Page:Englishmen in the French Revolution.djvu/88

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68
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

in 1794 but for the Terror, and Stone was keeping his books for him. While still an ardent politician, and in the confidence, if not in the pay, of the Directory, Stone had by this time started afresh in business, and became one of the chief printers in Paris.[1] In 1805 he brought out an edition of the Geneva Bible; he published several English reprints, and he undertook a costly edition of "Humboldt's Travels." This work, which must have made him acquainted with Humboldt, ruined him, and in 1813 he had to hand it over to Smith, likewise apparently an Englishman. He had been even reduced, in 1811 , to applying to Madame de Genlis for repayment of the 12,000 francs advanced for her husband's escape. Madame de Genlis professed ignorance of the loan, and inability to repay it, but assured Stone of her esteem and gratitude; yet in her memoirs the treacherous woman represents him as having wronged her. He is described by Charles Coquerel, his quasi-nephew, as of abrupt and eccentric manners, enthusiastic, ever ready to render a service. He published, under the name of Photinus, a letter to Du Fossé in defence of Unitarianism. He was naturalised in 1817, simultaneously with Helen Williams, and died in the following year. His tombstone in Père Lachaise, "the last tribute of a long friendship," describes him as an enlightened champion of religion and liberty. A now fallen

  1. He printed the Government tax-papers.