LIBERAL

In Politics, a cant name, which has been applied since 1815 to the party in each country which advocates constitutional institutions where they do not exist, or their extension into a more popular character v.here they do. As a party name, this word has been most definitely adopted in Spain, where the party of the corles a umed the title of liberates, and nicknamed their adversaries by that of serviles. LIBERAI> IA. A sacred festival, with games; so G5f), LIBRARY. called from Liber, a Latin name of Bacchus, in honour of which god they were celebrated at Rome. It was on occasion of this festival that the Roman youths who had attained the age of seventeen a umed the manly dre , or toga. LIBERTAS, in the mythology of the Greeks and Romans, was a godde worshipped with peculiar veneration. By the former she was invoked by the synonymous title Eleutheri a; and throughout all parts, both of Greece and Italy, statues, temples, and altars were erected in honour of her. At Rome, her most famous temple, built by T. Gracchus, was situated on the Aventine Mount. She was represented under the figure of a woman, holding in one hand a cap, the symbol of Liberty, and two poniards in the other. In modern times a cap is also used as a symbol of Liberty: thus, in France a red cap formed the badge of the Jacobin club. In England a blue cap with a white border is used as a symbol of the constitutional freedom of the nation, and Britannia sometimes bears it on the point of her spear. Ll' [s. 672]