[Litmus], a colouring matter obtained from certain lichens; extensively used in chemical experiments to detect acids, for instance.
[Little Corporal], a name given to Bonaparte after the battle of Lodi from his small stature, he being only 5 ft. 2 in.
[Little Englanders], those politicians who hold that English statesmen should concern themselves with England only and its internal affairs.
[Littleton, Sir Thomas], English jurist of the 15th century; was recorder of Coventry in 1450, judge of Common Pleas 1466, and knighted in 1475; his work on "Tenures" was the first attempt to classify the law of land rights, and was the basis of the famous "Coke upon Littleton"; d. 1481.
[Littré], a celebrated French scholar, physician, philologist, and philosopher, born in Paris; wrote on medical subjects, and translated Hippocrates; was of the Positivist school in philosophy, and owes his fame chiefly to his "Dictionnaire de la Langue Française," published in 1863-72, and on which he spent forty years' labour (1801-1881).
[Liturgy] is sometimes used as including any form of public worship, but more strictly it denotes the form for the observance of the Eucharist. As development from the simple form of their institution in the primitive Church liturgies assumed various forms, and only by degrees certain marked types began to prevail: viz., the Roman, ascribed to St. Peter, in Latin, and prevailing in the Roman Catholic Church all over the world; the Ephesian, ascribed to St. John, in corrupt Latin, included the old Scottish and Irish forms, heard now only in a few places in Spain; the Jerusalem, ascribed to St. James, in Greek, the form of the Greek Church and in translation of the Armenians; the Babylonian, ascribed to St. Thomas, in Syriac, used still by the Nestorians and Christians of St. Thomas; and the Alexandrian, ascribed to St. Mark, in a Græco-Coptic jargon, in use among the Copts; these all contain certain common elements, but differ in order and in subsidiary parts; the Anglican liturgy is adapted from the Roman; other Protestant liturgies or forms of service are mostly of modern date and compiled from Scripture sources.
[Liva], an Italian coin worth 9½ d., and the monetary unit in the country.
[Liverpool] (585), the third city and first seaport of Great Britain, in Lancashire, on the Mersey, 3 m. from the sea, formerly the chief seat of the slave interest in Britain; owed its present prosperity to the impulse of the cotton trade at the end of the 18th century; progressing rapidly it has now docks stretching six miles along the Mersey, which receive a sixth of the tonnage that visits British ports; through it passes a third of our foreign trade, including enormous imports of wheat and cotton and exports of cotton goods; it possesses shipbuilding and engineering works, iron-foundries, flour, tobacco, and chemical factories; the public buildings, town hall, exchange, colleges, and observatory are fine edifices; it was the native place of W. E. Gladstone.
[Liverpool, Earl of, Robert Jenkinson], English statesman, educated at Oxford; entered Parliament 1791, and as Foreign Secretary negotiated the peace of Amiens in 1802; becoming Lord Hawkesbury in 1803, he became Home Secretary under Pitt, and succeeding to the earldom in 1808; was War Secretary under Perceval in 1800, Premier from 1812 to 1827; he liberalised the tariff and maintained a sound finance, uniting and holding together the Tory party at a critical period (1770-1828).
[Liverymen], name given to members of the several guilds or corporations of London and freemen of the city, so called as entitled to wear the livery belonging to their respective companies; they possess certain privileges of a civic character.