on the 17th of January 1863. His father, William George, a Welshman of
yeoman stock, had left Pembrokeshire for London at an early age and
became a school teacher there, and afterwards in Liverpool and
Haverfordwest, and then headmaster of an elementary school at Pwllheli,
Carnarvonshire, where he married the daughter of David Lloyd, a
neighbouring Baptist minister. Soon afterwards William George became
headmaster of an elementary school in Manchester, but after the birth of
his eldest son David his health failed, and he gave up his post and took
a small farm near Haverfordwest. Two years later he died, leaving his
widow in poor circumstances; a second child, another son, was
posthumously born. Mrs George's brother, Richard Lloyd, a shoemaker at
Llanystumdwy, and pastor of the Campbellite Baptists there, now became
her chief support; it was from him that young David obtained his
earliest views of practical and political life, and also the means of
starting, at the age of fourteen, on the career of a solicitor.
Having passed his law preliminary, he was articled to a firm in
Portmadoc, and in 1884 obtained his final qualifications. In 1888 he
married Margaret, daughter of Richard Owen of Criccieth. From the first
he managed to combine his solicitor's work with politics, becoming
secretary of the South Carnarvonshire Anti-tithe League; and his local
reputation was made by a successful fight, carried to the High Court, in
defence of the right of Nonconformists to burial in the parish
churchyard. In the first county council elections for Carnarvonshire he
played a strenuous part on the Radical side, and was chosen an alderman;
and in 1890, at a by-election for Carnarvon Boroughs, he was returned to
parliament by a majority of 18 over a strong Conservative opponent. He
held his seat successfully at the contests in 1892, 1895 and 1900, his
reputation as a champion of Welsh nationalism, Welsh nonconformity and
extreme Radicalism becoming thoroughly established both in parliament
and in the country. In the House of Commons he was one of the most
prominent guerrilla fighters, conspicuous for his audacity and pungency
of utterance, and his capacity for obstruction while the Conservatives
were in office. During the South African crisis of 1899-1902 he was
specially vehement in opposition to Mr Chamberlain, and took the
"pro-Boer" side so bitterly that he was mobbed in Birmingham during the
1900 election when he attempted to address a meeting at the Town Hall.
But he was again returned for Carnarvon Boroughs; and in the ensuing
parliament he came still more to the front by his resistance to the
Education Act of 1902.
As the leader of the Welsh party, and one of the most dashing
parliamentarians on the Radical side, his appointment to office when Sir
H. Campbell-Bannerman became premier at the end of 1905 was generally
expected; but his elevation direct to the cabinet as president of the
Board of Trade was somewhat of a surprise. The responsibilities of
administration have, however, often converted a political free-lance
into a steady-going official, and the Unionist press did its best to
encourage such a tendency by continual praise of the departmental action
of the new minister. His settlement of the railway dispute in 1906 was
universally applauded; and the bills he introduced and passed for
reorganizing the port of London, dealing with Merchant Shipping, and
enforcing the working in England of patents granted there, and so
increasing the employment of British labour, were greeted with
satisfaction by the tariff-reformers, who congratulated themselves that
a Radical free-trader should thus throw over the policy of _laisser
faire_. The president of the Board of Trade was the chief success of the
ministry, and when Mr Asquith became premier in 1908 and promoted Mr
Lloyd George to the chancellorship of the exchequer, the appointment was
well received even in the City of London. For that year the budget was
already settled, and it was introduced by Mr Asquith himself, the
ex-chancellor; but Mr Lloyd George earned golden opinions, both at the
Treasury and in parliament, by his industry and his handling of the
Finance Bill, especially important for its inclusion of Old Age
Pensions, in the later stages.
It was not till the time came nearer for the introduction of the budget
for 1909-1910 that opinion in financial circles showed the change which
was afterwards to become so marked. A considerable deficit, of about
£16,000,000, was in prospect, and the chancellor of the exchequer
aroused misgivings by alluding in a speech to the difficulty he had in
deciding what "hen roost" to "rob." The government had been losing
ground in the country, and Mr Lloyd George and Mr Winston Churchill were
conspicuously in alliance in advocating the use of the budget for
introducing drastic reforms in regard to licensing and land, which the
resistance of the House of Lords prevented the Radical party from
effecting by ordinary legislation. The well-established doctrine that
the House of Lords could not amend, though it might reject, a
money-bill, coupled with the fact that it never had gone so far as to
reject a budget, was relied on by the extremists as dictating the
obvious party tactics; and before the year 1909 opened, the possibility
of the Lords being driven to compel a dissolution by standing on their
extreme rights as regards the financial provision for the year was
already canvassed in political circles, though it was hardly credited
that the government would precipitate a constitutional crisis of such
magnitude. When Mr Lloyd George, on the 29th of April, introduced his
budget, its revolutionary character, however, created widespread dismay
in the City and among the propertied classes. In a very lengthy speech,
which had to be interrupted for half an hour while he recovered his
voice, he ended by describing it as a "war budget" against poverty,
which he hoped, in the result, would become "as remote to the people of
this country as the wolves which once infested its forests." Some of the
original proposals, which were much criticized, were subsequently
dropped, including the permanent diversion of the Old Sinking Fund to a
National Development Fund (created by a separate bill), and a tax on
"ungotten minerals," for which was substituted a tax on mineral rights.
But the main features of the budget were adhered to, and eventually
passed the House of Commons on the 4th of November, in spite of the
persistent opposition of the scanty Unionist minority. Apart from
certain non-contentious provisions, such as a tax on motorcars, the main
features of the measure were large increases in the spirit and tobacco
duties, license duties, estate, legacy and succession duties, and income
tax, and an elaborate and novel system of duties on land-values
("increment duty," "reversion duty," "undeveloped land duty"), depending
on the setting up of arrangements for valuation of a highly complicated
kind. The discussions on the budget entirely monopolized public
attention for the year, and while the measure was defended by Mr Lloyd
George in parliament with much suavity, and by Mr Asquith, Sir Edward
Grey and Mr Haldane outside the House of Commons with tact and
moderation, the feelings of its opponents were exasperated by a series
of inflammatory public speeches at Limehouse and elsewhere from the
chancellor of the exchequer, who took these opportunities to rouse the
passions of the working-classes against the landed classes and the
peers. When the Finance Bill went up to the House of Lords, Lord
Lansdowne gave notice that on the second reading he would move "that
this House is not justified in giving its consent to this bill until it
has been submitted to the judgment of the country," and on the last day
of November this motion was carried by an overwhelming majority of
peers. The government passed a solemn resolution of protest in the House
of Commons and appealed to the country; and the general election of
January 1910 took place amid unexampled excitement. The Unionists gained
a hundred seats over their previous numbers, but the constitutional
issue undoubtedly helped the government to win a victory, depending
indeed solely on the votes of the Labour members and Irish Nationalists,
which a year before had seemed improbable.
Events had now made Mr Lloyd George and his financial policy the centre
of the Liberal party programme; but party tactics for the moment
prevented the ministry, who remained in office, from simply sending the
budget up again to the Lords and allowing them to pass it. There was no
majority in the Commons for the budget as such, since the Irish
Nationalists only supported it as an engine for destroying the veto of
the Lords and thus preparing the way for Irish Home Rule. Instead,
therefore, of proceeding with the budget, the government allowed the
financial year to end without one, and brought forward resolutions for
curtailing the powers of the Lords, on which, if rejected by them,
another appeal could be made to the people (see PARLIAMENT). Hardly,
however, had the battle been arrayed when the King's death in May upset
all calculations. An immediate continuance of hostilities between the
two Houses was impossible. A truce was called, and a conference arranged
between four leaders from each side--Mr Lloyd George being one--to
consider whether compromise on the constitutional question was not
feasible. The budget for 1909-10 went quietly through, and before the
August adjournment the chancellor introduced his budget for 1910-11,
discussion being postponed till the autumn. It imposed no new taxation,
and left matters precisely as they were. (H. Ch.)
LLOYD'S, an association of merchants, shipowners, underwriters, and ship
and insurance brokers, having its headquarters in a suite of rooms in
the north-east corner of the Royal Exchange, London. Originally a mere
gathering of merchants for business or gossip in a coffee-house kept by
one Edward Lloyd in Tower Street, London, the earliest notice of which
occurs in the _London Gazette_ of the 18th of February 1688, this
institution has gradually become one of the greatest organizations in
the world in connexion with commerce. The establishment existed in Tower
Street up to 1692, in which year it was removed by the proprietor to
Lombard Street, in the centre of that portion of the city most
frequented by merchants of the highest class. Shortly after this event
Mr Lloyd established a weekly newspaper furnishing commercial and
shipping news, in those days an undertaking of no small difficulty. This
paper took the name of _Lloyd's News_, and, though its life was not
long, it was the precursor of the now ubiquitous _Lloyd's List_, the
oldest existing paper, the _London Gazette_ excepted. In Lombard Street
the business transacted at Lloyd's coffee-house steadily grew, but it
does not appear that throughout the greater part of the 18th century the
merchants and underwriters frequenting the rooms were bound together by
any rules, or acted under any organization. By and by, however, the
increase of marine insurance business made a change of system and
improved accommodation necessary, and after finding a temporary
resting-place in Pope's Head Alley, the underwriters and brokers settled
in the Royal Exchange in March 1774. One of the first improvements in
the mode of effecting marine insurance was the introduction of a printed
form of policy. Hitherto various forms had been in use; and, to avoid
numerous disputes the committee of Lloyd's proposed a general form,
which was adopted by the members on the 12th of January 1779, and
remains in use, with a few slight alterations, to this day. The two most
important events in the history of Lloyd's during the 19th century were
the reorganization of the association in 1811, and the passing of an act
in 1871 granting to Lloyd's all the rights and privileges of a
corporation sanctioned by parliament. According to this act of
incorporation, the three main objects for which the society exists
are--first, the carrying out of the business of marine insurance;
secondly, the protection of the interests of the members of the
association; and thirdly, the collection, publication and diffusion of
intelligence and information with respect to shipping. In the promotion
of the last-named object an intelligence department has been developed
which for wideness of range and efficient working has no parallel among
private enterprises. By Lloyd's Signal Station Act 1888, powers were
conferred on Lloyd's to establish signal stations with telegraphic
communications, and by the Derelict Vessels (Report) Act 1896, masters
of British ships are required to give notice to Lloyd's agents of
derelict vessels, which information is published by Lloyd's.
The rooms at Lloyd's are available only to subscribers and members. The
former pay an annual subscription of five guineas without entrance fee,
but have no voice in the management of the institution. The latter
consist of non-underwriting members, who pay an entrance fee of twelve
guineas, and of underwriting members who pay a fee of £100. Underwriting
members are also required to deposit securities to the value of £5000 to
£10,000, according to circumstances, as a guarantee for their
engagements. The management of the establishment is delegated by the
members to certain of their number selected as a "committee for managing
the affairs of Lloyd's." With this body lies the appointment of all the
officials and agents of the institution, the daily routine of duty being
entrusted to a secretary and a large staff of clerks and other
assistants. The mode employed in effecting an insurance at Lloyd's is
simple. The business is done entirely by brokers, who write upon a slip
of paper the name of the ship and shipmaster, the nature of the voyage,
the subject to be insured, and the amount at which it is valued. If the
risk is accepted, each underwriter subscribes his name and the amount he
agrees to take or underwrite, the insurance being effected as soon as
the total value is made up.
See F. Martin, _History of Lloyd's and of Marine Insurance in Great
Britain_ (1876).
LLWYD, EDWARD (1660-1709), British naturalist and antiquary, was born in
Cardiganshire in 1660. He was educated at Jesus College, Oxford, but did
not graduate; he received the degree of M.A. however in 1701. In 1690,
after serving for six years as assistant, he succeeded R. Plot as keeper
of the Ashmolean museum, a position which he retained until 1709. In
1699 he published _Lithophylacii Britannici Ichnographia_, in which he
described and figured various fossils, personally collected or received
from his friends, and these were arranged in cabinets in the museum.
They were obtained from many parts of England, but mostly from the
neighbourhood of Oxford. A second edition was prepared by Llwyd, but not
published until 1760. He issued in 1707 the first volume of
_Archaeologia Britannica_ (afterwards discontinued). He was elected
F.R.S. in 1708. He died at Oxford on the 30th of June 1709.
LOACH. The fish known as loaches (_Cobitinae_) form a very distinct
subfamily of the _Cyprinidae_, and are even regarded by some authors as
constituting a family. Characters: Barbels, three to six pairs;
pharyngeal teeth in one row, in moderate number; anterior part of the
air-bladder divided into a right and left chamber, separated by a
constriction, and enclosed in a bony capsule, the posterior part free or
absent. They are more or less elongate in form, often eel-shaped, and
naked or covered with minute scales. Most of the species are small, the
largest known measuring 12 (the European _Misgurnus fossilis_), 13 (the
Chinese _Botia variegata_), or 14 in. (the Central Asian _Nemachilus
siluroides_). They mostly live in small streams and ponds, and many are
mountain forms. They are almost entirely confined to Europe and Asia,
but one species (_Nemachilus abyssinicus_) has recently been discovered
in Abyssinia. About 120 species are known, mostly from Central and
South-Eastern Asia. Only two species occur in Great Britain: the common
_Nemachilus barbatulus_ and the rarer and more local _Cobitis taenia_.
The latter extends across Europe and Asia to Japan. Many of these fishes
delight in the mud at the bottom of ponds, in which they move like
eels. In some cases the branchial respiration appears to be
insufficient, and the intestinal tract acts as an accessory breathing
organ. The air-bladder may be so reduced as to lose its hydrostatic
function and become subservient to a sensory organ, its outer exposed
surface being connected with the skin by a meatus between the bands of
muscle, and conveying the thermo-barometrical impressions to the
auditory nerves. Loaches are known in some parts of Germany as
"Wetterfisch."
LOAD; LODE. The O.E. _lád_, from which both these words are derived,
meant "way," "journey," "conveyance," and is cognate with Ger. _Leite_.
The Teutonic root is also seen in the O. Teut. _laidjan_, Ger. _leiten_,
from which comes "to lead." The meanings of the word have been
influenced by a supposed connexion with "lade," O.E. _hladan_, a word
common to many old branches of Teutonic languages in the sense of "to
place," but used in English principally of the placing of cargo in a
ship, hence "bill of lading," and of emptying liquor or fluid out of one
vessel into another; it is from the word in this sense that is derived
"ladle," a large spoon or cup-like pan with a long handle. The two
words, though etymologically one, have been differentiated in meaning,
the influence of the connexion with "lade" being more marked in "load"
than in "lode," a vein of metal ore, in which the original meaning of
"way" is clearly marked. A "load" was originally a "carriage," and its
Latin equivalent in the _Promptorium Parvulorum_ is _vectura_. From that
it passed to that which is laid on an animal or vehicle, and so, as an
amount usually carried, the word was used of a specific quantity of
anything, a unit of weight, varying with the locality and the commodity.
A "load" of wheat = 40 bushels, of hay = 36 trusses. Other meanings of
"load" are: in electricity, the power which an engine or dynamo has to
furnish; and in engineering, the weight to be supported by a structure,
the "permanent load" being the weight of the structure itself, the
"external load" that of anything which may be placed upon it.
LOAF, properly the mass of bread made at one baking, hence the smaller
portions into which the bread is divided for retailing. These are of
uniform size (see BAKING) and are named according to shape ("tin loaf,"
"cottage loaf," &c.), weight ("quartern loaf," &c.), or quality of flour
("brown loaf," &c.). "Loaf," O.E. _hláf_, is a word common to Teutonic
languages; cf. Ger. _Laib_, or _Leib_, Dan. _lev_, Goth, _hlaifs_;
similar words with the same meaning are found in Russian, Finnish and
Lettish, but these may have been adapted from Teutonic. The ultimate
origin is unknown, and it is uncertain whether "bread" (q.v.) or "loaf"
is the earlier in usage. The O.E. _hláf_ is seen in "Lammas" and in
"lord," i.e. _hlaford_ for _hlafweard_, the loaf-keeper, or
"bread-warder"; cf. the O.E. word for a household servant _hláf-æta_,
loaf-eater. The Late Lat. _companio_, one who shares, _panis_, bread,
Eng. "companion," was probably an adaptation of the Goth, _gahlaiba_,
O.H. Ger. _gileipo_, messmate, comrade. The word "loaf" is also used in
sugar manufacture, and is applied to sugar shaped in a mass like a cone,
a "sugar-loaf," and to the small knobs into which refined sugar is cut,
or "loaf-sugar."
The etymology of the verb "to loaf," i.e. to idle, lounge about, and
the substantive "loafer," an idler, a lazy vagabond, has been much
discussed. R. H. Dana (_Two Years before the Mast_, 1840) called the
word "a newly invented Yankee word." J. R. Lowell (_Biglow Papers_,
2nd series, Introd.) explains it as German in origin, and connects it
with _laufen_, to run, and states that the dialectical form _lofen_ is
used in the sense of "saunter up and down." This explanation has been
generally accepted. The _New English Dictionary_ rejects it, however,
and states that _laufen_ is not used in this sense, but points out
that the German _Landläufer_, the English obsolete word "landlouper,"
or "landloper," one who wanders about the country, a vagrant or
vagabond, has a resemblance in meaning. J. S. Farmer and W. E.
Henley's _Dictionary of Slang and its Analogues_ gives as French
synonyms of "loafer," _chevalier de la loupe_ and _loupeur_.
LOAM (O.E. _lám_; the word appears in Dut. _leem_ and Ger. _Lehm_; the
ultimate origin is the root _lai_-, meaning "to be sticky," which is
seen in the cognate "lime," Lat. _limus_, mud, clay), a fertile soil
composed of a mixture of sand, clay, and decomposed vegetable matter,
the quantity of sand being sufficient to prevent the clay massing
together. The word is also used of a mixture of sand, clay and straw,
used for making casting-moulds and bricks, and for plastering walls, &c.
(see SOIL).
LOAN (adapted from the Scandinavian form of a word common to Teutonic
languages, cf. Swed. _lån_, Icel. _lán_, Dut. _leen_; the O.E. _laén_
appears in "lend," the ultimate source is seen in the root of Gr.
[Greek: leipein] and Lat. _linquere_, to leave), that which is lent; a
sum of money or something of value lent for a specific or indefinite
period when it or its equivalent is to be repaid or returned, usually at
a specified rate of interest (see USURY and MONEY-LENDING). For public
loans see FINANCE, NATIONAL DEBT, and the various sections on finance
under the names of the various countries.
LOANDA (_São Paulo de Loanda_), a seaport of West Africa, capital of the
Portuguese province of Angola, situated in 8° 48´ S., 13° 7´ E., on a
bay between the rivers Bango and Kwanza. The bay, protected from the
surf by a long narrow island of sand, is backed by a low sandy cliff
which at its southern end sweeps out with a sharp curve and terminates
in a bold point crowned by Fort San Miguel. The depth of water at the
entrance to the bay is 20 fathoms or more. The bay has silted up
considerably, but there is a good anchorage about 1½ m. from the shore
in 7 to 14 fathoms, besides cranage accommodation and a floating dock.
Vessels discharge into lighters, and are rarely delayed on account of
the weather. A part of the town lies on the foreshore, but the more
important buildings--the government offices, the governor's residence,
the palace of the bishop of Angola, and the hospital--are situated on
higher ground. Most of the European houses are large stone buildings of
one storey with red tile roofs. Loanda possesses a meteorological
observatory, public garden, tramways, gas-works, statues to Salvador
Correia de Sá, who wrested Angola from the Dutch, and to Pedro
Alexandrino, a former governor, and is the starting-point of the railway
to Ambaca and Malanje.
Loanda was founded in 1576, and except between 1640 and 1648, when it
was occupied by the Dutch, has always been in Portuguese possession. It
was for over two centuries the chief centre of the slave trade between
Portuguese West Africa and Brazil. During that time the traffic of the
port was of no small account, and after a period of great depression
consequent on the suppression of that trade, more legitimate commerce
was developed. There is a regular service of steamers between the port
and Lisbon, Liverpool and Hamburg. The town has some 15,000 inhabitants,
including a larger European population than any other place on the west
coast of Africa. It is connected by submarine cables with Europe and
South Africa. Fully half the imports and export trade of Angola (q.v.)
passes through Loanda.