1808. The royal family of Spain sent prisoners to France. At the sight of this procedure, there was a general insurrection of the inhabitants of Madrid, who attacked the French soldiers with knives, and a bloody contest took place, which was only quelled by scouring the streets with grape shot. The Spaniards finally desisted on seeing their resistance fruitless. It is estimated that 4,000 French and 6,000 Spaniards lost their lives.
1808. John Collins died; author of The Evening Brush, an oral entertainment of story, song and sentiment, which he delivered many years with great success, in all the principal towns in Great Britain. In this sort of entertainment he has had many followers, among whom the most noted was Charles Matthews.
1809. Battle of Amaranta, in Portugal, in which the Portuguese were defeated by the French under Soult.
1813. Battle of Lutzen, between the French army under Bonaparte, and the allies, under the kings of Russia and Prussia. The attack was commenced by the allies under Blucher upon the French centre, with a fury irresistible. The battle was for a long time maintained by both armies with obstinate energy. It was the more desperate and deplorable, says sir Walter Scott, that on the one side fought the flower of the Russian youth, which had left their universities to support the cause of national honor and freedom; and on the other, the young men of Paris, many of them of the best rank, who bravely endeavored to sustain their country's long pre-eminent claim to victory. Both combatted under the eyes of their respective sovereigns, maintained the honor of their country, and paid an ample tribute to the carnage of the day. The victory finally resulted to the arms of the French, by the superior generalship of their great leader, and the determined bravery of his troops. The allies sustained a loss of 20,000, and among them several experienced officers. The French loss was severe.
1817. Catharine Rush died at Philadelphia, aged 110 years, 11 months.
1821. Hester Lynch Piozzi, an English
authoress, died. She is known as Mrs. Thrale, the friend of Dr. Johnson.
1825. Adam Seybert, an American statistical writer, died at Paris. He was a member of congress from Philadelphia, and a man of science.
1836. Jeremiah Holme Whiffen, an English poet, died. He belonged to the society of friends, published a variety of miscellaneous poems, a translation of the Spanish poet Garcilasso de la Vega, and of Tasso.
1840. Thomas Manning, an eminent English linguist, died, aged 67. Having made several ineffectual attempts to penetrate China, his services were solicited by the British government, to accompany lord Amherst in his embassy to that country. He made himself one of the first Chinese scholars in Europe, and collected one of the finest Chinese libraries to be found in that quarter of the world.