Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/413

 LIOATA LICENSE 407 washing the shores of IT. Africa, from the E. coast of the Roman province of Africa (the territory of Carthage, or Africa proper) to the S. coast of Crete and the frontier of Egypt. The two Syrtes belonged to it. LICATA, or Alicata, a seaport of Sicily, in the province and 26 m. S. E. of the city of Gir- genti; pop. about 17,000. It is at the mouth of the Salso, the largest river of Sicily, and is built partly on the shore of a small peninsula and partly on the slope of a rugged hill which is crowned by an ancient fortress, the castle of Sant' Angelo standing on the opposite height. The town is in a dilapidated condition. The harbor is so shallow that large vessels have to anchor a mile from the shore; still.it has a large trade in grain, fruits, wines, macaroni, soda, and sulphur. There are four churches, containing several ancient paintings and in- scriptions. Licata probably occupies the site of Phintias, which was built by the tyrant of that name about 280 B. 0. (See GELA.) The height had been previously fortified, and the castle of Sant' Angelo is supposed to stand on the spot where Phalaris kept the brazen bull. In the middle ages Licata was frequently plundered by the corsairs, and in 1553 it was fired by a French and Turkish fleet and almost entirely destroyed. LICENSE, in law, may be simply and well de- fined as a permission. Thus, a permission to go upon the land or enter the house of him who gives it, the permission accorded by a bel- ligerent power to its own subjects or to those of the enemy to carry on a trade interdicted by war, and the permission granted by a state to its citizens to sell certain wares or exercise certain callings, are familiar examples of li- censes. The most common and important of these are licenses to keep a tavern, to sell spir- ituous liquor, to peddle out goods, to sell by auction, and the like. All of these are gov- erned and regulated exclusively by statutes in the different states. In each state, the amount paid by way of tax for the license, if any, the privileges conferred by it, and the precautions against abuse, are determined only by the judg- ment of the legislature, in reference to the wants or peculiar circumstances of its people. It is universally admitted that each state has full power to enact general police regulations for the preservation of the public health and morals, and for this purpose it may require persons proposing to follow particular occupa- tions, where abuses are liable to creep in, to obtain a license from the proper public author- ity. When, however, a license fee is imposed for the purpose of regulation merely, it should not exceed in amount the cost of the license and of a proper proportion of the expense of enforcing the law ; but a license fee may also be imposed for the purposes of revenue, and then it is a tax, and can only be limited by the needs of government and the legislative dis- cretion. For shipping licenses, see SHIPPING. -A mere and proper license to do anything upon or with one's property transfers no in- terest and vests no right. It simply author- izes, or so to speak pardons, an unlawful act. Being a mere permission, it is evident that a license cannot permit anything which the licenser himself cannot do ; so that if one per- mits another simply to go upon his land, the alienation of the land will necessarily extin- guish the privilege. Further, it is clear that the benefit of a license is limited to him who receives it ; for as the license transfers no prop- erty or interest, the licensee has nothing to assign. Finally, it is characteristic of a license that it rests wholly in the indulgence and will of the licenser, and is revocable at his pleasure. These are the incidents of every mere license ; but if the license be supported by the grant of an interest, or be necessary to the enjoyment of a right, it attaches inseparably to it, and partakes of its incidents. It may not only cease to be revocable, but may become capable of assignment. Thus, to borrow a familiar illustration, a permission to hunt in a park, and to carry away the deer killed, is a license so far as it concerns the mere privilege of hunt- ing ; but it includes also a grant of the deer. If in such a case the grant of the property be well made, the license is irrevocable. So if one make a sale or gift of a chattel which is situated on his land or in his shop, the license to remove, though not express, but implied in such a case by law, is yet irrevocable, because the licensee has an interest in the chattel which can only be enjoyed by taking it away. The enjoyment of a mere parol license cannot be pushed so far as to create an easement; for such a continuing interest in lands can be le- gally raised only by deed, that is, by a formal instrument under seal. So that when one li- censes another, by a mere parol permission, to keep hay stacks on his land, or allows the licensee to dig a ditch across it, the privilege in both cases is equally revocable even though it have been executed by the licensee. An ease- ment would have been irrevocable, but that could have been created only by deed. But let it be supposed that one has, with another's permission, erected a building on the land of the latter; a revocation of the license in such a case would cause the licensee material injury, and in extreme cases a court of equity will sometimes interpose for the protection of the licensee. Courts of law have generally adhered to the strict law doctrines ; and, in respect to permanent structures, though there are some decisions which regard the license as coexten- sive with the duration of the building to which it relates, yet the weight of authority is ad- verse to this -view, and in favor of limiting the licensee's privilege to a right of entry and re- moval, as in the case of ordinary chattels. The more favorable decisions rest on the doctrine of equitable estoppel, which has been borrowed from the chancery practice, and now forms a means of remedying by common law many wrongs which otherwise would not fall within