rock. The tower-flanked mud wall which surrounds the town is for the most part in ruins.
LARA, western state of Venezuela, lying in the angle formed by the parting of the N. and N.E. ranges of the Cordillera de Mérida and extending N.E. with converging frontiers to the Caribbean. Pop. (1905 estimate) 272,252. The greater part of its surface is mountainous, with elevated fertile valleys which have a temperate climate. The Tocuyo river rises in the S.W. angle of the state and flows N.E. to the Caribbean with a total length of 287 m. A narrow-gauge railway, the “South-western,” owned by British capitalists, runs from the port of Tucacas 55 m. S.W. to Barquisimeto by way of the Aroa copper-mining district. Lara produces wheat and other cereals, coffee, sugar, tobacco, neat cattle, sheep and various mineral ores, including silver, copper, iron, lead, bismuth and antimony. The capital, Barquisimeto, is one of the largest and most progressive of the inland cities of Venezuela. Carora is also prominent as a commercial centre. Tocuyo (pop. in 1891, 15,383), 40 m. S.W. of Barquisimeto, is an important commercial and mining town, over 2000 ft. above sea-level, in the midst of a rich agricultural and pastoral region. Yaritagua (pop. about 12,000), 20 m. E. of Barquisimeto, and 1026 ft. above the sea, is known for its cigar manufactories.
LARAISH (El Araish), a port in northern Morocco on the Atlantic coast in 35° 13′ N., 6° 9′ W., 43 m. by sea S. by W. of Tangier, picturesquely situated on the left bank of the estuary of the Wad Lekkus. Pop. 6000 to 7000. The river, being fairly deep inside the bar, made this a favourite port for the Salli rovers to winter in, but the quantity of alluvial soil brought down threatens to close the port. The town is well situated for defence, its walls are in fair condition, and it has ten forts, all supplied with old-fashioned guns. Traces of the Spanish occupation from 1610–1689 are to be seen in the towers whose names are given by Tissot as those of St Stephen, St James and that of the Jews, with the Castle of Our Lady of Europe, now the kasbah or citadel. The most remarkable feature of Laraish is its fine large market-place inside the town with a low colonnade in front of very small shops. The streets, though narrow and steep, are generally paved. Its chief exports are oranges, millet, dra and other cereals, goat-hair and skins, sheepskins, wool and fullers’ earth. The wool goes chiefly to Marseilles. The annual value of the trade is from £400,000 to £500,000.
In 1780 all the Europeans in Laraish were expelled by Mohammed XVI., although in 1786 the monopoly of its trade had been granted to Holland, even its export of wheat. In 1787 the Moors were still building pirate vessels here, the timber for which came from the neighbouring forest of M’amora. Not far from the town are the remains of what is believed to be a Phoenician city, Shammish, mentioned by Idrisi, who makes no allusion to Laraish. It is not, however, improbable from a passage in Scylax that the site of the present town was occupied by a Libyan settlement. Tradition also connects Laraish with the garden of the Hesperides, ʽArāsi being the Arabic for “pleasure-gardens,” and the “golden apples” perhaps the familiar oranges.
LARAMIE, a city and the county-seat of Albany county, Wyoming, U.S.A., on the Laramie river, 57 m. by rail N.W. of Cheyenne. Pop. (1900) 8207, of whom 1280 were foreign-born; (1905) 7601; (1910) 8237. It is served by the Union Pacific and the Laramie, Hahn’s Peak & Pacific railways, the latter extending from Laramie to Centennial (30 m.). The city is situated on the Laramie Plains, at an elevation of 7165 ft., and is hemmed in on three sides by picturesque mountains. It has a public library, a United States Government building and hospitals, and is the seat of the university of Wyoming and of a Protestant Episcopal missionary bishopric. There is a state fish hatchery in the vicinity. The university (part of the public school system of the state) was founded in 1886, was opened in 1887, and embraces a College of Liberal Arts and Graduate School, a Normal School, a College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, an Agricultural Experiment Station (established by a Federal appropriation), a College of Engineering, a School of Music, a Preparatory School and a Summer School. Laramie is a supply and distributing centre for a live-stock raising and mining region—particularly coal mining, though gold, silver, copper and iron are also found. The Union Pacific Railroad Company has machine shops, repair shops and rolling mills at Laramie, and, a short distance S. of the city, ice-houses and a tie-preserving plant. The manufactures include glass, leather, flour, plaster and pressed brick, the brick being made from shale obtained in the vicinity. The municipality owns and operates the water-works; the water is obtained from large springs about 212 m. distant. Laramie was settled in 1868, by people largely from New England, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa, and was named in honour of Jacques Laramie, a French fur trader. It was first chartered as a city in 1868 by the legislature of Dakota, and was rechartered by the legislature of Wyoming in 1873.
LARBERT, a parish and town of Stirlingshire, Scotland. Pop. of parish (1901) 6500, of town, 1442. The town is situated on the Carron, 8 m. S. by E. of Stirling by the North British and Caledonian railways, the junction being an important station for traffic from the south by the West Coast route. Coal-mining is the chief industry. The principal buildings are the church, finely placed overlooking the river, the Stirling district asylum and the Scottish National Institution for imbecile children. In the churchyard is a monument to James Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller, who was born and died at Kinnaird House, 212 m. N.E. Two m. N. by W. are the ruins of Torwood Castle and the remains of Torwood forest, to which Sir William Wallace retired after his defeat at Falkirk (1298). Near “Wallace’s oak,” in which the patriot concealed himself, Donald Cargill (1619–1681), the Covenanter, excommunicated Charles II. and James, duke of York, in 1680. The fragment of an old round building is said to be the relic of one of the very few “brochs,” or round towers, found in the Lowlands.
LARCENY (an adaptation of Fr. larcin, O. Fr. larrecin, from Lat. latrocinium, theft, latio, robber), the unlawful taking and carrying away of things personal, with intent to deprive the rightful owner of the same. The term theft, sometimes used as a synonym of larceny, is in reality a broader term, applying to all cases of depriving another of his property whether by removing or withholding it, and includes larceny, robbery, cheating, embezzlement, breach of trust, &c.
Larceny is, in modern legal systems, universally treated as a crime, but the conception of it as a crime is not one belonging to the earliest stage of law. To its latest period Roman law regarded larceny or theft (furtum) as a delict prima facie pursued by a civil remedy—the actio furti for a penalty, the vindicatio or condictio for the stolen property itself or its value. In later times, a criminal remedy to meet the graver crimes gradually grew up by the side of the civil, and in the time of Justinian the criminal remedy, where it existed, took precedence of the civil (Cod. iii. 8. 4). But to the last criminal proceedings could only be taken in serious cases, e.g. against stealers of cattle (abigei) or the clothes of bathers (balnearii). The punishment was death, banishment, or labour in the mines or on public works. In the main the Roman law coincides with the English law. The definition as given in the Institutes (iv. 1. 1) is “furtum est contrectatio rei fraudulosa, vel ipsius rei, vel etiam ejus usus possessionisve,” to which the Digest (xlvii. 2. 1, 3) adds “lucri faciendi gratia.” The earliest English definition, that of Bracton (150b), runs thus: “furtum est secundum leges contrectatio rei alienae fraudulenta cum animo furandi invito illo domino cujus res illa fuerit.” Bracton omits the “lucri faciendi gratia” of the Roman definition, because in English law the motive is immaterial,[1] and the “usus ejus possessionisve,” because the definition includes an intent to deprive the owner of his property permanently. The “animo furandi” and “invito domino” of Bracton’s definition are expansions for the sake of greater clearness. They seem to have been implied in Roman law. Furtum is on the whole a more comprehensive term than larceny. This
- ↑ Thus destruction of a letter by a servant, with a view of suppressing inquiries into his or her character, makes the servant guilty of larceny in English law.
