LIB 
tioning are illegal. The sanction of the 
grand jury may be given either at the as- 
sizes or quarter sessions ; the punishment 
for offending against the stat. 13 Charles II. 
not to exceed a fine of 1001. and three 
month’s imprisonment. Upon the trial of 
Lord George Gordon, the Court of King’s 
Bench declared, that they were clearly of 
opinion, that this statute was not in any de- 
gree affected by the Bill of Rights. 
In the several articles above enumerated, 
consist the rights, or as they are more fre- 
•uently termed, the liberties, of English- 
men. Liberties more generally talked of 
tiian thoroughly understood ; and yet highly 
necessary to be perfectly known and consi- 
dered by every man of rank or property, 
lest his ignorance of the points whereon 
they are founded, should hurry him into 
faction and licentiousness on the one hand, 
or a pusillanimous indifference, and crimi- 
nal submission, on the other. And all these 
rights and liberties it is our birthright to 
enjoy entire, unless where the laws of our 
country have laid them under necessary 
restraints. So that this review of our si- 
tuation may fully justify the observation of 
a learned French author, (of former times), 
who has professed that the English is the 
only nation in the world where political 
or civil liberty is the direct end of its con- 
stitution. 
LIBRA, die balance, in astronomy, one 
■ of the twelve signs of the zodiac, the sixth 
in order ; so called because when the sun 
enters it, the days and nights are equal, as 
if weighed in a balance. See Astronomy. 
Libra, in Roman antiquity, a pound 
weight ; also a coin, equal in value to twenty 
denarii. 
LIBRARY, an edifice or apartment des- 
tined for holding a considerable number of 
books placed regularly on shelves ; or, the 
books themselves lodged in it. 
The first who erected a library at Atiiens 
was the tyrant Pisistratus, which was trans- 
ported by Xerxes into Persia, and after- 
wards brought back by Seleucus Nicanor 
to Athens. Plutarch says, that under Eu- 
menes there was a library at Pergamus that 
contained 200,000 books. That of Ptolemy 
Philadelphus, according to A. Gellius, con- 
tained 700,000, which were all burnt by 
Caesar’s soldiers. Constantine and his suc- 
cessors erected a magnificent one at Con- 
stantinople,which in the eighth century con- 
tained 300,000 volumes, and among the rest 
one in which the Iliad and Odyssey were 
written in letters of gold, on the guts of a 
LIB 
serpent ; but this library was burnt by order 
of Leo Isaurus. The most celebrated li- 
braries of ancient Rome were the Ulpian 
and the Palatine, and in modern Rome, tliat 
of the Vatican ; the foundation of the Vati- 
can library was laid by Pope Nicholas, in 
the year 1450 ; it was afterwards destroyed 
in tlie sacking of Rome, by the constable of 
Bourbon, and restored by Pope Sixtus V. 
and has been considerably enriched with 
tlie ruins of that of Heidelberg, plundered by 
Count Tilly in 1682. One of the most com- 
plete libraries in Europe, is that erected by 
Cosmo de Medicis; though it is now exceeded 
by that of the French King, which was be- 
gun by Francis I. augmented by Cardinal 
Richelieu, and completed by M. Colbert. 
The Emperor’s library at Vienna, according 
to Lambecius, consists of 80,000 volumes, 
and 15,940 curious medals. The Bodleian 
library at Oxford exceeds that of any uni- 
versity in Europe, and even those of any of 
the sovereigns of Europe, except those of the 
Emperors of France and Germany, which 
are each of them older by a hundred years. 
It was first opened in 1602, and has since 
been increased by a great number of bene- 
factors : indeed the Medicean library, that 
of Bessarion at Venice, and those just men- 
tioned, exceed it in Greek manuscripts, but 
it outdoes them all in oriental manuscripts; 
and as to printed books, the Ambrosian at 
Milan, and tliat of Wolfenbuttle, are two 
of the most famous, and yet both are infe- 
rior to the Bodleian. The Cotton library 
consists wholly of manuscripts, particularly 
of such as relate to the history and antiqui- 
ties of England; which, as they are now 
bound, make about 1000 volumes. 
In Edinburgh there is a good library be- 
longing to the university, well furnished 
with books, which are kept in good order, 
and cloistered up with wire doors, tliat none 
but the keeper can open ; a method much 
more commodious than the multitude of 
chains used in other libraries. There is also 
a noble library of books and manuscripts 
belonging to the gentlemen of the law. 
LIBRATION, jn astronomy, an appa- 
rent irregularity of the moon’s motion, 
whereby she seems to librate about her 
axis, sometimes from the east to the west, 
and now and then from the west to the 
east ; so tliat the parts in the western limb 
or margin of the moon sometimes recede 
from the centre of the disc, and sometimes 
move towards it, by which means they be- 
come alternately visible and invisible to the 
inhabitants of the earth. See Moon. 
