and this may pass into solution and be redeposited in certain horizons,
a process resembling the formation of flints. On the sea bottom at
the present day phosphatic nodules are found which have gathered
round the dead bodies of fishes and other animals. As in flint the
organic structures of the original limestone may be well preserved
though the whole mass is phosphatized.
Where uprising heated waters carrying mineral solutions are proceeding from deep seated masses of igneous rocks they often deposit a portion of their contents in limestone beds. At Leadville, in Colorado, for example, great quantities of rich silver lead ore, which have yielded not a little gold, have been obtained from the limestones, while other rocks, though apparently equally favourably situated, are barren. The lead and fluorspar deposits of the north of England (Alston Moor, Derbyshire) occur in limestone. In the Malay States the limestones have been impregnated with tin oxide. Zinc ores are very frequently associated with beds of limestone, as at Vieille Montagne in Belgium, and copper ores are found in great quantity in Arizona in rocks of this kind. Apart from ore deposits of economic value a great number of different minerals, often well crystallized, have been observed in limestones.
When limestones occur among metamorphic schists or in the vicinity of intrusive plutonic masses (such as granite), they are usually recrystallized and have lost their organic structures. They are then known as crystalline limestones or marbles (q.v.). (J. S. F.)
LIMINA APOSTOLORUM, an ecclesiastical term used to denote Rome, and especially the church of St Peter and St Paul. A
Visitatio Liminum might be undertaken ex voto or ex lege. The
former, visits paid in accordance with a vow, were very frequent
in the middle ages, and were under the special protection of the
pope, who put the ban upon any who should molest pilgrims
“who go to Rome for God’s sake.” The question of granting
dispensations from such a vow gave rise to much canonical
legislation, in which the papacy had finally to give in to the
bishops. The visits demanded by law were of more importance.
In 743 a Roman synod decreed that all bishops subject to the
metropolitan see of Rome should meet personally every year in
that city to give an account of the state of their dioceses.
Gregory VII. included in the order all metropolitans of the
Western Church, and Sixtus V. (by the bull Romanus Pontifex,
Dec. 20, 1584) ordered the bishops of Italy, Dalmatia and
Greece to visit Rome every three years; those of France, Germany,
Spain and Portugal, Belgium, Hungary, Bohemia and the
British Isles every four years; those from the rest of Europe
every five years; and bishops from other continents every ten
years. Benedict XIV. in 1740 extended the summons to all
abbots, provosts and others who held territorial jurisdiction.
LIMITATION, STATUTES OF, the name given to acts of
parliament by which rights of action are limited in the United
Kingdom to a fixed period after the occurrence of the events
giving rise to the cause of action. This is one of the devices by
which lapse of time is employed to settle disputed claims. There
are mainly two modes by which this may be effected. We may
say that the active enjoyment of a right—or possession—for a
determined period shall be a good title against all the world.
That is the method known generally as Prescription (q.v.).
It looks to the length of time during which the defendant in a
disputed claim has been in possession or enjoyment of the matter
in dispute. But the principle of the statutes of limitation is to
look to the length of time during which the plaintiff has been out
of possession. The point of time at which he might first have
brought his action having been ascertained, the lapse of the
limited period after that time bars him for ever from bringing his
action. In both cases the policy of the law is expressed by the
maxim Interest reipublicae ut sit finis litium.
The principle of limitation was first adopted in English law in connexion with real actions, i.e. actions for the recovery of real property. At first a fixed date was taken, and no action could be brought of which the cause had arisen before that date. By the Statute of Westminster the First (3 Edward I. c. 39), the beginning of the reign of Richard I. was fixed as the date of limitation for such actions. This is the well-known “period of legal memory” recognized by the judges in a different class of cases to which a rule of prescription was applied. Possession of rights in alieno solo from time immemorial was held to be an indefeasible title, and the courts held time immemorial to begin with the first year of Richard I.
A period absolutely fixed became in time useless for the purposes of limitation, and the method of counting back a certain number of years from the date of the writs was adopted in the Statute 32 Henry VIII. c. 2, which fixed periods of thirty, fifty and sixty years for various classes of actions named therein. A large number of statutes since that time have established periods of limitation for different kinds of actions. Of those now in force the most important are the Limitation Act 1623 for personal actions in general, and the Real Property Limitation Act 1833 relating to actions for the recovery of land. The latter statute has been repealed and virtually re-enacted by the Real Property Limitation Act 1874, which reduced the period of limitation from twenty years to twelve, for all actions brought after the 1st January 1879. The principal section of the act of 1833 will show the modus operandi: “After the 31st December 1833, no person shall make an entry or distress, or bring an action to recover any land or rent but within twenty years next after the time at which the right to make such entry or distress or to bring such action shall have first accrued to some person through whom he claims, or shall have first accrued to the person making or bringing the same.” Another section defines the times at which the right of action or entry shall be deemed to have accrued in particular cases; e.g. when the estate claimed shall have been an estate or interest in reversion, such right shall be deemed to have first accrued at the time at which such estate or interest became an estate or interest in possession. Thus suppose lands to be let by A to B from 1830 for a period of fifty years, and that a portion of such lands is occupied by C from 1831 without any colour of title from B or A—C’s long possession would be of no avail against an action brought by A for the recovery of the land after the determination of B’s lease. A would have twelve years after the determination of the lease within which to bring his action, and might thus, by an action brought in 1891, disestablish a person who had been in quiet possession since 1831. What the law looks to is not the length of time during which C has enjoyed the property, but the length of time which A has suffered to elapse since he might first have brought his action. It is to be observed, however, that the Real Property Limitation Act does more than bar the remedy. It extinguishes the right, differing in this respect from the other Limitation Acts, which, while barring the remedy, preserve the right, so that it may possibly become available in some other way than by action.
By section 14 of the act of 1833, when any acknowledgment of the title of the person entitled shall have been given to him or his agent in writing signed by the person in possession, or in receipt of the profits or rent, then the right of the person (to whom such acknowledgment shall have been given) to make an entry or distress or bring an action shall be deemed to have first accrued at the time at which such acknowledgment, or the last of such acknowledgments, was given. By section 15, persons under the disability of infancy, lunacy or coverture, or beyond seas, and their representatives, are to be allowed ten years from the termination of this disability, or death (which shall have first happened), notwithstanding that the ordinary period of limitation shall have expired.
By the act of 1623 actions of trespass, detinue, trover, replevin or account, actions on the case (except for slander), actions of debt arising out of a simple contract and actions for arrears of rent not due upon specialty shall be limited to six years from the date of the cause of action. Actions for assault, menace, battery, wounds and imprisonment are limited to four years, and actions for slander to two years. Persons labouring under the disabilities of infancy, lunacy or unsoundness of mind are allowed the same time after the removal of the disability. When the defendant was “beyond seas” (i.e. outside the United Kingdom and the adjacent islands) an extension of time was allowed, but by the Real Property Limitation Act of 1874 such an allowance is excluded as to real property, and as to other matters by the Mercantile Law Amendment Act 1856.
An acknowledgment, whether by payment on account or by mere spoken words, was formerly sufficient to take the case out
