to prevent the alkalis from being washed away by the rain he had
taken pains to add them in an insoluble form, whereas, as was
ultimately suggested to him by experiments performed by J. T.
Way about 1850, this precaution was not only superfluous but
harmful, because the soil possesses a power of absorbing the soluble
saline matters required by plants and of retaining them, in spite of
rain, for assimilation by the roots.
Liebig’s literary activity was very great. The Royal Society’s Catalogue of Scientific Papers enumerates 318 memoirs under his name, exclusive of many others published in collaboration with other investigators. A certain impetuousness of character which disposed him to rush into controversy whenever doubt was cast upon the views he supported accounted for a great deal of writing, and he also carried on an extensive correspondence with Wöhler and other scientific men. In 1832 he founded the Annalen der Pharmazie, which became the Annalen der Chemie und Pharmazie in 1840 when Wöhler became joint-editor with himself, and in 1837 with Wöhler and Poggendorff he established the Handwörterbuch der reinen und angewandten Chemie. After the death of Berzelius he continued the Jahresbericht with H. F. M. Kopp. The following are his most important separate publications, many of which were translated into English and French almost as soon as they appeared: Anleitung zur Analyse der organischen Körper (1837); Die Chemie in ihrer Anwendung auf Agrikultur und Physiologie (1840); Die Thier-Chemie oder die organische Chemie in ihrer Anwendung auf Physiologie und Pathologie (1842); Handbuch der organischen Chemie mit Rücksicht auf Pharmazie (1843); Chemische Briefe (1844); Chemische Untersuchungen über das Fleisch und seine Zubereitung zum Nahrungsmittel (1847); Die Grundsätze der Agrikultur-Chemie (1855); Über Theorie und Praxis in der Landwirthschaft (1856); Naturwissenschaftliche Briefe über die moderne Landwirtschaft (1859). A posthumous collection of his miscellaneous addresses and publications appeared in 1874 as Reden und Abhandlungen, edited by his son George (b. 1827). His criticism of Bacon, Über Francis von Verulam, was first published in 1863 in the Augsburger allgemeine Zeitung, where also most of his letters on chemistry made their first appearance.
See The Life Work of Liebig (London, 1876), by his pupil A. W. von Hofmann, which is the Faraday lecture delivered before the London Chemical Society in March 1875, and is reprinted in Hofmann’s Zur Erinnerung an vorangegangene Freunde; also W. A. Shenstone, Justus von Liebig, his Life and Work (1895).
LIEBKNECHT, WILHELM (1826–1900), German socialist, was born at Giessen on the 29th of March 1826. Left an orphan at an early age, he was educated at the gymnasium in his native town, and attended the universities of Giessen, Bonn and Marburg. Before he left school he had become affected by the political discontent then general in Germany; he had already studied the writings of St Simon, from which he gained his first interest in communism, and had been converted to the extreme republican theories of which Giessen was a centre. He soon came into conflict with the authorities, and was expelled from Berlin apparently in consequence of the strong sympathy he displayed for some Poles, who were being tried for high treason. He proposed in 1846 to migrate to America, but went instead to Switzerland, where he earned his living as a teacher. As soon as the revolution of 1848 broke out he hastened to Paris, but the attempt to organize a republican corps for the invasion of Germany was prevented by the government. In September, however, in concert with Gustav von Struve, he crossed the Rhine from Switzerland at the head of a band of volunteers, and proclaimed a republic in Baden. The attempt collapsed; he was captured, and, after suffering eight months’ imprisonment, was brought to trial. Fortunately for him, a new rising had just broken out; the mob burst into the court, and he was acquitted. During the short duration of the revolutionary government he was an active member of the most extreme party, but on the arrival of the Prussian troops he succeeded in escaping to France. Thence he went to Geneva, where he came into intercourse with Mazzini; but, unlike most of the German exiles, he was already an adherent of the socialist creed, which at that time was more strongly held in France. Expelled from Switzerland he went to London, where he lived for thirteen years in close association with Karl Marx. He endured great hardships, but secured a livelihood by teaching and writing; he was a correspondent of the Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung. The amnesty of 1861 opened for him the way back to Germany, and in 1862 he accepted the post of editor of the Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, the founder of which was an old revolutionist. Only a few months elapsed before the paper, passed under Bismarck’s influence. There is no more curious episode in German history than the success with which Bismarck acquired the services of many of the men of 1848, but Liebknecht remained faithful to his principles and resigned his editorship. He became a member of the Arbeiterverein, and after the death of Ferdinand Lassalle he was the chief mouthpiece in Germany of Karl Marx, and was instrumental in spreading the influence of the newly-founded International. Expelled from Prussia in 1865, he settled at Leipzig, and it is primarily to his activity in Saxony among the newly-formed unions of workers that the modern social democrat party owes its origin. Here he conducted the Demokratisches Wochenblatt. In 1867 he was elected a member of the North German Reichstag, but in opposition to Lassalle’s followers he refused all compromise with the “capitalists,” and avowedly used his position merely for purposes of agitation whilst taking every opportunity for making the parliament ridiculous. He was strongly influenced by the “great German” traditions of the democrats of 1848, and, violently anti-Prussian, he distinguished himself by his attacks on the policy of 1866 and the “revolution from above,” and by his opposition to every form of militarism. His adherence to the traditions of 1848 are also seen in his dread of Russia, which he maintained to his death. His opposition to the war of 1870 exposed him to insults and violence, and in 1872 he was condemned to two years’ imprisonment in a fortress for treasonable intentions. The union of the German Socialists in 1874 at the congress of Gotha was really a triumph of his influence, and from that time he was regarded as founder and leader of the party. From 1874 till his death he was a member of the German Reichstag, and for many years also of the Saxon diet. He was one of the chief spokesmen of the party, and he took a very important part in directing its policy. In 1881 he was expelled from Leipzig, but took up his residence in a neighbouring village. After the lapse of the Socialist law (1890) he became chief editor of the Vorwärts, and settled in Berlin. If he did not always find it easy in his later years to follow the new developments, he preserved to his death the idealism of his youth, the hatred both of Liberalism and of State Socialism; and though he was to some extent overshadowed by Bebel’s greater oratorical power, he was the chief support of the orthodox Marxian tradition. Liebknecht was the author of numerous pamphlets and books, of which the most important were: Robert Blum und seine Zeit (Nuremberg, 1892); Geschichte der Französischen Revolution (Dresden, 1890); Die Emser Depesche (Nuremberg, 1899) and Robert Owen (Nuremberg, 1892). He died at Charlottenburg on the 6th of August 1900.
See Kurt Eisner, Wilhelm Liebknecht, sein Leben und Wirken (Berlin, 1900).
LIECHTENSTEIN, the smallest independent state in Europe, save San Marino and Monaco. It lies some way S. of the Lake of Constance, and extends along the right bank of the Rhine, opposite Swiss territory, between Sargans and Sennwald, while on the E. it also comprises the upper portion of the Samina glen that joins the Ill valley at Frastanz, above Feldkirch. It is about 12 m. in length, and covers an area of 61.4 or 68.8 sq. m. (according to different estimates). Its loftiest point rises at the S.E. angle of the state, in the Rhätikon range, and is named to Naafkopf or the Rothe Wand (8445 ft.); on its summit the Swiss, Vorarlberg, and Liechtenstein frontiers join. In 1901 the population was 9477 (of whom 4890 were women and 4587 men). The capital is Vaduz (1523 ft.), with about 1100 inhabitants, and 2 m. S. of the Schaan railway station, which is 2 m. from Buchs (Switz.). Even in the 17th century the Romonsch language was not extinguished in the state, and many Romonsch place-names still linger, e.g. Vaduz, Samina, Gavadura, &c. Now the population is German-speaking and Romanist. The constitution of 1862 was amended in 1878, 1895 and 1901. All males of 24 years of age are primary electors, while the diet consists of 12 members, holding their seats for 4 years and elected indirectly, together with 3 members nominated by the prince. The prince has a lieutenant resident at Vaduz, whence there is an appeal to the prince’s court at Vienna,
