860
HISTORy OF PRINTING.
other bookseller, Mr. Lunn was doomed to losses from the ipability of his customers to make their payments. He dealt with men whose rank, whose delicacy, and, upon some occasions, whose poverty protcxited them from that importunity with which the generality of tradesmen enforce their claims. In the mean time, for the support of his credit both at home and abroad, he was compelled to fulfil his own engagements without deduction and without delay. The return of peace, by opening a free communication with the conUnent, was beneficial to other traders, but most injurious to Mr. Lunn, and was, no doubt, the chief cause of those embarrassments which disturbed his spirits, and shortened his existence. Disappointed m his expectations — alarmed at the prospect of impending losses — perplexed by the application of creditors, whose demands he had frequently satisfied with exemplary punctuality —unaccustomed to propitiate toe severe by sup-
Slication, to trick the artful by evasion, and to istress the friendly by delay, he was suddenly bereaved of that self-command, which,if he could have preserved it, would eventually have secured for him unsullied respectability, undiminished prosperity, and undisturbed tianquillitr. But in the poigrnant anguish of his soul, delicacy pre- vailed over reason, and panic over fortitude. — Happily for the human race, all the extenuations which accompany such cases, are reserved for the tribunal of that Being, who knoweth of what we are made, and remembeieth that we are but dust. Many a Christian will be disposed to commise- rate ue circumstances of Mr. Lunn's death, and manv a man of letters may find reason to deplore the loss of his well meant, and well directed labours. Unfortunately Mrs. Lunn and her daughters had not the means of carrying on the business in which Mr. Limn was engaged. — That doom was to lament an affectionate hus- band and an indulgpent father.
1815, July. Dted, William Maria AnVe Bbune, who from an humble birth, and the tank, of a journeyman printer, became a cele- brated marshal of the French army, a peer of the empire, and a counsellor of state. He was bom at Brivez la Oaillairde, in March, 1763. At the breaking out of the French revolution, he was engaged as overseer of a printing-office at Limensin, and first became known Ay pub- lishing some small works of his own composition. He afterwards devoted himself ardently to the cause of the revolution, became a member of the club da Cordeliert, and played an active part in the tempests of that peripd. In 1793, he entered the military service in the revolutionary army in the GHronde, and soon gave proofs of intrepidity and military talents. Afterwards he distinguished himself as general of bri^Mle in the Italian army, in 1797, in the attack of Verona, and in the battle of Aiooli. In January, 1798, he received the chief command of the army sent against Swit- zerland: he entered that country without much opposition, and effected a new organization of the ^vemment. In 1799, he defeated the Eng- lish m the north of Holland, near Bergen, and
oomnelled the duke of York-to agree to the treaty of AJcmaer, by which the Enriish and Ruinuis were to evacuate the north of Holland. In Ju. I800,he was made a connsellor of state,ai>d ms placed at the head of the army of the west. In 1 803, he went as ambassador to the court of Con- stantinople, and received fiom the Turkidi mi- nistry the highest marks of honour; and, during his absence, he was appointed a marshal of the empire. At the end of 1806, Napoleon appointed him governor-general of the Hanseatic towns, and soon after commander of the troops in Swe- dbh Pomerania, against the king of Sweden. He drew upon himself the indignation of Napdeoo, by allowing a personal interview with the Une of Sweden, and also by favouring the Englin contraband trade in Hamburgh. He was in con- sequence recalled, and suffered to remain with- out employment. After the revolution of 1814, he recognised Louis XVIII. and received the cross of Louis, but no appointment. This vis the cause of declaring himself for Napoleon im- mediately upon his return from Elba, in 1815. He received the chief command of an impoitant army in the south of France, and was made t peer. When circumstances changed ag^,he delayed a long time before he gave up Toakm, and sent in his resignation to the king. While retiring from Toulon to Paris, he perished, ibe victim of the most atrocious assassination, st Avignon, planned by the royalist reactionaries of that period, and directed by a well-known penon, who, having betrayed his country in 18I4,90ugkt to recommend himself in 1816, by inflaming the passions and pointing the vengeance of a vindic- tive &ction. The insurgents surrounded tbe hotel, and with loud shouts demanded the deatb of the marshal. In vain did the prefect and the mayor strive to defend him (as there were no troops in the ci^) for more than four hours, at the peril of their lives. The door was at last broke open, a crowd of murderers rushed into the chamber, and the unhappy marshal fell under a shower of balls, after a fruitiess atteinpt to de- fend himself and j ustify his conduct. His bod; was exposed to the most shameful insults, and then dragged from the hotel to the bridge over the Rhone, from which it was thrown into the river. Thus perished marshal Bnine, of whom it is recorded, " that during his command in Switzerland and Holland, he displayed a noble dinnteiestedness rarely equalled. He approved himself a gxx>d citizen, and a good Frenciunan; he deceived no friends, betrayed no cause, sacri- ficed no principle, and passed through theoideil of the revolution, and of the empire, withovt a stain on his character."
1815, Sept. 20. Died, William Hottoh, bookseller and stationer, at Birmingham, aged ninety-two years; who from the very depths of poverty, and from a state of neglect anii aban- donment, fought his way up to wealth, and to no mean degree of literary fame. He was born at the bottom of Full-street, Derby, Sept 30, 1723. ' His father was a master woolcomber; but two years after the birth of William, be
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