Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/402

 396 LIBEL LIBELT densed the ancient rule in his famous saying : " The greater the truth, the greater the libel." This continued to be the law in England, until the statute 6 and 7 Victoria, c. 96, provided, in substance, that the truth should be a defence if it was published for the public benefit. In New York, by the statute of 1805, already re- ferred to, it was enacted that the truth should be a defence, provided it were published with good motives and for justifiable ends ; and this is now, either by constitutional provisions, by statute, or by adjudication, the law of every one of the United States. Certain publications are said to be privileged ; some absolutely, so that no action or prosecution can be sustained therefor; others in a qualified sense, so that the publisher is protected unless express malice is averred and proved. As an instance of the first class may be mentioned the charge of crime in due form by the prosecuting officer for the purpose of putting the party upon trial, and other cases coming within the like reasons. Of the second class the illustrations are numer- ous. Petitions to the legislature for a redress of grievances within its jurisdiction, or to the proper authority for the removal of an officer or agent in whose duties the petitioner is con- cerned, are common instances, and so are re- plies made to inquiries regarding the character or conduct of one who has been in the person's employ. In these and the like cases the law encourages freedom of expression, so long as there is an honest purpose to give the facts, and will not permit mistakes of fact to render a party responsible in the absence of an intent to injure. It is the settled rule in this country that the publication of legislative proceedings is privileged, and this rule is now established by statute (3 and 4 Victoria, c. 9) in England after a very determined contest. Judicial pro- ceedings may also be published with full privi- lege where they are given fully and fairly, and are not merely ex parte proceedings or examinations. How far one is privileged in dealing with the pretensions of a candidate for public office is not very well settled. Certainly his qualifications for the office sought may be very freely discussed, but there are many cases which appear to hold that his moral character and former conduct are matters standing apart from his qualifications, and not to be discussed before the public, unless one is prepared to prove all he asserts. There are no decisions as yet which concede privilege to the publishers of news, and however careful they may be in gathering information, they cannot escape re- sponsibility for injurious publications which prove mistaken, upon the ground solely of their own good faith and freedom from intent to in- jure. Upon the subject of defence, it may be proper to add, that many things which would not be sufficient for a full and technical de- fence (as for example, that the defendant, as printer, knew nothing of the character of the article, and had given the name of the writer), would operate strongly to mitigate the punish- ment if the defendant were found guilty under an indictment, or to lessen the damages in a civil suit. It is proper to add also, that in the United States libels can only be punished crim- inally in the state courts and under state laws; it having been decided at an early day that the federal courts could not take cognizance of such cases in the absence of any law of congress, and the only law ever passed to operate within the states (the sedition law, so called, of 1798) having been repealed after a brief existence. LIBEL is also the name of the first process in a suit in admiralty. In England the word is re- tained, for some purposes at least, in the canon- ical courts ; but in the United States it is in practice confined to courts of admiralty. There are no especial forms which must be adhered to. The essentials are : 1, it should be properly addressed to the right judge ; 2, it should state and designate with clearness and accuracy the parties to the action ; 3, it should narrate the facts and circumstances, directly and affirma- tively, upon which the libellant rests his case ; 4, these should be sufficient, as stated, to give the court jurisdiction ; 5, it should pray for the proper relief specifically, and the proper process, and for relief generally. A libel is sometimes "simple," that is, it tells a plain story, contin- uously, from beginning to end. More often it is, and perhaps it should always be, " articu- late," or divided into articles, which are suc- cessively numbered, and each one of which in- cludes some one allegation of a specific, mate- rial fact. The purpose of this is, to enable the respondent to answer definitively and specifi- cally each part of the libellant's case ; some parts he would wish to admit, others to deny, and yet others to qualify. LIBELT, Karol, a Polish author, born in Po- sen, April 8, 1807. He took the university prize at Berlin for a Latin essay on pantheism, and graduated there in 1829. Having visited Paris, he went to Poland on the breaking out of the revolution in Warsaw, and entered the na- tional army as an artillerist. After the fall of Warsaw (1831) he returned to Posen, and de- voted himself to agriculture. In 1840 he be- came an editor of the Tygodnik literacM (" The Literary Weekly"). Subsequently he took edi- torial charge of the Eok (" The Year "), and by means of this journal became the leading pro- moter of literary activity in the grand duchy. In 1846 he was arrested, with several others, on charge of treason, and imprisoned in Berlin, but was released at the revolution of 1848. He was subsequently one of the national committee in Posen, and was elected to the Slavic congress at Prague, to the second Prussian chamber, and to the German national assembly at Frankfort. He founded at Posen in 1849 a democratic jour- nal entitled Dziennik polslci, which was sup- pressed within a year. Since 1859 he has been a member of the Prussian house of delegates, and a leader of the Polish party. He has pub- lished in Polish or German a number of works on mathematics, philosophy, and rural econo-