Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/563

 LOAN LOBAU 557
 * it pleasure, the Eoman civil law held a different

doctrine from our own common law. By that law, if one lent a thing for an indefinite period, he might reclaim it when he would, or perhaps within any reasonable time. But if he lent it for a time certain, this was a valid contract, and the borrower had a right to retain it against the will of the lender during that time. The com- mon law however does not regard it as a valid contract, for the reason that no consideration passes ; and therefore the lender, however spe- cific may have been the terms of the loan, may rescind and cancel them at his pleasure and de- mand a return of the thing. Now, we have seen that if the borrower keeps the thing after he was bound to return it, his relation to the lender changes totally ; and this change takes place as soon as a definite period for which the thing was lent expires, whether the thing be demanded or not ; and as soon as it is demand- ed, whether the period for which it is borrow- ed have expired or not. Hence, as soon as it should be returned and is not, the borrower becomes at once liable for any loss or injury, although wholly without his fault ; as if, for example, he had kept it when he should not, and then was robbed of it by overwhelming force. In fact, if he keeps it when he should return it, he holds it entirely without right, and is just as liable as if he had originally taken it without right. A lender has no right to compensation for want of the care or skill which he had no right to expect. Thus, it has been said in illustration of this rule, that if one lends a fiery horse to one who ought not to be supposed capable of using it with safety, the lender has no claim for compensation for dam- ages caused by the want of the extraordinary skill or strength required. By the same reason, if a lender knows of defects or tendencies to mischief in the thing lent which are not ob- vious, and does not disclose them, he has no claim for damages thence resulting. And if he lends the thing for an illegal act, he is no long- er a lender in the eye of the law, but an ac- complice in the wrong done. In all that we have said we have considered as a loan only that which is so by legal definition. But the common use of the word is very different. Thus one is said to lend his money for so much per cent., or to lend an article for such a compen- sation. But^the moment any compensation of any kind is paid by the borrower, it ceases to- tally from being a loan, and becomes a contract of hiring, which is an altogether different thing. The Eoman civil law, in its exquisite classifi- cation, recognized another form of loan, under the name of mutuum, for which we have no word in English, either in law or in usage. A loan, in law, is a delivery for use by the bor- rower, as already defined ; but a mutuum may be defined as a loan for consumption, and not for use. Thus one lends so much bread, or wood, or wine, which the borrower is to use at his pleasure, and in the use consume, and repay by an equal quantity of a similar article. But no compensation whatever is to be made, or this also would become, instead of a mutuum, a hi- ring. Such contracts cannot be uncommon in practice, and would undoubtedly be governed by the same rules as the contract of loan, varied only as the different nature of this contract required. It is obvious also that a contract might be in part a loan, and in part a mutuum. Hence if A lent B a cask of wine for a certain occasion, B to use what he chose, and to repay that by a similar quantity, and to return the rest, this would be a mutuum as to all that was used, and a loan as to all the remainder. LOMDA. St. Paul de. See ST. PAUL DE LOANDA. LOANGO, a kingdom in Lower Guinea, on the "W. coast of Africa, N. of the embouchure of the Congo or Zaire. The name is generally ap- plied also to the entire coast land between Cape Lopez and the Congo. Of the three kingdoms now existing N. of the mouth of the Congo, viz., Loango, Kabinda or Angoy, and Kakongo, the first is the most powerful, and exercises at times a sort of supremacy over the others; but all three are supposed to have been not long ago dependencies of the king or emperor of Congo. The river Loango, called also Kakongo or Chiloango, is formed by the junction of the Lukulla and the Loango Luiz or Kuiz, and separates the territories of Loan- go and Kakongo. The northern and larger portion of Loango is known as Great Loango or Boali, the other as Little Loango or Chilo- ango. E. and N. of these coast lands lies a vast forest land, indefinitely and generally desig- nated as Mayumba, which seems to constitute the slope of a range of mountains. Through the northern portion of Loango flows the Quillu. The rulers of these kingdoms are mere tools of the fetich priesthood, and their actions are in the minutest details controlled by innumerable quixilles, or prohibitions, re- sembling the Polynesian laws of tabu. In recent times it has been very difficult to find a person willing to fill the post of king, and sometimes the throne is vacant for years, du- ring which time the coffin of the deceased king remains unburied, and the priesthood rules in his name. There are numerous European factories or trading posts on the coast and rivers. Commerce is carried on principally in oil, gum, wax, ivory, coffee, cotton, dye woods, and copper. LOBAU, Georges Monton, count de, a French sol- dier, born in Pfalzburg in 1770, died in Paris in 1838. He enlisted as a volunteer in 1792, was aide-de-camp to Joubert in 1798, and to the emperor in 1805. He obtained the rank of general of division in 1807 at the battle of Friedland ; stormed Merida in Spain in 1808, and contributed to the fall of Burgos ; distin- guished himself at Eckmtihl and Essling in 1809, and by his indomitable firmness preserved a corps that had been left on the island of Lo- bau, whence he received his title. He accom- panied Napoleon in his Russian campaign, and after the disastrous retreat assisted in the for-