Part 69

1850. The fugitive slave bill passed by the house of representatives at Washington, as it had come down from the senate.

1854. DAVID LANSBOROUGH, a Scottish divine, died at Ayrshire, aged 73. He was distinguished as a naturalist, and contributed much to the knowledge of fossils, botany and shells.

1857. Steamship Central America, from Panama to New York, having 626 persons on board, and nearly two millions in treasure, was totally lost in a gale, and about 100 persons were saved.

SEPTEMBER 13.

507 B. C. The dedication of the Roman capital fell upon this day, about the full moon of the Greek month Matagitnion. Horatius Pulvillus, as supreme prætor, drove the first annual _nail_ in the wall of the temple, near the fane of Minerva.

44. CÆSAR executed his last testament at his seat near Lavicanum. He left the people his gardens near the Tiber, and 300 sesterces to each man.

81. TITUS FLAVIUS VESPASIANUS, emperor of Rome, died. He was an obscure native of Riti, who by his merits and virtues rose to consequence in the Roman armies, and headed the expedition against Jerusalem.

335. CONSTANTINE dedicated his great church of the Resurrection at Jerusalem, Saturday; and on Sunday exalted the relic of the cross.

1435. JOHN PLANTAGENET, duke of Bedford, regent of France, died. He was the brother of Henry V of England, and the most accomplished prince of Europe. He purchased and transported to London the Royal library of Paris.

1515. Battle of Marignano, in Italy, which lasted with great fierceness two days. The French commander, who had been in eighteen pitched battles, exclaimed that all other fights compared with this were but children's sports, that this was the war of giants. The French were victorious.

1529. Vienna besieged by the Turks.

1557. JOHN CHEKE, a learned Englishman, died. He was professor of Greek in the university, and held important state offices. On the accession of Mary, he preferred popery to the fagot, and abjured his faith.

1565. WILLIAM FAREL, a successful French reformer, died. He labored with great zeal against the Catholic church, and made many proselytes.

1592. MICHAEL DE MONTAIGNE died; a celebrated French writer, whose works are still quoted.

1598. PHILIP II, of Spain, died. He was made king of Sicily and Naples, 1554; became king of England by marriage with Mary, and two years after ascended the Spanish throne by the abdication of his father, Charles V. (See Sept. 4.)

1629. Nine sachems came to Plymouth and voluntarily subscribed an instrument of submission to the English, acknowledging themselves the loyal subjects of James, king of Great Britain, France and Ireland, defender of the faith, &c.

1629. JOHN BUXTORF, a German linguist, died. He was professor of Hebrew, at Basil, and is placed in the first rank of men who have been eminent for rabbinical learning.

1645. Battle of Philiphaugh near Selkirk, where the earl of Montrose was defeated.

1694. JOHN BARBIER D'ANCOUR, a French advocate and critic, died.

1748. The scaffolding used in Westminster Hall for the trial of the prisoners adhering to the pretender, Charles Edward Stewart, was pulled down and sold to the builder for £400.

1759. Quebec stormed and taken by the British under Wolfe, who was wounded and died in the arms of victory. The French lost 500 killed, and 1,000 taken; British loss 50 killed, 500 wounded.

1771. JOHN GAMBOLD, a noted Moravian preacher in London, died; a great enthusiast, but respected for his learning and abilities, and inoffensive manners.

1781. Combined attack on Gibraltar by 10 Spanish floating batteries, and about 300 cannon, mortars and howitzers from the isthmus. Two of their largest ships were burnt and 2 feluccas taken. The British saved from one of the ships about 350 men; 8 other ships blew up or were burnt.

1787. MOSES BROWN, an English poet and divine, died.

1794. JOHN PETER CLARIS DE FLORIAN, an eminent French author, died. His dramas, pastorals, novels and fables, gave him great popularity as a sentimental writer.

1795. Captain VANCOUVER returned from his voyage of discovery after an absence of four years.

1797. JOHN FELL, an English dissenting minister, died. He is known as the author of several respectable works.

1806. CHARLES JAMES FOX, an eminent English statesman, died.

1808. XAVIER BETTINELLI, an elegant Italian writer, died. His works are published in 24 vols., two of which are tragedies, and two poems.

1814. British approached within 700 yards of fort Bowyer, Mobile, and opened their fire on it.

1819. Completion of the Mahmudie or Alexandria canal, in Egypt. This vast undertaking was commenced in January of the same year by Mehemet Ali, pasha of Egypt, under the superintendence of six European engineers, with about 100,000 laborers, and their number, though more than 7,000 died of contagious diseases, was gradually increased to more than 290,000, each of whom received about 17 cents per diem. It extends from below Soane, on the Nile, to Pompey's pillar, is 47½ miles long, 90 feet wide, and 18 feet deep.

1831. Albany and Schenectady rail road opened; the first in the state of New York.

1839. JAMES MAITLAND, earl of Lauderdale, died, aged 80. He was the author of various publications on finance and political economy.

1842. An Affghan army under Akbar Khan, numbering 13,000, defeated by the British under Gen. Pollock, at Tetzeen. Three days after the city of Cabul occupied by British forces.

1843. The town of Port Leon in Florida, was almost entirely destroyed by an inundation and hurricane. The inhabitants selected a new site upon which to rebuild, a few miles higher up the St. Marks, which was called Newport.

1847. LEVI TWIGGS killed at Chapultepec, Mexico; a distinguished officer of the United States army.

1848. ALEXANDER SLIDELL MACKENZIE, an American naval commander, died at Tarrytown, N. Y., aged 45. In 1842 he made a cruise in the Somers, in which he felt constrained to hang several mutineers to the yard arm. He published several works, and was a man of integrity and devotional feelings.

1850. The Advance and Rescue, American vessels in search of sir John Franklin, were completely fastened in the ice.

1855. The expedition in search of Dr. Kane, who was in search of sir John Franklin, arrived at Lievely, isle of Disco, Greenland, where they found Dr. Kane and his companions, who had left their ship in the ice, and traveled 83 days to a Danish settlement.

SEPTEMBER 14.

258. THASCIUS CÆCILIUS CYPRIANUS, beheaded. He was bishop of Carthage, and a principal father of the Christian church.

407. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM, one of the most illustrious fathers of the church, died. His works were edited by Montfaucon in 13 vols. folio.

533. The Roman general Belisarius achieved the conquest of Africa, a chaotic waste of enslaved humanity, where the image of _intelligence_ is unknown.

1321. ALGHIERI DANTE, a celebrated Italian poet, died. His most considerable work is the _Inferno_.

1403. Battle of Homildon hill, in which the Scots were defeated.

1499. VASCO DE GAMA landed at Lisbon from his immortal adventure.

1523. ADRIAN VI, pope, died. He was of obscure birth, but his abilities raised him gradually to consequence.

1528. RICHARD FOX, bishop of Exeter and Durham, died. He was of obscure origin; besides his episcopal offices he was employed on several embassies.

1544. The English under the duke of Norfolk raised the siege of Montreuil in France.

1646. THOMAS HOWARD, earl of Arundel, died; famous for the discovery of the Parian marbles which bear his name, and which he gave to the university of Oxford.

1661. The bodies of May the historian, the mother and daughter of Cromwell, Pym and several others, were removed from king Henry VII's chapel and buried in the churchyard.

1666. A French expedition, consisting of 28 companies of foot and all the militia of the colony, marched from Quebec for the purpose of destroying the Mohawks. This formidable army, entered the Mohawk country, after a march of 700 miles, and laid waste their villages; the Indians, retiring into the woods with their women and children, escaped. The expedition was commanded by M. de Tracy, then upwards of 70 years of age.

1677. RICHARD ATKINS, a typographical author, who suffered much on account of his loyalty, died in Marshalsea prison, being confined for debt. His writings were all of the ultra kind.

1704. WILLIAM HUBBARD, a New England clergyman and historian, died, aged 83. He was settled at Ipswich, Mass., and was one of the best writers of the time in which he lived.

1711. The British fleet intended for the reduction of Canada having met with numerous reverses, arrived at Spanish-river bay, a council of land and sea officers, considering that they had but ten weeks' provisions, and could not depend upon a supply from New England, concluded to return home and abandon the enterprise.

1712. JOHN DOMINIC CASSINI, a celebrated Italian astronomer, died. He was invited by the senate to teach mathematics at Bologna, at the age of 15; and before his death had enriched science with a thousand new discoveries.

1714. THOMAS BRITTON, a celebrated musical small coal man, died. He rented a house in London, commenced business, and occupied his leisure hours in learning chemistry and music. He became an adept in those sciences, and excelled in many curious arts and crafts, all which he had acquired without neglecting his business. During the day he was seen with his sack and measure crying small coal, and in the evening conducting a concert at his house, where men of fashion and well dressed ladies of high rank ascended to his room by a ladder, to regale their ears. He was a member of a weekly society of black-lettered literati, where leaving his sack at the door, he entered the room among noblemen in his checked shirt, and produced his books collected from stalls and shops in blind alleys. His death was occasioned by a ventriloquial friend, who during a musical conversation pronounced these words distinctly as coming from a distance: "Thomas Britton, go home, for thou shalt die." Honest Tom, supposing the voice to have proceeded from an angel, went home depressed in spirits, took to his bed and died. He was twice induced to sit for his portrait. In one he is represented in a blue frock, with a small coal measure in his hand; and in the other tuning a harpsichord. One of them is in the British Museum.

1716. The Thames both above and below London bridge nearly dry, supposed to be caused by a strong west wind keeping back the tide.

1726. The Senecas, Cayugas and Onondagas surrendered to the English their habitations and country, from Cayahoza to Oswego, and sixty miles inland.

1741. CHARLES ROLLIN, the celebrated French historian, died, aged 81. He was the son of a cutler, and became famous not only as a writer, but also for his eloquence.

1751. JAMES PHILIP D'ORVILLE, a Dutch critic, died; professor of eloquence, history and Greek at Amsterdam.

1772. A bow and quiver were found in the new forest, England, supposed to have lain since the time of William Rufus, who was killed by an arrow in this forest in 1100.

1777. BURGOYNE, having collected about thirty days' provision, and thrown a bridge of boats over the Hudson, crossed and encamped on the heights and plains of Saratoga.

1778. During the celebration of mass at Bourbon-les-bains, in Bassigni, France, the vault under the church gave way, which occasioned the death of 600 persons.

1784. JAMES ESSEX died; an Englishman famous for his skill in Gothic architecture.

1788. JORDAN NOEL DE VAUX, a celebrated French general, died. He was made governor of Corsica in 1769, and completed the conquest of that island; he was afterwards raised to the dignity of marshal of France. He had been present at 19 sieges and 14 battles.

1792. JOHN VANDER MERSCH died. He headed the insurgents of Brabant against the imperial forces, in 1789, and distinguished himself by his valor and prudence.

1795. The English drove the Dutch from their camp at the cape of Good Hope, and captured the Williamstad of 26 guns.

1811. JAMES GRAHAME, a Scottish poet and divine, died.

1814. The French advance guard under Murat and Beauharnois entered Moscow. No defence was made except by the populace in the Kremlin, who fired the palace, and the whole city was wrapt in flames. Of 4,000 superb stone houses, only 200 remained; of 800 churches, all were destroyed or heavily damaged, and of 8,000 wooden houses, about 500 escaped.

1814. Gloutzk attacked and stormed by the Russians; the Poles and French under Dombrofsky retreated with the loss of 1,000 men.

1816. WILLIAM BAWDWEEN, an English vicar, died. He was an excellent Saxon scholar, and translated the two first volumes of that curious national work the _Domes-day Book_, which was published by a vote of the British parliament. He proposed to publish the whole work, and is said to have left the other 8 vols. prepared for the press.

1835. JOHN BRINKLEY, bishop of Cloyne in Ireland, died. He was distinguished as a mathematician and astronomer.

1836. AARON BURR, third vice-president of the United States, died, aged 81. He possessed very distinguished talents, but manifested a lamentable want of principle.

1839. Don CARLOS abandoned Spain and retired with his family into France, by which the long protracted civil war in Spain was regarded as at length closed.

1847. Battle of Gareta San Cosme in Mexico, which preceded the entrance of the Americans into the city.

1848. The British forces under Gen. Whish had besieged for several days the city of Moultan, in northern India. After much bloody fighting, the desertion of Shere Singh, an important ally, they were compelled to withdraw.

1851. JAMES FENNIMORE COOPER, a distinguished American novelist, died, aged 62. He was born at Burlington, N. J., graduated at Yale, and adopted the navy as his profession. He stands at the head of nautical novelists, and is the author of historical works besides.

1852. The world-renowned duke of WELLINGTON, died at Walmer Castle, in Kent, England, aged 83; and the numerous honors concentrated upon him were scattered in various directions. (See Nov. 18.)

1852. AUGUSTUS N. W. PUGIN, styled the _Christian architect_, died at Ramsgate, England, aged 41. The revival of Gothic architecture in England is associated with the names of himself and his father.

1853. The engine of a freight train on the Ohio and Pennsylvania rail road exploded while running, lifting the locomotive from the track and hurling it fifty feet.

1853. The first ground broken of the European and North American rail road, at St. John, by lady Head, assisted by the lieutenant-governor in the presence of 25,000 people.

1854. ALEXANDER W. STOWE, chief justice of the state of Wisconsin, died at Milwaukee.

SEPTEMBER 15.

1590. GERARD BONTIUS, professor of medicine at Leyden, died. He was the first who immortalized himself by pills, having invented a kind, the secret of which was long unknown.

1596. Cadiz taken and plundered by Howard and Essex. Loss computed at 20,000,000 ducats.

1607. HUDSON returned to England from his first voyage of discovery, having discovered the island of Spitzbergen, but failed in the great object, the discovery of a north-west passage to India.

1609. HUDSON, in his first ascent of the great river, came in view of mountains which lay from the river's side, and anchored, it is supposed, near the present site of Catskill landing.

1613. THOMAS OVERBURY, a polite English writer, poisoned in the Tower. He wrote in verse and prose. (See 17th.)

1623. NICHOLAS BERGIER, historiographer of France, died. He wrote a history of the great roads of the Roman empire.

1643. RICHARD BOYLE, the great earl of Cork, died. He went to Dublin with a small fortune, and by his great industry and ability enriched himself and benefited his country.

1678. The expedition under La Salle arrived at Quebec from France; count Frontenac being governor of Canada.

1712. SIDNEY, earl of Godolphin, died. He began his political life under Charles II; voted for the exclusion of the duke of York, but became minister to the same person when James II; voted for a regency when James fled; became minister to William III, and under queen Anne became premier.

1745. ARTHUR BEDFORD, a learned English clergyman, died. He made great exertions for the reformation of the drama.

1775. ANDREW FOULIS, a learned Scottish printer, died. From his press issued some of the finest specimens of correct and elegant printing that were produced in the eighteenth century.

1776. The British under general Howe took possession of New York.

1777. WASHINGTON left Philadelphia and crossed the Schuylkill with the remains of his army, determined to give battle to sir Wm. Howe wherever he could meet him.

1784. The first ærial voyage made in England by Vincent Lunardi, an Italian.

1793. Battle at Parmesans; the French defeated by the Prussians under the duke of Brunswick, with the loss of 3,000 taken prisoners, and 27 cannon. Same day Wurmser advanced upon the French lines at Lauter and Weissenburg, and carried by assault the different redoubts, took all their tents and 26 cannon, and would have destroyed the greater part of the army had not their retreat been favored by a fog.

1794. Battle of Boxtel; the French under Pichegru defeated the Prussians. The French under Jourdan also defeated the Austrians under Clairfait.

1797. LAZARUS HOCHE died; a brave and intrepid general in the French army during the revolution.

1810. A plot discovered to massacre the British at Lisbon, though defending the Portuguese cause.

1814. One of the large vats in the brew house of Meux & Co., London, burst, and demolished two houses; 3,500 barrels of beer were lost and four persons killed.

1814. British ship Hermes, destroyed in an attack on fort Bowyer, at Mobile point, and the other three ships compelled to put to sea. The fort was attacked at the same time by the British and Indians on the land side. The American garrison consisted of 130 men, of whom 4 were killed and 4 wounded. British loss, killed and wounded, 232.

1819. An edict of the king of the Netherlands required, that in certain provinces, none other than the national language, the Flemish-Dutch, should be used in public business.

1829. Slavery abolished in Mexico by the president.

1829. JAMES HAMILTON died at Dublin; inventor of the Hamiltonian method of instruction.

1830. WILLIAM HUSKISSON, an English statesman, killed by a train of cars on the Liverpool rail road.

1833. JOHN GORDON SMITH, an eminent English scholar, died. He published a celebrated work on medical jurisprudence; became involved in pecuniary difficulties, and terminated his short and useful life within the walls of the Fleet prison.

1834. WILLIAM H. CRAWFORD, an American statesman, died. He was minister to France in 1813, and in 1825 a candidate for the presidency.

1838. ADALBERT VON CHAMISSO, one of the most popular modern poets of Germany, died at Berlin.

1843. Revolution in Athens, which, though not sufficient to eject king Otho from the throne of Greece, yet obliged him to concede much to the popular will.

1849. STRAUSS, the celebrated musical composer, died at Vienna.

1849. The sultan of Turkey formally refused to deliver up Kossuth and his colleagues, Hungarian refugees, on the demand of Russia and Austria, and diplomatic relations with the ambassadors of those powers were broken off.

1855. GEORGE T. NAPIER, a celebrated British general, died, aged 72. He first distinguished himself at Martinique in 1809, and afterwards in the Peninsula, where he lost an arm. He was seven years civil and military governor of the cape of Good Hope, where he introduced important measures and reforms.

SEPTEMBER 16.

1757 A. M. The covering of the ark removed by Noah on the 1st day of the 1st month, answering to our Sept. 16. (See Nov. 2.)

322 B. C. DEMOSTHENES, the Grecian orator, died by poison, on the most mournful day of the _Thesmophoria_, 16th of Pyanepsion.

36. HEROD AGRIPPA thrown into bonds at Rome by Tiberius.

655. MARTIN I, pope, died. He caused the doctrines of the monothelites to be condemned, and was afterwards sent to the Crimea by Constantine, where he died of ill treatment.

1186. A conjunction of all the planets at sunrise in Libra, on which occasion the astrologers had predicted great calamities.

1380. CHARLES V (_the Wise_), of France, died. By his abilities and energy, the English were dispossessed of nearly all their provinces in France.

1519. JOHN COLET, an English divine, died; known as the founder of St. Paul's school, London, for the gratuitous education of 153 pupils perpetually. His father had 22 children, yet at the time of making the above endowment, he had no near relative to inherit the property.

1589. MICHAEL BAIUS, an able French ecclesiastic, died. His writings are superior to the learning of the times in which he lived.

1655. The Swedish settlement on the Delaware, called fort Casimir, commanded by Suen Scutz, surrendered to the Dutch under Gov. Stuyvesant. The strength of the place consisted of 4 fourteen pounders, 5 swivels and some small arms, which were delivered to the conquered, who became possessed of the west side of Delaware bay, and the fortress was called New Amstel by the Dutch, and New Castle by the English.

1681. Action off cape Spartel between a British ship and an Algerine corsair with 327 men and 88 Christian slaves on board. The battle lasted from 2 till 8 P. M., within pistol shot, and was renewed again next morning, when the corsair, having lost two masts, called for quarter.

1686. FYCHAN GAUNOR died at Abercowarch, in Wales, aged 140. (1786?)

1701. JAMES II, of England, died in France. He was dethroned in 1688, and remained a pensioner on the bounty of the king of France till his death.

1732. The tide in the river Thames, England, flowed eight hours instead of four and ebbed five instead of eight.

1736. GABRIEL DANIEL FAHRENHEIT, a Prussian philosopher, died; eminent for his great improvement in the construction of thermometers.

1745. Bergen-op-Zoom surrendered to the French.

1775. ALLEN BATHURST, an English statesman, died. His biographers claim for him almost every talent and every virtue.

1776. Unsuccessful attack of the British on the Americans at Harlem Heights. British lost 20 killed and about 100 wounded.

1779. Count D'ESTAING summoned Savannah, Georgia, garrisoned by the British under general Provost, who amused the French until he received a reinforcement.

1782. CARLO BROSCHI (_Farinelli_), died; an Italian singer of great celebrity.

1784. ROBERT BELL the first who kept a circulating library in Philadelphia, died at Richmond, Va.

1785. Darkness so great at Quebec that no person could read at noonday. (See Oct. 16, 1783.)

1792. Three thousand French refugees had landed in England from the revolution in France; and in the course of the following year they were reckoned at 8000 priests and 2000 laymen. These were mostly destitute, and down to 1806, about two million pounds had been contributed to their support.

1795. Cape of Good Hope surrendered to the British by the Dutch.

1800. Battle of Lambach: the French took from the Austrians 1000 wagons of provisions, equipage and ammunition.

1804. WILLIAM TINDALL, an English divine and antiquary, died.

1805. An experiment with a calamaran made on a vessel of 300 tons burden opposite Walma castle, England, which succeeded and blew up the vessel.

1808. PETER ISAAC THELLUSON, a rich London merchant, died, leaving 500,000 pounds to accumulate till the male children of his grandsons are dead, which may extend to 120 years from his death, when it will amount to £140,000,000, and if there should be no lineal descendants, it goes to the benefit of the sinking fund.