Part 26

1655. DAVID BLONDEL, a French protestant minister, died. He had the misfortune to lose his sight by close application to study, but even under that calamity he dictated two folio volumes on the genealogy of the kings of France. He was a man of great learning.

1686. ARTHUR ANNESLEY, earl of Anglesey, died. He was a statesman of great utility, sagacity and learning, under Charles I.

1695. RICHARD BUSBY, a celebrated English schoolmaster, died. He was educated by the bounty of the parish, and became head master of Westminster school, which place he held during half a century. He educated most of the eminent men who flourished about the period of his death. They regarded him as a father, though a severe one.

1707. WILLIAM VAN DER VELDE (the younger), a Dutch painter, died. He was an admirable artist, distinguished for his excellence in marine subjects, painted in black and white, on a ground so prepared on canvas, as to give it the appearance of paper. It is said he has had no equal in his line.

1717. JAMES PERIZONIUS, a German professor at Leyden, died. He published various works in Latin, on history, classical literature and antiquities; and was a man of extensive erudition, great application and sound judgment.

1739. The workmen at Stocks market, England, disinterred a grave stone with antique letters, supposed to have been buried 297 years.

1743. WILLIAM MELMOTH, (the elder,) a learned English lawyer, died. He is better known by a treatise on religious life, of which immense editions have been published.

1751. FREDERICK, king of Sweden and landgrave of Hesse Cassel, died.

1755. RICHARD RAWLINSON, an English antiquary, died. He was an indefatigable collector, and made himself useful to his cotemporary antiquaries in the completion of their works. The sale of the printed books and pamphlets of his library occupied 60 days.

1760. CHARLOTTE CHARKE, the last surviving daughter of Colley Cibber, died.

1776. Action between the British ship Glasgow, of 20 ninepounders, and her tender, Capt. Howe, and American brigantine Cabot, 20 nines and 10 sixes; Columbus, 18 nines, 10 sixes; Annodine brig, 6 guns, and Providence sloop, 12 sixes, under Com. Hopkins. The British made the attack, and continued the engagement 3 hours, when the tender was captured, but the Glasgow escaped.

1793. The French army evacuated Antwerp and Mons in Belgium, and retreated towards Valenciennes and Lisle.

1794. The French took Oneglia, in Sardinia, where they captured 2 frigates and a few galleys.

1796. DAVID ALLAN, a Scottish painter, died. He practiced history, portrait and landscape; but exercised his talents chiefly on works of humor. Some of his pieces have been engraved.

1796. DAVID CAMPBELL, a Scottish divine, died. He was professor of divinity at Aberdeen, translated the gospels, and answered Hume on the miracles.

1799. CLAYTON MORDAUNT CRACHERODE, an English antiquary, died. He was a man of great wealth and literary attainments, and his library and cabinet was one of the most select and valuable in the kingdom. His immense collection of books, medals, drawings, &c., &c., he bequeathed to the British museum.

1804. CHARLES PICHEGRU, the French general, died. He was born 1761, of poor parents, educated in a monastery, and was a tutor of Bonaparte at Brienne. He came to America with a French regiment near the close of the revolution. At the outbreak of the revolution in France he distinguished himself so much that he rose to be the first in command, and achieved a series of most brilliant and important victories, which resulted in the conquest of Holland. He was detected in a plot for the restoration of the Bourbons, which cut short his career, and he died in prison by strangulation.

1808. Corner stone laid of the vault prepared for the relics of the American seamen, soldiers and citizens, who perished in the British prison ships at the Wallabout, during the war of the revolution.

1810. Three days' rioting commenced in London on account of Francis Burdett's budget.

1811. French privateer Revance de Cerfe, burnt at Norfolk, Va. She was fired by 15 men in 2 boats, at about 2 A. M.

1812. Badajos, in Spain, taken by storm, at ten at night, by the British and Portuguese troops under Wellington; loss of the allied army 4000; the defence made by the French governor was brave, determined and noble.

1813. Lewistown, Delaware, cannonaded about 20 hours by the British frigate Belvidere. The defence was conducted in such a manner that but little injury was done.

1814. The French provisional government proposed, and the conservative senate adopted the form of a constitution; a limited monarchy, founded on the French and American constitutions, and declared Louis XVIII king.

1815. The American prisoners in Dartmoor prison fired upon by their guard, and many of them killed and wounded. The prince regent pointedly disapproved of their conduct, censured the officers and soldiery, and offered to make provision for the widows and families of the sufferers; this, however, was rejected by president Madison.

1829. HENRY NICHOLAS ABEEL, one of the most acute mathematicians of the present age, died.

1831. Revolution in Brazil. Don Pedro abdicated in favor of his son, who was proclaimed Don Pedro II.

1853. The Mexican Governor TRIAS issued a proclamation at Chihuahua, relative to the possession of the Mesilla valley, threatening to resist the occupation of New Mexico by the United States.

1855. An asteroid was discovered by M. Chacornac, at the imperial observatory of France.

1856. The constitution of the new state of Deseret was established by a people's convention at Salt Lake city, Utah territory.

APRIL 7.

1118. BALDWIN I, king of Jerusalem, died, and was buried on mount Calvary. He accompanied his brother, Godfrey de Bouillon, to Palestine during the crusades, and on the death of Godfrey was made king.

1141. MAUD declared queen of England in a national synod.

1196. WILLIAM LONGBEARD, a factious priest, executed. He was notorious for raising seditions in London, during the reign of Richard I. He was torn to pieces by horses, and then hung upon a gallows.

1498. CHARLES VIII, (_the affable_,) king of France, died. He was crowned king of Naples, and emperor of Constantinople, but afterwards met with reverses, and was driven back into France.

1521. MAGELLAN erected the Spanish standard on one of the Philippine islands.

1656. JEROME BIGNON, a French statesman, died. He was born 1590, and his attainments were so rapid that at the age of 10 he published a description of Palestine, and at the age of 14 a treatise on the election of the popes.

1668. WILLIAM DAVENANT, an English poet and dramatist, died. He succeeded Ben Jonson as poet laureate, and obtained a patent for a theatre in Lincoln's Inn fields, which was in operation a number of years.

1684. Dublin castle in Ireland burned.

1710. THOS. BETTERTON, the actor, died. He was esteemed the greatest master of tragic action in his time.

1710. EDWARD CODRINGTON died at Barbadoes. He was a native of the West Indies, and distinguished himself by his learning, and by his courage in defence of the British islands against the French.

1712. RICHARD SIMON, a French critic and historian, died. His works are numerous, and evince extensive learning and strong judgment.

1766. TIBERIUS HEMSTERHUYS, a Dutch critic, died. He was appointed professor of mathematics and philosophy at Amsterdam at the early age of 19, and is the author of several learned works.

1776. CHARLES PETER COLARDEAU, a French poet, died. He translated a part of Pope and Young with great spirit and elegance, and also wrote for the stage.

1780. ROBERT WATSON, a Scottish historian, died; author of _Philip III of Spain_.

1785. First paper issued in Hudson, Columbia county, New York.

1786. The celebrated catacombs of Paris consecrated, with great solemnity. They lie under a part of the city which was undermined some centuries ago, to furnish stone for the ancient edifices of Paris, and at length became closed up. This cemetery had been used more than a thousand years by twenty parishes, and it is estimated that more than three millions of people had been inhumed within its inclosures. In process of time, as the city extended, palaces and churches were built over the subterranean caverns, and were in imminent danger of sinking into the pit below, before it was again discovered. The mighty city of Paris had until now but one burial place, where a pit was dug, and the bodies laid side by side, without any earth being put over them, till the first tier was full; then a thin layer of earth covered them, and another tier of dead came on; thus by layer upon layer, and dead upon dead, the hole was filled up. These pits were emptied every thirty or forty years to receive new tenants. The last grave digger, Francis Pontraci, had by his own register, in less than thirty years, inhumed more than 90,000 bodies in that ground. The great increase of burials rendered the cemetery still more inconvenient, and it was at last happily thought of converting the quarries under the city into a receptacle for the dead.

1788. The first settlement in Ohio began, at Marietta, by 47 persons from New England.

1789. PETER CAMPER, a Dutch physician and naturalist, died. He was distinguished for the extent of his knowledge. A splendid edition of his works was published in 6 vols. accompanied by 100 folio plates.

1789. ACHMET IV, one of the most enlightened of the Turkish rulers, died. The first act of his successor Selim was the execution of the grand vizier, on the pretext that he had occasioned the loss of Oczakov.

1796. The British squadron under Warren captured 3 French brigs and 1 sloop, laden with provisions.

1797. Suspension of arms between Napoleon and the Archduke Charles.

1797. WILLIAM MASON, an English poet, died. He was chaplain to the king till the American war, when his name was erased from the list in consequence of the sentiments he entertained in regard to the liberties of the subject.

1800. Action between the British ship Leviathan, admiral Duckworth, and the Spanish frigates Carmen and Florentia, 36 guns each, and 650 men, with 3000 quintals of quicksilver on board. The Spaniards were captured, together with 7 vessels under convoy.

1806. Alleghany county in western New York erected.

1807. LALANDE (see April 4: by some authorities his death is put down on the 7th.)

1812. Capt. AGAR, a celebrated English pedestrian, undertook to walk a distance of 59 miles in 8½ hours, for 200 guineas. He won the match 3 minutes within the time.

1812. Mrs. BUMBY died at Ekring, England, aged 80; remarkable for a horn growing from her forehead in a spiral form to the length of nearly six inches.

1814. About 200 British marines and sailors landed at Saybrook, in Connecticut, spiked the cannon and destroyed several vessels, and escaped in the night to their shipping.

1817. The county of Tompkins in the state of New York erected.

1835. JAMES BROWN, an American statesman, died. He rose to a high rank at the bar, and was several years minister to France.

1836. WILLIAM GODWIN, an English novelist, and political and miscellaneous writer, died, aged 81. He commenced his career as a dissenting minister, which station he relinquished to gain a subsistence by literature. His works are numerous, and acquired him much celebrity, though tinctured more or less with skepticism.

1844. MORGAN LEWIS, a distinguished American military officer and statesman, died at New York, aged 90. He served with fidelity under the colonial government, and with honor and gallantry in the war of the revolution, and in the war of 1812. He held various important civil offices from 1791 to 1810.

1849. IRVINE SHUBRICK, an American naval officer, died. He had been thirty-five years in the service, and fought under Decatur and Downes. He commanded the expedition against the island of Sumatra in 1832, which captured Qualla Battoo, and broke up a horde of pirates who molested vessels there.

1850. JAMES EMOTT, a distinguished member of the New York bar, died at Poughkeepsie, aged 80.

1854. All English and French vessels were ordered out of the port of Odessa.

1856. The steamship Adriatic, the largest vessel of the kind that had ever been built, was launched at New York.

APRIL 8.

431 B. C. A body of 300 Thebans surprised the town of Platæa, in Greece, in the dead of night, and were all destroyed or captured by the inhabitants.

46. Battle of Thassus, in Africa; Scipio and Juba defeated by Julius Cæsar.

217. CARACALLA, the Roman emperor, assassinated at Edessa.

1341. PETRARCH crowned with laurels at Rome, with great pomp. This distinction was awarded him on the appearance of his Latin poem entitled _Africa_, in which he celebrates Scipio, his favorite hero. This poem he considered his best, yet it was never finished. His reputation now rests as a poet, on his Italian poems.

1364. JOHN I, king of France, died. He was taken by Edward III at the battle of Poictiers, and conducted to England, where he was retained in captivity four years. He returned from France in 1363, which he had visited on parole, and died at his palace in London, aged 45, after a reign of 14 years, which had been extremely calamitous to France.

1492. LORENZO DE MEDICIS, surnamed _the Great_, and the father of letters, died at Florence. He was a great merchant, and an eminent statesman; whose public services so recommended him to the Florentines that he was declared chief of the republic; and whose wisdom and judgment were so conspicuous, that foreign princes made him the arbiter of their differences.

1546. The council of Trent declared against the Lutheran system, and adopted the Latin or vulgate translation of the Bible by St. Jerome.

1663. The first play bill issued from Drury Lane theatre. The play was advertised to be acted "by his majesty's company of comedians," and was entitled the _Hvmovrovs Lievtenant_, and was to commence at three o'clock precisely.

1679. Bosia, a village near Piedmont, in Italy, suddenly sunk into the earth, by which about 200 persons perished.

1702. THOMAS GALE, an English divine, died. Though engaged the best part of his life in active and laborious employments, he yet found much time to devote to literature and classical learning. His publications are numerous and display great ability.

1704. JOB LUDOLPHUS, a German linguist, died, aged 80. He was one of the most eminent orientalists of his time, and the first European who acquired the Ethiopic language, of which he published a grammar and dictionary, and a history of the country. He was well versed in twenty-five languages.

1704. HENRY SIDNEY, earl of Romney, died. He was brother to the famous Algernon Sydney, and an accomplished statesman.

1731. ELIZABETH CROMWELL, grand-daughter of the lord protector of England, Oliver Cromwell, died at Bedford row in her 82d year.

1735. FRANCIS LEOPOLD RAGOTZKI, prince of Transylvania, died. He wrote an interesting memoir on the revolutions in Hungary.

1793. EDMUND C. GENET, first minister from the French republic to the United States, arrived at Charleston. He was superseded by Fauchet at the request of Washington the next year.

1801. The French surrendered Rosetta, in Egypt, to the British troops under Col. Spencer.

1803. LOUIS FREDERICK ANTOINE ARBOGAST, a French mathematician, died. He was a member of the national convention, but appears not to have taken any active part in politics, his name appearing only to some report on scientific subjects. His works place his name high among the distinguished men of the day; his character was blameless.

1806. HERRING, aged 60, and his wife, executed at Newgate, London, for coining money.

1808. County of Cortland in New York state erected.

1811. First law passed by the New York legislature respecting the Erie canal.

1812. Louisiana became a member of the United States confederacy.

1821. SIMON ASSEMANNI, one of the most learned of Maronites in modern times, died at Padua, where he had long been a professor. His explanation of the Arabian antiquities is much esteemed.

1832. ROBERT SIMSON died at Montreal, aged 101. He was at the attack on Quebec under Wolfe.

1835. Mr. CLAYTON, an American æronaut, made an ascension at Cincinnati, which proved an extraordinary affair. The spot at which he came to the earth was on Stevenson's knob, a mountain in Virginia, 3000 feet above the level of the sea, and 350 miles from Cincinnati, which distance he was wafted in 9½ hours.

1835. WILLIAM VON HUMBOLDT, a distinguished philologist, died, near Berlin, Prussia. He was elder brother of the celebrated traveler of that name, and distinguished as a statesman and a scholar.

1838. JOHN, a negro, drowned at Washington, aged 115.

1854. An explosion on the steam boat Gazelle, at Canemah, Oregon, destroyed the boat and killed 21 persons.

1854. A fire at Salonica, in Greece, destroyed 600 houses and warehouses.

1854. The Ganges canal, a work of vast magnitude, was opened by the lieutenant-governor of Agra, with great ceremony and a display of troops.

APRIL 9.

1483. EDWARD IV, of England, died. He disputed the crown with Henry VI and involved the kingdom in war and bloodshed, till the death of the latter, when he ascended the throne unmolested. He became a voluptuary, and died from excessive eating.

1483. Dr. SHAW, brother to the lord mayor of London, preached a sermon on the text "_Bastard slips shall not thrive._" It was not productive of many converts.

1547. EDWARD VI succeeded to the throne of England on the death of Henry VIII.

1589. THOMAS SAMPSON, a noted English nonconformist divine, died. During the reign of Mary, he fled to Geneva, where he was engaged in the translation of the _Genevan Bible_.

1609. HUDSON left the Texel on his memorable voyage of discovery, in the yacht "Halve Maan," of forty lasts (80 tons) burden; a size which easily admits the supposition that he ascended the river as far as Half-Moon, or Waterford.

1626. FRANCIS BACON, an English philosopher, died, aged 66. At the age of 13 he entered the university, where he made the most astonishing progress in all the sciences then taught, and at the age of 16 attacked the Aristotlean philosophy. He succeeded rapidly in office under government, and in 1619 was appointed lord high chancellor of England and baron of Verulam. Here, unfortunately, he sullied his name, and was fined, imprisoned and degraded, for bribery and corruption. This extraordinary man is justly entitled to the appellation of "the father of experimental philosophy."

1648. A great insurrection of the people of London by reason of the parliament abolishing holydays.

1670. SAMUEL SORBIERRE, a French writer, died. He was educated for the protestant ministry, but abandoned that faith for popery, without much advantage to himself, as his sincerity was suspected. His literary reputation is also somewhat tarnished.

1697. WILLIAM, earl of Craven, died in his 89th year. The nobility of England are famed for longevity.

1747. SIMON FRAZER, Lord Lovat, executed on Towerhill, aged 80. He was a Scottish statesman, educated among the Jesuits in France. His life was a scene of treachery and misdemeanor, which compelled him to fly from one country to another. Finally, joining the rebellion of 1745, he was seized and condemned, and died like a martyr.

1754. CHRISTIAN WOLFF, a Prussian philosopher, died. In consequence of a Latin oration on the Chinese, which gave offence to the clergy, he was expelled from the country; but the honors conferred upon him by other countries, led to his recall by the king, when his merits were duly rewarded, and his former injuries obliviated. His whole life was devoted to advance the interests of science and virtue.

1759. NICHOLAS HARDINGE died, an eminent English scholar, and author of some Latin poems.

1761. WILLIAM LAW, an English dissenting divine, died. He is well known as the author of the _Serious Call_.

1780. Charleston invaded by the British land and naval forces under Sir Henry Clinton.

1790. NICHOLAS SYLVESTER BERGIER, a French ecclesiastic, died. He is the author of several learned and valuable works. His talents and worth commanded preferments, until he declined any more, replying that he was rich enough!

1795. An act for the encouragement of common schools passed by the legislature of New York.

1796. A British squadron under Sir Edward Pellew captured a large French convoy, under the protection of La Volage, 26 guns, which was driven on shore.

1804. JAMES NECKER, a Swiss statesman, died. He was sent as ambassador to France, where his abilities were so much respected, that he was twice elevated to the rank of prime minister. But the revolution destroyed his popularity, and he retired to Copet, where he died. He is the author of a work on the finances of France.

1807. JOHN OPIE, an eminent English painter, died. He was the son of a humble carpenter, and was drawn from obscurity by the patronage of Dr. Wolcott (alias _Peter Pindar_). He not only became an excellent artist, but also an admirable writer on the art.

1813. The Chesapeake frigate, Capt. Evans, returned to Boston from a cruise, having captured during an absence of four months, 2 British brigs and 1 ship, 1 American brig with a British license, and a schooner.

1831. Battle near Siedlce, in Poland, in which the Russians were defeated.

1854. The English and French vessels on the coast of Thessaly were directed to search all vessels suspected of having munitions of war on board, and to seize such as were so found.

1855. All the English and French batteries opened on Sebastopol, and continued incessantly through the night and following day. The Russian loss was acknowledged by Gortschakoff at 833 killed and wounded.

APRIL 10.

879. LOUIS II. of France, died. He is characterized as a weak prince, who had not sufficient firmness to maintain his rights.

1534. JAMES CARTIER sailed from France with two small ships and 122 men, with a view to the establishment of a colony. He arrived at Newfoundland in May, and named the gulf St. Lawrence, from his entering it on the day of that festival. He returned without effecting a settlement.

1563. The city of Goa in India introduced printing.

1599. GABRIELLE D'ESTREES, a mistress of Henry IV, died. She was descended from an illustrious house, and was 20 years of age when her beauty captivated the king. He procured a divorce from Margaret of Valois, in order to raise Gabrielle to the throne; but her sudden death, probably by poison, frustrated the plan, and plunged him in excessive grief. Her amiable disposition, gentleness of character and modesty, won her general favor, and she was universally lamented by the French.

1603. A couple of vessels, fitted out by the mayor and aldermen of Bristol, under the command of Martin Pring, to make discoveries on the north of Virginia, and collect sassafras, sailed for the American coast. The sassafras, which was greatly overrated for its medicinal virtues, formed a profitable article of traffic, and is still extensively exported to Great Britain. Of this, they procured a cargo near Bristol, Rhode Island.

1606. The colony of Virginia, as it was called, divided by the king into two colonies. Although 109 years had elapsed since the discovery of the country by the Cabots, in the service of Henry VII, the English had made no effectual settlement in the new world. Twenty years had elapsed since Walter Raleigh attempted the settlement of a colony in Virginia, but not an Englishman was now to be found in the country.

1630. WILLIAM HERBERT, earl of Pembroke, died. He was the son of the illustrious Mary Sidney, and united in himself the virtues of his mother with the manners and accomplishments of a scholar. He is the author of a volume of poems.