1809. Joseph Johnson, the fortunate publisher of Cowper's poems, died.
1815. Cambaceres arrested and sent to prison at Paris.
1849. William Miller, the founder of the sect of Millerites, died at Hampton, Washington co., N. Y., aged 68. He was a native of Pittsfield, Mass., and during the last war with England served as a captain of volunteers on the northern frontier. He began to speak in public assemblies upon the subject of the Millenium in 1833, and in the ten years which preceded the time which he had set for the consummation of all prophecy he labored assiduously in the middle and northern states, averaging, it is said, nearly one sermon a day for more than half that period. He was
uneducated, and not largely read in even the common English commentaries; his views were absurd and supported but feebly; yet he succeeded in building up a sect of some 30 or 40,000 disciples, which disappeared rapidly after the close of the "day of probation" in 1843, after which time Mr. Miller himself did not often advocate or defend his views in public.
1852. By a decree of the governor-general of British India, the province of Pegu was annexed to the British dominions.
1855. Thomas Cubitt, an eminent English builder, principally on works of great magnitude for the government, died, aged 68.
DECEMBER 21.
73. Festival of St. Thomas, the Christian apostle, whose counsels penetrated into India. He was killed by the Bramins, and buried at Meliapour, about ten miles from Madras.
1375. Giovanni Boccaccio, an eminent Italian writer, died; whose Decameron has been translated into all the European languages, although great pains were taken to suppress it.
1641. Maximilian de Bethune, duke de Sully, died; celebrated as the prime minister of Henry IV, and the most able and incorruptible statesman that France ever had. After the murder of the king he went into retirement, where he wrote his Memoirs, a minute history of his own times.