180 



MEMOIR OF AUGUSTUS DE MORGAN. 



1849. 



Guglielmo 

 Libri. 



graphers were convinced of his innocence, but no defence 

 of him in France was permitted, where he had lost all 

 property and position. But the facts of the case became 

 evident to all who chose to examine them. M. Guizot, Lord 

 Brougham, Mr. De Morgan, and other judicious friends 

 found from careful inquiry in Paris that the Ade d? Accu- 

 sation in this case implied summary conviction. They 

 recommended him not to return to Paris for trial, and 

 judgment went by default, though after some years the 

 accusation was withdrawn. Mr. De Morgan said of the ac- 

 cusation that it involved a new form ef syllogism : ' Jack 

 lost a dog ; Tom sold a cat : therefore Tom stole Jack's 

 dog.' And it was discovered, after all, that in several 

 cases the editions sold by M. Libri were not those which 

 the library was reported to have lost. In several cases 

 the library had not lost the book at all. In several cases 

 the lost book had been found elsewhere, and in no one 

 case was it proved that a book once belonging to a public 

 library was found in M. Libri's possession without proof 

 of having been honestly come by. 



M. Libri had every social quality to secure regard and 

 friendship. He was a fine classical scholar and an original 

 thinker, having the sparkling merry humour of his 

 countrymen, and, like an Italian, was simple "and affec- 

 tionate, but hasty and irascible. He had been in youth 

 exceedingly handsome, and at this time, when of middle 

 age, was one of the noblest-looking men I ever saw. In 

 1850 he married Madame Melanie Colin, a generous, 

 self-devoted woman, who made great efforts to procure 

 justice for her husband. She went to Paris, consulted 

 with his friends, and appealed to his enemies, but the 

 anxiety and exertion were more than her strength could 

 bear, and it was thought that her subsequent illness and 

 death were caused by the strain upon her powers. 



The death of our friend Mr. Galloway, who had been 

 living in Torrington Square, occurred in the following 

 year. It was preceded by some months' illness from spasms 



