same time almost its most eastern extension, is at the mouth of the Cavalla, beyond Cape Palmas, only 4? 22? N. of the equator, and in about 7? 33? W. The width of Liberia inland varies very considerably; it is greatest, about 200 m., from N.E. to S.W. The Liberia-Sierra Leone boundary was determined by a frontier commission in 1903. Commencing at the mouth of the river Mano, it follows the Mano up stream till that river cuts 10? 40? W. It then followed this line of longitude to its intersection with N. latitude 9? 6?, but by the Franco-Liberian understanding of 1907 the frontier on this side was withdrawn to 8? 25? N., where the river Makona crosses 10? 40' W. The Liberian frontier with the adjacent French possessions was defined by the Franco-Liberian treaty of 1892, but as the definition therein given was found to be very difficult of reconciliation with geographical features further negotiations were set on foot. In 1905 Liberia proposed to France that the boundary line should follow the river Moa from the British frontier of Sierra Leone up stream to near the source of the Moa , and that from this point the boundary should run eastwards along the line of water-parting between the system of the Niger on the north and that of the coast rivers on the south, until the 8th degree of N. latitude was reached, thence following this 8th degree eastwards to where it cuts the head stream of the Cavalla river. From this point the boundary between France and Liberia would be the course of the Cavalla river from near its source to the sea. Within the limits above described Liberia would possess a total area of about 43,000 to 45,000 sq. m. But after deliberation and as the result of certain "frontier incidents" France modified her counter-proposals in 1907, and the actual definition of the northern and eastern frontiers of Liberia is as follows:--

Starting from the point on the frontier of the British colony of Sierra Leone where the river Moa or Makona crosses that frontier, the Franco-Liberian frontier shall follow the left bank of the river Makona up stream to a point 5 kilometres to the south of the town of Bofosso. From this point the frontier shall leave the line of the Makona and be carried in a south-easterly direction to the source of the most north-westerly affluent of the Nuon river or Western Cavalla. This line shall be so drawn as to leave on the French side of the boundary the following towns: Kutumai, Kisi Kurumai, Sundib?, Zuapa, Nzibila, Koiama, Bangwedu and Lola. From the north-westernmost source of the Nuon the boundary shall follow the right bank of the said Nuon river down stream to its presumed confluence with the Cavalla, and thenceforward the right bank of the river Cavalla down to the sea. If the ultimate destination of the Nuon is not the Cavalla river, then the boundary shall follow the right bank of the Nuon down stream as far as the town of Tuleplan. A line shall then be drawn from the southern outskirts of the town of Tuleplan due E. to the Cavalla river, and thence shall follow the right bank of the Cavalla river to the sea.

It is at the southern extremity of Liberia, Cape Palmas, that the West African coast from Morocco to the southernmost extremity of Guinea turns somewhat abruptly eastwards and northwards and faces the Gulf of Guinea. As the whole coastline of Liberia thus fronts the sea route from Europe to South Africa it is always likely to possess a certain degree of strategical importance. The coast, however, is unprovided with a single good harbour. The anchorage at Monrovia is safe, and with some expenditure of money a smooth harbour could be made in front of Grand Basa.

The colony was really founded by Jehudi Ashmun, a white American, between 1822 and 1828. The name "Liberia" was invented by the Rev. R. R. Gurley in 1824. In 1847 the American colonists declared their country to be an independent republic, and its status in this capacity was recognized in 1848-1849 by most of the great powers with the exception of the United States. Until 1857 Liberia consisted of two republics--Liberia and Maryland. These American settlements were dotted at intervals along the coast from the mouth of the Sewa river on the west to the San Pedro river on the east . Some tracts of territory, such as the greater part of the Kru coast, still, however, remain without foreign--American--settlers, and in a state of quasi-independence. The uncertainty of Liberian occupation led to frontier troubles with Great Britain and disputes with France. Finally, by the English and French treaties of 1885 and 1892 Liberian territory on the coast was made continuous, but was limited to the strip of about 300 m. between the Mano river on the west and the Cavalla river on the east. The Sierra Leone-Liberia frontier was demarcated in 1903; then followed the negotiations with France for the exact delimitation of the Ivory Coast-Liberia frontier, with the result that Liberia lost part of the hinterland she had claimed. Reports of territorial encroachments aroused much sympathy with Liberia in America and led in February 1909 to the appointment by President Roosevelt of a commission which visited Liberia in the summer of that year to investigate the condition of the country. As a result of the commissioners' report negotiations were set on foot for the adjustment of the Liberian debt and the placing of United States officials in charge of the Liberian customs. In July 1910 it was announced that the American government, acting in general agreement with Great Britain, France and Germany, would take charge of the finances, military organization, agriculture and boundary questions of the republic. A loan for ?400,000 was also arranged. Meantime the attempts of the Liberian government to control the Kru coast led to various troubles, such as the fining or firing upon foreign steamships for alleged contraventions of regulations. During 1910 the natives in the Cape Palmas district were at open warfare with the Liberian authorities.

One of the most notable of the Liberian presidents was J. J. Roberts, who was nearly white, with only a small proportion of negro blood in his veins. But perhaps the ablest statesman that this American-Negro republic has as yet produced is a pure-blooded negro--President Arthur Barclay, a native of Barbados in the West Indies, who came to Liberia with his parents in the middle of the 19th century, and received all his education there. President Barclay was of unmixed negro descent, but came of a Dahomey stock of superior type. Until the accession to power of President Barclay in 1904 , the Americo-Liberian government on the coast had very uncertain relations with the indigenous population, which is well armed and tenacious of local independence. But of late Liberian influence has been extending, more especially in the counties of Maryland and Montserrado.

The president is now elected for a term of four years. There is a legislature of eight senators and thirteen representatives. The type of the constitution is very like that of the United States. Increasing attention is being given to education, to deal with which there are several colleges and a number of schools. The judicial functions are discharged by four grades of officials--the local magistrates, the courts of common pleas, the quarterly courts and the supreme court.

The customs service includes British customs officers lent to the Liberian service. A gunboat for preventive service purchased from the British government and commanded by an Englishman, with native petty officers and crew, is employed by the Liberian government. The language of government and trade is English, which is understood far and wide throughout Liberia. As the origin of the Sierra Leonis and the Americo-Liberian settlers was very much the same, an increasing intimacy is growing up between the English-speaking populations of these adjoining countries. Order is maintained in Liberia to some extent by a militia.

The population of Americo-Liberian origin in the coast regions is estimated at from 12,000 to 15,000. To these must be added about 40,000 civilized and Christianized negroes who make common cause with the Liberians in most matters, and have gradually been filling the position of Liberian citizens.

For administrative purposes the country is divided into four counties, Montserrado, Basa, Sino and Maryland, but Cape Mount in the far west and the district round it has almost the status of a fifth county. The approximate revenue for 1906 was ?65,000, and the expenditure about ?60,000, but some of the revenue was still collected in paper of uncertain value. There are three custom-houses, or ports of entry on the Sierra Leone land frontier between the Moa river on the north and the Mano on the south, and nine ports of entry along the coast. At all of these Europeans are allowed to settle and trade, and with very slight restrictions they may now trade almost anywhere in Liberia. The rubber trade is controlled by the Liberian Rubber Corporation, which holds a special concession from the Liberian government for a number of years, and is charged with the preservation of the forests. Another English company has constructed motor roads in the Liberian hinterland to connect centres of trade with the St Paul's river. The trade is done almost entirely with Great Britain, Germany and Holland, but friendly relations are maintained with Spain, as the Spanish plantations in Fernando Po are to a great extent worked by Liberian labour.

The indigenous population must be considered one of the assets of Liberia. The native population--apart from the American element--is estimated at as much as 2,000,000; for although large areas appear to be uninhabited forest, other parts are most densely populated, owing to the wonderful fertility of the soil. The native tribes belong more or less to the following divisions, commencing on the west, and proceeding eastwards: Vai, Gbandi, Kpwesi, Mende, Buzi and Mandingo ; all these tribes speak languages derived from a common stock. In the densest forest region between the Mano and the St Paul's river is the powerful Gora tribe of unknown linguistic affinities. In the coast region between the St Paul's river and the Cavalla are the different tribes of Kru stock and language family--De, Basa, Gibi, Kru, Grebo, Putu, Siko?, &c. &c. The actual Kru tribe inhabits the coast between the river Cestos on the west and Grand Sesters on the east. It is known all over the Atlantic coasts of Africa, as it furnishes such a large proportion of the seamen employed on men-of-war and merchant ships in these tropical waters. Many of the indigenous races of Liberia in the forest belt beyond 40 m. from the coast still practise cannibalism. In some of these forest tribes the women still go quite naked, but clothes of a Mahommedan type are fast spreading over the whole country. Some of the indigenous races are of very fine physique. In the Nidi country the women are generally taller than the men. No traces of a Pygmy race have as yet been discovered, nor any negroes of low physiognomy. Some of the Krumen are coarse and ugly, and this is the case with the Mende people; but as a rule the indigenes of Liberia are handsome, well-proportioned negroes, and some of the Mandingos have an almost European cast of feature.

FOOTNOTE:

Amongst other remarkable negroes that Liberian education produced was Dr E. W. Blyden , the author of many works dealing with negro questions.

LIBERTAD, or LA LIBERTAD, a coast department of Peru, bounded N. by Lambayeque and Cajamarca, E. by San Martin, S. by Ancachs, S.W. and W. by the Pacific. Pop. 188,200; area 10,209 sq. m. Libertad formerly included the present department of Lambayeque. The Western Cordillera divides it into two nearly equal parts; the western consisting of a narrow, arid, sandy coast zone and the western slopes of the Cordillera broken into valleys by short mountain spurs, and the eastern a high inter-Andine valley lying between the Western and Central Cordilleras and traversed by the upper Mara?on or Amazon, which at one point is less than 90 m. in a straight line from the Pacific coast. The coast region is traversed by several short streams, which are fed by the melting snows of the Cordillera and are extensively used for irrigation. These are the Jequetepeque or Pacasmayo, in whose valley rice is an important product, the Chicama, in whose valley the sugar plantations are among the largest and best in Peru, the Moche, Viru, Chao and Santa; the last, with its northern tributary, the Tablachaca, forming the southern boundary line of the department. The Santa Valley is also noted for its sugar plantations. Cotton is produced in several of these valleys, coffee in the Pacasmayo district, and coca on the mountain slopes about Huamachuco and Otuzco, at elevations of 3000 to 6000 ft. above sea-level. The upland regions, which have a moderate rainfall and a cool, healthy climate, are partly devoted to agriculture on a small scale , partly to grazing and partly to mining. Cattle and sheep have been raised on the upland pastures of Libertad and Ancachs since early colonial times, and the llama and alpaca were reared throughout this "sierra" country long before the Spanish conquest. Gold and silver mines are worked in the districts of Huamachuco, Otuzco and Pataz, and coal has been found in the first two. The department had 169 m. of railway in 1906, viz.: from Pacasmayo to Yon?n with a branch to Guadalupe, 60 m.; from Salaverry to Trujillo with its extension to Ascope, 47 m.; from Trujillo to Laredo, Galindo and Menocucho, 18 1/2 m.; from Huanchaco to Roma, 25 m.; and from Chicama to Pampas, 18 1/2 m. The principal ports are Pacasmayo and Salaverry, which have long iron piers built by the national government; Malabrigo, Huanchuco, Gua?ape and Chao are open roadsteads. The capital of the department is Trujillo. The other principal towns are San Pedro, Otuzco, Huamachuco, Santiago de Chuco and Tuyabamba--all provincial capitals and important only through their mining interests, except San Pedro, which stands in the fertile district of the Jequetepeque. The population of Otuzco was estimated to be about 4000 in 1896, that of Huamachuco being perhaps slightly less.

LIBERTARIANISM , in ethics, the doctrine which maintains the freedom of the will, as opposed to necessitarianism or determinism. It has been held in various forms. In its extreme form it maintains that the individual is absolutely free to chose this or that action indifferently , but most libertarians admit that acquired tendencies, environment and the like, exercise control in a greater or less degree.

LIBERTINES, the nickname, rather than the name, given to various political and social parties. It is futile to deduce the name from the Libertines of Acts vi. 9; these were "sons of freedmen," for it is vain to make them citizens of an imaginary Libertum, or to substitute Libustines, in the sense of inhabitants of Libya. In a sense akin to the modern use of the term "libertine," i.e. a person who sets the rules of morality, &c., at defiance, the word seems first to have been applied, as a stigma, to Anabaptists in the Low Countries . It has become especially attached to the liberal party in Geneva, opposed to Calvin and carrying on the tradition of the Liberators in that city; but the term was never applied to them till after Calvin's death . Calvin, who wrote against the "Libertins qui se nomment Spirituelz" , never confused them with his political antagonists in Geneva, called Perrinistes from their leader Amadeo Perrin. The objects of Calvin's polemic were the Anabaptists above mentioned, whose first obscure leader was Coppin of Lisle, followed by Quintin of Hennegau, by whom and his disciples, Bertram des Moulins and Claude Perseval, the principles of the sect were disseminated in France. Quintin was put to death as a heretic at Tournai in 1546. His most notable follower was Antoine Pocquet, a native of Enghien, Belgium, priest and almoner , afterwards pensioner of the queen of Navarre, who was a guest of Bucer at Strassburg and died some time after 1560. Calvin describes the doctrines he impugns as pantheistic and antinomian.

LIBERTINES, SYNAGOGUE OF THE, a section of the Hellenistic Jews who attacked Stephen . The passage reads, , and opinion is divided as to the number of synagogues here named. The probability is that there are three, corresponding to the geographical regions involved, Rome and Italy, N.E. Africa, Asia Minor. In this case "the Synagogue of the Libertines" is the assembly of "the Freedmen" from Rome, descendants of the Jews enslaved by Pompey after his conquest of Judaea 63 B.C. If, however, we take closely together, the first name must denote the people of some city or district. The obscure town Libertum is less likely than the reading underlying certain Armenian versions and Syriac commentaries. The Greek towns lying west from Cyrene would naturally be called Libyan. In any case the interesting point is that these returned Jews, instead of being liberalized by their residence abroad, were more tenacious of Judaism and more bitter against Stephen than those who had never left Judaea.

LIBERTY , generally the state of freedom, especially opposed to subjection, imprisonment or slavery, or with such restricted or figurative meaning as the circumstances imply. The history of political liberty is in modern days identified practically with the progress of civilization. In a more particular sense, "a liberty" is the term for a franchise, a privilege or branch of the crown's prerogative granted to a subject, as, for example, that of executing legal process; hence the district over which the privilege extends. Such liberties are exempt from the jurisdiction of the sheriff and have separate commissions of the peace, but for purposes of local government form part of the county in which they are situated. The exemption from the jurisdiction of the sheriff was recognized in England by the Sheriffs Act 1887, which provides that the sheriff of a county shall appoint a deputy at the expense of the lord of the liberty, such deputy to reside in or near the liberty. The deputy receives and opens in the sheriff's name all writs, the return or execution of which belongs to the bailiff of the liberty, and issues to the bailiff the warrant required for the due execution of such writs. The bailiff then becomes liable for non-execution, mis-execution or insufficient return of any writs, and in the case of non-return of any writ, if the sheriff returns that he has delivered the writ to a bailiff of a liberty, the sheriff will be ordered to execute the writ notwithstanding the liberty, and must cause the bailiff to attend before the high court of justice and answer why he did not execute the writ.

In nautical phraseology various usages of the term are derived from its association with a sailor's leave on shore, e.g. liberty-man, liberty-day, liberty-ticket.

LIBERTY PARTY, the first political party organized in the United States to oppose the spread and restrict the political power of slavery, and the lineal precursor of the Free Soil and Republican parties. It originated in the Old North-west. Its organization was preceded there by a long anti-slavery religious movement. James G. Birney , to whom more than to any other man belongs the honour of founding and leading the party, began to define the political duties of so-called "abolitionists" about 1836; but for several years thereafter he, in common with other leaders, continued to disclaim all idea of forming a political party. In state and local campaigns, however, non-partisan political action was attempted through the questioning of Whig and Democratic candidates. The utter futility of seeking to obtain in this way any satisfactory concessions to anti-slavery sentiment was speedily and abundantly proved. There arose, consequently, a division in the American Anti-slavery Society between those who were led by W. L. Garrison , and advocated political non-resistance--and, besides, had loaded down their anti-slavery views with a variety of religious and social vagaries, unpalatable to all but a small number--and those who were led by Birney, and advocated independent political action. The sentiment of the great majority of "abolitionists" was, by 1838, strongly for such action; and it was clearly sanctioned and implied in the constitution and declared principles of the Anti-slavery Society; but the capture of that organization by the Garrisonians, in a "packed" convention in 1830, made it unavailable as a party nucleus--even if it had not been already outgrown--and hastened a separate party organization. A convention of abolitionists at Warsaw, New York, in November 1839 had resolved that abolitionists were bound by every consideration of duty and expediency to organize an independent political party. Accordingly, the political abolitionists, in another convention at Albany, in April 1840, containing delegates from six states but not one from the North-west, launched the "Liberty Party," and nominated Birney for the presidency. In the November election he received 7069 votes.

After 1840 the attempt began in earnest to organize the Liberty Party thoroughly, and unite all anti-slavery men. The North-west, where "there was, after 1840, very little known of Garrison and his methods" , was the most promising field, but though the contest of state and local campaigns gave morale to the party, it made scant political gains ; it could not convince the people that slavery should be made the paramount question in politics. In 1844, however, the Texas question gave slavery precisely this pre-eminence in the presidential campaign. Until then, neither Whigs nor Democrats had regarded the Liberty Party seriously; now, however, each party charged that the Liberty movement was corruptly auxiliary to the other. As the campaign progressed, the Whigs alternately abused the Liberty men and made frantic appeals for their support. But the Liberty men were strongly opposed to Clay personally; and even if his equivocal campaign letters had not left exceedingly small ground for belief that he would resist the annexation of Texas, still the Liberty men were not such as to admit that an end justifies the means; therefore they again nominated Birney. He received 62,263 votes--many more than enough in New York to have carried that state and the presidency for Clay, had they been thrown to his support. The Whigs, therefore, blamed the Liberty Party for Democratic success and the annexation of Texas; but--quite apart from the issue of political ethics--it is almost certain that though Clay's chances were injured by the Liberty ticket, they were injured much more outside the Liberty ranks, by his own quibbles. After 1844 the Liberty Party made little progress. Its leaders were never very strong as politicians, and its ablest organizer, Birney, was about this time compelled by an accident to abandon public life. Moreover, the election of 1844 was in a way fatal to the party; for it seemed to prove that though "abolition" was not the party programme, still its antecedents and personnel were too radical to unite the North; and above all it could not, after 1844, draw the disaffected Whigs, for though their party was steadily moving toward anti-slavery their dislike of the Liberty Party effectually prevented union. Indeed, no party of one idea could hope to satisfy men who had been Whigs or Democrats. At the same time, anti-slavery Whigs and Democrats were segregating in state politics, and the issue of excluding slavery from the new territory acquired from Mexico afforded a golden opportunity to unite all anti-slavery men on the principle of the Wilmot Proviso . The Liberty Party reached its greatest strength in the state elections of 1846. Thereafter, though growing somewhat in New England, it rapidly became ineffective in the rest of the North. Many, including Birney, thought it should cease to be an isolated party of one idea--striving for mere balance of power between Whigs and Democrats, welcoming small concessions from them, almost dependent upon them. Some wished to revivify it by making it a party of general reform. One result was the secession and formation of the Liberty League, which in 1847 nominated Gerrit Smith for the presidency. No adequate effort was made to take advantage of the disintegration of other parties. In October 1847, at Buffalo, was held the third and last national convention. John P. Hale--whose election to the United States Senate had justified the first successful union of Liberty men with other anti-slavery men in state politics--was nominated for the presidency. But the nomination by the Democrats of Lewis Cass shattered the Democratic organization in New York and the North-west; and when the Whigs nominated General Taylor, adopted a non-committal platform, and showed hostility to the Wilmot Proviso, the way was cleared for a union of all anti-slavery men. The Liberty Party, abandoning therefore its independent nominations, joined in the first convention and nominations of the Free Soil Party , thereby practically losing its identity, although it continued until after the organization of the Republican Party to maintain something of a semi-independent organization. The Liberty Party has the unique honour among third-parties in the United States of seeing its principles rapidly adopted and realized.

FOOTNOTES:

Mr T. C. Smith estimates that probably not one in ten of even professed abolitionists supported Birney; only in Massachusetts did he receive as much as 1% of the total vote cast.

Birney's vote was reduced by a disgraceful election trick by the Whigs ; a trick to which he had exposed himself by an ingenuously honest reception of Democratic advances in a matter of local good-government in Michigan.

E.g. Horace Greeley made the Whig charge; but in later life he repeatedly attributed Clay's defeat simply to Clay's own letters; and for Millard Fillmore's important opinion see footnote to KNOW NOTHING PARTY.

LIBMANAN, a town of the province of Ambos Camarines, Luzon, Philippine Islands, on the Libmanan river, 11 m. N.W. of Nueva C?ceres, the capital. Pop. 17,416. It is about 4 1/2 m. N.E. of the Bay of San Miguel. Rice, coco-nuts, hemp, Indian corn, sugarcane, bejuco, arica nuts and camotes, are grown in the vicinity, and the manufactures include hemp goods, alcohol , copra, and baskets, chairs, hammocks and hats of bejuco and bamboo. The Libmanan river, a tributary of the Bicol, into which it empties 2 m. below the town, is famous for its clear cold water and for its sulphur springs. The language is Bicol.

LIBO, in ancient Rome, the name of a family belonging to the Scribonian gens. It is chiefly interesting for its connexion with the Puteal Scribonianum or Puteal Libonis in the forum at Rome, dedicated or restored by one of its members, perhaps the praetor of 204 B.C., or the tribune of the people in 149. In its vicinity the praetor's tribunal, removed from the comitium in the 2nd century B.C., held its sittings, which led to the place becoming the haunt of litigants, money-lenders and business people. According to ancient authorities, the Puteal Libonis was between the temples of Castor and Vesta, near the Porticus Julia and the Arcus Fabiorum, but no remains have been discovered. The idea that an irregular circle of travertine blocks, found near the temple of Castor, formed part of the puteal is now abandoned.

FOOTNOTE:

LIBON, a Greek architect, born at Elis, who was employed to build the great temple of Zeus at Olympia about 460 B.C. .

LIBOURNE, a town of south-western France, capital of an arrondissement of the department of Gironde, situated at the confluence of the Isle with the Dordogne, 22 m. E.N.E. of Bordeaux on the railway to Angoul?me. Pop. town, 15,280; commune, 19,323. The sea is 56 m. distant, but the tide affects the river so as to admit of vessels drawing 14 ft. reaching the town at the highest tides. The Dordogne is here crossed by a stone bridge 492 ft. long, and a suspension bridge across the Isle connects Libourne with Fronsac, built on a hill on which in feudal times stood a powerful fortress. Libourne is regularly built. The Gothic church, restored in the 19th century, has a stone spire 232 ft. high. On the quay there is a machicolated clock-tower which is a survival of the ramparts of the 14th century; and the town-house, containing a small museum and a library, is a quaint relic of the 16th century. There is a statue of the Duc Decazes, who was born in the neighbourhood. The sub-prefecture, tribunals of first instance and of commerce, and a communal college are among the public institutions. The principal articles of commerce are the wines and brandies of the district. Printing and cooperage are among the industries.

ANCIENT LIBRARIES

Assyria.

The researches which have followed the discoveries of P. E. Botta and Sir H. Layard have thrown unexpected light not only upon the history but upon the arts, the sciences and the literatures of the ancient civilizations of Babylonia and Assyria. In all these wondrous revelations no facts are more interesting than those which show the existence of extensive libraries so many ages ago, and none are more eloquent of the elaborateness of these forgotten civilizations. In the course of his excavations at Nineveh in 1850, Layard came upon some chambers in the south-west palace, the floor of which, as well as the adjoining rooms, was covered to the depth of a foot with tablets of clay, covered with cuneiform characters, in many cases so small as to require a magnifying glass. These varied in size from 1 to 12 in. square. A great number of them were broken, as Layard supposed by the falling in of the roof, but as George Smith thought by having fallen from the upper storey, upon which he believed the collection to have been placed. These tablets formed the library of the great monarch Assur-bani-pal--the Sardanapalus of the Greeks--the greatest patron of literature amongst the Assyrians. It is estimated that this library consisted of some ten thousand distinct works and documents, some of the works extending over several tablets. The tablets appear to have been methodically arranged and catalogued, and the library seems to have been thrown open for the general use of the king's subjects. A great portion of this library has already been brought to England and deposited in the British museum, but it is calculated that there still remain some 20,000 fragments to be gathered up. For further details as to Assyrian libraries, and the still earlier Babylonian libraries at Tello, the ancient Lagash, and at Niffer, the ancient Nippur, from which the Assyrians drew their science and literature, see BABYLONIA and NIPPUR.

Ancient Egyptian Libraries.

Greece.

Alexandria.

Pergamum.

The magnificence and renown of the libraries of the Ptolemies excited the rivalry of the kings of Pergamum, who vied with the Egyptian rulers in their encouragement of literature. The German researches in the acropolis of Pergamum between 1878 and 1886 revealed four rooms which had originally been appropriated to the library . Despite the obstacles presented by the embargo placed by the Ptolemies upon the export of papyrus, the library of the Attali attained considerable importance, and, as we have seen, when it was transported to Egypt numbered 200,000 vols. We learn from a notice in Suidas that in 221 B.C. Antiochus the Great summoned the poet and grammarian Euphorion of Chalcis to be his librarian.

Rome.

The early Romans were far too warlike and practical a people to devote much attention to literature, and it is not until the last century of the republic that we hear of libraries in Rome. The collections of Carthage, which fell into their hands when Scipio sacked that city , had no attractions for them; and with the exception of the writings of Mago upon agriculture, which the senate reserved for translation into Latin, they bestowed all the books upon the kinglets of Africa . It is in accordance with the military character of the Romans that the first considerable collections of which we hear in Rome were brought there as the spoils of war. The first of these was that brought by Aemilius Paulus from Macedonia after the conquest of Perseus . The library of the conquered monarch was all that he reserved from the prizes of victory for himself and his sons, who were fond of letters. Next came the library of Apellicon the Teian, brought from Athens by Sulla . This passed at his death into the hands of his son, but of its later history nothing is known. The rich stores of literature brought home by Lucullus from his eastern conquests were freely thrown open to his friends and to men of letters. Accordingly his library and the neighbouring walks were much resorted to, especially by Greeks. It was now becoming fashionable for rich men to furnish their libraries well, and the fashion prevailed until it became the subject of Seneca's scorn and Lucian's wit. The zeal of Cicero and Atticus in adding to their collections is well known to every reader of the classics. Tyrannion is said to have had 30,000 vols. of his own; and that M. Terentius Varro had large collections we may infer from Cicero's writing to him: "Si hortum in bibliotheca habes, nihil deerit." Not to prolong the list of private collectors, Serenus Sammonicus is said to have left to his pupil the young Gordian no less than 62,000 vols. Amongst the numerous projects entertained by Caesar was that of presenting Rome with public libraries, though it is doubtful whether any steps were actually taken towards its execution. The task of collecting and arranging the books was entrusted to Varro. This commission, as well as his own fondness for books, may have led Varro to write the book upon libraries of which a few words only have come down to us, preserved by a grammarian. The honour of being the first actually to dedicate a library to the public is said by Pliny and Ovid to have fallen to G. Asinius Pollio, who erected a library in the Atrium Libertatis on Mount Aventine, defraying the cost from the spoils of his Illyrian campaign. The library of Pollio was followed by the public libraries established by Augustus. That emperor, who did so much for the embellishment of the city, erected two libraries, the Octavian and the Palatine. The former was founded in honour of his sister, and was placed in the Porticus Octaviae, a magnificent structure, the lower part of which served as a promenade, while the upper part contained the library. The charge of the books was committed to C. Melissus. The other library formed by Augustus was attached to the temple of Apollo on the Palatine hill, and appears from inscriptions to have consisted of two departments, a Greek and a Latin one, which seem to have been separately administered. The charge of the Palatine collections was given to Pompeius Macer, who was succeeded by Julius Hyginus, the grammarian and friend of Ovid. The Octavian library perished in the fire which raged at Rome for three days in the reign of Titus. The Palatine was, at all events in great part, destroyed by fire in the reign of Commodus. The story that its collections were destroyed by order of Pope Gregory the Great in the 6th century is now generally rejected. The successors of Augustus, though they did not equal him in their patronage of learning, maintained the tradition of forming libraries. Tiberius, his immediate successor, established one in his splendid house on the Palatine, to which Gellius refers as the "Tiberian library," and Suetonius relates that he caused the writings and images of his favourite Greek poets to be placed in the public libraries. Vespasian established a library in the Temple of Peace erected after the burning of the city under Nero. Domitian restored the libraries which had been destroyed in the same conflagration, procuring books from every quarter, and even sending to Alexandria to have copies made. He is also said to have founded the Capitoline library, though others give the credit to Hadrian. The most famous and important of the imperial libraries, however, was that created by Ulpius Trajanus, known as the Ulpian library, which was first established in the Forum of Trajan, but was afterwards removed to the baths of Diocletian. In this library were deposited by Trajan the "libri lintei" and "libri elephantini," upon which the senatus consulta and other transactions relating to the emperors were written. The library of Domitian, which had been destroyed by fire in the reign of Commodus, was restored by Gordian, who added to it the books bequeathed to him by Serenus Sammonicus. Altogether in the 4th century there are said to have been twenty-eight public libraries in Rome.

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