384 



LINCOLN, HEMAN. 



his magnificent library, very rich in Italian 

 books, especially of history and science, to the 

 French nation, on condition of its being pre- 

 served together as the Libri Collection, his 

 enemies began to circulate the report that he 

 had availed himself of his position of Inspec- 

 tor of Public Libraries, to steal the most valu- 

 able of the books which he now proposed to 

 give to the nation. Meantime the revolution 

 of 1848 was drawing near, and, just on the eve 

 of it, a report, bearing the signature of M. 

 Boucly, procureur du Roi, was drawn up, 

 bearing date February 4, 1848, and sent to 

 M. Guizot, charging him specifically with the 

 theft of numerous valuable works from cer- 

 tain libraries of Paris and other cities, and 

 demanding his trial on those charges. M. 

 Guizot, during the two or three stormy weeks 

 of insurrection which followed (the overthrow 

 of Louis Philippe occurred, it will be re- 

 membered, February 22-24, 1848), had no lei- 

 sure to take any action in regard to this report, 

 and the document was found on file with his 

 other papers at the sacking of the Foreign 

 Office. Libri, meantime, as a strong adherent 

 of Louis Philippe, was threatened with politi- 

 cal vengeance, and, like the King, was com- 

 pelled to take refuge in England. Then fol- 

 lowed his trial in his absence, the seizing of 

 his library and effects, his condemnation, in 

 default, to ten years' imprisonment and to be 

 forever incapacitated from holding office. 

 Knowing the bitterness of his foes, Libri did 

 not trust himself in France, but he protested 

 against the injustice of this judgment, and 

 demonstrated that the most valuable books he 

 was charged with stealing were either still in 

 the libraries from which they were alleged to 

 have been taken, or had been taken from them 

 and sold to the British Museum or other col- 

 lections before he came to France. He also 

 twice or three times sold collections of books 

 at auction in London containing most of those 

 books, and appended to their titles in his cata- 

 logue sworn copies of the receipted bills of the 

 second-hand dealers of whom he had bought 

 them. But he was never able to obtain any 

 redress from the French Government, and those 

 who advocated his cause were punished. In 

 England, he was generally believed innocent. 

 The cloud under which he rested broke down 

 his spirits, and deprived the world of the labors 

 of one of the finest and clearest intellects of 

 modern times. He had commenced years ago 

 the Life of Galileo, but could not bring himself 

 to complete it. 



LINCOLN", HEMA.N, an eminent citizen and 

 philanthropist of Boston, Mass., born in 

 Hingham, Mass., January 7, 1779; died at Bos- 

 ton August 11, 1869. He was favored with a 

 careful early training under pious and judicious 

 parents, and in 1793 removed to Boston and 

 was apprenticed to a carpenter, whom he 

 served till his majority. When about twenty 

 years of age he was converted and became 

 connected with the Second Baptist Church, of 



LITERATURE. 



which he was subsequently for a time one of 

 the deacons. "With no desire or taste for polit- 

 ical life, he was urged by his fellow -citizens to 

 accept of positions of honor and responsibility 

 in the State government. He served at differ- 

 ent times in both Houses of the Legislature, 

 and in 1820 was a member of the convention 

 for the revision of the State constitution. In 

 1827 he joined a colony from the Second 

 Church in the formation of what is now the 

 Clarendon Street Church, Boston, of which he 

 was immediately constituted a deacon, holding 

 that office until his death. After years de- 

 voted to mechanical pursuits, he entered into 

 a prosperous mercantile connection, nnder 

 the firm name of Jackson & Lincoln, widely 

 known for its fair and honorable reputation. 

 For several years Mr. Lincoln was president 

 of the American Baptist Home Missionary So- 

 ciety, and, as early as the commencement of 

 the mission to Burmah, entered with his 

 whole soul into the cause of foreign missions, 

 of which he was ever after a liberal supporter. 

 In 1824 Mr. Lincoln was elected Treasurer of 

 the Baptist General Convention, an office 

 which he held twenty-two years, rendering 

 invaluable gratuitous service. In 1833 he vis- 

 ited, by appointment from the Board and at 

 his own expense, the Cherokee Mission, then in 

 North Carolina, and became warmly interested 

 in the evangelization of that tribe. He was 

 one of the founders of the Newton Theologi- 

 cal Seminary in 1825, and was for many years 

 a trustee of that institution as well as of 

 Brown University. From 1846 to 1848 he 

 was chairman of the Executive Committee of 

 the American Baptist Missionary Union. In 

 all these positions of responsibility, as well as 

 in his every-day life, he was held in the high- 

 est estimation for his strict integrity of char- 

 acter and thorough devotion to the cause of 

 truth and justice. 



LITERATURE AND LITERARY PROG- 

 RESS IN 1869. Whether we regard the num- 

 ber or the quality of the books published in 

 the United States during the last year, we can 

 speak of progress Only in a somewhat equivo- 

 cal sense. The production of books has been 

 less active and less profitable than it was dur- 

 ing the year preceding, and the number of 

 them that take high rank in the scale of liter- 

 ary appreciation is proportionately less. 



The causes of this depression are doubtless 

 the same that affect other departments of busi- 

 ness. Special reasons are to be found in the 

 effect of the tariff as it now stands to favor 

 the foreign book-manufacture at the expense 

 of the American trade, and the .increased 

 prominence of newspapers and periodicals as 

 sources of literary nutriment to the mass of 

 readers. As these publications have gained in 

 strength and in solid literary and scientific 

 value, they more completely satisfy the mental 

 cravings of their readers, and in the same pro- 

 portion diminish the disposition to purchase 

 books. This form of competition with the 



