LIT 



LIT 



knowing him to be such, and afterwards 

 absconding 1 , and refusing 1 to go before a 

 magistrate to declare their assent or 

 dissent, are deemed to be inlisted to 

 all intents and purposes, and may be 

 proceeded against as if they had taken the 

 oath. 



LIT A, in botany, a genus of the Pen- 

 tandria Monogynia class and order. Na- 

 tural order of Rotacese. Gentianae, Jus- 

 sieu. Essential character : calyx five- 

 cleft, with two or three scales at the 

 base; corolla salver-shaped, with a long 

 tube, dilated at the base and throat; bor- 

 der five-cleft"; anthers twin, inserted in 

 the throat ; capsule one -celled, two-valv- 

 ed ; seeds numerous. There are two 

 species, viz. L. rosea, and L. caerulea ; na- 

 tives of Guiana. 



LITANY, a solemn form of supplica- 

 tion to God, in which the priest utters 

 some things fit to be prayed for, and the 

 people join in their intercession, saying, 

 " We beseech Thee to hear us, "good 

 Lord," &c. 



At first, the use of litanies was not fix- 

 ed to any stated time, but were only em- 

 ployed as exigencies required. They 

 were observed, in imitation of theNine- 

 vites, with ardent supplications and fast- 

 ings, to avert the threatening 1 judgments 

 of fire, earthquakes, inundations, or hos- 

 tile invasions. About the year 400, lita- 

 nies began to be used in processions, the 

 people walking barefoot, and repeating 

 them with great devotion ; and it is pre- 

 tended, that by this means, several coun- 

 tries were delivered from great calamities. 

 The days on which these were used, were 

 called rogation days : these were appoint- 

 ed by the canons of different councils, 

 till it was decreed by the council of Tole- 

 do, that they should be used every month 

 throughout the year; and thus by de- 

 grees they came to be used weekly on 

 Wednesdays and Fridays, the ancient sta- 

 tionary days for fasting. To these days 

 the rubric of our church has added Sun- 

 days, as being the greatest days for as- 

 sembling at divine service. Before the 

 last review of the " Common Prayer," the 

 litany was a distinct service by itself, and 

 used some time after the morning prayer 

 was over; at present it is made one office 

 with the morning service, being ordered 

 to be read after the third collect for 

 grace, instead of the intercessional pray- 

 ers in the daily service. 



LITERARY property. Authors, it 

 should seem, had, by the common law, 

 the sole and exclusive copy-right remain- 

 ing in themselves or their assigns in per- 

 petuity, after having printed and pub- 



lished their compositions. This, as a. cqm- 

 mon law right, was strangely questioned 

 by some of our judges, who studied spe- 

 cial pleading more than common sense. 

 But by statute 8 Anne, c. 19, it is secured 

 to them for fourteen years, from the day 

 of publishing ; and after the end of four- 

 teen years, the sole right of printing or 

 disposing of copies, shall return to the 

 authors, if then living, for other fourteen 

 years. This statute, it has been held, re- 

 strains the right of the author and his 

 assigns to the fourteen or the twen- 

 ty-eight years, whatever it might have 

 been at the common law. A penalty on 

 each sheet found in the possession of a 

 party pirating a work, is inflicted by the 

 statute, 9 Anne, c. 19 ; and, in order to 

 entitle the plaintiff to recover this penal- 

 ty, the book must have been entered at 

 Stationers' Hall. But an author whose 

 work has been pirated, may maintain an 

 action for damages merely, without hav- 

 ing so entered his book. When an author 

 transfers all his right or interest in a pub- 

 lication to another, and happens to sur- 

 vive the first fourteen years, the second 

 term will result to his assignee, and not 

 to himself. By statute 12 Geo. II. c. 36. 

 34 Geo. III. c. 20, s. 57, books printed in 

 England originally, may not be reprinted 

 abroad, and imported within twenty years. 

 A last act extends also to Ireland, where 

 English books were frequently pirated. 

 By statute 8 Geo. II. c. 13 ; 7 Geo. III. c. 

 28 ; 17 Geo. III. c. 57. Engravers have a 

 property in their prints and engravings 

 for twenty-eight years absolutely. A fair 

 abridgment is equally protected with an 

 original work. Acting a play on a stage is 

 not a publishing within the statute, 8 

 Anne, c. 19 ; but one cannot take a piece 

 in short hand and print it before the au- 

 thor has published it. 



LITERATE, in natural history, orna- 

 mented with characters like letters. 



LITHARGE, in the arts. Lead is easily 

 oxydable. When first fused its surface is 

 perfectly bright, but by the contact of the 

 air it is quickly covered with a thick film, 

 called the dross of lead. If this be taken 

 off, the same circumstences again take 

 place, and thus the whole of the lead may- 

 be converted into a kind of grey powder, 

 which is the oxide of lead. By exposing 

 it to a higher degree of heat, it acquires 

 a y ellow colour, forming a pigment nam- 

 ed " massicot :" and by a still greater 

 heat, and causing the flame to play upon 

 the surface, while the powder is constant- 

 ly stirred, the yellow colour becomes 

 red, and the substance is then called mi- 

 nium, or red lead, which is a metal in & 



