I 



uriKi.. 



But atthouch the truth of a libel i* no justification in a crimin.. 



' , pleaded un<Ur the recent rt*U.te,* 7 Viet c. 90, 

 - so far considered an extenuation of the 



_ 



that the Court of Queen's Botch will not grant a criminal inf. T 

 ___umle**fc* prosecutor by affidavit distinctly and clearly daniea the 

 truth of th* matter* imputed to him, except in those cases where the 

 prosecutor rwidM abroad, or whan the imputation* are 10 general and 

 indefiniu- that they cannot be exprimly contradicted, or where the 

 libel i> a charge against the proeecutor for language held by him in 

 parliament And it ha* ben said that a grand jury should be governed 

 by the like rule in finding an indictment for the offence. 



.:r report of judicial proceeding* doe* not amount to a libel, l.ut 

 .-. publication of ex-parte proceeding* before a magistrate may be 

 pimiahed a tuch. 



A petition, containing scandalou* matter, presented to parliament or 

 to a committee of either house, and legal proceeding* of any kind, 

 howerer acandalou* the word* u*ed may be, do not amount to a libel 

 But if the petition were delivered to any one not being a member of 

 parliament, or the legal proceeding* were commenced in a court not 

 baring jurisdiction of the cam*, they would not be privileged. Confi- 

 dential communication reasonably caUed for by the occasion, a* charge* 

 made by a manter in giving the character of hi* servant to a party 

 inquiring after it, or a warning by a person to another with whom he 

 i* connected in business a* to the credit or character of a third party 

 about to deal with him, are considered a* privileged communications, 

 and are not deemed to be libels unlee* malice be proved, or the circum- 

 stance* be such that malice may be inferred by the jury. 



After some controversy, it was settled that ttic jury, in a criminal 

 prosecution for libel, must find not only the fact of publishing, but 



r the matter in question be a libel or not (32 Qeo. III., c. 60) ; 

 i .1 civil action the question whether the publication is or i* not 

 a libel is decided by the judge or court. 



The punishment in a criminal prosecution may be fine and im- 

 prwuuuifut ; and upon a second conviction for publishing a blasphemous 

 and seditious libel, the court may sentence the offender to banishment 

 for any term it may think fit (1 Oeo. IV. c. 8.) 



The law of libel had been frequently complained of, and with some 

 appearance of reason, particularly that part of it which prevented the 

 VfnjUiit from giving evidence of the truth of the libel in justification 

 when (objected to a criminal prosecution. Almost the only reason, if 



it can be called, alleged in favour of the old law, the one already 

 to, that the libel, whether true or false, equally tends to a 



breach of the peace ; or, as it has beqn somewhat whimsically said, the 

 being true make* the libel more likely to produce a breach of the peace. 

 Lord Mansfield, indeed, from the bench has said, " the greater the 

 truth, th* greater the libel." After much discussion had taken place 

 upon thi* subject, the statute 6 & 7 Viet., c. 96, was passed, which 

 enable* the defendant, in pleading to an indictment for a libel , to allege 

 the truth of the matters charged, and that it was for the public benefit 

 that they should be published. The truth of the libel may then be 

 inquired into at the trial, but does not amount to a defence unless the 

 publication was for the public benefit. If, after such a plea, the 

 defendant i* convicted, the court may, in pronouncing sentence, con- 

 sider whether the guilt of the defendant is aggravated or mitigated by 

 the plea. 



By the same statute, a defendant is now enabled in an action for 

 slander, or for libel (giving notice in writing to the plaintiff at the time 

 of flying, of hi* intention), to give in evidence, in mitigation of 

 damage*, that he made or offered an apology before action, or as soon 

 afterward* a* he had an opportunity, in case the action was commenced 

 before. And in an action for a libel in a newspaper, or other periodical 

 publication, the defendant may plead that it was inserted without 

 malice, and without negligence, and that before action, or at the 

 earliest opportunity afterward*, he inserted a full apology for it ; or if 

 the newspaper, Ac., be ordinarily published at intervals exceeding 

 one week, had offered to publish the apology in any newspaper, *c., to 

 be nUettd by the plaintiff. Upon pleading such a plea, the defendant 

 may pay into court a sum of money by way of amends for the injury 

 usUined by the puV.lic.tion of the libel. (8 ft 9 Viet. c. 75.) 



The printer of a libel i* liable to prosecution as well as the writer, 

 and so i* the person who sells it, even though ignorant of iu content*. 



By the A 7 Win. IV., c. 76, . 19, a bill of discovery may be sup- 

 ported against the editor of a newspaper or other person concerned in 

 the publication or interested in the property thereof, to compel a dis- 

 closure of th* name of the author of the libel, or of the name of any 

 person connected with the publication against whom the party libelled 

 may think proper to bring an action. 



(V.l '.; Htarkie and Holt, On Libd ; Selw., If. P.; Bac. Abr., 

 tit. ' Libel.') 



LlliKI.. in Kccleaiastical Law. [EccLKsuTicAL COURTS.] 



I.IIiKK I'.KUIS, another term fur the 'Valor Eccleaiasticu* ' of 

 Henry VIII. By 23 Henry VIII., the payment of annates, with all 

 ma* paid for pall*, bull*, and the like, at the consecration of every 

 new prelate, wa* restrained. Thi* wa* followed by 26 Henry \ III*. 

 for the payment not only of " tir.t fmiu of al| dignities, benefice*, and 

 proinotioan piritiul," but also of an " annual pension of the tenth part 

 of all the piiinsion* of the Church, spiritual and temporal, to the king 

 and hi* beta*,' a* supreme bead* of the Church of England. The 



LI BERT V. * 



-iasticu*' is the return which the commissioners undc-r 

 this Act made into the exchequer. This record, in full, except certain 

 portions which have been lost, waa published by the commissioners 

 upon the records of the realm, in 6 vi.ls. fol., 1810-1834. An abridg- 

 ment of it is preserved in the Office of Pirst-Fruits, entitled ' Liber 

 Valimim,' and wa* the foundation f the Liber Regis, vel Thesaurus 

 Rerum Ecclesiasticanim,' by John Bacon, Esq., receiver of the first- 

 fniite, with an appendix, Ac., 4to, Loud., 1786. This latter work also 

 contains an account of such benefices as have been since discharged 

 from any payment to the above revenues, on account of the smaUnes* 

 of their income. See further, on Queen Anne's Bounty, in article 



I.IHERTI'NUS. In the Roman polity persons were divided, with 

 respect to status or condition, into freemen (liberi) or slave* (servi). 

 Freemen were again divided into persons who were born in a state of 

 freedom (ingenui), and persons who had been manumitted (libertini). 

 (' Oaius ' i., 10, ftc. ; and compare Horace, ' Serm.,' i. 6, v. 6, 21.) A 

 manumitted slave was called " libertus," that is, " liberatus," " freed," 

 with reference to the act of manumission, and to his master, who, by 

 manumitting him, became his patron (patronus) : he was called " liber- 

 tinus " with reference to the class, to which, by the act of manumission, 

 he belonged. It is sometimes said in modern works that the " liber- 

 tinus " was the son of the " libcrtus ; " and such, according to 

 Suetonius, was the meaning of the term " libertinus " in the time of 

 the censor Appiu* Claudius, and for some time after (' Claud.,' c. 24) ; 

 but the term " libertinuB " in aftertimes was used in the way here 

 stated. 



A manumitted slave might cither-become a full Roman citizen or a 

 Latinus [LATINUM Jcsl, or he might obtain no higher privileges than 

 belonged to the class called Dediticii. The grounds and conditions of 

 this triple distinction are fully explained by ' Gaius ' (i., 12, &c.) The 

 three mode* of manumission, by any one of which the freedman might 

 obtain the right* of a Roman citizen, were the " vindicta," " census," 

 and " teetamentum." The practice of manumitting slaves having 

 become very common, and being productive of great inconvenience, 

 various provisions iu restriction of the power were imposed by the Lex 

 Aelia Sentia, passed in the time of Augustus. By this law, if a person 

 manumitted a slave for the purpose of defrauding his creditors, or for 

 the purpose of detracting from the rights of his patron, the manu- 

 mission was void. By the Lex Furia (Fufia) Caninia, also passed in 

 the time of Augustus, before the Lex Aelia Sentia, a man could only 

 manumit by his testament a certain proportion of his slaves. This 

 enactment was repealed by Justinian's Legislation. 



Though the sons of " libertini " were ingenui, it appears from 

 numerous passages of the Roman writers that they were not nnfre- 

 quently exposed to the taunts and sneers of those who could boast a 

 pure descent from free-born ancestors. Horace say* of himself, " Quern 

 rodunt omnes libertino patre natum." (' S<-rm.,' i. ii, 46.) 



It appears from the definition of GentiUs, as given or sanctioned by 

 the Pontifex Scsevola (Cic., ' Topic.,' 6), that a " libertinus " could have 

 no Gens; but the doctrine of the Gentilitas (gentilicium jus), which 

 was once of great importance as to the succession to the property of an 

 intestate, had fallen into desuetude in the time of Gaius (iii., 17). 

 Two inscriptions (Nos. 8024, 3029) in OreUi, probably of a late date, 

 commemorate the fact of a freedman marrying his former mistress 

 (patrona). 



The relation between a freedman and his patronus is more properly 

 discussed under the head of PATRONUS. 



LIBERTUS. [LIBERTINUS.] 



LIBERTY. This word is the Latin libertcu. The corresponding 

 Teutonic word iafreUieit, or, as it appears in English. 



Liberty and freedom are familiar words with indefinite meanings. 

 " Liber," the adjective which corresponds to the noun " libertas," is 

 properly opposed to " servua," or slave ; and libertas is the status of a 

 freemen, as opposed to servitus, or the status of a slave. This division 

 of freemen (liberi) and slaves (servi) was the fundamental division of 

 persons in the Roman law (Gains, i. 9). This word liberty, thru, in 

 its origin, indicate* merely the personal status of a man as contrasted 

 with the condition of servitude. In Greek the like opposition is ex- 

 pressed by two other words (!<nr<Jn;i, SoCAos). But the word libertas 

 had also a political meaning among the Romans. When the Romans 

 had ejected their last king, they considered that they had obtained 

 their liberty. (Livy, ii. 1.) The political meaning of libertas (liberty) 

 was derived from the contrast of liberty and servitude in the person of 

 individuals ; and if the mass of a nation were subjected to the 

 arbitrary rule of one man, that was considered a kind of servitude, and 

 the deliverance from it was called libertus, a term which in thi* sense 

 is clearly derived from the notion of liberty as obtained by him who 

 was once a slave. 



In the Greek writers the words (8<nr<fri)t and JoCAoi), which respec- 

 tively signify master and slave, were also applied in a political sense to 

 signify monarch and subject. The Persian king wa* master (SjoWrijt) 

 and his subjects were slaves (ioCAoi). 



The political sense then of liberty and freedom, if traced to it* 

 source, Is founded on the notions of personal liberty as contrasted with 

 personal servitude. He who became free from being a slave in a 

 republic became a member of the state, in which he formerly had no 

 political existence. His implied by the circumstance of his becoming 



