Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/742

 718 L I V L I V leo-e, Oxford, where after a career of special distinction^ graduated M.A. in 1752. Almost immediately on entering parliament as member for Cockermouth in 1761, he was appointed under-secretary of state under Lord Bute, and, as he soon shared equally with that nobleman the favour of the king, his political advancement was rapid and uninter rupted while the friends of the king remained in office. By Grenville he was in 1763 appointed secretary of state ; in the Grafton administration he, in 1766, obtained a seat at the Admiralty Board; and from 1778 till the close of Lord North s ministry he was secretary at war. On the accession of Pitt to power in 1784, he became president of the Board of Trade, retaining office till Pitt s resignation in 1801. Besides direct political power he also enjoyed a large share both of substantial and honorary political rewards. In 1773 he became member of the privy council, and obtained the vice-treasurership of Ireland, which he afterwards exchanged for the clerkship of the pells ; and from 1786 to 1802 he was chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster. In 1786 he was created Baron Hawkesbury, and ten years afterwards earl of Liverpool. He died 17th December 1808. Lord Liverpool was generally believed to be the chief political adviser of George III. His prudence, practical talents, and knowledge of the details both of home and foreign politics rendered him a specially safe and useful member of a cabinet. He was the author of several political works, which display industry and discrimination, but, with the exception of his well- known Treatise on the Coins of the Eealm, 1805, are without striking merits. His other writings are National and Constitu tional Force in England, 1756 ; Treaties beticecn Great Britain and other Powers, 1648-1783, 3 vols., 1785 ; The Conduct of Great Britain in respect to Neutral Nations, 1785, 3 vols., 1801. LIVERPOOL, ROBERT BANKS JENKINSON, SECOND EARL OF (1770-1828), son of the above by his first wife Amelia, daughter of Mr Watts, governor of Bengal, was born June 7, 1770. He was educated at Charterhouse and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he had Canning, afterwards his close political associate, for a contemporary. In 1791 he entered parliament as member for Rye, but he first held office in 1801 as foreign secretary in Addington s adminis tration, when he conducted the negotiations for the abortive treaty of Amiens. On the accession of Pitt to power in 1804, he obtained the home office, and till his elevation to the House of Peers he acted as leader of the party in the House of Commons. He declined the premiership on the death of Pitt in 1806, and remained out of office till the accession of Perceval in 1809, when he again became home secretary. After the assassination of Perceval in 1812 he became prime minister, and retained office till compelled in February 1827 to resign by the illness (paralysis) which terminated his life, 4th December 1828. The political career of Lord Liverpool was entirely of a negative character so far as legislation was concerned; the only principle which regulated his statesmanship was persistent opposition to every kind of change, especially in the direction of increased religious or political liberty. From the begin ning he strongly resisted Catholic emancipation, and he was also prominent in delaying the emancipation of the slaves. The energy of Castlereagh and Canning secured the out ward success of the foreign policy of the cabinet, but in his home policy he was always unfortunate and retrograde. The Pains and Penalties Bill against Queen Caroline greatly increased his unpopularity, first originated by the severe measures of repression employed to quell the general distress, which had been created by undue taxation and was aggravated by blind adherence to protection. Though, therefore, actuated throughout by an honesty beyond all question, and though always commanding the sincere respect of his opponents by his dignified and considerate bearing, Lord Liverpool was destitute of wide and genial sympathies, and of true political insight, and his resigna tion of office was followed almost immediately by the complete and permanent reversal of his domestic policy. LIVERWORTS. The Liverworts or Hepatica constitute a group of the higher Cryptogamia, allied to the mosses. Their shoots are either thalloid, in some genera (Marchantia) highly differentiated in structure, in others (Anthoceros) of simple homogeneous texture, with an upper and lower sur face, the latter fixed to the ground by capillary rootlets, and generally margined with minute scales ; or they are foliose, the central stem bearing on each side a row of leaves, con sisting of one series of cells invested with a structureless epidermis, and destitute of nerves, such as prevail in the leaves of mosses. Frequently on the inferior aspect a third row of leaf-like scales is found, differing from the former, and known as stipules, bracteoles, or amphigastria. Hence the shoots, although typically trilateral, often appear bi lateral. The reproductive organs of the Hepaticx are of two kinds sexual and asexual. I. The sexual germs of the mosses and Hepaticse were first described by Hedwig just one hundred years ago (1782). They consist, as in the higher plants, of germ-cells and sperm-cells. As the fronds approach maturity the terminal leaves become modified so as to form an involucrum, within which a special covering appears, the colesule or perianth, surrounding the pistillidia ; this is tubular, conical, or compressed in form, with the mouth plicate and generally dentate. On section of the colesule a number of minute flask-shaped bodies are found, attached to the apex of the stem, which have been named archigonia or pistillidia. After fertiliza tion one of these enlarges, active cell formation proceeding from the central cell at the base, within which appears the germ-cell, which in time becomes the capsule, the ultimate contents producing spores arranged in fours, and elongated cells bearing within spiral filaments (elaters). Until the maturity of the spores, the sporangium remains at the base of the colesule, but at length the outer coat (calyptra) ruptures near the summit, and by the rapid evolution of the cells of the fruit-stalk (seta) the capsule is borne up wards. At this stage, which is of brief duration, the fronds look as if dotted with black-headed pins on white stalks. Released from pressure, the hygrometric action of the elater soon ruptures the wall of the capsule, which divides, in the majority of species, into four valves, and the spores are scattered around. The antheridia are sometimes found imbedded in crypts within the substance of the thallus (Bicda), or in special receptacles either sessile or raised above the surface of the same (Marchantia). In the foliose Hepaticss they are usually seated in the axils of modified leaves (perigonial), sometimes appearing beneath the fertile involucra (monoe cious), or on special branches of the same plant (paroecious), or they occur on separate plants (dioecious). The antheridia are much smaller than the capsules, spherical or ovoid in form, and seated on a short footstalk. They are invested with a single coat of tabular cells. Before maturity they are greenish, but when ripe their colour turns to yellow. On pressure they rupture irregularly, and allow the escape of crowds of lenticular cells, which revolve actively under the microscope until the ciliated phytozoa within them are released. The phytozoa of mosses were first figured by Unger (1834), who described them as consisting of a thick body, and a thin thread-like prolongation, which goes in advance when the body is in motion, and is spiral in form. Thuret has since shown that the so-called &quot; tail &quot; bears two long oscillating cilia. Hofmeister first observed the formation of the free germinal vesicle within the basal cell of the pistillidium as the direct result of fertilization.