LIT 
will, in that case, be obliged to take the 
oath, or upon refusal they shall be confined 
by the officer who listed them till they do 
take.it. Persons owning before the proper 
magisfrate, that they voluntarily listed 
themselves, aie obliged to take the oath, or 
suffer confinement by the officer who listed 
them till they do take it. The magistrate is 
obliited, in both cases, to certify that such 
persons are duly listed ; setting forth their 
birth, age, and calling, if known ; and that 
the second and sixth sections of the articles 
of war, against mutiny and desertion, were 
read to them, and that they had taken the 
oath. Officers offending herein are to be 
cashiered, and displaced from their office ; 
to be disabled from holding any post, civil 
or military ; and to forfeit 1001. Persons 
receiving inlisting money from any officer, 
knowing him to be such, and afterwards 
absconding, and refusing 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. 
LiITA, in botany, a genus of the Pentan- 
dria Monogynia class and order. Natural 
order of Rotaceae. Gentiauae. Jussieu. Es- 
sential 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; border five-cleft ; anthers 
twin, inserted in the throat ; capsule one- 
celled, two-valved; seeds numerous. There 
are two species, viz. L. rosea, and L. caeru- 
lea, natives of Guiana. 
LITANY, a solemn form of supplication 
to God, in which the priest utters some 
things fit to be prayed for, and the people 
join in their intercession, saying, “ We be- 
seech Thee to hear us, good Lord,” &c. 
At first, the use of litanies was not fixed 
to any stated time, but were only employed 
as exigencies required. They were observ- 
ed, in imitation of the Ninevites, with 
ardent supplications and fastings, to avert 
the threatening judgments of fire, earth- 
quakes, inundations, or hostile invasions. 
About the year 400, litanies began to be 
used in processions, the people walking 
barefoot, and repeating them with great 
devotion ; and it is pretended, that by this 
means, several countries were delivered 
from great calamities. The days on which 
these were used were called rogation days : 
these were appointed by the canons of dif- 
ferent councils, till it was decreed by the 
council of Toledo, that they should be used 
every month throughout the year; and thus 
by degrees they came to be i I weekly on 
LIT 
Wednesdays and Fridays, the ancient sta- 
tionary days for fasting. To these days the 
rubric of our church has added Sundays, as 
being the greatest days for assembling at 
divine service. Before the last review of 
the “ Common Prayer,” the litany was a 
distinct service by itself, and used sometime 
after the morning prayer was over ; at pre- 
sent it is made one office with the morning 
service, being ordered to be read after the 
third collect for grace, instead of the inter- 
cessional prayers in the daily service. 
LITERARY property. Authors, it should 
seem had, by the common law, the sole and 
exclusive copyright remaining in themselves 
or their assigns in perpetuity, after having 
printed and published their compositions. 
This, as a common law right, was strangely 
questioned by some of our judges, who 
studied special pleading more than com- 
mon sense. But by statute 8 Anne, c. 19, 
it is secured to them for fourteen years, 
from the day of publishing ; gnd after the 
end of fourteen yt.ars, the sole right of 
printing or disposing of copies, shall return 
to the aiitliors, if theu living, for other four- 
teen years. This statute, it has been held, re- 
strains the right of the author and his assigns 
to the fourteen or the twenty-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 in- 
flicted by the statute, 9 Anne, c. 19 ; and, in 
order to entitle the plaintiff to recover this 
penalty, 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 having so 
entered his book. When an author trans- 
fers all his right or interest in a publication 
to another, and happens to survive 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. HI. c. 57. Engravers 
have a property in their prints and engrav- 
ings 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 author 
has published it. 
LITHARGE, in the arts. Lead is easily 
f 
