LIBERTY, SIR ARTHUR LASENBY (1843-1917) knighted 1913, English merchant, was born at Chesham on Aug.
13, 1843, the son of a Nottingham lace manufacturer. In 1862 he became manager of the shop in Regent Street, London, which he developed into an important adjunct of the art world of the period. In 1875 he became independent and at once began to adapt Eastern art in weaving and design to Western requirements, becoming famous both for his textiles and for his colourings.
He died on May II, 1917, at Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire. LIBERTY, generally the state of freedom, especially opposed to subjection, imprisonment or slavery, or with such restricted or figurative meaning as the circumstances imply. In a more par ticular sense, a "liberty" is the term for a franchise (q.v.), a privilege or branch of the Crown's prerogative granted to a sub ject, as, for example, that of executing legal process; hence the district over which the privilege extends. Such liberties are exempt from the jurisdiction of the sheriff and have separate commissions of the peace, but for purposes of local government form part of the county in which they are situated. Most liberties are now merged under the Liberties Act 185o or some special subsequent act. (See Halsbury. xxv., 798.) The exemption from the jurisdic tion of the sheriff (q.v.) was recognized in England by the Sheriffs
Act 1887, which provides that the sheriff of a county shall ap point a deputy at the expense of the lord of liberty, such deputy to reside in or near the liberty. The deputy receives and opens in the sheriff's name all writs, the return or execution of which belongs to the bailiff of the liberty, and issues to the bailiff the warrant required for the due execution of such writs. In the case of non-return of any writ, the sheriff will be ordered to exe cute the writ notwithstanding the liberty, and must cause the bailiff to attend before the high court of justice and answer why it was not executed. (See SANCTUARY; CLERGY, BENEFIT OF.) In the United States the right of franchise is a "privilege," the term "liberty" not being used in such cases or in the general Eng lish exemptions.
In nautical phraseology various usages of the term are derived from its association with a sailor's leave on shore, e.g., liberty-man, liberty-day, liberty-ticket.