LEAGUE

A measure of length, used in reckoning distances by sea. The sea league is three nautical or geographical miles, or the l-20th of a degree, and consequently about 3-45 English miles. > The common land league is a well-known itinerary measure on the continent of Europe, chiefly in France. The French, however, have two distinct leagues: the legal posting league {lieue de paste), containing 2000 toises, and equal to 2-42 English miles; and a league of 25 to the degree (anciently the lieue moyenne), or equal to aboiit 2-76 English miles. This last, however, can scarcely be regarded as a definite measure; and previous to the Revolution the league was different in the different province?. The word is said to be derived from the Celtic leach, stone; the distances having been marked by stones in the Roman provinces. In Gaul alone of those provinces, they were marked in some instances by leagues as well as miles. The Gaulish league was considered by the Romans as equal to a mile and a half of their own measure, or as containing 1500 Roman paces. It is supposed that the league, or leuca, was introduced into England by the Normans, where, at an early period, it came to' be reckoned as equivalent to two miles of the time; this being the sense in which the term leuca is used by the oldest law writers, and in most of the old English charters. See Mile. League, in Politics, appears to be in strictne an alliance between two or more powers, in order to execute some common enterprise. It is therefore more active, and le durable, than an alliance or a confederacy; both of which have some permanent object, while neither nece arily requires active co-operation. In the middle ages, the word league was used nearly in the sense now attached to these latter terms: hence y;e read of the Hanseatic league, and of the three leagues still subsisting in the canton of the Grisons in Switzerland; both of which were more properly confederacies. The word is of Spanish origin; and it has been said that the period of its commonest use in political language was commensurate with that during which the Spanish government exercised the greatest influence among those of Europe, — the 16th and 17th centuries. LEAGUE, [s. 661]