14

LIFE OF COLONEL MACERONI.

will bring him at once to England, as agent for the sale inItaly of English manufactured goods. It was at Man-Chester , about the year 1788, that he became acquaintedwith Mr. N. M. Rothschild, who was engaged in a similarspecies of commercial agency principally for his father inGermany .

In the year 1786, my father married a daughter of Mr.Benjamin Wildsmith, of Sheffield, who had amassed a con-siderable fortune as the inventor and manufacturer of thatspecies of hair-cloth now so generally used for the coveringof chairs and sofas. He now entered into partnership witha Manchester merchant, named Birch, and making a com-prehensive journey into Italy , he extended his commercialconnections in that country greatly to his advantage. In1788, I was born in a quasi country-house in the suburbs ofManchester .

The courage, perseverance, industry, and proverbial in-tegrity of my father, were rewarded by extraordinary successin his commercial affairs. He had, however, the misfortuneto place great confidence in a man named Broadbent, aname well according with his personal appearance, and hisassumption of great simplicity and sanctity of life.

At the time of the first occupation of Upper Italy by theFrench republican armies, my father had, in various citiesof that country, about £30,000 worth of the Manchester orSheffield manufactures.

In retaliation for that treacherous robber system, by whichthe British oligarchy seized upon the ships and 'private pro-perty of the people with whom they intended to go to warbefore any declaration, the French authorities possessedthemselves of such British property as they could discoverin the countries they occupied. Many of the merchantswho had been intrusted with the goods of their friends inEngland, found means, which were not difficult, to conceal