Part 22

1730. The British parliament passed an act prohibiting any subject lending money to a foreigner or other nation.

1740. The English Capt. KNOWLES took from the Spaniards the castle of St. Lorenzo in South America; a large amount of spoil fell into the hands of the conquerors.

1742. PETER SABBATHIER, a French Benedictine, died. He was engaged 23 years in making a collection of the Latin versions of the Bible, which was published 1743 in 3 vols. folio.

1744. War between France and Great Britain declared.

1751. FREDRICK, prince of Wales, died.

1754. JOHN JAMES WETSTEIN, a learned Swiss divine, died. He traveled through several countries of Europe to examine the various manuscripts of the Greek Testament, and on his return to Basel published his _Prologomena_; he was immediately persecuted as a Socinian, and compelled to flee his country. He found protection at Amsterdam, where he died.

1764. THOMAS SLACK commenced the _New Castle Chronicle_, a paper still well sustained in England.

1773. PHILIP DORMER STANHOPE, earl of Chesterfield, died, aged 79. He was one of the most celebrated wits of his age, an eminent statesman, political, epistolatory and miscellaneous writer. His _Letters_, containing advice to his son, prove him to have been an excellent scholar; but the critical reader will find that they insidiously inculcate the loosest principles.

1773. STEPHEN LEAKE, an ingenious writer on coins and heraldry, died at Thorp, England.

1776. JOHN HARRISON, an eminent English mechanic, died. He was the son of an obscure mechanic, but made himself famous by the invention of a time-keeper, in the form of a watch, for ascertaining the longitude at sea, for which he received from parliament about $90,000.

1782. Spain acknowledged the Independence of the United States.

1782. A blockhouse situated on Toms' river, New Jersey, attacked by a body of royalists. Capt. Huddy defended the place while his ammunition lasted, and on surrendering was executed without a trial.

1783. ROBERT SAUNDERS, a self created LL. D., died. His _Notes on the Bible_ profited him very little, though in a pecuniary point of view they profited others.

1794. Insurrection of the Poles. The Russian troops evacuated Cracow, and the patriot Kosciusko took possession.

1794. CHARLES PHILIP RONSIN, with a number of his _confreres_, guillotined at Paris. The revolution brought him out from obscurity only to display the natural deformity of his character. He was promoted to the office of minister of war, and then to the command of an army. He met his fate at the hands of Danton and Marat, who had raised him up.

1797. Battle in the passes of Eisach in Saxony, between the Austrians under Gen. Laudohn, and the French, who captured 8 cannon and 1500 soldiers.

1801. PAUL, emperor of Russia, assassinated. His reign was remarkable for its caprice and eccentricity.

1804. The county of Seneca, in Western New York, formed.

1838. THOMAS ATTWOOD, an eminent English musical composer, died, aged 73.

MARCH 25.

1409. The schism of the church was ended by the council of Pisa.

1519. First regular battle of the Spaniards under Cortez with the Indians, on the plains of Ceutla, near Tabasco. The Spaniards were victorious, with the loss of 1 killed and more than 60 wounded. The loss of the Indians was very great; 800 were left dead on the field; the Indians being unable to carry off all their dead, as was their custom.

1595. Snow fell at Rome. There is no other record of such an event occurring there till 1834--exhibiting the curious phenomenon of a space of 240 years without snow.

1609. HENRY HUDSON sailed from Amsterdam on the voyage in which he discovered the North or Hudson river, and explored it as far as Albany.

1661. The Savoy conference, concerning the liturgy, between 12 bishops with 9 assistants, and a like number of presbyterians appointed by King Charles II.

1678. Ypres, in Belgium, surrendered to the French after a siege of 7 days.

1688. First establishment of charity schools in England.

1693. Printing ordered to be introduced into New York.

1711. NEHEMIAH GREW, a London physician, died. His merits and skill procured him a very extensive practice; he was also author on subjects connected with his profession.

1741. The British under Admiral Vernon took the castle of Bocca Chicca, in Carthagena, by assault.

1751. The commencement of the year in England was altered from this day to the first of January, to conform with the custom of other European countries, which had long before adopted the Gregorian calendar. For this purpose there was passed an act of parliament, directing that the year should commence on the first of January, and that eleven days, from the 2d to the 14th September, 1752, should be omitted, so that the 3d of September should be dated the 14th. This occasioned great perplexity and confusion of dates, arising from the computations by the old and new styles.

1754. WILLIAM HAMILTON, an ingenious Scottish poet, died. His pieces are distinguished for liveliness of imagination and delicacy of sentiment.

1761. The first tree cut towards clearing land for cultivation in the town of Bennington, Vt. The honor of the act belongs to Samuel Robinson, who on that day began the settlement of the town. In 1790 it contained 4,000 inhabitants, and by actual return their industry produced 26,000 yards of linen cloth, made in private families from flax of their own raising.

1763. ELIAS FARNEWORTH, an English prelate, died; distinguished as the translator of Machiavelli and several other European authors.

1792. Lake Harantoreen, in the county of Kerry, Ireland, sunk into the earth.

1792. The British under Gen. CAMPBELL carried by storm the batteries at Port Royal in Grenada.

1793. HEBERT, ANACHARSIS CLOOTS and 18 others, chiefs of the _Cordelier Club_, executed at Paris.

1799. Florence and Leghorn in Italy, fell into the hands of the French.

1799. Battle of Stockach in Germany. The princes of Furstenberg and Anhalt-Bernburg killed.

1800. The county of Greene, in New York, erected.

1801. The British army in Egypt reinforced by the Turks.

1808. CHARLES IV of Spain wrote to Bonaparte protesting against his abdication in favor of Ferdinand VII, as having been extorted from him by force, at the same time offering to place himself and the royal family in Bonaparte's power.

1809. ANNA SEWARD, an English poetess, died. She exhibited an early taste for poetry, and her poems were popular in their day, and often republished. She held a correspondence with the literati of her time, and her letters were published in six volumes, octavo.

1810. BONAPARTE issued a decree giving liberty to all state prisoners in France, and a free pardon to all deserters.

1811. Battle of Campo Major in Portugal, in which the British under Gen. Beresford defeated the French, took 600 prisoners, and drove them to Badajos.

1811. British frigate Amazon destroyed off cape Barfleur by part of the Cherbourg squadron.

1811. Every printing press in Paris obnoxious to Bonaparte, suppressed by the police.

1812. GEORGE FREDERICK COOKE, an eminent English actor, died. He was first engaged as a printer, and afterwards in the navy; but left these for the stage, and acquired a reputation seldom attained, in the highest walks of the drama.

1815. Confirmatory pact signed at Vienna, by which the allied powers solemnly united their forces to maintain the treaty of Paris against Bonaparte.

1815. RICHARD DOWELL, the famed organist at Dulwich college, died.

1820. ALEXANDER of Russia banished all Jesuits from his dominions, because they interfered with the government and the peace of families.

1836. HENRY ROSCOE died, near Liverpool, England. He was distinguished for his legal and various abilities and learning, and was the author of several professional and other works.

1843. Ceremony of opening the Thames tunnel. Its length is 1200 feet, its cost about two and a half millions of dollars, and it was 18 years in building, under Brunel. The number of persons who visited it during the two following days was about 50,000, at a revenue of one penny each is nearly $1000.

1849. GEORGE COOKE, an artist of some note in the south, died of Cholera at New Orleans.

1852. JANE WEST died, aged 93; a very fruitful authoress, in the beginning of the present century, of poems, tales and novels, long since forgotten, though much in vogue for a time.

1855. An unsuccessful attempt at revolution made in San Domingo with the intent to recall ex-president Paez.

MARCH 26.

1546. THOMAS ELYOT, an eminent English scholar, died. He published the first _Latin and English Dictionary_ in that country.

1602. BARTHOLOMEW GOSNOLD sailed from England in a shallop with 32 persons to effect a colony in the northern part of Virginia. He was the first Englishman who came in a direct course to this part of America, instead of making the circuit by the Canaries and the West Indies. After a passage of 7 weeks they made land in 43 degrees.

1630. CHARLES I renewed the patent granted by his father to Ben Jonson, as poet laureate. The pension was augmented from 100 marks to 100 pounds, with the grace cup of "one tierce of Canary Spanish wine," to be delivered annually from the royal cellars at Whitehall.

1644. The English parliament made an ordinance to enjoin every family one meal per week, and to contribute the value thereof to the kingdom.

1649. JOHN WINTHROP, first governor of Massachusetts colony, died at Boston, aged 63. He came out to America 1630, as governor of the colony; to which he continued to be re-elected, with a few years intermission, till his death. He kept an accurate journal of the events of the early colony from its foundation to the time of his death, two volumes of which were published at Hartford 1790; and the third, which had been a long time lost, appeared in 1826.

1662. BRIAN DUPPA, an English bishop, died. He was distinguished for his learning and virtues, and the firmness of his adherence to the cause of the Stuarts during their misfortunes.

1676. Marlborough, Mass., destroyed by the Indians. So completely did the enemy finish their horrid purposes here, that the inhabitants deserted their dwellings and sought shelter elsewhere. On the following evening a party of about forty men went out in search of the Indians; and coming upon them towards morning lying around their fires to the number of about three hundred, fired in upon them. Although it was so dark at a short distance from the fires that "an Indian could not be discerned from a better man," yet they discharged several volleys upon them, and came off without the loss of one of the band. The few houses which escaped the brand on this occasion were razed by the enemy soon after.

1688. WINSTON CHURCHILL, an English historian, died; better known as the father of the great duke of Marlborough.

1699. "After an extraordinary storm," says Evelyn, "there came up the Thames a whale which was 56 feet long. Such and a larger of the spout kind, was killed there 40 years ago. _That year died Cromwell._" The reverend antiquary probably considered this a _prodigious_ omen of the usurper's dissolution.

1702. WILLIAM COURTEN died; a collector of whatever was curious and important in medallic and antiquarian history. He left 38 vols. folio, and 8 quarto, which together with his collection were purchased for the British museum at £20,000; scarcely the value of the coins and precious stones.

1707. The _regalia_ of Scotland deposited in an oaken chest, at the Edinburgh castle.

1711. Engagement between the British ship Lion, 60 guns, Capt. Walpole, and 4 French ships, in which the latter were beaten off. Walpole had his right arm shot off; and it may be mentioned that Lord Nelson had the same sword in his hand when his right arm was shot off, 1797.

1719. A Spanish fleet under the duke of Ormond, intended for the invasion of England in favor of the pretender, was dispersed by a storm.

1726. JOHN VANBRUGH, an English dramatist and architect, died. He was knighted by Queen Anne, and held several lucrative offices; but a want of economy in the management of his income kept him in indigence, and his dramas were produced in rapid succession to retrieve his credit. Few of his pieces, although popular at the time, still keep the stage.

1729. ROBERT MOSS, a popular London preacher, died. His sermons have been published in 8 vols.; and he is the author of some poems, and small tracts.

1730. The landgrave of Hesse Cassel, father of the king of Sweden, died. The Swedish monarch was declared successor.

1756. GILBERT WEST, an English poet, died. He was a man of polished manners and great erudition.

1772. CHARLES DINEAU DUCLOS, historiographer of France, died. He was also a distinguished member of the French academy, and was engaged in the _Dictionary_ and _History of the Society_.

1784. THOMAS BOND, a distinguished American physician, died. After spending considerable time in preparatory study at Paris, he returned and commenced practice in Philadelphia, where he acquired a great reputation in his profession, and as a man of letters.

1794. Congress passed an embargo law.

1799. Battle of Verona, between the French and Austrians. The battle continued from morning till night, and the loss on both sides was so great, that each army found it necessary to retreat.

1806. Broome county, in New York, erected.

1812. Earthquake in Venezuela, South America; the town of St. Philip with a population of 1,200 souls was entirely swallowed up, and it is supposed that about 20,000 persons perished in the whole province. Caraccas, with a population of 40,000, was destroyed, and from 10,000 to 40,000 persons perished, authorities differ.

1813. The American batteries at Black Rock opened their fire on the British, and silenced their lower battery.

1814. Gen. HULL, tried at Albany by court martial for surrendering Detroit, was found guilty and sentenced to be shot. His punishment was remitted by the president.

1814. Battle of St. Dizier in France, in which Bonaparte defeated Winzingerode.

1814. Engagement in the bay of La Hogue, between the British ship Hebrus and French frigate L'Etoile. French loss, 40 killed, 71 wounded; British 13 killed, 25 wounded.

1832. The Asiatic cholera appeared in Paris. During its prevalence 1 in 33 of the population died. In the whole of France 229,534 persons were attacked, and 94,665 died.

1838. WILLIAM H. ASHLEY died near Boonville, Missouri. He was the first lieut. governor of that state, and a man highly respected for his great enterprise, talents, integrity and principle. He emigrated from Virginia at the age of 30, and settled near the lead mines. In 1822 he projected the scheme of uniting the Indian trade of the Rocky mountains with the hunting and trapping business; and having enlisted about 300 hardy men, they, after various successes and reverses, realized handsome fortunes.

1839. POWER LE POER TRENCH, archbishop of Tuam and primate of Connaught, in Ireland, died. He was distinguished for his talents, eloquence and learning, and greatly revered for his benevolence and piety.

1850. SAMUEL T. ARMSTRONG, a distinguished American bookseller, died in Boston.

1852. While the engineer Maillefert and his assistants were engaged in submarine blastings at Hellgate, New York harbor, by accident a charge exploded and instantly killed Capt. Southard and 2 others. Maillefert and others were raised several feet, and fell into the water; but were rescued with few injuries.

1854. JONATHAN HARRINGTON died, aged 85; a fifer for the minute men who assembled on Lexington Green on the morning of the 19th of April, 1775, and the last survivor of the gallant band who were engaged in that first conflict of the American revolution.

MARCH 27.

47 B. C. PTOLEMY DIONYSIUS, king of Egypt, drowned in the Nile. His name is rendered execrable to the latest posterity for the murder of Pompey, his benefactor.

1306. ROBERT BRUCE crowned king of Scotland at Scone. Edward had carried off the national diadem, so that one was manufactured for the occasion, which was placed upon the head of the liberator by Isabella, countess of Buchan, a descendant of Macduff.

1350. ALPHONSO II of Castile died at Gibraltar. He is famous for his wars with the Moors, in which 200,000 of them were slain.

1546. JOHN DIAZ, a Spaniard, murdered at Neuberg, Germany. He embraced the doctrines of the reformers, and while on a visit to Calvin was met by his brother, who, being unable to reconvert him, hired an assassin to dash out his brains with an axe while in bed at night.

1563. A bill brought into the house of commons, permitting the Bible and church service to be translated into the Welsh or British tongue and used in the church of Wales. The New Testament in Welsh appeared in 1567, in quarto, 339 pages in black letter.

1614. An octroy passed the States General of the United Netherlands, for regulating voyages to America, under which Adrian Block, Hendrick Corstiaensen, and Cornelis Jacobsen Mey, distinguished themselves by their adventures.

1617. FRANCIS BACON made lord chancellor of England, in place of Ellesmere, who died within a fortnight of his resignation. The new chancellor soon disgusted the public by his vanity, love of show, meanness and corruption.

1622. The Indians, by a preconcerted conspiracy, fell upon the Virginia colony, 347 of whom, unresisting and defenceless, were massacred with indiscriminate barbarity. This massacre was plotted by Opecancanough, and was followed by an exterminating war between the parties.

1625. JAMES VI of Scotland (I of England) died, aged 59. He was the son of Mary and Lord Darnley, and succeeded to the throne at an early age. In 1603 he succeeded to the crown of England, on the death of Elizabeth. It was during his reign that the famous plot was concerted for blowing up the king and parliament. It was also during his reign, and through his weakness, that Walter Raleigh lost his life. He was an encourager of learning, though a pedant himself. The translation of the Bible in present use bears his sanction and authority.

1634. LEONARD CALVERT, having been appointed governor of Maryland by his brother Lord Baltimore, arrived with two hundred settlers, and settled the town of St. Marys, establishing religious liberty and granting lots of fifty acres to each emigrant.

1654. Monsieur BOURDEAUX, ambassador extraordinary from the king of France to Cromwell, arrived in London, and on obtaining an audience, recognized the principle that God shows his love to men by giving them wise rulers.

1660. TOBIAS VENNER, an English physician, died. His medical works were popular, and for talent are above mediocrity.

1669. Mount Trumento formed of an indurated mass of lava by the great eruption of mount Etna.

1676. Battle of Patuxet, between fifty English and twenty friendly Indians under Capt. Pierce, and six hundred of Philip's Indians. The English were drawn into an ambush, or deceived in the force of their enemies, and making an error in drawing down by the side of the river to prevent being surrounded, the Indians crossed over, and galled them from the opposite side, so that they were constrained to fight it out to the last.

1699. EDWARD STILLINGFLEET, an eminent English prelate, died. His first work was entitled _Weapon Salve for the Church's Wounds_, which was ably written, notwithstanding the quaintness of the title. His works were principally polemical, and were published in 6 vols. folio.

1710. SACHEVERELL'S two sermons burnt before the Royal Exchange in the presence of the lord mayor of London, and he himself forbid to preach for 3 years.

1718. MARY BEATRIX ELEONORA D'ESTE, queen dowager to King James II of England, died at St. Germain en Laye.

1729. LEOPOLD, duke of Lorrain, died. He was noted for his military abilities, by which he recovered his country, and governed his subjects with wisdom and justice. He was also a liberal patron of the arts and sciences.

1756. French burnt fort Bull, Oneida county, New York.

1771. A. MCDOUGAL discharged by the supreme court of New York, after having been subjected to imprisonment as the author of a newspaper article signed _A Son of Liberty_.

1778. NICHOLAS SEBASTIAN ADAM, a French sculptor, died. He was the second of three brothers who enjoyed some reputation as sculptors in France in the early part of the last century. His principal works are the tomb for the wife of Stanislaus of Poland, and Prometheus chained.

1782. CARACCIOLI, the viceroy of Sicily, abolished the inquisition there, and destroyed the archives.

1793. The French Gen. DUMOURIER, in a conference with Austrian Col. Mack, at Ath, resolved to march back on Paris and establish the constitutional monarchy of 1791.

1794. JACOB NICHOLAS MOREAU, historiographer of France, guillotined at the age of 77. He was also librarian to the queen, an able writer, and attached to the royal cause.

1794. Convention between Denmark and Sweden, for the mutual defence of their rights.

1802. Treaty of Amiens signed between England, Spain, France and the Batavian republic.

1805. The county of Lewis, in northern New York, erected.

1809. Sullivan county, New York, erected.

1809. An eruption of mount Etna.

1811. Battle of Anhalt in the Cattegat strait. The island was attacked by 4000 Danes, who were repulsed by 350 British, with the loss of 6 cannon and 500 prisoners.

1814. Battle of Horse-Shoe, at the bend of the Tallepoosie river, between the United States troops under Gen. Jackson, and the Creek Indians. The latter were defeated with the loss of about 800 killed; U. S. loss 91 killed, 268 wounded.

1829. The zoological society of London in Bruton street incorporated.

1839. All the opium belonging to British subjects in China, amounting to 20,283 chests, valued at about $9,000,000, was surrendered up to Capt. Elliot, superintendent of the British trade, for the purpose of being destroyed, in obedience to the orders of the Chinese government.

1847. METHUSELAH BALDWIN died at Scotchtown, New York, aged 84; he was licensed to preach in 1791 by the presbytery of Newark.

1854. WILLIAM HENRY CAVENDISH SCOTT BENTINCK, duke of Portland, a British statesman, died, aged 84.

1856. N. S. PRIME, a New York divine, died, aged 70; known as the author of a history of Long Island.

1857. CHARLES III, duke of Parma, aged 31, died at Turin of a wound given by an assassin in the streets the night previous.

MARCH 28.

168 B. C. The Roman senate assembled at eight o'clock in the morning, a few days after Paulus Emilius had assumed the immortal consulate. The English house of commons usually sat at the same hour five centuries ago.

193. PUBLIUS HELVIUS PERTINAX, emperor of Rome, assassinated. He was of obscure origin, and was elected on the death of Commodus. His virtues were too great for the time in which he lived, and he was destroyed by the same hands which had raised him up; and the imperial diadem was offered at public auction.

1134. STEPHEN HARDING, an Englishman, and one of the founders of the Cistercians, died. In the year 1098, he retired with twenty companions to Citeaux, a marshy wilderness in France, where they founded a monastery. A valuable manuscript copy of the Bible in four volumes, still preserved, attests the assiduity of the monk.

1318. The town and castle of Berwick taken by the generals of Bruce.