Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/762

 756 LYON LYONS to congress by the anti-federal party. In Oc- tober, 1798, he was convicted of a libel on President Adams, and confined for four months in the Vergennes jail, a fine of $1,000 which had also. been imposed upon him being paid by his friends. An attempt to expel him from congress as a convicted felon failed for want of a two-thirds vote. During this congression- al term he had a personal altercation on the floor of the house with Mr. Griswold of Con- necticut, ending in blows; but the motion to expel them was defeated. In 1799, while a prisoner in jail, he was reflected to congress, and after the expiration of his term removed to Kentucky. At the first congressional elec- tion held after his arrival he was returned to the house, of which he continued a member till 1811. Subsequently he held the office of United States factor for the Cherokee Indians by the appointment of President Monroe, and removed to Arkansas, of which he was the territorial delegate elect to congress at the time of his death. LYON, Nathaniel, an American soldier, born at Ashford, Conn., July 14, 1819, killed at Wil- son's creek, Missouri, Aug. 10, 1861. * He grad- uated at West Point in 1841, and served in the Florida and Mexican wars. From 1848 to 1853 he was on duty in California and Oregon, and from 1854 to 1861 in Kansas and Missouri. At the outbreak of the civil war he was in command of the arsenal at St. Louis, and broke up a camp of secessionists established by the governor, C. F. Jackson. Jackson then assem- bled a force at Boonesville, where he was routed (June 17, 1861) by Lyon, now brigadier gen- eral of United States volunteers. On Aug. 2 Lyon defeated a body of confederates under McOulloch at Dry Spring, near Springfield ; but McCulloch, being soon after joined by Price, had a preponderance of force so great that it seemed likely that he would be able to hold all of S. W. Missouri. Rather than abandon this region, Lyon resolved to risk a battle at Wilson's creek, where, after having been twice wound- ed, he was leading into action a regiment whose colonel had fallen, when he was shot in the breast, and killed on the spot. He bequeathed $30,000, nearly all his property, to the gov- ernment to aid in the prosecution of the war. In 1860, while on duty in Kansas, he published in a local newspaper a series of articles advo- cating the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency. These were collected in a volume entitled " The Last Political Writings of Gen. Nathaniel Lyon " (New York, 1862). LYONNAIS, an ancient province of France, bounded by Bourbonnais, Burgundy, Dauphiny, Languedoc in the wider sense, and Auvergne. Its capital was Lyons. It was divided into Lyonnais proper and Franc-Lyonnais, and now forms the departments of Eh6ne and Loire and a part of the department of Ain. LYONS (Fr. Lyon ; anc. Lugdunum), the prin- cipal manufacturing city of France, and since 1 834 one of its most powerful fortresses, capital of the department of Rh6ne, at the junction of the Sa6ne and Rh6ne, 245 m. S. S. E. of Paris, 175 m. N. N. W. of Marseilles, and 70 m. W. S. W. of Geneva; pop. in 1872, 323,417. The city proper is chiefly built on a peninsula or tongue of land between the Saone and Rhone. Some extensive quarters, as St. Just, St. George, St. Irenee, Vaise, &c., are situated on the W. or right bank of the Sadne, on and around the hill of Fourvi&res, which is crowned by the church of Notre Dame de Fourvi&res, the dome of which is 360 ft. above the Sa6ne, commanding the most imposing view of the city and of the Alps on the east ; and on the left bank of the Rh6ne are the suburb of La Guillotiere, which is divided into two sections by the main street, and the new district of the Quartier des Brot- teaux, now the handsomest part of the city. South of the city the new and handsome sub- urb Perrache extends toward the peninsula; and on the north, beyond the fortifications, on the declivity of a hill extending from one river to the other, is the commune of La Croix- Rousse, including the suburbs of Serin and St. Clair, and chiefly inhabited by weavers. Even the most repulsive and ancient parts of Lyons, where the narrow and crooked streets and lanes are darkened by the excessive eleva- tion of the houses, which are seven to nine stories high, have been improving for many years past. There are over 50 squares or pub- lic places in Lyons, but only a few of them are very attractive ; of these the Pare de la T6te d'Or is the most frequented. The Place Belle- cour, however, is one of the largest squares in Europe. The other leading square is the Place des Terreaux, with the h6tel de ville and the museum or palais des leaux-arts. Cinq-Mars and De Thou were executed in this square, and the guillotine was erected there in 1794. The Sa6ne is spanned by 12 bridges. The principal are those of Nemours, Tilsit or de FArche- v6ch6, the superb bridge of Mulatiere, and the bridge de la Quarantaine. The Rh6ne is spanned by seven bridges, the most noted of which are the suspension bridge, Lafayette bridge, and the bridge de la Guillotiere, the most ancient in the city. The quays of Lyons are the most remarkable of Europe ; among the most cele- brated are those of St. Clair and St. Antoine. The principal public buildings are the city hall and the palais des ~beaux-arts. The former is one of the finest of the kind in France, has a front of about 150 ft., and is flanked with a square tower and dome at either end ; the bal- ustrade is ornamented with statues of Hercules and Minerva, and in the centre is a clock tower surmounted by a cupola. The palais des 'beaux- arts, in the ancient convent of St. Pierre, con- sists of four large piles of buildings, devoted to the exchange, chambers of commerce, museum, and collection of arts and science (with some remarkable specimens of Roman antiquity), schools of drawing and natural history, agri- cultural and other societies, depot of machines for the silk manufacture, &c., and to a public