LIBERTY ing one's person to whatever place one's inclination may direct, without imprisonment or restraint unless by due course of law. Blackstone, Comm. 134. 1 Political liberty is an effectual share in the making and administration of the laws. Lieber, Civ. Lib. 2. Liberty, in its widest sense, means the faculty of willing, and the power of doing what has been willed without influence from without. It means self-determination, unrestrainedness of action. Thus defined, one being only can be absolutely free,-namely, God. So soon as we apply the word liberty to spheres of human action, the term receives a relative meaning, because the power of man is limited; he is subject to constant influences from without. If the idea of unrestrainedness of ac tion is applied to the social state of man, it receives a limitation still greater, since the equal claims of unrestrained action of all necessarily involves the idea of protection against interference by others. We thus come to the definition, that liberty of social man consists in the protection of unrestrained action in as high a degree as the same claim of protection of each individual admits of, or in the most efficient protection of his rights, claims, interests, as man or citizen, or of his humanity, manifested as a social being. (See RIGHT.) The word liberty, applied to men in their political state, may be viewed with reference to the state as a whole, and in this case means the independence of the state, of other stares (see AUTONOMY); or it may have reference to the relation of the citizen to the government, in which case it is called political or civil liberty; or it may have reference to the status of a man as a political being, contradistinguished from him who is not considered master over his body, will, or labor,-the slave. This is called personal liberty, which, as a matter of course, includes freedom from prison. 3. Lieber, in his work on Civil Liberty, calls that system which was evolved in England, and forms the basis of liberty in the countries settled by English people, Anglican liberty. The principal guarantees, according to him, are: I. National independence. There must be no foreign interference. The country must have the right and power of establishing the government it thinks best. II. Individual liberty, and, as belonging to it, personal liberty, or the great habeas-corpus principle, and the prohibition of general warrants of arrest. The right of bail belongs also to this head. III. A well-secured penal trial, of which the most important is trial for high treason. IV. The freedom of communion, locomotion, and emigration. V. Liberty of conscience. The United States constitution and the constitutions of all the states have provisions prohibiting any interference with the church. 4. VI. Protection of individual property, which requires unrestrained action in producing and exchanging, the prohibition of unfair monopolies, commercial freedom, and the guarantee that no property shall be taken except in the course of law, the principle that taxation shall only be with the consent of the tax-payer, and for short periods only, and the exclusion of confiscation. VII. Supremacy of the law. The law must not, however, violate any superior law or civil principle, nor must it be an er post facto law. The executive must not possess the power of declaring martial law, which is merely a suspension of all law. In extreme cases, parliament in England and congress in the United States pass an act suspending the habeas corpus act. VIII. Every officer must be responsible to the affected person for the legality of his act; and no act must be done for which some one is not responsible. IX. It has been deemed necessary in the Bill of Rights and the American constitution specially to refer to the quartering of soldiers as a dangerous weapon in the hands of the executive. 5. X. The forces must be strictly submitted to the law, and the citizen should have the right to bear arms. XI. The right of petitioning, and the right of meeting and considering public matters, and of organizing into associations for any lawful purposes, are important guarantees of civil liberty. The following guarantees relate more especially to the government of a free country and the character of its polity: XII. Publicity of public business in all its branches, whether legislative, judicial, written, or oral. XIII. The supremacy of the law, or the protection against the absolutism of one, of several, or of the majority, requires other guarantees. It is necessary that the public funds be under close and efficient popular control; they should therefore be chiefly in the hands of the popular branch of the legislature, never of the executive. Appropriations should also be for distinct purposes and short times. 6. XIV. It is further necessary that the power of making war reside with the people, and not with the executive. A declaration of war in the United States is an act of congress. XV. The supremacy of the law requires, also, not only the protection of the minority, but the protection of the majority against the rule of a factious minority or cabal. XVI. The majority and, through it, the people are protected by the principle that the administration is founded on party principles. XVII. A very important guarantee of liberty is the division of government into three distinct functions,-legislative, administrative, and judicial. The union of these is absolutism or despotism on the one hand, and slavery on the other. XVIII. As a general rule, the principle prevails in Anglican liberty that the executive may do what is positively allowed by fundamental or other law, and not all that which is not prohibited. 7. XIX. The supremacy of the law requires that, where enacted constitutions form the fundamental law, there be some authority which can pronounce whether the legislature itself has or has not transgressed it. This power must be vested in courts of law. XX. There is no guarantee of liberty more important and more peculiarly Anglican than the representative government. See Lieber, Civ. Lib. p. 168. In connection with this, a very important question is, whether there should be direct elections by the people, or whether there should be double elecThe Anglican principle favors simple elections. tions; and double elections have often been resorted to as the very means of avoiding the object of a representative government. The management of the elections should also be in the hands of the voters, and government especially should not be allowed to interfere. Representative bodies must be free. They must be freely chosen, and, when chosen, act under no threat or violence of the executive or any portion of the people. They must be protected as representative bodies; and a wise parliamentary law and usage should secure the rights of each meinber and the elaboration of the law. A peculiar protection is afforded to members of the legislature in England and the United States, by their freedom from arrest, except for certain specified crimes. 8. Every member must possess the right to propose any measure or resolution. Not only must the legislature be the judge of the right each member has to his seat, but the whole internal management belongs to itself. It is indispensable that it possess the power and privileges to protect its own dignity. The principle of two houses, or the bicameral system, is an equally efficient guarantee of liberty, by excluding impassioned legislation and embodying in the law the collective mind of the legislature. XXI. The independence of the law, of which the independence of the judiciary forms a part, is one of the main stays of civil liberty. It requires "a living common law, a clear division of the judieiary from other powers, the public accusatorial process, the independence of the judge, the trial by jury, and an independent position of the advocate." See Lieber, Civil Liberty and Self-Government, pp. 208-250. 9. XXII. Another constituent of our liberty is local and institutional self-government. It arises out of a willingness of the people to attend to their own affairs, and an unwillingness to permit of the interference of the executive and administration with them beyond what it necessarily must do, or which cannot or ought not to be done by self-action. A pervading self-government, in the Anglican sense, is organic: it consists in organs of combined selfaction, in institutions, and in a systematic connection of these institutions. It is, therefore, equally opposed to a disintegration of society and to despotism. American liberty belongs to the great division of Anglican liberty, and is founded upon the checks, guarantees, and self-government of the Anglican The following features are, however, peculiar to American liberty: republican federalism, race. strict separation of the state from the church, greater equality and acknowledgment of abstract rights in the citizen, and a more popular or democratic cast of the whole polity. With reference to the last two may be added these further character istics: 10. We have everywhere established voting by ballot. The executive has never possessed the power of dissolving or proroguing the legislature. The list of states has not been closed. We admit foreigners to the rights of citizenship, and we do not believe in inalienable allegiance. There is no attainder of blood. We allow no ex post facto laws. American liberty possesses, also, as a characteristic, the enacted constitution,-distinguishing it from the English polity, with its accumulative constitution. Our legislatures are, therefore, not omnipotent, as the British Parliament theoretically is; but the laws enacted by them may be declared by the supreme courts to conflict with the constitution,-as unconstitutional. The liberty sought for by the French, as a peculiar system, is founded chiefly, in theory, on the idea of equality and the abstract rights of man. (Rousseau's Social Contract.) Lieber calls this system-if indeed that which has never yet come to be established as an enduring reality, with true vitality, can be called a system-Gallican liberty, to contradistinguish it from Anglican liberty. 11. Very few works have been written that treat exclusively of civil liberty; but liberty has been more or less comprehensively treated in many works in which the great topics of government or the rights of individuals or nations have been discussed. Aristotle's Politics; W. Fortescue, De Laudibus Legum Angliæ; Hooker, The Laws of Eccle siastical Polity; Locke on Government; Algernon Sidney, Discourses on Government (the great book which, together with Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws, may be said to have furnished the chief food on which the minds of our most distinguished revolutionary framers and legislators were reared). As to Montesquieu's Esprit des Lois, the student ought to combine with it the Critical Commentary, by Count Destutt de Tracy, first published in Philadelphia in 1811, and, if we are rightly informed, adopted by Mr. Jefferson as a political text-book for the University of Virginia. There is a German translation of Destutt de Tracy, with additional notes and criticisms, by C. F. Morstadt, Heidelberg, 1820; Locke, Two Treatises on Government; the best English edition of De Lolme on the British Constitution; the Works of Jeremy Bentham; Hallam, Constitutional History of England; Creasy, Rise and Progress of the English Constitution; Rousseau, Contrat Social (in connection with it, Lorimer's Political Progress not necessarily Democratic); Guizot, especially his Democracy; Jonathan Elliot; the Debates in the several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, together with the Journal of the Federal Convention, as reported by James Madison; John Adams' Defence of the Constitution of the United States; The Federalist, by Hamilton and Madison; George T. Curtis, History of the Origin, Formation, and Adoption of the Constitution of the United States; Story's Commentaries; Sismondi, Histoire de la Renaissance de la Liberté en Italie, and his History of the Italian Republics in the Middle Ages; Lieber's Political Ethics; Whewell's Elements of Morality, including Polity; all those portions of the great writers on the Law of Nations where human rights are discussed. For criticism of political literature and a comprehensive enumeration of political writers, we must refer the student to Robert von Mohl, History and Literature of Political Sciences, 3 vols. Erlangen, 1858. LIBERTY OF THE PRESS. The right to print and publish the truth, from good motives and for justifiable ends. 3 Johns. Cas. N. Y. 394. This right is secured by the constitution of the United States. Amendments, art. 1. The abuse of the right is punished criminally by indictment, civilly by action. See Judge Cooper, Libel; LIBEL. LIBERTY OF SPEECH. The right to public support in speaking facts or opinions. 2. It is provided by the constitution of the United States that members of congress shall not be called to account for any thing said in debate; and similar provisions are contained in the constitutions of the several states in relation to the members of their respective legislatures. This right, however, does not extend beyond the mere speaking; for if a member of congress were to reduce his speech to writing and cause it to be printed, it would no longer bear a privileged character, and he might be held responsible for a libel, as any other individual. See Bacon, Abr. Libel (B); DEBATE. 3. The greatest latitude is allowed by the common law to counsel: in the discharge of his professional duty, he may use strong epithets, however derogatory to other persons they may be, if pertinent to the cause, and stated in his instructions, whether the thing were true or false. But if he were maliciously to travel out of his case for the purpose of slandering another, he would be liable to an action, and amenable to a just, and often more efficacious, punishment, inflicted by public opinion. 3 Chitty, Pract. 887. No respectable counsel will indulge himself with unjust severity; and it is doubtless the duty of the court to prevent any such abuse. LIBERUM MARITAGIUM (Lat.). In Old English Law. Frank-marriage (q.v.). 2 Sharswood, Blackst. Comm. 115; Littleton, 17; Bracton, fol. 21. LIBERUM SERVITIUM. Free service. Service of a warlike sort by a feudatory tenant; sometimes called servitium liberum armorum. Somner, Gavelk. p. 56; Jacob, Law Dict.; 4 Coke, 9. given by some competent authority to do an act which without such authority would be illegal. An authority to do a particular act or series of acts on another's land without possessing any estate therein. 11 Mass. 533; 4 Sandf. Ch. N. Y. 72; 1 Washburn, Real Prop. 148. The written evidence of the grant of such right. An executed license exists when the licensed act has been done. An executory license exists where the licensed act has not been performed. An express license is one which is granted in direct terms. An implied license is one which is presumed to have been given from the acts of the party It is distinguished from an easement, which implies an interest in the land to be affected, and a lease, or right to take the profits of land. It may be, however, and often is, coupled with a grant of some interest in the land itself, or right to take the profits. 1 Washburn, Real Prop. 148. Service not unbecoming character of free-authorized to give it. men and soldier to perform: as, to serve under the lord in his wars, to pay a sum of money, and the like. 2 Sharswood, Blackst. Comm. 60. The tenure of free service does not make a villein a free man, unless homage or manumission precede, any more than a tenure by villein services makes a freeman a villein. Bracton, fol. 24. LIBERUM TENEMENTUM. In Real Law. Freehold. Frank-tenement. 2 Bouvier, Inst. n. 1690; 1 Washburn, Real Prop. 46. In Pleading. A plea in justification by the defendant in an action of trespass, by which he claims that he is the owner of the close described in the declaration, or that it is the freehold of some third person by whose command he entered. 2 Salk. 453; 7 Term, 355; 1 Wms. Saund. 299 b, note. It has the effect of compelling the plaintiff to a new assignment, setting out the abuttals where he has the locus in quo only generally in his declaration, 11 East, 51, 72; 16 id. 343; 1 Barnew. & C. 489; or to set forth tenancy in case he claims as tenant of the defendant, or the person ordering the trespass. 1 Saund. 299 b. It admits possession by the plaintiff, and the fact of the commission of a trespass as charged. 2 M'Cord, So. C. 226. LICENCIADO. In Spanish Law. Lawyer or Advocate. By a decree of the Spanish government of 6th November, 1843, it was declared that all persons who have obtained diplomas of "Licentiates in Jurisprudence" from any of the literary universities of Spain are entitled to practise in all the courts of Spain without first obtaining permission by the tribunals of justice. Their title is furnished them by the minister of the interior, to whom the universities forward a list of those whom they think qualified. 22; by parol, 13 Mees. & W. Exch. 838; 4 Maule A license may be by specialty, 2 Parsons, Contr. & S. 562; 7 Barb. N. Y. 4; 1 Washburn, Real Prop. 148; or by implication from circumstances, as opening a door in response to a knock. Hob. 62; 2 Greenleaf, Ev. 8 427. 2. It may be granted by the owner, or, in many cases, by a servant. Croke Eliz. 246; 2 Greenleaf, Ev. 8427. An executory license may be revoked at the pleasure of the grantor. 1 Washburn, Real Prop. 148. In general, a mere license may be revoked at the grantor's pleasure, 11 Mass. 433; 15 Wend. N. Y. 380; although the licensee has incurred expense. 10 Conn. 378; 23 id. 223; 3 Du. N. Y. 355; 11 Metc. Mass. 251; 2 Gray, Mass. 302; 24 N. H. 364; 13 id. 264; 4 Johns. N. Y. 418; 3 Wisc. 117; 1 Dev. & B. No. C. 492; 13 Mees. & W. Exch. 838; 37 Eng. L. & Eq. 489; 5 Barnew. & Ad. 1. But see 14 Serg. & R. Penn. 267. Not so a license closely coupled with a transfer of title to personal property. 8 Metc. Mass. 34; 11 Conn. 525; 13 Mees. & W. Exch. 856; 11 Ad. & E. 34. 3. An executed license which destroys an licensee's land, cannot be revoked. 9 Metc. easement enjoyed by the licenser in the Mass. 395; 2 Gray, Mass. 302; 2 Gill, Md. 221; 3 Wisc. 124; 3 Du. N. Y. 255; 7 Bingh. 682; 3 Barnew. & C. 332; 5 id. 221. The effect of an executed license, though revoked, is to relieve or excuse the licensee from liability for acts done properly in pursuN. Y. 363; 22 Barb. N. Y. 336; 18 Pick. ance thereof, and their consequences. 6 Du. Mass. 569; 2 Gray, Mass. 302; 10 Conn. 378; 13 N. H. 264; 7 id. 237; 7 Taunt. 374; 5 Barnew. & C. 221. This law does not apply to those already The licensee's improvements on lands withlicensed, who may, however, obtain the bene-out compensation, in equity. 3 Wise. 117; fit of it, upon surrendering their license and Story, Eq. Jur. 1237; Angell, Wat. Cour. complying with certain other formalities pre- 318. scribed by the law. LICENSE (Lat. licere, to permit). In Contracts. A permission. A right In International Law. Permission granted by a belligerent state to its own subjects, or to the subjects of the enemy, to carry on a trade interdicted by war. Wheaton, Int. Law, 475. 4. Licenses operate as a dispensation of the rules of war, so far as its provisions extend. They are stricti juris, but are not to be construed with pedantic accuracy. Wheaton, Int. Law, 476; 1 Kent, Comm. 5th ed. 163 n.; 4 C. Rob. Adm. 8. They can be granted only by the sovereign authority, or by those delegated for the purpose by special commission. 1 Dods. Adm. 226; Stew. Adm. 367. They constitute a ground of capture and confiscation per se by the adverse belligerent party. Wheaton, Int. Law, 475. In Patent Law. See PATENTS. In Pleading. A plea of justification to an action of trespass, that the defendant was authorized by the owner of the freehold to commit the trespass complained of. A license must be specially pleaded to an action of trespass, 2 Term, 166, but may be given in evidence in an action on the case. 2 Mod. 6; 8 East, 308. LICENTIA CONCORDANDI (Lat. leave to agree). One of the formal steps in the levying a fine. When an action is brought for the purpose of levying a fine, the defendant, knowing himself to be in the wrong, is supposed to make overtures of accommodation to the plaintiff, who accepts them, but, having given pledges to prosecute his suit, applies to the court, upon the return of the writ of covenant, for leave to make the matter up: this, which is readily granted, is called the licentia concordandi. 5 Coke, 39; Cruise, Dig. tit. 35, c. 2, 22. LICENTIA LOQUENDI. Imparlance. LICENTIA SURGENDI. In Old English Law. Liberty of rising. A liberty or space of time given by the court to a tenant, who is essoined, de malo lecti, in a real action, to arise out of his bed. Also, the writ thereupon. If the demandant can show that the tenant was seen abroad before leave of court, and before being viewed by the knights appointed by the court for that purpose, such tenant shall be taken to be deceitfully essoined, and to have made default. Bracton, lib. 5; Fleta, lib. 6, c. 10. LICENTIA TRANSFRETANDI. Α writ or warrant directed to keeper of port of Dover, or other seaport, commanding him to let the person who has this license of the king pass over sea. Reg. Orig. 93. LICENTIOUSNESS. The doing what one pleases, without regard to the rights of others. It differs from liberty in this, that the latter is restrained by natural or positive law, and consists in doing whatever we please not inconsistent with the rights of others, whereas the former does not respect those rights. Wolff. Inst. 84. LICET SÆPIUS REQUISITUS (although often requested). In Pleading. A formal allegation in a declaration that the defendant has been often requested to perform the acts the non-performance of which is complained of. It is usually alleged in the declaration that the defendant, licet sæpius requisitus, etc., he did not perform the contract the violation of which is the foundation of the action. This allegation is generally sufficient when a request is not parcel of the contract. Indeed, in such cases it is unnecessary even to lay a general request; for the bringing of the suit is itself a sufficient request. 1 Saund. 33, n. 2; 2 id. 118, note 3; Plowd. 128; 1 Wils. 33; 2 H. Blackst. 131; 1 Johns. N. Y. Cas. 99, 319; 7 Johns. N. Y. 462; 18 id. 485; 3 Maule & S. 150. See DEMAND. LICITACION. In Spanish Law. The sale made at public auction by co-proprietors, or co-heirs, of their joint property which is not susceptible of being advantageously divided in kind. LIDFORD LAW. See LYNCH LAW. LIEGE (from liga, a bond, or litis, a man wholly at command of his lord. Blount). In Feudal Law. Bound by a feudal tenure; bound in allegiance to the lord paramount, who owned no superior. The term was applied to the lord, or liege lord, to whom allegiance was due, since he was bound to protection and a just government, and also to the feudatory, liegeman, or subject bound to allegiance, for he was bound to tribute and due subjection. 34 & 35 Hen. VIII. So lieges are the king's subjects. Stat. 8 Hen. VI. c. 10; 14 Hen. VIII. c. 2. So in Scotland. Bell, Diet. But in ancient times private persons, as lords of manors, had their lieges. Jacob, Law Dict.; 1 Sharswood, Blackst. Comm. 367. Liege, or ligius, was used in old records for full, pure, or perfect: e.g. ligia potestas, full and free power of disposal. Paroch. Antiq. 280. (Probably in this sense derived from legitima.) So in Scotland. See LIEGE POUStie. LIEGE POUSTIE (Legitima Potestas). In Scotch Law. That state of health which gives a person full power to dispose of, mortis causâ or otherwise, his heritable property. Bell, Dict. 2. A deed executed at time of such state of health, as opposed to a death-bed conveyance. Id. A person is said to be in such state of health (in liege poustie, or in legitima potestati) when he is in his ordinary health and capacity, and not a minor, nor cognosced Id omne licitum est, quod non est legibus prohibi- as an idiot or madman, nor under interdictum, quamobrem, quod, lege permittente, fit, pœnam tion. 1 Bell, Comm. 85, 5th ed.; 6 Clark & Licere dicimus quod legibus, moribus, | F. Hou. L. 540. LICET (Lat.). It is lawful; not forbidden by law. non meretur. LIEN. A hold or claim which one person has upon the property of another as a security for some debt or charge. In every case in which property, either real or personal, is charged with the payment of a debt or duty, every such charge may be denominated a lien on the property. Whit. Liens. It differs from an estate in or title to the property, as it may be discharged at any time by payment of the sum for which the lien attaches. It differs from a mort gage in the fact that a mortgage is made and the till some claim or charge is satisfied. Metc. Yelv. 2-11 .2, 3 .3, 4 5 Bailments of various kinds....6-8 .9, 10 perty of another on account of a general balance due from the owner. 3 Bos. & P. 494. 2. Of course, where a general lien exists, a particular lien is included. Particular liens constitute the oldest class of liens, and the one most favored by the common law. 4 Burr. 2221; Dougl. 97; 3 Bos. & P. 126. But courts ceased to originate liens at an early period, 9 East, 426; while general liens have been looked upon with jealousy, being considered encroachments upon the common law and founded solely in the usage of and for the benefit of trade. 3 Bos. & P. 42, 26, 494. Liens either exist by law, arise from usage, or are created by express agreement. Liens which exist by the common law, generally arise in cases of bailment. Thus, a particular lien exists whenever goods are delivered to a tradesman for the execution of the purposes of his trade upon them. 1 Atk. Ch. 228; 2 Rolle, Abr. 92; 3 Maule & S. 167; 14 Pick. Mass. 332; 7 Barb. N. Y. 113. And so, where a person is, from the nature of his occupation, under a legal obligation to receive and be at trouble or expense about the personal property of another, in every such case he is entitled to a particular lien on it. 1 Esp. 109; Ld. Raym. 867; 6 Term, 17; 3 Bos. & P. 42. 3. And sometimes a lien arises where there is strictly no bailment. Thus, where a ship or goods at sea come into possession of a party by finding, and he has been at some trouble or expense about them, he is entitled to retain the same until reimbursed his expenses. This applies only to the salvors of a ship and cargo preserved from peril at sea, 1 Ld. Raym. 393; 5 Burr. 2732; 8 East, 57; 16 Penn. St. 393, and, in the case of property on 21-32 shore, where a specific reward is offered for the restoration, 8 Gill, Md. 218; 3 Mete. Mass. 352, and does not apply, generally, it 25, 26 is said, to the preservation of things found upon land. 2 II. Blackst. 254; 2 W. Blackst. 1117. 10-12 .22 .27 Of owner and charterer.. .28 Collision....... .30 Liens which arise by usage are usually .33-42 general liens, and the usage is said by Whita.33-38 ker to be either the general usage of trade, .39-42 or the particular usage of the parties. Whitaker, Liens, 31. The Common Law Lien. As distinguished from the other classes, it consists in a mere right to retain possession until the debt or charge is paid. In the case of a factor an apparent exception ex ists, as he is allowed a lien on the proceeds of goods sold, as well as on the goods themselves. But this seems to result from the relation of the parties and the purposes of the bailment; to effectuate which, and at the same time give a security to the factor, the law considers the possession, or right to possession, of the proceeds, the same thing as the possession of the goods themselves. A particular lien is a right to retain the property of another on account of labor employed or money expended on that specific property. Whitaker, Liens, 9. A general lien is a right to retain the pro 4. The usage must be so general that the party delivering the goods may be presumed to have known it, and to have made the right of lien a part of the contract. 3 Bos. & P. 50. And it is said the lien must be for a general balance arising from transactions of a similar character between the parties, and that the debt must have accrued in the business of the party claiming the lien, Whitaker, Liens, 33; and see 1 Atk. Ch. 223; 1 W. Blackst. 651; and it seems that more decisive proof of general usage is required in those occupations in which the workmen are required to receive their employment when offered them, such as carriers. 6 Term, 14; 6 East, 519; 7 id. 224. But where a general lien has been once established, the courts |