Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/204

* LIBBEY. 186 LIBELT. and I'aris, and vicp-prcsident of the American Society of Naturalists. He led scientific parties to Hawaii, Mexico, and Cnba, and visited (!reen- land in the summer of 1894, and again in the summer of 1899. LIBBY PRISON. A Confederate military prison during the Civil War, situated in Rich- mond. Va. It was a building three stories high in front and four in the rear, containing six rooms (excluding the cellar), each about 105 by 45 feet. Before the ('ivil War it was used by its owner, a Mr. I>ibby, a,s a tobacco ware- house. It was first used as a prison after the first battle of Bull Run, and continued to be thus used until the close of the war. At times as many as 1200 prisoners were confined there, most of them being Federal ollicers. The Confed- erate ollicers in immediate charge were Major Thomas P. Turner, commander, and Richard Tur- ner, inspector. The prisoners suffered terribly froi7i starvation, cohl, and otlicr causes, and many died or had their health pennaneiitly shat- tered while in eonlini'nienf. Many aftcmpts at escape were made, the most famous being fliat of I'"ebr iry 9, 1804, when 109 prisoners made their exit "through a t inel .50 feet in length, which had been laboriously excavated by a small party of men under t'ol. Thomas E. Rose. Of the 109, 48 were reca|)tured, 2 were accident- ally drowned, and 59 readied the Federal lines. In 188S-89 the building was taken apart, car- ried to Chicago, and there reconstructed. In September, 1889, many valuable relies having been stored in it, it was formally opened as file T>ibf)y Prison War Museum. LIBEL (OF. libel, lihcllc, libeau. Fr. lihcUe, from Lat. libellus, diminutive of libcr. book, in- ner bark of a tree). In admiralty practice, the first pleading of the complainant, which is filed in the olhce of the clerk of the court to com- mence the action. It is in the form of a petition addressed to the judge of the court by name, setting forth the nature and facts of the claim and containing a prayer that process issue in the proper manner. If the action is against an indi- vidual, a citation (q.v. ) will issue directing him to appear and answer; if against a vessel, a writ issues to an officer of the court directing him to attach it, which is considered suflTicicnt notice to the owners. The libel must be verified by the libellant, as the claimant is called, or his agent if he is without the jurisdietion. The name was borrowed from the Roman law where a pleading known as the libellu.^ cmiven- iionis was employed to commence an action. The word libel continued to designate the first pleading in an action under the civil law. It corresponds to a complaint or declaration in other actions. See AnMiR.LTT Law. LIBEL. A term of the common law. descrip- tive of that species of defamation (q.v.) which is committed by writing or its equivalent. It is a criminal ofTense as well as a civil wrong. It consists of the publieation of that which tends to bring another info hatred, contempt, or ridi- cule. Special damage to its victim need not be shown. Nor is the truth of a libe!ois publica- tion always a defense. "Many of our State consti- tutions declare that it is not a defense to a crim- inal prosecution, unless published with good mo- tives and for justifiable ends. Fair reports of legislative debates, judicial proceedings, and sim- ilar transactions do not subject their publishers to action for libel. Various other immunities are accorded to news-gatherers and publishers fiy modern statutes. These should be examined in each jurisdiction. A defamatory writing will not subject its author to an action, either civil or criminal, un- til it is published. For the purposes of a crimi- nal prosecution, it is publislicd as soon as any one knowingly exposes it to the sight of another, who is capable of understanding it. Accordingly, the writer of a defamatory article may be lialile criminally, when he sends it in a sealed envdojx' to the one defamed. To render him liable in a civil action for damages, however, the writing must have been communicated to a third i)erson ; save in a few States, where the rule has been changed by statute. Such coiiimunication need not have been intentional. One who sends the writing to a third person by mistake may infiict as great an injury upon the victim of his defama- tion as though he had planned the injury. Nor can the publisher of a libel screen himself from civil res])onsibility by saying that it was a joke. In the language of a great judge, "No one can cast about firebrands and death, and then esca]ie from being rcs|)onsiblc by saying he was in sport." A century and a half ago the weight of judi- ciiil authority favored the rule that the defama- tory character of a publication was a (luestion for the court and not for the juiy. Mansfield's enforcement of this rule elicited the most violent criticism, and led to the enactment of a statute known as Fox's Libel Act (32 fieo. III., c. CO). "Although this statute only applies to criminal proceedings, it has been followed by analogy in civil actions for libel, and no ]ilaintilT is entitled to succeed either in England or in the Cnited States, unless the jury find that the imblication is libelous. In a civil action, if the judge is of the opinion that the publieation complained of is not defamatory, he may direct that the plaintiff be non-suited. Consult: Odgers, A Digest of the Lfiir of Libel and Slander {'id ed., London, 1890) ; Newell, The Law of Libel and Slander in Cii'il and Criminal Ca.ics (2d ed., Chicago, 1898) ; Townshend, 'frcatiar on the ^'ronfJS Called Slan- der and Libel (4th ed.. New York, 1890) ; Pol- lock, The La,u- of Tort.i (fith ed.. New York and London. 1901) ; Bigelow, The Law of Torts (7th ed., Boston, 1901). See also the articles Defa- mation; Slanoeb; Tort. LIBELT, le'belt. Karoi. (1808-75). A Polish politician and author, born in Posen. He studied ill Berlin; entered the Polish Revolutionary army in IS.'iO, and was imprisoned for nine months at Magdeburg. From 1840 to 1845 he edited at Posen two Polish newspapers; in 1845 was a member of the Revolutionary Central Committee, and in the next year was elected a member of the Provisional Government at Cracow. He was sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment for his part in this uprising, but regained his freedom after the revolution of March, 1848. He was a member of the Prague Slavic Congress, of the Frankfort Parliament of 1848. and in 187.'? w.as elected to the Prussian Lower House. His writ- ings include: Filozofia i Irytyka (1845-50), Hegelian in tendency; Ustcti/lca (1851) ; Uninir- tcro (1857), a system of ethics; Dziela (1875) : Zbior pism pomniejszych (1849-51), political papers; Dziewica Orleanska (1847); and the sketches Humor i prarada (1852).