Libel

complete. The punishment of such libellers, for either # making, repeating, printing, or publishing the libel, Liber. is a fine, and such corporal punishment as the court in its discretion shall inflict; regarding the quantity of the offence, and the quality of the offender. By the law of the twelve tables at Rome, libels, which affected the reputation of another, were made a capital offence: but, before the reign of Augustus, the punishment became corporal only. Under the emperor Valentinian it was again made capital, not only to write, but to publish, or even to omit destroying them. Our law, in this and many other respects, corresponds rather with the middle age of Romish jurisprudence, when liberty, learning, and humanity, were in their full vigour, than with the cruel edicts that were established in the dark and tyrannical ages of the ancient decemviri, or the latter emperors.

In this, and other instances, where blasphemous, immoral, treasonable, schismatical, seditious, or scandalous libels are punished by the English law, some with a greater, others with a less degree of severity, the liberty of the press, properly understood, is by no means infringed or violated. See LIBERTY of the Press.

LIBELLA, a piece of money amongst the Romans, being the tenth part of the denarius, and equal in value to the as. It was called libella, as being a little pound, because equal to a pound of brass.-Its value in our money is 1 ob. I qu. or a halfpenny farthing. See MONEY.

LIBELLA, or Libellula, a genus of four-winged flies, called in English dragon-flies or adder flies. See ENTOMOLOGY Index.

LIBELLI, was the name given to the bills which were put up amongst the Romans, giving notice of the time when a show of gladiators would be exhibited, with the number of combatants, and other circumstan

ces.

This was called munus pronunciare or proponere. -These bills were sometimes termed edicta. These public notices were given by the person who designed to oblige the people with the show, and were frequently attended with pictures representing the engagement of some celebrated gladiators. This custom is alluded to by Horace, lib. ii. sat. vii. 96, &c.

There was also the fumosus libellus, a defamatory libel. Seneca calls them contumeliosi libelli, infamous rhymes, which by a Roman ordnance were punishable with death. Libellus also in the civil law signifies the declaration, or state of the prosecutor's charge against the defendant; and it has the like signification in our spiritual courts.

LIBER, in vegetables, the bark or rind, principal ly of trees. This is to be conceived as consisting of a number of cylindric and concentric surfaces whose texture is reticular, and in some trees plainly extrusible every way, by reason that the fibres are soft and flexible. While in this condition, they are either hollow regular canals, or, if not so, they have interstitial spaces which serve the office of canals. The nutritious juice which they are continually receiving, remains in part in them, makes them grow in length and thickness, and strengthens and brings them closer together; and by this means the texture which was before reticular becomes an assemblage of straight fibres ranged vertically and parallel to each other; that is, as they are thus al

Liber

tered behind one another, they by degrees become a new substance, more woody, called blea. LIBERA, in Mythology, the name of a goddess, Libertines. which Cicero in his book Of the Gods, represents as the daughter of Jupiter and Ceres. Ovid in his Fasti

says, that the name was given by Bacchus to Ariadne. Libera is exhibited on medals as a kind of female Bacchus, crowned with vine leaves.

LIBERAL ARTS, are such as depend more on the labour of the mind than on that of the hands; or, that consist more in speculation than operation.; and have a greater regard to amusement and curiosity than to necessity.

The word comes from the Latin liberalis, which among the Romans signified a person who was not a slave; and whose will, of consequence, was not checked by the command of any master.

Such are grammar, rhetoric, painting, sculpture, architecture, music, &c. The liberal arts used formerly to be summed up in the following Latin verse: Lingua, Tropus, Ratio, Numerus, Tonus, Angulus, Astra. And the mechanical arts, which, however, are innumerable, under this:

Rus, Nemus, Arma, Faber, Vulnera, Lana, Rates. See ARTS.

LIBERALIA, feasts celebrated by the ancient Romans, in honour of Liber or Bacchus, the same with those which the Greeks called DIONYSIA, and Dionysiaca.

They took their name from liber, i. e. free, a title conferred on Bacchus in memory of the liberty or freedom which he granted to the people of Boeotia; or perhaps, because wine, whereof he was the reputed deity, delivers men from care, and sets their mind at ease and freedom. Varro derives the name of this feast from liber, considered as a noun adjective, and signifying free; because the priests were free from their function, and eased of all care, during the time of the liberalia: as the old women officiated in the ceremonies and sacri fices of these feasts.

LIBERIA, in Roman antiquity, a festival observed on the 16th of the kalends of April, at which time the youth laid aside their juvenile habit for the toga virilis, or habit peculiar to grown men. See the article TOGA.

LIBERTINES, LIBERTINI, in ecclesiastical history, a religious sect, which arose in the year 1525, whose principal tenets were, that the Deity was the sole operating cause in the mind of man, and the immedi ate author of all human actions; that, consequently, the distinctions of good and evil, which had been established with regard to those actions, were false and groundless, and that men could not, properly speaking, commit sin; that religion consisted in the union of the spirit or rational soul with the Supreme Being; that all those who had attained this happy union, by sublime contemplation and elevation of mind, were then allowed to indulge, without exception or restraint, their appotites or passions; that all their actions and pursuits were then perfectly innocent; and that, after the death of the body, they were to be united to the Deity. They likewise said that Jesus Christ was nothing but a mere je ne sçai quoi, composed of the spirit of God, and of the opinion of men.

These maxims occasioned their being called Liber

Libertines tines; and the word has been used in an ill sense ever since.

Liberty.

The Libertini spread principally in Holland and Brabant. Their leaders were one Quintin a Picard, Pockesius, Ruffus, and another called Chopin, who joined with Quintin, and became his disciple.

This sect obtained a certain footing in France through the favour and protection of Margaret, queen of Navarre, and sister to Francis I. and found patrons in several of the reformed churches. This sect was probably a remnant of the more ancient Beguards or Brethren of the Free Spirit.

LIBERTINES of Geneva, were a cabal of rakes rather than of fanatics; for they made no pretences to any religious system, but pleaded only for the liberty of leading voluptuous and immoral lives. This cabal was composed of a certain number of licentious citizens, who could not bear the severe discipline of Calvin, who punished with rigour not only dissolute manners, but also whatever bore the aspect of irreligion and impiety. In this turbulent cabal there were several persons who were not only notorious for their dissolute and scandalous manner of living, but also for their atheistical impiety and contempt of all religion. To this odious class belonged one Gruet, who denied the divinity of the Christian religion, the immortality of the soul, and difference between moral good and evil, and rejected with disdain the doctrines that are held most sacred among Christians; for which impieties he was at last brought before the civil tribunal, in the year 1550, and condemned to death. The Genevan spirit of reformation, improperly directed by the violence and zeal of Calvin, did at this time operate to a degree which has marked the character of this great reformer with reproach. For in 1544, Sebastian Castalio, master of the public school at Geneva, who was a man of probity, and distinguished by his learning and taste, was nevertheless deposed from his office, and banished the city, because he disapproved some of the measures that were pursued and some of the opinions entertained by Calvin and his colleagues, and particularly that of absolute and unconditional predestination. Jerome Bolsec also, a man of genius and learning, who became a convert to the Protestant religion and fled to Geneva for protection, was cast into prison, and soon after sent into banishment, because, in 1551, he imprudently and indecently declaimed, in full congregation and at the close of public worship, against the doctrine of absolute decrees.

LIBERTUS, or LIBERTINUS, among the Romans, a freedman, or a person set free from a legal servitude.

These still retained some mark of their ancient state: he who made a slave free having a right of patronage over the libertus: so that if the latter failed of showing due respect to his patron, he was restored to his servitude; and if the libertus died without children, his patron was his heir. See SLAVE.

In the beginning of the republic, libertinus denoted the son of a libertus or freedman; but afterwards, before the time of Cicero, and under the emperors, the terms libertus and libertinus, as Suetonius has remark. ed, were used as synonymons.

LIBERTY, denotes a state of freedom, in contra

Liberty, there is no freedom. But then, on the other hand, that constitution or frame of government, that system of laws, is alone calculated to maintain civil liberty, which leaves the subject entire master of his own conduct, except in those points wherein the public good requires some direction or restraint.

Comment.

The idea and practice of this political or civil liberty, flourish in their highest vigour in these kingdoms, where it falls little short of perfection, and can only be lost or destroyed by the folly or demerits of its owner; the legislature, and of course the laws of Britain, being peculiarly adapted to the preservation of this inestimable blessing even in the meanest subject. Very different from the modern constitutions of other states on the continent of Europe, and from the genius of the imperial law; which in general are calculated to vest an arbitrary and despotic power, of controuling the actions of the subject, in the prince, or in a few grandees. And this spirit of liberty is so deeply implanted in our constitution, and rooted even in our very soil, that a slave or a negro, the moment he lands in Britain, falls under the protection of the laws, and so far becomes a freeman; though his master's right to his service may possibly still continue.

The absolute rights of every Briton (which, taken in a political and extensive sense, are usually called their liberties), as they are founded on nature and reason, so they are coeval with our form of government; though subject at times to fluctuate and change, their establishment (excellent as it is) being still human. At some times we have seen them depressed by overbearing and tyrannical princes; at others, so luxuriant as even to tend to anarchy, a worse state than tyranny itself, as any government is better than none at all. But the vigour of our free constitution has always delivered the nation from these embarrassments: and, as soon as the convulsions consequent on the struggle have been over, the balance of our rights and liberties has settled to its proper level; and their fundamental articles have been from time to time asserted in parliament, as often as they were thought to be in danger:

Blackst. First, By the great charter of liberties, which was obtained, sword in hand, from King John, and afterwards, with some alterations, confirmed in parliament by King Henry III. his son. Which charter contain ed very few new grants; but, as Sir Edward Coke observes, was for the most part declaratory of the principal grounds of the fundamental laws of England. Af terwards, by the statute called confirmatio cartarum, whereby the great charter is directed to be allowed as the common law; all judgments contrary to it are declared void; copies of it are ordered to be sent to all cathedral churches, and read twice a-year to the people; and sentence of excommunication is directed to be as constantly denounced against all those that by word, deed, or counsel, act contrary thereto, or in any degree infringe it. Next, By a multitude of subsequent corroborating statutes (Sir Edward Coke reckons 32), from the first Edward to Henry IV. Then, after a long interval, by the petition of right; which was a parliamentary declaration of the liberties of the people, assented to by King Charles J. in the beginning of his reign. Which was closely followed by the still more ample concessions made by that unhappy prince to his

parliament, before the fatal rupture between them; Liberty, and by the many salutary laws, particularly the habeas corpus act, passed under Charles II. To these succeed. ed the bill of rights, or declaration delivered by the lords and commons to the prince and princess of Orange, 13th February 1688; and afterwards enacted in parliament, when they became king and queen : which declaration concludes in these remarkable words; "and they do claim, demand, and insist upon, all and singular the premises, as their undoubted rights and li berties." And the act of parliament itself recognises "all and singular the rights and liberties asserted and claimed in the said declaration to be the true, ancient, and indubitable rights of the people of this kingdom.' Lastly, These liberties were again asserted at the commencement of the last century, in the act of settlement, whereby the crown was limited to his present majesty's illustrious house; and some new provisions were added, at the same fortunate era, for better securing our religion, laws, and liberties; which the statute declares to be "the birthright of the people of England," according to the ancient doctrine of the common law.

Thus much for the declaration of our rights and liberties. The rights themselves, thus defined by these several statutes, consist in a number of private immunities; which will appear, from what has been premised, to be indeed no other, than either that resi duum of natural liberty, which is not required by the laws of society to be sacrificed to public convenience; or else those civil privileges, which society hath engaged to provide, in lieu of the natural liberties so given up by individuals. These therefore were formerly, either by inheritance or purchase, the rights of all man. kind; but, in most other countries of the world, being now more or less debased and destroyed, they at present may be said to remain, in a peculiar and emphatical manner, the rights of the people of Britain. these may be reduced to three principal or primary ar ticles; the right of personal security, the right of personal liberty, and the right of private property: be cause, as there is no other known method of compul. sion, or of abridging man's natural free-will, but by an infringement or diminution of one or other of these important rights, the preservation of these inviolate may justly be said to include the preservation of our civil immunities in their largest and most extensive sense. See the article RIGHTS.

And

In vain, however, would these rights be declared, ascertained, and protected by the dead letter of the laws, if the constitution had provided no other method to secure their actual enjoyment. It has therefore established certain other auxiliary subordinate rights of the subject, which serve principally as barriers to protect and maintain inviolate the three great and primary rights, of personal security, personal liberty, and pri vate property. These are,

1. The constitution, powers, and privileges of par. liament; for which see PARLIAMENT.

2. The limitation of the king's prerogative, by bounds so certain and notorious, that it is impossible he should exceed them without the consent of the people; as to which, see PREROGATIVE. The former of these keeps the legislative power in due health and vigour, so as to make it improbable that laws should

ba

mined in the ordinary courts of justice, and by course of Liberty. law.

Liberty, be enacted destructive of general liberty: the latter is a guard upon the executive power, by restraining it from acting either beyond or in contradiction to the laws that are framed and established by the other.

3. A third subordinate right of every Briton is that of applying to the courts of justice for redress of injuries. Since the law is, in this realm, the supreme arbiter of every man's life, liberty, and property, courts of justice must at all times be open to the subject, and the law be duly administered therein. The emphatical words of magna charta, spoken in the person of the king, who in judgment of law (says Sir Edward Coke) is ever present and repeating them in all his courts, are these: Nulli vendemus, nulli negabimus, aut differemus rectum vel justitiam ;" and therefore every subject (continues the same learned author), for injury done to him in bonis, in terris, vel persona, by any other subject, be he ecclesiastical or temporal, with out any exception, may take his remedy by the course of the law, and have justice and right for the injury done to him, freely without sale, fully without any denial, and speedily without delay." It were endless to enumerate all the affirmative acts of parliament, where in justice is directed to be done according to the law of the land and what the law is, every subject knows, or may know if he pleases: for it depends not upon the arbitrary will of any judge; but is permanent, fixed, and unchangeable, unless by authority of parliament. We shall however just mention a few negative statutes, whereby abuses, preversions, or delays of justice, especially by the prerogative, are restrained. It is ordained by magna charta, that no freeman shall be outlawed, that is, put out of the protection and benefit of the laws, but according to the law of the land. By 2 Edw. III. c. 8. and 11 Ric. II. c. 10. it is enacted, that no commands or letters shall be sent under the great seal, or the little seal, the signet or privy seal, in disturbance of the law; or to disturb or delay common right: and, though such commandments should come, the judges shall not cease to do right; which is also made a part of their oath by statute 18 Edw. III. stat 4. And by 1 W. and M. st. 2. c. 2. it is declared, that the pretended power of suspending or dispensing with laws, or the execution of laws, by regal authority without consent of parliament, is illegal.

4. If there should happen any uncommon injury, or infringement of the rights before mentioned, which the ordinary course of law is too defective to reach, there still remains a fourth subordinate right, appertaining to every individual, namely, the right of petitioning the king, or either house of parliament, for the redress of grievances. In Russia we are told that the czar Peter established a law, that no subject might petition the throne till he had first petitioned two different ministers of state. In case he obtained justice from neither, he might then present a third petition to the prince; but upon pain of death, if found to be in the wrong. The consequence of which was, that no one dared to offer such third petition; and griev. ances seldom falling under the notice of the sovereign, he had little opportunity to redress them. The restrictions, for some there are, which are laid upon petitioning in Britain, are of a nature extremely different; and while they promote the spirit of peace, they are no check upon that of liberty. Care only must be taken, lest, under the pretence of petitioning, the subject be guilty of any riot or tumult; as happened in the opening of the memorable parliament in 1640; and, to prevent this, it is provided by the statute 13 Car. II. st. 1. c. 5. that no petition to the king, or either house of parliament, for any alteration in church or state, shall be signed by above 20 persons, unless the matter thereof be approved by three justices of the peace, or the major part of the grand jury, in the country; and in London, by the lord mayor, aldermen, and common-council: nor shall any petition be presented by more than ten persons at a time. But, under these regulations, it is declared by the statute I W. and M. st. 2. c. 2. that the subject hath a right to petition; and that all commitments and prosecutions for such petitioning are illegal.

5. The fifth and last auxiliary right of the subject, that we shall at present mention, is that of having arms for their defence, suitable to their condition and degree, and such as are allowed by law. Which is also declared by the same statute 1 W. and M. st. 2. c. 2. and is indeed a public allowance, under due restrictions, of the natural right of resistance and self-preservation, when the sanctions of society and laws are found insufficient to restrain the violence of oppression.

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inviolate, the subject is perfectly free; for every spe cies of compulsive tyranny and oppression must act in opposition to one or other of these rights, having no other object upon which it can possibly be employed. 5 H

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