LIEN LIFE-BUOY. 



463 



I. The common law gives a lien to the person in 

 possession of goods in three instances: 1. When the 

 common law compels the members of any particular 

 trade or business, without any option on their part, 

 to accept employment from every person who is 

 willing to pay a reasonable compensation, in recom- 

 pense for the burden which it thus throws upon 

 them, it allows them to detain such goods as are 

 delivered to them in the co'urse of their business, 

 until the owner has satisfied any debt which may 

 have arisen out of the transaction in which the 

 goods were so delivered. Innkeepers, common 

 carriers, and farriers are entitled to this species 

 of lien ; for instance, the proprietor of a coach 

 need not give up a parcel until the carriage of it 

 be paid for. 2. When goods are delivered to 

 a tradesman, or any other, to expend his labour 

 upon, he is entitled to detain those goods until he 

 is remunerated for the labour which he so expends. 

 Thus a tailor is not obliged to take a customer's 

 cloth and make it into a coat, but, if he consents to 

 make the coat, the customer cannot compel him to 

 deliver it until he is paid for the making. The first 

 kind seems to be included in the second, but they 

 are kept distinct, because it is supposed that the 

 first was, at one time, the only species of lien 

 allowed by the common law, and that the second 

 was a subsequent invention, adopted on equitable 

 considerations in limitation of it. 3. When goods 

 have been saved from the perils of the sea, the 

 salvor may detain them until his claim for salvage 

 is satisfied ; but the finder of goods has in no other 

 case a lien on the goods found, in respect of the 

 trouble and expense to which the finding and pre- 

 serving of them may have subjected him. All 

 these are particular liens; and, therefore, the coach 

 proprietor may not detain the parcel, nor may the 

 tailor detain the coat, nor the salvor the property 

 saved, until payment of the carriage of a former par- 

 cel, or of the price of another coat, or of salvage 

 which accrued for saving other goods. Another rule 

 with regard to particular liens is, that they exist only 

 so long as the possession of the goods is retained by 

 the person who has the lien. If he once deliver up 

 the goods to the owner, he waves his lien, which is 

 thereby so effectually annihilated, that it will not be 

 revived, even if the same goods should afterwards 

 return into his possession. Thus, if the tailor deliver 

 the coat, and it is afterwards sent to him to be mended, 

 he cannot then detain it as a security for the original 

 price, but only for the cost of mending. His remedy 

 to recover the price must be by a suit at law; and we 

 may here remark, that a creditor can never prejudice 

 his right of maintaining an action for his demand, by 

 insisting on his right of detaining the goods, for the 

 action and the lien are concurrent rights, and do not 

 interfere with each other. 



II. General liens are only created by express 

 agreement, or by usage. It has been determined, 

 that attorneys and solicitors, bankers, factors, and 

 brokers, insurance-brokers, and some others, are, by 

 the custom of their respective trades and professions, 

 entitled to a lien on the property of their clients, cus- 

 tomers and employers, for the general balance of their 

 accounts. Thus an attorney may detain papers 

 which have been delivered to him to assist in the con- 

 ducting of one cause, as a security for the costs of 

 another; and, if he return them to his client, and they 

 come again into his possession, his lien revives; for, 

 in the case of a general lien, it matters not whether 

 the same or different papers are delivered to the per- 

 son employed, his right of detaining being the same 

 in both instances. 



LIEOU-KIEOU. See Loo-Choo. 

 LIEUTENANT. This word, like cipfain, and 



many others, has received gradually a much narrower 

 meaning than it had originally. Its true meaning is 

 a deputy, a substitute, from the French lieu (place, 

 post) and tenant (holder). A lieutenant gentral du 

 royaume is a person invested with almost all the 

 powers of the sovereign. Such was the count d'Artois 

 (afterwards Charles X.) before Louis XVIII. entered 

 France, in 1814. The duke of Orleans, before he 

 accepted the crown as Louis-Philip, was appointed 

 to the same office by the chamber of deputies. Lieu- 

 tenant-general was formerly the title of a command- 

 ing general, but at present it signifies the degree 

 above major-general. Lieutenant-colonel is the officer 

 between the colonel and major. Lieutenant, in mili- 

 tary language, signifies the officer next below a cap- 

 tain. There are first lieutenants, and second, or sous- 

 lieutenants, with different pay. A lieutenant in the 

 navy is the second officer next in command to the 

 captain of a ship. According to the new organization 

 of the French navy, of 1831, there are lieutenants de 

 vaisseau and lieutenants de frigate, formerly called 

 enseignes de vaisseau. The latter can command only 

 in the absence of the former. In Britain, the lord- 

 lieutenant of a county has the authority to call out 

 the militia in case of invasion or rebellion. The 

 governor of Ireland is also called lord- lieutenant of 

 Ireland. In some British colonies, jointly under a 

 governor-general, the chief magistrate of each separ- 

 ate colony is called lieutenant-governor. 



LIFE. See Physiology. 



LIFE-BUOY. The life-buoy, now commonly 

 used in the British navy, is the invention of lieutenant 

 Coots, of the royal navy. It consists of two hollow 

 copper vessels connected together, each alxnit as 

 large as an ordinary sized pillow, and of buoyancy 

 and capacity sufficient to support one man standing 

 upon them. Should there be more than one person 

 requiring support, they can lay hold of rope beckets, 

 fitted to the buoy, and so sustain themselves. Be- 

 tween the two copper vessels, there stands up a hol- 

 low pole, or mast, into which is inserted, from below, 

 an iron rod, whose lower extremity is loaded with 

 lead, in such a manner that, when the buoy is let go, 

 the iron slips down to a certain extent, lengthens the 

 lever, and enables the lead at the end to act as ballast. 

 By this means the mast is kept upright, and the buoy 

 prevented from upsetting. The weight at the end 

 of the rod is arranged so as to afford secure footing 

 for two persons, should that number reach it; and 

 there are, also, as was said before, large rope beckets, 

 through which others can thrust their head and shoul- 

 ders, till assistance is rendered. At the top of the 

 mast is fixed a port-fire, calculated to burn about 

 twenty minutes, or half an hour : this is ignited, most 

 ingeniously, by the same process which lets the buoy 

 fall into the water ; so that a man. falling overboard 

 at night, is directed to the buoy by the blaze on the 

 top of its pole or mast, and the boat sent to rescue 

 him also knows in what direction to pull. The 

 method by which this excellent invention is attached 

 to the ship, and dropped into the water in a single 

 instant, is, perhaps, not the least ingenious part of the 

 contrivance. The buoy is generally fixed amid-ships, 

 over the stern, where it is held securely in its place 

 by being strung, or threaded, as it were, on two 

 strong perpendicular rods, fixed to the tafferel, and 

 inserted in holes piercing the frame work of the 

 buoy. The apparatus is kept in its place by what is 

 called a slip-stopper, a sort of catch-bolt, or detent, 

 which can be unlocked at pleasure by merely pulling 

 a trigger ; upon withdrawing the stopper, the whole 

 machine slips along the rods, and fells at once into 

 the ship's wake. The trigger, which unlocks the 

 slip-stopper, is furnished with a lanyard, passing 

 through a hole in the stern, and having at its inner 



