5S6 L I 15 E II T Yo 
clare'cf in the datute iff Car, I. c, 10. upon the diffolution 
of the court of ft'ar-chamber, that neither his majefty nor 
his privy-council have any jurifdiftion, power, or autho- 
rity, by Englifh bill, petition, articles, libel, (which were 
the courfe of proceeding in the ftar-cbamber, borrowed 
from the civil law,) or by any other arbitrary way vvhat- 
foever, to examine or draw into queftion, determine 
or difpofe of, the lands or goods of any fubjecls of this 
kingdom ; but that the fame ought to be tried and deter¬ 
mined in the ordinary courts.of jultice, and by courfe. of law. 
4. If there fliould happen any uncommon injury, or 
infringement of the rights before mentioned, which the 
ordinary courfe of law’ is too defective to reach, there kill 
remains a fourth fubordinate right, appertaining to every 
individual, namely, the right of petitioning the king, or ei¬ 
ther houfe of parliament, for the redrefs of grievances. 
In Rudia we are told that the czar Peter eftabli^hed a law, 
that no fubjecl might petition the throne till h.e had fil'd: 
petitioned two different minifters of date. In cafe he ob^ 
tained juftice from neither^he might then prefent a third 
petition to the prince ; but upon pain of death, if found 
to be in the wrong. The confequence of which was, that 
no one dared to offer fuch third petition; and, grievances 
feldom falling under the notice of the fovereign, he had 
little opportunity to redrefs them. The reftriifions, for 
fome there are, which are laid upon petitioning in Britain, 
are of a nature extremely different ; and, w hile they pro¬ 
mote the fpirit of peace, they are no check upon that of 
liberty. Care only mult be taken, led, under the pre¬ 
tence of petitioning, the fubjedt be guilty of any riot or 
tumult ; as happened in the opening of the memorable 
parliament in 1640 ; and, to prevent this, it is provided 
by the datute 13 Car. II. d. 1. c. 5. that no petition to 
the king, or either houfe of parliament, for any alteration 
in church or date, fhall be figned by above twenty per- 
fons, unlefs the matter thereof be approved by three juf- 
tices of the peace, or the major part of the grand jury, in 
the country ; and, in London, by the lord mayor, aider- 
men, and common-council: nor fhall any petition be pre- 
lented by more than ten perfons at a time. But, under 
thefe regulations, it is declared by the datute 1 W. & M. 
it. 2. c. 2. that the (object hath a right to petition ; and 
that all commitments and profecutions for fuch petition¬ 
ing are illegal. 
5. The fifth and lad auxiliary right of the fubjeff, that 
we fhall at prefent mention, is that of having arms for their 
defence , fuitable to their condition and degree, and fuch as 
are allowed by law. Which is alfo declared by the fame 
datute 1 W. & M. d. 2. c. 2. and is indeed a public 
allowance, under due reftriflions, of the natural right of 
refidance and fdf-prefervation, when the fanftions of fo- 
ciety and laws are found infufficient to redrain the violence 
of oppreflion. See Arms, vol. ii. p. 201. 
In thefe feveral articles confift the rights, or, as they are 
frequently termed, the liberties, of Britons: liberties more 
generally talked of than thoroughly underftood ; and yet 
highly neceffary to be perfectly known and confidered by 
every man of rank or property, led his ignorance of the 
points whereon they are founded diould hurry him into 
faction and licentioufnefs on the one hand, or a pufillani- 
mons indifference and criminal (ubmifTion on the other. 
And we have feen that thefe rights confid, primarily, in 
the free enjoyment of perfonal fecurity, of perfonal li¬ 
berty, and of private property. So long as thefe remain 
inviolate, the fubjed is perfectly free ; for every fpeciesof 
compulfive tyranny and oppreflion mud aft in oppolition 
to one or other of thefe rights, having no other object 
upon .which it can podibly be employed. To preferve 
thefe from violation, it is neceffary that the conditution 
of parliaments be fupported in its full vigour ; and limits, 
certainly known, be fet to the royal prerogative. And, 
laitly, to vindicate thefe rights, when actually violated 
or attacked, the (ubjects of Britain are entitled, in the fil'd 
place, to the regular adminidration and free courfe of 
judice in the courts of law 3 next, to the right of peti¬ 
tioning the king and parliament for fedrefs of grievances 5 
and, laftly, to the right of having and ufing arms for felf- 
prefervation and defence. And all thefe rights and liber¬ 
ties it is our birthright to enjoy entire, unlefs where the 
laws of our country have laid them under r.eceflary re- 
draints. Redraints in themfelves fo gentle and moderate, 
as will appear upon farther inquiry, that no man of fenfe 
or probity would wifh to fee them flackened. For all of 
us have it in our choice to do every thing that a good 
man would defire to do 5 and are redrained from nothing 
but what would be pernicious either to ourfelves or our 
fellow-citizens. So that this review, of our fituation may 
fully juftify the obfervation of a learned French author, 
(of former times!) who fcrupled not to profefs, even in 
the very bofom of his native country, “that the Britifli is 
the only nation in the world where political or civil li¬ 
berty is the direct end of its conditution.” Montefq. Sp. 
L. xi. 5. 
LIB'ERTY, in mythology, was a goddefs both among 
tlfe Greeks and Romans. Among the former (he was in¬ 
voked under the title Eleutheria ; and by the latter the 
was called Libcrias, and held in fingular veneration. 
Temples, altars, and datues, were erected in honour of' 
this deity. A very magnificent temple was confecrated 
to her on Mount Aventine, by Tiberius Gracchus, be¬ 
fore which was a fpacious court, called Atrium Libertatis. 
The Romans alfo erefted a new temple in honour of Li¬ 
berty, when Julius Cselar eftablifhed his empire over them, 
as if their liberty had been fecured by an event which 
proved fatal to it. In a medal of Brutus, Liberty is ex¬ 
hibited under the figure of a woman, holding in one hand 
a cap, the fymbol of liberty, and two poniards in the 
other, with the infeription idibvs martii-s. —With us. 
Liberty is fometimes reprefented by the figure of a wo¬ 
man, with a broken yoke-dick in her left hand, and 
trampling upon it as a mark of refentment. She is drefled 
in white robes, to denote the bleffings fire confers on 
mankind; and in her right hand flie holds a feeptre, as a 
fign of independence. She has alfo a cap of liberty on 
her head, in allufion to the cubom of the Romans, in let¬ 
ting their (laves free; who alfo (haved their heads, and 
permitted them to be covered in the prefence of thofe who 
gave them liberty. Richardfon's Iconology. 
LIB'ERTY, a county of United America, in Georgia, 
bounded north by Brian, fouth by Mackintofh, wed by 
Alatamaha, and north-ead by the ocean. It is forty miles 
long, and twenty-two broad. The productions are cotton 
and rice. An acre of land yields twenty-five or thirty 
bufhels of corn. It derives its name from the circum- 
bance, that its inhabitants were the firb in the date who 
declared for liberty, and fent a delegate to the congrefs- 
at Philadelphia.^ It is divided into five'towns, and con¬ 
tains 5313 inhabitants, of.whom 3940 are (laves. 
LIB'ERTY, a poft'-town of Virginia, fifteen miles 
from New London. This is the chief town of Bedford 
county; it has a handfome court-houfe, and contains fifty 
or fixty houi'es. 
LIB'ERTY, a pod-town of Maryland, in Frederic 
county; twelve miles north-ead of Fredericdown, and 
about forty-four miles north-north-weft of the Federal 
city. 
LIB'ERTY of CON'SCIENCE, a right or power of 
making profeflion of any religion, or of ferving God in 
any manner that a man fees fit. 
As the gods of paganifm were almoft all local and tu¬ 
telary, and as it was a maxim univerfully received, that it 
was the duty of every man to worfhip, together with his 
own deities, the tutelary gods of the country in which he 
might chance to refide, there was no room for perfecution 
in the heathen world, on account of different fentiments 
in religion, or of the different rites with which the various 
deities were worfhipped. Had the primitive Cbribians 
joined their felloiv-citizens in the worfhip of Jupiter, 
Juno, and the red of the Roman divinities, they would 
have been buffered to worfhip, without moledation, the 
Creator 
