Chapter VIII: Front Matter (8)

_Rivers._--The work of the Franco-Liberian delimitation commission in
1908-1909 cleared up many points connected with the hydrography of the
country. Notably it traced the upper Cavalla, proving that that river
was not connected either with the Nuon on the west or the Ko or Zo on
the east. The upper river and the left bank of the lower river of the
Cavalla are in French territory. It rises in about 7° 50´ N., 8° 30´
W. in the Nimba mountains, where also rise the Nuon, St John's and
Dukwia rivers. After flowing S.E. the Cavalla, between 7° and 6° N.,
under the name of Dugu, makes a very considerable elbow to the west,
thereafter resuming its south-easterly course. It is navigable from
the sea for some 80 m. from its mouth and after a long series of
rapids is again navigable. Unfortunately the Cavalla does not afford a
means of easy penetration into the rich hinterland of Liberia on
account of the bad bar at its mouth. The Nuon (or Nipwe), which up to
1908 was described sometimes as the western Cavalla and sometimes as
the upper course of the St John's river, has been shown to be the
upper course of the Cestos. About 6° 30´ N. it approaches within 16 m.
of the Cavalla. It rises in the Nimba mountains some 10 m. S. of the
source of the Cavalla, and like all the Liberian rivers (except the
Cavalla) it has a general S.W. flow. The St Paul, though inferior to
the Cavalla in length, is a large river with a considerable volume of
water. The main branch rises in the Beila country nearly as far north
as 9° N. under the name of Diani. Between 8° and 7° N. it is joined by
the Wé from the west and the Walé from the east. The important river
Lofa flows nearly parallel with the St Paul's river and enters the sea
about 40 m. to the west, under the name of Little Cape Mount river.
The Mano or Bewa river rises in the dense Gora forest, but is of no
great importance until it becomes the frontier between Liberia and
Sierra Leone. The Dukwia and Farmington are tortuous rivers entering
the sea under the name of the river Junk (Portuguese, _Junco_). The
Farmington is a short stream, but the Dukwia is believed to be the
lower course of the Mani, which rises as the Tigney (Tige), north of
the source of the Cavalla, just south of 8° N. The St John's river of
the Basa country appears to be of considerable importance and volume.
The Sino river rises in the Niete mountains and brings down a great
volume of water to the sea, though it is not a river of considerable
length. The Duobe rises at the back of the Satro Mountains and flows
nearly parallel with the Cavalla, which it joins. The Moa or Makona
river is a fine stream of considerable volume, but its course is
perpetually interrupted by rocks and rapids. Its lower course is
through the territory of Sierra Leone, and it enters the sea as the
Sulima.

_Climate and Rainfall._--Liberia is almost everywhere well watered.
The climate and rainfall over the whole of the coast region for about
120 m. inland are equatorial, the rainfall in the western half of the
country being about 150 in. per annum and in the eastern half about
100 in. North of a distance of about 120 m. inland the climate is not
quite so rainy, and the weather is much cooler during the dry season.
This region beyond the hundred-miles coast belt is far more agreeable
and healthy to Europeans.

_Forests._--Outside a coast belt of about 20 m. and south of 8° N. the
country is one vast forest, except where the natives have cleared the
land for cultivation. In many districts the land has been cleared and
cultivated and then abandoned, and has relapsed into scrub and jungle
which is gradually returning to the condition of forest. The densest
forest of all would seem to be that known as Gora, which is almost
entirely uninhabited and occupies an area of about 6000 sq. m. between
the Po hills and the British frontier. There is another very dense
forest stretching with little interruption from the eastern side of
the St Paul's river nearly to the Cavalla. The Nidi forest is
noteworthy for its magnificent growth of _Funtumia_ rubber trees. It
extends between the Duobe and the Cavalla rivers. The extreme north of
Liberia is still for the most part a very well-watered country,
covered with a rich vegetation, but there are said to be a few breaks
that are rather stony and that have a very well-marked dry season in
which the vegetation is a good deal burnt up. In the main Liberia is
the forest country par excellence of West Africa, and although this
region of dense forests overlaps the political frontiers of both
Sierra Leone and the Ivory Coast, it is a feature of physical
geography so nearly coincident with the actual frontiers of Liberia as
to give this country special characteristics clearly marked in its
existing fauna.

_Fauna._--The fauna of Liberia is sufficiently peculiar, at any rate
as regards vertebrates, to make it very nearly identical with a
"district" or sub-province of the West African province, though in
this case the Liberian "district" would not include the northern-most
portions of the country and would overlap on the east and west into
Sierra Leone and the French Ivory Coast. It is probable that the
Liberian chimpanzee may offer one or more distinct varieties; there is
an interesting local development of the Diana monkey, sometimes called
the bay-thighed monkey (_Cercopithecus diana ignita_) on account of
its brilliant orange-red thighs. One or more species of bats are
peculiar to the country--_Vespertilio stampflii_, and perhaps
_Roussettus büttikoferi_; two species of shrew (_Crocidura_), one
dormouse (_Graphiurus nagtglasii_); the pygmy hippopotamus (_H.
liberiensis_)--differing from the common hippopotamus by its much
smaller size and by the reduction of the incisor teeth to a single
pair in either jaw, or occasionally to the odd number of three; and
two remarkable _Cephalophus_ antelopes peculiar to this region so far
as is known--these are the white-shouldered duiker, _Cephalophus
jentinki_, and the zebra antelope, _C. doriae_, a creature the size of
a small goat, of a bright bay brown, with broad black zebra-like
stripes. Amongst other interesting mammals are four species of the
long-haired _Colobus_ monkeys (black, black and white, greenish-grey
and reddish-brown); the Potto lemur, fruit bats of large size with
monstrous heads (_Hypsignathus monstrosus_); the brush-tailed African
porcupine; several very brightly coloured squirrels; the scaly-tailed
flying _Anomalurus_; the common porcupine; the leopard, serval, golden
cat (_Felis celidogaster_) in two varieties, the copper-coloured and
the grey, possibly the same animal at different ages; the striped and
spotted hyenas (beyond the forest region); two large otters; the tree
hyrax, elephant and manati; the red bush pig (_Potamochoerus porcus_);
the West African chevrotain (_Dorcatherium_); the Senegalese buffalo;
Bongo antelope (_Boocercus_); large yellow-backed duiker (_Cephalophus
sylvicultrix_), black duiker, West African hartebeest (beyond the
forest), pygmy antelope (_Neotragus_); and three species of _Manis_ or
pangolin (_M. gigantea_, _M. longicaudata_ and _M. tricuspis_).

The birds of Liberia are not quite so peculiar as the mammals. There
is the interesting white-necked guineafowl, _Agelastes_ (which is
found on the Gold Coast and elsewhere west of the lower Niger); there
is one peculiar species of eagle owl (_Bubo lettii_) and a very
handsome sparrow-hawk (_Accipiter büttikoferi_); a few sun-birds,
warblers and shrikes are peculiar to the region. The other birds are
mainly those of Senegambia and of the West African forest region
generally. A common and handsome bird is the blue plantain-eater
(_Corythaeola_). The fishing vulture (_Gypohierax_) is found in all
the coast districts, but true vultures are almost entirely absent
except from the north, where the small brown _Percnopterus_ makes its
appearance. A flamingo (_Phoeniconaias_) visits Fisherman Lake, and
there are a good many species of herons. Cuckoos are abundant, some of
them of lovely plumage, also rollers, kingfishers and horn-bills. The
last family is well represented, especially by the three forest
forms--the elate hornbill and black hornbill (_Ceratogymna_), and the
long-tailed, white-crested hornbill (_Ortholophus leucolophus_). There
is one trogon--green and crimson, a brightly coloured ground thrush
(_Pitta_), numerous woodpeckers and barbets; glossy starlings, the
black and white African crow and a great variety of brilliantly
coloured weaver birds, waxbills, shrikes and sun-birds.

As regards reptiles, there are at least seven poisonous snakes--two
cobras, two puff-adders and three vipers. The brilliantly coloured red
and blue lizard (_Agama colonorum_) is found in the coast region of
eastern Liberia. There are three species of crocodile, at least two
chameleons (probably more when the forest is further explored), the
large West African python (_P. sebae_) and a rare Boine snake
(Calabaria). On the sea coast there is the leathery turtle
(_Dermochelis_) and also the green turtle (_Chelone_). In the rivers
and swamps there are soft-shelled turtle (_Trionyx_ and
_Sternothaerus_). The land tortoises chiefly belong to the genus
_Cynyxis_. The fresh-water fish seem in their affinities to be nearly
allied to those of the Niger and the Nile. There is a species of
_Polypterus_, and it is probable that the _Protopterus_ or lung fish
is also found there, though its existence has not as yet been
established by a specimen. As regards invertebrates, very few species
or genera are peculiar to Liberia so far as is yet known, though there
are probably one or two butterflies of local range. The gigantic
scorpions (_Pandinus imperator_)--more than 6 in. long--are a common
feature in the forest. One noteworthy feature in Liberia, however, is
the relative absence of mosquitoes, and the white ants and some other
insect pests are not so troublesome here as in other parts of West
Africa. The absence or extreme paucity of mosquitoes no doubt accounts
for the infrequency of malarial fever in the interior.

_Flora._--Nowhere, perhaps, does the flora of West Africa attain a
more wonderful development than in the republic of Liberia and in the
adjoining regions of Sierra Leone and the Ivory Coast. This is partly
due to the equatorial position and the heavy rainfall. The region of
dense forest, however, does not cover the whole of Liberia; the Makona
river and the northern tributaries of the Lofa and St Paul's flow
through a mountainous country covered with grass and thinly scattered
trees, while the ravines and watercourses are still richly forested. A
good deal of this absence of forest is directly due to the action of
man. Year by year the influence of the Mahommedan tribes on the north
leads to the cutting down of the forest, the extension of both
planting and pasture and the introduction of cattle and even horses.
In the regions bordering the coast also a good deal of the forest has
disappeared, its place being taken (where the land is not actually
cultivated) by very dense scrub. The most striking trees in the forest
region are, in the basin of the Cavalla, the giant _Funtumia
elastica_, which grows to an altitude of 200 ft.; various kinds of
_Parinarium_, _Oldfieldia_ and _Khaya_; the bombax or cotton tree,
giant dracaenas, many kinds of fig; _Borassus_ palms, oil palms, the
climbing _Calamus_ palms, and on the coast the coconut. The most
important palm of the country perhaps is the _Raphia vinifera_, which
produces the piassava fibre of commerce. There are about twenty-two
different trees, shrubs and vines producing rubber of more or less
good quality. These belong chiefly to the Apocynaceous order. In this
order is the genus _Strophanthus_, which is represented in Liberia by
several species, amongst others _S. gratus_. This _Strophanthus_ is
not remarkable for its rubber--which is mere bird lime--but for the
powerful poison of its seeds, often used for poisoning arrows, but of
late much in use as a drug for treating diseases of the heart. Coffee
of several species is indigenous and grows wild. The best known is the
celebrated _Coffea liberica_. The kola tree is also indigenous. Large
edible nuts are derived from _Coula edulis_ of the order Olacineae.
The country is exceedingly rich in Aroids, many of which are
epiphytic, festooning the trunks of tall trees with a magnificent
drapery of abundant foliage. A genus much represented is _Culcasia_,
and swampy localities are thickly set with the giant _Cyrtosperma_
arum, with flower spathes that are blotched with deep purple. Ground
orchids and tree orchids are well represented; _Polystachya liberica_,
an epiphytic orchid with sprays of exquisite small flowers of purple
and gold, might well be introduced into horticulture for its beauty.
The same might be said of the magnificent _Lissochilus roseus_, a
terrestrial orchid, growing to 7 ft. in height, with rose-coloured
flowers nearly 1 in. long; there are other orchids of fantastic design
in their green and white flowers, some of which have spurs (nectaries)
nearly 7 in. long.

Many trees offer magnificent displays of flowers at certain seasons of
the year; perhaps the loveliest effect is derived from the bushes and
trailing creepers of the _Combretum_ genus, which, during the "winter"
months from December to March, cover the scrub and the forest with
mantles of rose colour. _Smaethmannia_ trees are thickly set at this
season with large blossoms of waxen white. Very beautiful also are the
red velvet or white velvet sepals of the _Mussaenda_ genus. Bamboos of
the genus _Oxytenanthera_ are indigenous. Tree ferns are found on the
mountains above 4000 ft. The bracken grows in low sandy tracts near
the coast. The country in general is a fern paradise, and the
iridescent creeping _Selaginella_ (akin to _Lycopodium_) festoons the
undergrowth by the wayside. The cultivated trees and plants of
importance are, besides rubber, the manioc or cassada, the orange
tree, lime, cacao, coffee, pineapple (which now runs wild over the
whole of Liberia), sour sop, ginger, papaw, alligator apple, avocado
pear, okro, cotton (_Gossypium peruvianum_--the kidney cotton),
indigo, sweet potato, capsicum (chillie), bread-fruit, arrowroot
(_Maranta_), banana, yam, "coco"-yam (_Colocasia antiquorum_, var.
_esculenta_), maize, sorghum, sugar cane, rice and eleusine
(_Eleusine_), besides gourds, pumpkins, cabbages and onions.

_Minerals._--The hinterland of Liberia has been but slightly explored
for mineral wealth. In a general way it is supposed that the lands
lying between the lower St Paul's river and the Sierra Leone frontier
are not much mineralized, except that in the vicinity of river mouths
there are indications of bitumen. The sand of nearly all the rivers
contains a varying proportion of gold. Garnets and mica are everywhere
found. There have been repeated stories of diamonds obtained from the
Finley Mountains (which are volcanic) in the central province, but all
specimens sent home, except one, have hitherto proved to be quartz
crystals. There are indications of sapphires and other forms of
corundum. Corundum indeed is abundantly met with in the eastern half
of Liberia. The sand of the rivers contains monazite. Graphite has
been discovered in the Po Hills. Lead has been reported from the Nidi
or Niete Mountains. Gold is present in some abundance in the river
sand of central Liberia, and native reports speak of the far interior
as being rich in gold. Iron--haematite--is present almost everywhere.
There are other indications of bitumen, besides those mentioned, in
the coast region of eastern Liberia.

_History and Population._--Tradition asserts that the Liberian coast was first visited by Europeans when it was reached by the Dieppois merchant-adventurers in the 14th century. The French in the 17th century claimed that but for the loss of the archives of Dieppe they would be able to prove that vessels from this Norman port had established settlements at Grand Basa, Cape Mount, and other points on the coast of Liberia. No proof has yet been forthcoming, however, that the Portuguese were not the first white men to reach this coast. The first Portuguese pioneer was Pedro de Sintra, who discovered and noted in 1461 the remarkable promontory of Cape Mount, Cape Mesurado (where the capital, Monrovia, is now situated) and the mouth of the Junk river. In 1462 de Sintra returned with another Portuguese captain, Sueiro da Costa, and penetrated as far as Cape Palmas and the Cavalla river. Subsequently the Portuguese mapped the whole coast of Liberia, and nearly all the prominent features--capes, rivers, islets--off that coast still bear Portuguese names. From the 16th century onwards, English, Dutch, German, French and other European traders contested the commerce of this coast with the Portuguese, and finally drove them away. In the 18th century France once or twice thought of establishing colonies here. At the end of the 18th century, when the tide was rising in favour of the abolition of slavery and the repatriation of slaves, the Grain Coast [so called from the old trade in the "Grains of Paradise" or _Amomum_ pepper] was suggested once or twice as a suitable home for repatriated negroes. Sierra Leone, however, was chosen first on account of its possessing an admirable harbour. But in 1821 Cape Mesurado was selected by the American Colonization Society as an appropriate site for the first detachment of American freed negroes, whom difficulties in regard to extending the suffrage in the United States were driving away from a still slave-holding America. From that date, 1821, onwards to the present day, negroes and mulattos--freed slaves or the descendants of such--have been crossing the Atlantic in small numbers to settle on the Liberian coast. The great migrations took place during the first half of the 19th century. Only two or three thousand American emigrants--at most--have come to Liberia since 1860.

The colony was really founded by Jehudi Ashmun, a white American, between 1822 and 1828. The name "Liberia" was invented by the Rev. R. R. Gurley in 1824. In 1847 the American colonists declared their country to be an independent republic, and its status in this capacity was recognized in 1848-1849 by most of the great powers with the exception of the United States. Until 1857 Liberia consisted of two republics--Liberia and Maryland. These American settlements were dotted at intervals along the coast from the mouth of the Sewa river on the west to the San Pedro river on the east (some 60 m. beyond Cape Palmas). Some tracts of territory, such as the greater part of the Kru coast, still, however, remain without foreign--American--settlers, and in a state of quasi-independence. The uncertainty of Liberian occupation led to frontier troubles with Great Britain and disputes with France. Finally, by the English and French treaties of 1885 and 1892 Liberian territory on the coast was made continuous, but was limited to the strip of about 300 m. between the Mano river on the west and the Cavalla river on the east. The Sierra Leone-Liberia frontier was demarcated in 1903; then followed the negotiations with France for the exact delimitation of the Ivory Coast-Liberia frontier, with the result that Liberia lost part of the hinterland she had claimed. Reports of territorial encroachments aroused much sympathy with Liberia in America and led in February 1909 to the appointment by President Roosevelt of a commission which visited Liberia in the summer of that year to investigate the condition of the country. As a result of the commissioners' report negotiations were set on foot for the adjustment of the Liberian debt and the placing of United States officials in charge of the Liberian customs. In July 1910 it was announced that the American government, acting in general agreement with Great Britain, France and Germany, would take charge of the finances, military organization, agriculture and boundary questions of the republic. A loan for £400,000 was also arranged. Meantime the attempts of the Liberian government to control the Kru coast led to various troubles, such as the fining or firing upon foreign steamships for alleged contraventions of regulations. During 1910 the natives in the Cape Palmas district were at open warfare with the Liberian authorities.

One of the most notable of the Liberian presidents was J. J. Roberts, who was nearly white, with only a small proportion of negro blood in his veins. But perhaps the ablest statesman that this American-Negro republic has as yet produced is a pure-blooded negro--President Arthur Barclay, a native of Barbados in the West Indies, who came to Liberia with his parents in the middle of the 19th century, and received all his education there. President Barclay was of unmixed negro descent, but came of a Dahomey stock of superior type.[1] Until the accession to power of President Barclay in 1904 (he was re-elected in 1907), the Americo-Liberian government on the coast had very uncertain relations with the indigenous population, which is well armed and tenacious of local independence. But of late Liberian influence has been extending, more especially in the counties of Maryland and Montserrado.

The president is now elected for a term of four years. There is a legislature of eight senators and thirteen representatives. The type of the constitution is very like that of the United States. Increasing attention is being given to education, to deal with which there are several colleges and a number of schools. The judicial functions are discharged by four grades of officials--the local magistrates, the courts of common pleas, the quarterly courts (five in number) and the supreme court.

The customs service includes British customs officers lent to the Liberian service. A gunboat for preventive service purchased from the British government and commanded by an Englishman, with native petty officers and crew, is employed by the Liberian government. The language of government and trade is English, which is understood far and wide throughout Liberia. As the origin of the Sierra Leonis and the Americo-Liberian settlers was very much the same, an increasing intimacy is growing up between the English-speaking populations of these adjoining countries. Order is maintained in Liberia to some extent by a militia.

The population of Americo-Liberian origin in the coast regions is estimated at from 12,000 to 15,000. To these must be added about 40,000 civilized and Christianized negroes who make common cause with the Liberians in most matters, and have gradually been filling the position of Liberian citizens.

For administrative purposes the country is divided into four counties, Montserrado, Basa, Sino and Maryland, but Cape Mount in the far west and the district round it has almost the status of a fifth county. The approximate revenue for 1906 was £65,000, and the expenditure about £60,000, but some of the revenue was still collected in paper of uncertain value. There are three custom-houses, or ports of entry on the Sierra Leone land frontier between the Moa river on the north and the Mano on the south, and nine ports of entry along the coast. At all of these Europeans are allowed to settle and trade, and with very slight restrictions they may now trade almost anywhere in Liberia. The rubber trade is controlled by the Liberian Rubber Corporation, which holds a special concession from the Liberian government for a number of years, and is charged with the preservation of the forests. Another English company has constructed motor roads in the Liberian hinterland to connect centres of trade with the St Paul's river. The trade is done almost entirely with Great Britain, Germany and Holland, but friendly relations are maintained with Spain, as the Spanish plantations in Fernando Po are to a great extent worked by Liberian labour.

The indigenous population must be considered one of the assets of Liberia. The native population--apart from the American element--is estimated at as much as 2,000,000; for although large areas appear to be uninhabited forest, other parts are most densely populated, owing to the wonderful fertility of the soil. The native tribes belong more or less to the following divisions, commencing on the west, and proceeding eastwards: (1) Vai, Gbandi, Kpwesi, Mende, Buzi and Mandingo (the Vai, Mende and Mandingo are Mahommedans); all these tribes speak languages derived from a common stock. (2) In the densest forest region between the Mano and the St Paul's river is the powerful Gora tribe of unknown linguistic affinities. (3) In the coast region between the St Paul's river and the Cavalla (and beyond) are the different tribes of Kru stock and language family--De, Basa, Gibi, Kru, Grebo, Putu, Sikoñ, &c. &c. The actual Kru tribe inhabits the coast between the river Cestos on the west and Grand Sesters on the east. It is known all over the Atlantic coasts of Africa, as it furnishes such a large proportion of the seamen employed on men-of-war and merchant ships in these tropical waters. Many of the indigenous races of Liberia in the forest belt beyond 40 m. from the coast still practise cannibalism. In some of these forest tribes the women still go quite naked, but clothes of a Mahommedan type are fast spreading over the whole country. Some of the indigenous races are of very fine physique. In the Nidi country the women are generally taller than the men. No traces of a Pygmy race have as yet been discovered, nor any negroes of low physiognomy. Some of the Krumen are coarse and ugly, and this is the case with the Mende people; but as a rule the indigenes of Liberia are handsome, well-proportioned negroes, and some of the Mandingos have an almost European cast of feature.

AUTHORITIES.--Col. Wauwerman, _Liberia; Histoire de la fondation d'un
état nègre_ (Brussels, 1885); J. Büttikofer, _Reisebilder aus Liberia_
(Leiden, 1890); Sir Harry Johnston, _Liberia_ (2 vols., London, 1906),
with full bibliography; Maurice Delafosse, _Vocabulaires comparatifs
de plus de 60 langues et dialectes parlés à la Côte d'Ivoire et dans
la région limitrophe_ (1904), a work which, though it professes to
deal mainly with philology, throws a wonderful light on the
relationships and history of the native tribes of Liberia.
(H. H. J.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Amongst other remarkable negroes that Liberian education produced
was Dr E. W. Blyden (b. 1832), the author of many works dealing with
negro questions.

LIBERIUS, pope from 352 to 366, the successor of Julius I., was consecrated according to the _Catalogus Liberianus_ on the 22nd of May. His first recorded act was, after a synod had been held at Rome, to write to Constantius, then in quarters at Arles (353-354), asking that a council might be called at Aquileia with reference to the affairs of Athanasius; but his messenger Vincentius of Capua was compelled by the emperor at a conciliabulum held in Arles to subscribe against his will a condemnation of the orthodox patriarch of Alexandria. In 355 Liberius was one of the few who, along with Eusebius of Vercelli, Dionysius of Milan and Lucifer of Cagliari, refused to sign the condemnation of Athanasius, which had anew been imposed at Milan by imperial command upon all the Western bishops; the consequence was his relegation to Beroea in Thrace, Felix II. (antipope) being consecrated his successor by three "catascopi haud episcopi," as Athanasius called them. At the end of an exile of more than two years he yielded so far as to subscribe a formula giving up the "homoousios," to abandon Athanasius, and to accept the communion of his adversaries--a serious mistake, with which he has justly been reproached. This submission led the emperor to recall him from exile; but, as the Roman see was officially occupied by Felix, a year passed before Liberius was sent to Rome. It was the emperor's intention that Liberius should govern the Church jointly with Felix, but on the arrival of Liberius, Felix was expelled by the Roman people. Neither Liberius nor Felix took part in the council of Rimini (359). After the death of the emperor Constantius in 361, Liberius annulled the decrees of that assembly, but, with the concurrence of SS. Athanasius and Hilarius, retained the bishops who had signed and then withdrawn their adherence. In 366 Liberius gave a favourable reception to a deputation of the Eastern episcopate, and admitted into his communion the more moderate of the old Arian party. He died on the 24th of September 366.

His biographers used to be perplexed by a letter purporting to be from
Liberius, in the works of Hilary, in which he seems to write, in 352,
that he had excommunicated Athanasius at the instance of the Oriental
bishops; but the document is now held to be spurious. See Hefele,
_Conciliengesch_. i. 648 seq. Three other letters, though contested by
Hefele, seem to have been written by Liberius at the time of his
submission to the emperor. (L. D.*)

LIBER PONTIFICALIS, or GESTA PONTIFICUM ROMANORUM (i.e. book of the popes), consists of the lives of the bishops of Rome from the time of St Peter to the death of Nicholas I. in 867. A supplement continues the series of lives almost to the close of the 9th century, and several other continuations were written later. During the 16th century there was some discussion about the authorship of the _Liber_, and for some time it was thought to be the work of an Italian monk, Anastasius Bibliothecarius (d. 886). It is now, however, practically certain that it was of composite authorship and that the earlier part of it was compiled about 530, three centuries before the time of Anastasius. This is the view taken by Louis Duchesne and substantially by G. Waitz and T. Mommsen, although these scholars think that it was written about a century later. The _Liber_ contains much information about papal affairs in general, and about endowments, martyrdoms and the like, but a considerable part of it is obviously legendary. It assumes that the bishops of Rome exercised authority over the Christian Church from its earliest days.

_The Liber_, which was used by Bede for his _Historia Ecclesiastica_,
was first printed at Mainz in 1602. Among other editions is the one
edited by T. Mommsen for the _Monumenta Germaniae historica. Gesta
Romanorum pontificum_, Band i., but the best is the one by L.
Duchesne, _Le Liber pontificalis: texte, introduction, commentaire_
(Paris, 1884-1892). See also the same writer's _Étude sur le Liber
pontificalis_ (Paris, 1877); and the article by A. Brackmann in
Herzog-Hauck's _Realencyklopädie_, Band xi. (Leipzig, 1902).

LIBERTAD, or LA LIBERTAD, a coast department of Peru, bounded N. by Lambayeque and Cajamarca, E. by San Martin, S. by Ancachs, S.W. and W. by the Pacific. Pop. (1906 estimate) 188,200; area 10,209 sq. m. Libertad formerly included the present department of Lambayeque. The Western Cordillera divides it into two nearly equal parts; the western consisting of a narrow, arid, sandy coast zone and the western slopes of the Cordillera broken into valleys by short mountain spurs, and the eastern a high inter-Andine valley lying between the Western and Central Cordilleras and traversed by the upper Marañon or Amazon, which at one point is less than 90 m. in a straight line from the Pacific coast. The coast region is traversed by several short streams, which are fed by the melting snows of the Cordillera and are extensively used for irrigation. These are (the names also applying to their valleys) the Jequetepeque or Pacasmayo, in whose valley rice is an important product, the Chicama, in whose valley the sugar plantations are among the largest and best in Peru, the Moche, Viru, Chao and Santa; the last, with its northern tributary, the Tablachaca, forming the southern boundary line of the department. The Santa Valley is also noted for its sugar plantations. Cotton is produced in several of these valleys, coffee in the Pacasmayo district, and coca on the mountain slopes about Huamachuco and Otuzco, at elevations of 3000 to 6000 ft. above sea-level. The upland regions, which have a moderate rainfall and a cool, healthy climate, are partly devoted to agriculture on a small scale (producing wheat, Indian corn, barley, potatoes, quinua, alfalfa, fruit and vegetables), partly to grazing and partly to mining. Cattle and sheep have been raised on the upland pastures of Libertad and Ancachs since early colonial times, and the llama and alpaca were reared throughout this "sierra" country long before the Spanish conquest. Gold and silver mines are worked in the districts of Huamachuco, Otuzco and Pataz, and coal has been found in the first two. The department had 169 m. of railway in 1906, viz.: from Pacasmayo to Yonán (in Cajamarca) with a branch to Guadalupe, 60 m.; from Salaverry to Trujillo with its extension to Ascope, 47 m.; from Trujillo to Laredo, Galindo and Menocucho, 18½ m.; from Huanchaco to Roma, 25 m.; and from Chicama to Pampas, 18½ m. The principal ports are Pacasmayo and Salaverry, which have long iron piers built by the national government; Malabrigo, Huanchuco, Guañape and Chao are open roadsteads. The capital of the department is Trujillo. The other principal towns are San Pedro, Otuzco, Huamachuco, Santiago de Chuco and Tuyabamba--all provincial capitals and important only through their mining interests, except San Pedro, which stands in the fertile district of the Jequetepeque. The population of Otuzco (35 m. N.E. of Trujillo) was estimated to be about 4000 in 1896, that of Huamachuco (65 m. N.E. of Trujillo) being perhaps slightly less.

LIBERTARIANISM (from Lat. _libertas_, freedom), in ethics, the doctrine which maintains the freedom of the will, as opposed to necessitarianism or determinism. It has been held in various forms. In its extreme form it maintains that the individual is absolutely free to chose this or that action indifferently (the _liberum arbitrium indifferentiae_), but most libertarians admit that acquired tendencies, environment and the like, exercise control in a greater or less degree.

LIBERTINES, the nickname, rather than the name, given to various political and social parties. It is futile to deduce the name from the Libertines of Acts vi. 9; these were "sons of freedmen," for it is vain to make them citizens of an imaginary Libertum, or to substitute (with Beza) Libustines, in the sense of inhabitants of Libya. In a sense akin to the modern use of the term "libertine," i.e. a person who sets the rules of morality, &c., at defiance, the word seems first to have been applied, as a stigma, to Anabaptists in the Low Countries (Mark Pattison, _Essays_, ii. 38). It has become especially attached to the liberal party in Geneva, opposed to Calvin and carrying on the tradition of the Liberators in that city; but the term was never applied to them till after Calvin's death (F. W. Kampschulte, _Johann Calvin_). Calvin, who wrote against the "Libertins qui se nomment Spirituelz" (1545), never confused them with his political antagonists in Geneva, called Perrinistes from their leader Amadeo Perrin. The objects of Calvin's polemic were the Anabaptists above mentioned, whose first obscure leader was Coppin of Lisle, followed by Quintin of Hennegau, by whom and his disciples, Bertram des Moulins and Claude Perseval, the principles of the sect were disseminated in France. Quintin was put to death as a heretic at Tournai in 1546. His most notable follower was Antoine Pocquet, a native of Enghien, Belgium, priest and almoner (1540-1549), afterwards pensioner of the queen of Navarre, who was a guest of Bucer at Strassburg (1543-1544) and died some time after 1560. Calvin (who had met Quintin in Paris) describes the doctrines he impugns as pantheistic and antinomian.

See Choisy in Herzog-Hauck's _Realencyklopädie_ (1902). (A. Go.*)

LIBERTINES, SYNAGOGUE OF THE, a section of the Hellenistic Jews who attacked Stephen (Acts vi. 9). The passage reads, [Greek: tines tôn êk tês sunagôgês tês legomenês Libertinôn, kai Kurênaiôn kai Alexandreôn, kai tôn apo Kilikias kai Asias], and opinion is divided as to the number of synagogues here named. The probability is that there are three, corresponding to the geographical regions involved, (1) Rome and Italy, (2) N.E. Africa, (3) Asia Minor. In this case "the Synagogue of the Libertines" is the assembly of "the Freedmen" from Rome, descendants of the Jews enslaved by Pompey after his conquest of Judaea 63 B.C. If, however, we take [Greek: Libertinôn kai Kurênaiôn kai Alexandreôn] closely together, the first name must denote the people of some city or district. The obscure town Libertum (inferred from the title Episcopus Libertinensis in connexion with the synod of Carthage, A.D. 411) is less likely than the reading ([Greek: Libuôn] or) [Greek: Libustinôn] underlying certain Armenian versions and Syriac commentaries. The Greek towns lying west from Cyrene would naturally be called Libyan. In any case the interesting point is that these returned Jews, instead of being liberalized by their residence abroad, were more tenacious of Judaism and more bitter against Stephen than those who had never left Judaea.

LIBERTY (Lat. _libertas_, from _liber_, free), generally the state of freedom, especially opposed to subjection, imprisonment or slavery, or with such restricted or figurative meaning as the circumstances imply. The history of political liberty is in modern days identified practically with the progress of civilization. In a more particular sense, "a liberty" is the term for a franchise, a privilege or branch of the crown's prerogative granted to a subject, as, for example, that of executing legal process; hence the district over which the privilege extends. Such liberties are exempt from the jurisdiction of the sheriff and have separate commissions of the peace, but for purposes of local government form part of the county in which they are situated. The exemption from the jurisdiction of the sheriff was recognized in England by the Sheriffs Act 1887, which provides that the sheriff of a county shall appoint a deputy at the expense of the lord of the liberty, such deputy to reside in or near the liberty. The deputy receives and opens in the sheriff's name all writs, the return or execution of which belongs to the bailiff of the liberty, and issues to the bailiff the warrant required for the due execution of such writs. The bailiff then becomes liable for non-execution, mis-execution or insufficient return of any writs, and in the case of non-return of any writ, if the sheriff returns that he has delivered the writ to a bailiff of a liberty, the sheriff will be ordered to execute the writ notwithstanding the liberty, and must cause the bailiff to attend before the high court of justice and answer why he did not execute the writ.

In nautical phraseology various usages of the term are derived from its association with a sailor's leave on shore, e.g. liberty-man, liberty-day, liberty-ticket.

_A History of Modern Liberty_, in eight volumes, of which the third
appeared in 1906, has been written by James Mackinnon; see also Lord
Acton's lectures, and such works as J. S. Mill's _On Liberty_ and Sir
John Seeley's _Introduction to Political Science_.

LIBERTY PARTY, the first political party organized in the United States to oppose the spread and restrict the political power of slavery, and the lineal precursor of the Free Soil and Republican parties. It originated in the Old North-west. Its organization was preceded there by a long anti-slavery religious movement. James G. Birney (q.v.), to whom more than to any other man belongs the honour of founding and leading the party, began to define the political duties of so-called "abolitionists" about 1836; but for several years thereafter he, in common with other leaders, continued to disclaim all idea of forming a political party. In state and local campaigns, however, non-partisan political action was attempted through the questioning of Whig and Democratic candidates. The utter futility of seeking to obtain in this way any satisfactory concessions to anti-slavery sentiment was speedily and abundantly proved. There arose, consequently, a division in the American Anti-slavery Society between those who were led by W. L. Garrison (q.v.), and advocated political non-resistance--and, besides, had loaded down their anti-slavery views with a variety of religious and social vagaries, unpalatable to all but a small number--and those who were led by Birney, and advocated independent political action. The sentiment of the great majority of "abolitionists" was, by 1838, strongly for such action; and it was clearly sanctioned and implied in the constitution and declared principles of the Anti-slavery Society; but the capture of that organization by the Garrisonians, in a "packed" convention in 1830, made it unavailable as a party nucleus--even if it had not been already outgrown--and hastened a separate party organization. A convention of abolitionists at Warsaw, New York, in November 1839 had resolved that abolitionists were bound by every consideration of duty and expediency to organize an independent political party. Accordingly, the political abolitionists, in another convention at Albany, in April 1840, containing delegates from six states but not one from the North-west, launched the "Liberty Party," and nominated Birney for the presidency. In the November election he received 7069 votes.[1]

The political "abolitionists" were abolitionists only as they were restrictionists: they wished to use the federal government to exclude (or abolish) slavery from the federal Territories and the District of Columbia, but they saw no opportunity to attack slavery in the states--i.e. to attack the institution _per se_; also they declared there should be "absolute and unqualified division of the General Government from slavery"--which implied an amendment of the constitution. They proposed to use ordinary moral and political means to attain their ends--not, like the Garrisonians, to abstain from voting, or favour the dissolution of the Union.

After 1840 the attempt began in earnest to organize the Liberty Party thoroughly, and unite all anti-slavery men. The North-west, where "there was, after 1840, very little known of Garrison and his methods" (T. C. Smith), was the most promising field, but though the contest of state and local campaigns gave morale to the party, it made scant political gains (in 1843 it cast hardly 10% of the total vote); it could not convince the people that slavery should be made the paramount question in politics. In 1844, however, the Texas question gave slavery precisely this pre-eminence in the presidential campaign. Until then, neither Whigs nor Democrats had regarded the Liberty Party seriously; now, however, each party charged that the Liberty movement was corruptly auxiliary to the other. As the campaign progressed, the Whigs alternately abused the Liberty men and made frantic appeals for their support. But the Liberty men were strongly opposed to Clay personally; and even if his equivocal campaign letters (see CLAY, HENRY) had not left exceedingly small ground for belief that he would resist the annexation of Texas, still the Liberty men were not such as to admit that an end justifies the means; therefore they again nominated Birney. He received 62,263 votes[2]--many more than enough in New York to have carried that state and the presidency for Clay, had they been thrown to his support. The Whigs, therefore, blamed the Liberty Party for Democratic success and the annexation of Texas; but--quite apart from the issue of political ethics--it is almost certain that though Clay's chances were injured by the Liberty ticket, they were injured much more outside the Liberty ranks, by his own quibbles.[3] After 1844 the Liberty Party made little progress. Its leaders were never very strong as politicians, and its ablest organizer, Birney, was about this time compelled by an accident to abandon public life. Moreover, the election of 1844 was in a way fatal to the party; for it seemed to prove that though "abolition" was not the party programme, still its antecedents and personnel were too radical to unite the North; and above all it could not, after 1844, draw the disaffected Whigs, for though their party was steadily moving toward anti-slavery their dislike of the Liberty Party effectually prevented union. Indeed, no party of one idea could hope to satisfy men who had been Whigs or Democrats. At the same time, anti-slavery Whigs and Democrats were segregating in state politics, and the issue of excluding slavery from the new territory acquired from Mexico afforded a golden opportunity to unite all anti-slavery men on the principle of the Wilmot Proviso (1846). The Liberty Party reached its greatest strength (casting 74,017 votes) in the state elections of 1846. Thereafter, though growing somewhat in New England, it rapidly became ineffective in the rest of the North. Many, including Birney, thought it should cease to be an isolated party of one idea--striving for mere balance of power between Whigs and Democrats, welcoming small concessions from them, almost dependent upon them. Some wished to revivify it by making it a party of general reform. One result was the secession and formation of the Liberty League, which in 1847 nominated Gerrit Smith for the presidency. No adequate effort was made to take advantage of the disintegration of other parties. In October 1847, at Buffalo, was held the third and last national convention. John P. Hale--whose election to the United States Senate had justified the first successful union of Liberty men with other anti-slavery men in state politics--was nominated for the presidency. But the nomination by the Democrats of Lewis Cass shattered the Democratic organization in New York and the North-west; and when the Whigs nominated General Taylor, adopted a non-committal platform, and showed hostility to the Wilmot Proviso, the way was cleared for a union of all anti-slavery men. The Liberty Party, abandoning therefore its independent nominations, joined in the first convention and nominations of the Free Soil Party (q.v.), thereby practically losing its identity, although it continued until after the organization of the Republican Party to maintain something of a semi-independent organization. The Liberty Party has the unique honour among third-parties in the United States of seeing its principles rapidly adopted and realized.

See T. C. Smith, _History of the Liberty and Free Soil Parties in the
Northwest_ (Harvard University Historical Studies, New York, 1897),
and lives and writings of all the public men mentioned above; also of
G. W. Julian, J. R. Giddings and S. P. Chase.

LIBITINA, an old Roman goddess of funerals. She had a sanctuary in a sacred grove (perhaps on the Esquiline), where, by an ordinance of Servius Tullius, a piece of money (_lucar Libitinae_) was deposited whenever a death took place. Here the undertakers (_libitinarii_), who carried out all funeral arrangements by contract, had their offices, and everything necessary was kept for sale or hire; here all deaths were registered for statistical purposes. The word _Libitina_ then came to be used for the business of an undertaker, funeral requisites, and (in the poets) for death itself. By later antiquarians Libitina was sometimes identified with Persephone, but more commonly (partly or completely) with Venus Lubentia or Lubentina, an Italian goddess of gardens. The similarity of name and the fact that Venus Lubentia had a sanctuary in the grove of Libitina favoured this idea. Further, Plutarch (_Quaest. Rom._ 23) mentions a small statue at Delphi of Aphrodite Epitymbia (A. of tombs = Venus Libitina), to which the spirits of the dead were summoned. The inconsistency of selling funeral requisites in the temple of Libitina, seeing that she is identified with Venus, is explained by him as indicating that one and the same goddess presides over birth and death; or the association of such things with the goddess of love and pleasure is intended to show that death is not a calamity, but rather a consummation to be desired. Libitina may, however, have been originally an earth goddess, connected with luxuriant nature and the enjoyments of life (cf. _lub-et_, _lib-ido_); then, all such deities being connected with the underworld, she also became the goddess of death, and that side of her character predominated in the later conceptions.

See Plutarch, _Numa_, 12; Dion. Halic. iv. 15; Festus xvi., s.v.
"Rustica Vinalia"; Juvenal xii. 121, with Mayor's note; G. Wissowa in
Roscher's _Lexicon der Mythologie_, s.v.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Mr T. C. Smith estimates that probably not one in ten of even
professed abolitionists supported Birney; only in Massachusetts did
he receive as much as 1% of the total vote cast.

[2] Birney's vote was reduced by a disgraceful election trick by the
Whigs (the circulation of a forged letter on the eve of the
election); a trick to which he had exposed himself by an ingenuously
honest reception of Democratic advances in a matter of local
good-government in Michigan.

[3] E.g. Horace Greeley made the Whig charge; but in later life he
repeatedly attributed Clay's defeat simply to Clay's own letters; and
for Millard Fillmore's important opinion see footnote to KNOW NOTHING
PARTY.

LIBMANAN, a town of the province of Ambos Camarines, Luzon, Philippine Islands, on the Libmanan river, 11 m. N.W. of Nueva Cáceres, the capital. Pop. (1903) 17,416. It is about 4½ m. N.E. of the Bay of San Miguel. Rice, coco-nuts, hemp, Indian corn, sugarcane, bejuco, arica nuts and camotes, are grown in the vicinity, and the manufactures include hemp goods, alcohol (from coco-nut-palm sap), copra, and baskets, chairs, hammocks and hats of bejuco and bamboo. The Libmanan river, a tributary of the Bicol, into which it empties 2 m. below the town, is famous for its clear cold water and for its sulphur springs. The language is Bicol.

LIBO, in ancient Rome, the name of a family belonging to the Scribonian gens. It is chiefly interesting for its connexion with the Puteal Scribonianum or Puteal Libonis in the forum at Rome,[1] dedicated or restored by one of its members, perhaps the praetor of 204 B.C., or the tribune of the people in 149. In its vicinity the praetor's tribunal, removed from the comitium in the 2nd century B.C., held its sittings, which led to the place becoming the haunt of litigants, money-lenders and business people. According to ancient authorities, the Puteal Libonis was between the temples of Castor and Vesta, near the Porticus Julia and the Arcus Fabiorum, but no remains have been discovered. The idea that an irregular circle of travertine blocks, found near the temple of Castor, formed part of the puteal is now abandoned.

See Horace, _Sat._ ii. 6. 35, _Epp._ i. 19. 8; Cicero, _Pro Sestio_,
8; for the well-known coin of L. Scribonius Libo, representing the
puteal of Libo, which rather resembles a _cippus_ (sepulchral
monument) or an altar, with laurel wreaths, two lyres and a pair of
pincers or tongs below the wreaths (perhaps symbolical of Vulcanus as
forger of lightning), see C. Hülsen, _The Roman Forum_ (Eng. trans. by
J. B. Carter, 1906), p. 150, where a marble imitation found at Veii is
also given.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] _Puteal_ was the name given to an erection (or enclosure) on a
spot which had been struck by lightning; it was so called from its
resemblance to the stone kerb or low enclosure round a well
(_puteus_).

LIBON, a Greek architect, born at Elis, who was employed to build the great temple of Zeus at Olympia (q.v.) about 460 B.C. (Pausanias v. 10. 3).

LIBOURNE, a town of south-western France, capital of an arrondissement of the department of Gironde, situated at the confluence of the Isle with the Dordogne, 22 m. E.N.E. of Bordeaux on the railway to Angoulême. Pop. (1906) town, 15,280; commune, 19,323. The sea is 56 m. distant, but the tide affects the river so as to admit of vessels drawing 14 ft. reaching the town at the highest tides. The Dordogne is here crossed by a stone bridge 492 ft. long, and a suspension bridge across the Isle connects Libourne with Fronsac, built on a hill on which in feudal times stood a powerful fortress. Libourne is regularly built. The Gothic church, restored in the 19th century, has a stone spire 232 ft. high. On the quay there is a machicolated clock-tower which is a survival of the ramparts of the 14th century; and the town-house, containing a small museum and a library, is a quaint relic of the 16th century. There is a statue of the Duc Decazes, who was born in the neighbourhood. The sub-prefecture, tribunals of first instance and of commerce, and a communal college are among the public institutions. The principal articles of commerce are the wines and brandies of the district. Printing and cooperage are among the industries.

Like other sites at the confluence of important rivers, that of Libourne was appropriated at an early period. Under the Romans _Condate_ stood rather more than a mile to the south of the present Libourne; it was destroyed during the troubles of the 5th century. Resuscitated by Charlemagne, it was rebuilt in 1269, under its present name and on the site and plan it still retains, by Roger de Leybourne (of Leybourne in Kent), seneschal of Guienne, acting under the authority of King Edward I. of England. It suffered considerably in the struggles of the French and English for the possession of Guienne in the 14th century.

See R. Guinodie, _Hist. de Libourne_ (2nd ed., 2 vols., Libourne,
1876-1877).

LIBRA ("THE BALANCE"), in astronomy, the 7th sign of the zodiac (q.v.), denoted by the symbol [symbol], resembling a pair of scales, probably in allusion to the fact that when the sun enters this part of the ecliptic, at the autumnal equinox, the days and nights are equal. It is also a constellation, not mentioned by Eudoxus or Aratus, but by Manetho (3rd century B.C.) and Geminus (1st century B.C.), and included by Ptolemy in his 48 asterisms; Ptolemy catalogued 17 stars, Tycho Brahe 10, and Hevelius 20. [delta] _Librae_ is an Algol (q.v.) variable, the range of magnitude being 5.0 to 6.2, and the period 2 days 7 hrs. 51 min.; and the cluster _M. 5 Librae_ is a faint globular cluster of which only about one star in eleven is variable.