LIBEL LIBERAL. 



457 



The libations to the dead were not performed till the 

 ninth day after the burning or interment, and con- 

 sisted of milk, wine, or blood, and generally con- 

 cluded the funeral solemnities. In sacrifices, the 

 priest was first obliged to taste the wine with which 

 he sprinkled the victims, and cause those to do the 

 same who offered the sacrifice. This ceremony was 

 c.illed libare, (delibare), whence it also means to 

 touch or taste something. Among the Greeks; the 

 fxntri, or Xo;S, was similar to the libatio of the 

 Romans. 



LIBEL, in law, is defined to be the malicious 

 defamation of any person, made public either by 

 writing, printing, or pictures, in order to provoke 

 him to anger, or to expose him to public hatred, 

 contempt, or ridicule. When defamatory words are 

 merely spoken in conversation, they exist no longer 

 than during the act of giving them utterance, and 

 are heard only by those in whose presence they are 

 used ; but, when they are committed to paper, they 

 become permanent in their nature, and are capable 

 of being disseminated far and wide. Words, again, 

 may be spoken in haste, and without thought ; but 

 the act of writing necessarily requires time and deli- 

 beration. For these reasons, libelling is regarded, 

 by our law, as a more heinous offence than slandering, 

 which is the technical name for spoken defamation ; 

 and numberless expressions are libellous, if written 

 and made public, which are not punishable, if they 

 are merely spoken. Thus, unless the slanderous 

 words be such as tend to cause it to be believed, that 

 the person slandered is guilty of some crime punish- 

 able by law, as theft or perjury, or that he is infected 

 with some disease which renders him unfit to mix in 

 society ; or unless they tend to injure him in the 

 particular trade from which he derives his liveli- 

 hood ; or unless they have actually been productive 

 of some damage to him, they are not actionable, 

 though false. For instance, it is not legal slander to 

 say of a private gentleman, that he is a swindler; if 

 he lias received no specific damage therefrom, beyond 

 the mere annoyance of having been subjected to such 

 an imputation. But such accusations as these, and 

 all others which hold up individuals to public hatred, 

 contempt, or ridicule, become libellous when the 

 remembrance of them is deliberately perpetuated by 

 their being committed to writing. Libellers may be 

 brought to punishment by a prosecution on the part 

 of the government, or be compelled to make repara- 

 tion by a civil action. The civil action is grounded 

 upon the injury which the libel is supposed to occa- 

 sion to the individual ; the public prosecution upon 

 its tendency to provoke a breach of the peace. If 

 the charges contained in the libel are true, a civil 

 action cannot be maintained, because it is considered 

 that every man must bear the consequences of his 

 own act ; and, therefore, if he has laid himself open 

 to accusation, he must endure it as the natural result 

 of his own crimes or folly. But, inasmuch as the 

 malicious propagation even of that which is true, is 

 calculated to disturb the public peace, the truth of 

 the libellous matter is no defence, by the common 

 law, upon a prosecution by the government, although, 

 without doubt, it will, in many cases entitle the de- 

 fendant to the merciful consideration of the court, 

 when it decides upon the quantum of punishment to 

 be awarded. In civil actions, again, it is necessary 

 to prove that the publication of the libel was made to 

 others besides the person at whom it is aimed ; for, 

 however false and atrocious it may be, it is evident 

 that the person libelled can derive no injury from it, 

 so long as its very existence is known to none but 

 himself. Therefore an abusive letter, written by one 

 man to another, is not sufficiently published to sup- 

 port an action, unless the writer shows it to a third 



person, because the person to whom it was addressed 

 cannot be injured by it, unless he himself chooses to 

 make it public ; nevertheless, the author of such a 

 letter may be prosecuted by indictment, for it equally 

 tends to create a breach of the peace. With these 

 distinctions, civil actions and prosecutions for libel 

 stand very much on the same footing. In ordinary 

 cases, it is not necessary to prove malice on the part 

 of the libeller ; for, even supposing that the libel was 

 published without any malicious design, yet the injury 

 to the individual, and the danger to the public peace, 

 are not the less on that account. But, although the 

 charges contained in a libel are false, yet under the 

 particular circumstances of certain cases, the author 

 is excused, unless express proof can be produced of 

 his having been influenced by hatred or malice. 

 These are called privileged communications. The 

 master who gives a bad character of the servant who 

 has left him, is privileged, if he acts bona fide, and not 

 officiously ; but if, without application being made to 

 him to give a character, he volunteers officially to 

 send one to the person who is about tohire the servant, 

 he is not privileged, and must stand or fall with the 

 truth or falsehood of his charges. So, if a father 

 writes to his son, bona fide, warning him against a 

 person whose character he has reason to suspect, that 

 is a privileged communication. It is difficult to lay 

 down any general definition, which shall comprise 

 all the occasions when communications are privileged; 

 but, perhaps, we shall not be far wrong in saying 

 that, whenever a communication is made bona fide, 

 unofficiously, and without malice, and either the per- 

 son who makes it, or the person to whom it is made, 

 has a -real substantial interest in the subject to which 

 it relates, it is a privileged communication, and the 

 mere fact of its not being true will not render the 

 person who makes it liable, either to a civil action, or 

 to a criminal prosecution. A fair criticism on a pub- 

 lic work, or print, &c. ; a fair comment on a place of 

 public entertainment ; a fair and impartial account of 

 the proceedings in a court of justice, and the like, are 

 not considered libellous, unless the subjects to which 

 they relate are in themselves of such an obscene, 

 blasphemous, or scandalous nature, that a due regard 

 to decency enjoins that they should not be publicly 

 discussed, under which circumstances, even a correct 

 statement becomes indictable. In a civil action, the 

 plaintiff recovers damages, the amount of which is 

 settled by the jury. But, upon an indictment, the 

 jury has merely to acquit the defendant, or to find 

 him guilty, after which the court passes judgment, 

 and awards the punishment, which is generally fine 

 or imprisonment, or both ; but, by statute 1 George 

 IV., c. 8, persons convicted a second time of a blas- 

 phemous or seditious libel, may be banished for such 

 a term of years as the court thinks fit. The jury 

 decide on the legal innocence or criminality of the 

 alleged libel, without being bound by the direction of 

 the judge. See Jury. 



LIBEL, in the ecclesiastical and admiralty courts, 

 is the name given to the formal written statement ot 

 the complainant's ground of complaint against the 

 defendant. 



LIBER ; a surname of Bacchus among the Romans, 

 referring to the idea of a deliverer, or liberator. 

 Liber was originally an old Italian god of fertility, 

 whose name was probably derived from the old word 

 libare (to pour out, to water). He was worshipped 

 in connexion with Libera (Proserpine) and Ceres. 



LIBERAL. In the article Arts, the name of lib- 

 eral arts is said to have been given, originally, to 

 those which were considered suitable for freemen, in 

 contradistinction to those which were left to slaves. 

 In modern times, the word liberal has received a 

 peculiar political meaning. The two great parties 



