1783. Launcelot Brown died. He invented a new system of horticulture, and carried ornamental gardening to a high degree of perfection. Many delightful places of resort in England will stand for ages as memorials of his superior taste and abilities.
1783. The first ship which displayed the thirteen stripes in any British port, was recorded at the London custom house. She was loaded with 587 butts whale oil, belonged to the island of Nantucket, and was manned wholly with American seamen.
1788. Massachusetts adopted the constitution of the United States, being the 6th state which ratified that instrument. The vote stood 187 to 168.
1792. The city of Morocco, which had shut its gates against the emperor Muley Yazid, was attacked by his forces and carried. The greatest excesses were committed by the soldiery, against friends as well as foes, and the Jews were as usual given up to be plundered. (See [12th] and [16th].)
1796. The state of Vermont adopted its constitution.
1798. The bank of England subscribed £200,000 to assist government to repel the threatened invasion. By the assistance of manufacturers, &c., this sum was increased to £1,500,000.
1799. British ship Arago, Capt. Bowen, captured off Mahon, at midnight, the Spanish frigate Santa Teresa, 42 guns and 350 men.
1800. The duke of Orleans (Louis Phillip, afterwards king,) asked pardon of Louis XVIII, and swore that he was ready to shed the last drop of his blood in his service. He was graciously received.
1803. Giambattista Casti, a Florentine historian, died, aged 82. His works are full of wit and originality, and some of them have been translated into English.
1804. Joseph Priestly died. He was the son of a Calvinistic clothier, in whose rigid principles he was educated. His heresy ripened into unitarianism. His publications had already made him extensively known, when in 1766 he became acquainted with Franklin, by whom he was encouraged to compose a work on electricity. This was followed by several scientific works, till in 1794, on the anniversary of the capture of the Bastile, the mob at Birmingham, where he then resided, proceeded to his house, which, with his library, manuscripts and apparatus, fell a prey to the flames. Finally, goaded by party enmity, he sought an asylum in the United States, and took up his residence at Northumberland, Pa. Here his devotion to his favorite pursuits brought on a disease, which hastened the end of his existence, in the 71st year of his age. His works amount to about 70 volumes, octavo.