1782 Admiral Rodney obtains a signal victory over the French fleet under the com-
mand of couut de Grasse, near Dominica, in the West Indies, April 12.
Admiral Hughes, with eleven ships, beat off, near the island of Ceylon, the
French admiral Suffrein, with twelve ships, of the line, after a severe engage-
ment, in which both fleets lost a great number of men, April 13.
The resolution of the house of commons, relating to John Wilkes, Esq. and
the Middlesex election, passed February, 17,1769, rescinded May 3.
The bill to repeal the declaratory act of George I. relative to the legislation
of Ireland, received the royal assent, June 20.

The French took and destroyed the forts and settlements in Hudson's Bay, Aug.24.
The Spaniards defeated in their grand attack on Gibraltar, September 13.
Treaty concluded betwixt the republic of Holland and the United States of
America, October 8.

Provisional articles of peace signed at Paris between the British and the Ame-
rican commissioners, by which the Thirteen United American colonies are
acknowledged by his Britannic majesty to be free, sovereign, and indepen-
dent states, November 30.

1783 Preliminary articles of peace between his Britannic majesty and the kings of France and Spain, signed at Versailles, January 20. The order of St. Patrick instituted, February 5.

Three earthquakes in Calabria Ulterior, and Sicily, destroying a great number of towns and inhabitants, February 5th, 7th, and 28th.

Armistice betwixt Great Britain and Holland, February 10.

Ratification of the definitive treaty of peace between Great Britain, France,
Spain, and the United States of America, September 3.

1784 The city of London wait on the king, with an address of thanks for dismissing the coalition ministry, January 16.

The great seal stolen from the lord chancellor's house in Gt. Ormond-street,
March 24.

The ratification of the peace with America arrived April 7.

The definitive treaty of peace between Great Britain and Holland, May 24.
The memory of Handel commemorated by a grand jubilee at Westminster-
abbey, May 26.--Continued annually for decayed musicians, &c.
Proclamation for a public thanksgiving, July 2.

Mr. Lunardi ascended in a balloon from the Artillery-ground, Moorfields,
the first attempt of the kind in England, September 15.

1785 Dr. Seabury, an American missionary, was consecrated bishop of Connecticut by five nonjuring Scotch prelates, Nov.

1786 The king of Sweden prohibited the use of torture in his dominions.

Cardinal Turlone, high inquisitor at Rome, was publicly dragged out of his carriage. by an incensed multitude for his cruelty, and hung on a gibbet 50 feet high. Sept. 26, Commercial treaty signed between England and France. Nov. 21, 4.471.000 3 per cent. stock transferred to the landgrave of Hesse, for Hessian soldiers lost in the American war, at £.30 a man. Dec. 4, Mr. Adams, the American ambassador, presented to the archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. White of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Provost of New York, to be consecrated bishops for the United States.--They were consecrated Feb. 4, 1787.

1787 March (France) The Assembly of Notables first couvened under the ministry of Mons. de Calonne.

May 21, Mr. Burke, at the bar of the house of lords, in the name of all the commons of Great Britain, impeached Warren Hastings, late governor-general of Bengal, of high crimes and misdemeanors.

Aug. 11, The king by letters patent, erected the province of Nova Scotia into a bishop's see, and appointed Dr. Charles Inglis to be the bishop. 1788 August. (France) Mons. Neckar replaced at the head of the finances. Noven.ber: The Notables called together a second time.

In the early part of October, the first symptoms appeared of a severe disorder which anilicted our gracious Sovereign. On the 6th of November they were very alarming, and on the 13th a form of prayer for his recovery was ordered by the privy council.

1789. Feb.

1789 February 17, His majesty was pronounced to be in a state of convalescence, and on the 26th to be free from complaint.

April 23, A general thanksgiving for the King's recovery, who attended the service at St. Paul's with a great procession.

May. (France) Opening of the States General at Versailles.

July 13, 14. Revolution in France; capture of the Bastille, execution of the governor, of the intendant, of the secretary of state, &c.

October 19. The first sitting of the National Constituent Assembly at Paris. 1790 July 14, Grand French confederation in the Champ de Mars.

1791 June 21, 22, 25, (France) The king and royal family secretly withdraw from Paris, but are stopped at Varennes, and brought back.

On the 14th of July, in consequence of some gentlemen meeting to commemo-
rate the French revolution, in Birmingham, the mob arose and committed the
most daring outrages for some days on the persons and properties of many
of the inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood; burning and destroying
meeting houses, private dwellings, &c Peace and security were at length re-
stored, by the interposition of the military power.

October 4. (France) The second Assembly takes the name of the Legislative
Assembly, and is opened by the king in person.

1792 On the 19th of March, the definitive treaty of peace was signed between the British and their allies, the Nizam and Mahrattas, on the one part, and Tippoo Sultann on the other, by which he ceded one half of his territorial possessions, and delivered up two of his sons to lord Cornwallis, as hostages for the fulfilment of the treaty.

Gustavus III. king of Sweeden, died on the 29th of March, in consequence of being assassinated by Ankerstroom.

September 20. (Frauce) First sitting of the Third Legislature, which takes the title of National Convention.

1793 January 21st. (France) Lewis XVI. after having received innumerable indig nities from his people, was brought to the scaffold, and had his head severed by the guillotine, contrary to the express laws of the new constitution, which had declared the person of the king inviolable.

On the 25th of March, lord Grenville, and S. Comte Woronzow, signed a con-
vention at London on behalf of his Britannicmajesty and the empress of Rus-
sia, in which their majesties agreed to employ their respective forces in
carrying on the just and necessary war against France. Treaties also were
entered upon with the king of Sardinia, and the prince of Hesse Cassel.
The unfortunate queen of France, on the sixteenth of October, was conducted
to the spot where Louis had previously met his fate; and conducted herself
during her last moments with fortitude and composure, in the thirty-
eighth year of her age.

Their

Messrs. Muir and Palmer, having been accused of seditious practices, were tried in the high court of Justiciary in Scotland, and pronounced guilty. sentence was transportation for the space of fourteen years, to such place as his majesty might judge proper. They have since sailed for Botany Bay. 1794 On the first of June, the British fleet, under the command of admiral carl Howe, obtained a most signal victory over that of the Freuch, in which two ships were sunk, one burut, and six brought into Portsmouth harbour. 1795 In consequence of the rapid progress of the French arms in Holland, the princess of Orange, the hereditary princess and her infant son, arrived at Yarmouth on the 19th of January: the hereditary prince himself, with his father the Stadtholder, landed at Harwich on the 20th. On the 8th of April, his royal highness George Augustus Frederic, prince of Wales, was married to her serene highness princess Caroline of Brunswick. The trial of Warren Hastings, esq. at length came to a close on the 23d of April, when the lord chancellor, having put the question to each of the peers, upon, the sixteen articles of the impeachment, and finding that a very great majority voted for his acquittal, informed the prisoner that he was acquitted of the charges brought against him by the house of commons, and of all matters contained therein,

Bef. Ch.

MEN OF LEARNING AND GENIUS.

907. HOMER, the first prophane writer and Greek poet, flourished. Pope. Hesiod, the Greek poet, supposed to live near the time of Homer. Cooke: 884 Lycurgus, the Spartan lawgiver.

600 Sappho, the Greek lyric poetess, fl. Fawkes.

558 Solon, lawgiver of Athens.

556 sop, the first Greek fabulist. Croxal.

548 Thales, the first Greek astronomer and geographer.

497 Pythagoras, founder of the Pythagorean philosophy in Greece. Rowe: 474 Anacreon, the Greek lyric poet. Fawkes, Addison.

456 Eschylus, the first Greek tragic poet.

435 Pindar, the Greek lyric poet. West.

Potter.

413 Herodotus, of Greece, the first writer of prophane history. Littlebury. 407 Aristophanes, the Greek comic poet, fl. White.

Euripides, the Greek tragic poet. Woohull.

406 Sophocles, ditto. Franklin, Potter.

Confucius, the Chinese philosopher, fl.

400 Socrates, the founder of moral philosophy in Greece. 391 Thucydides, the Greek historian. Smith, Hobbes, 361 Hippocrates, the Greek physician. Clifton.

Democritus, the Greek philosopher.

359 Xenophon,theGreek philosopher and historian. Smith,Spelman, Ashley, Fielding. 348 Plato, the Greek philosopher, and disciple of Socrates. Sydenham.

336 Isocrates, the Greek orator. Dimsdale.

332 Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, and disciple of Plato. Hobbes.

313 Demosthenes, the Athenian orator, poisoned himself. Leland, Francis.

288 Theophrastus, the Greek philosopher, and scholar of Aristotle. Budgel.

285 Theocritus, the first Greek pastoral poet, fl. Fawkes.

277 Euclid, of Alexandria, in Egypt, the mathematician, fl. R. Simpson. 270 Epicurus, founder of the Epicurean philosophy in Greece. Digby. 264 Xeno, founder of the Stoic philosophy in ditto.

244 Callimachus, the Greek elegiac poet.

208 Archimedes, the Greek geometrician.

184 Plautus, the Roman comic poet. Thornton.

159 Terence, of Carthage, the Latin comic poet. Colman.

155 Diogenes, of Babylon, the Stoic philosopher.

124 Polybius, of Greece, the Greek and Roman historian. Hampton.

54 Lucretius, the Roman poet. Creech.

44 Julius Cæsar, the Roman historian and commentator, killed. Diodorus Siculus, of Greece, the universal historian, fl. Booth. Virtruvius, the Roman architect, fl.

Duncan.

43 Cicero, the Roman orator and philosopher, put to death. Guthrie, Melmoth. Cornelius Nepos, the Roman biographer, fl. Rowe.

34 Sallust, the Roman historian. Gordon, Rose.

So Dionysius, of Halicarnassus, the Roman historian, fl. Spelman.

19 Virgil, the Roman epic poet. Dryden, Pitt, Warton.

11 Catullus, Tibullus, and Propertius, Roman poets. Grainger, Dart.

8 Horace, the Roman lyric and satyric poet. Francis.

19 Ovid, the Roman elegiac poet. Garth.

20 Celsus, the Roman philosopher and physician, fl. Crieve.

25 Strabo, the Greek geographer.

33 Phædrus, the Roman fabulist. Smart.

45 Paterculus,

45 Paterculus, the Roman historian, fl. Newcombe.

62 Persius, the Roman satyric poet. Brewster.

64 Quintius Curtius, a Roman historian of Alexander the Great, fl. Digby.' Seneca of Spain, the philosopher and tragic poet, put to death. L'Estrange. 65 Lucan, the Roman epic poet, ditto. Rowe.

79 Pliny the elder, the Roman natural historian. Holland.
93 Josephus, the Jewish historian. Whiston.
94 Epictetus, the Greek stoic philosopher, fl.
95 Quinctilian, the Roman orator and advocate.
96 Statius, the Roman epic poet. Lewis.

Mrs. Carter.
Guthrie.

Lucius Florus, of Spain, the Roman historian, fl. 99 Tacitus, the Roman historian. Gordon. 104 Martial, of Spain, the epigrammatic poet. Valerius Flaccus, the Roman epic poet.

Hay.

116 Pliny the younger, historical letters. Melmoth, Orrery.

117 Suetonius, the Roman historian. Hughes.

119 Plutarch of Greece, the biographer. Dryden, Langhorne.

128 Juvenal, the Roman satyric poet. Dryden.

140 Ptolemy, the Egyptian geographer, mathematician, and astronomer, fl.

150 Justin, the Roman historian, fl. Turnbul.

161 Arrian, the Roman historian and philosopher, fl. Rooke.

167 Justin, of Samaria, the oldest Christian author after the apostles.

180 Lucian, the Roman philologer. Dimsdale, Dryden, Franklin.

Marcus Aur. Antoninus, Roman emperor and philosopher. Collier, Elphinstone.

193 Galen, the Greek philosopher and physician.

200 Diogenes Laertius, the Greek biographer, fl.

229 Dion Cassius, of Greece, the Roman historian, fl.

254 Origen, a Christian father, of Alexandria.

Heriodian, of Alexandria, the Roman historian. fl. Hart.

258 Cyprian, of Carthage, suffered martyrdom. Marshal.

273 Longinus, the Greek orator, put to death by Aurelian. Smith.

320 Lactantius, a father of the church, fl.

336 Arius, a priest of Alexandria, founder of the sect of Ariaus.

342 Eusebius, the ecclesiastical historian and chronologer. Hanmer.

379 Bazil, bishop of Cæsaria.

389 Gregory Nanzianzen, bishop of Constantinople.

397 Ambrose, bishop of Milan.

415 Macrobius, the Roman grammarian.

428 Eutropius, the Roman historian.

524 Boethius, the Roman poet, and Platonic philosopher: Bellamy, Preston. 529 Procopius of Cæsarea, the Roman historian. Holcroft.

Here ends the illustrious list of ancient, or, as they are styled, Classic authors, for whom mankind are indebted to Greece and Rome, those two great theatres of human glory: but it will ever be regretted, that a small part only of their writings have come to our hands. This was owing to the barbarous policy of those fierce illiterate pagans, who, in the fifth century, subverted the Roman empire, and in which practices they were joined soon after by the Saracens, or followers of Mahomet. Constantinople alone had escaped the ravages of the Barbarians; and to the few literati who sheltered themselves within its walls, is chiefly owing the preservation of those valuable remains of antiquity. To learning, civility, and refinement, succeeded worse than Gothic ignorance-the superstition and buffoonery of the church of Rome; Europe therefore produces few names worthy of record during the space of a thousand years; a period which historians, with great propriety, denominate the dark or Gothic ages.

The invention of printing contributed to the revival of learning in the sixteenth century, from which memorable æra a race of men have sprung up in a new soil, France, Germany, and Britain; who, if they do not exceed, at least equal, the greatest geniuses of antiquity. Of these our own countrymen have the reputation of the first rank, with whose names we shall finish our list.

735 Bede,

A.C.

735 Eede, a priest of Northumberland; History of the Saxons, Scots, &c. 901 King Alfred; history, philosophy, and poetry.

1259 Matthew Paris, monk of St. Alban's; History of England. 1292 Roger Bacon, Somersetshire; natural philosophy.

1308 John Fordun, a priest of Mearns-shire; History of Scotland. 1400 Geoffry Chaucer, London; the father of English poetry.

1402 John Gower, Wales; the poet.

1535 Sir Thomas More, London; history, politics, divinity,

1552 John Leland, London; lives and antiquities.

1568 Roger Ascham, Yorkshire; philology and polite literature.

1572 Rev. John Knox, the Scotch reform.er; history of the church of Scotland. 1582 George Buchanan, Dumbartonshire; History of Scotland, Psalms of David, politics, &c.

1598 Edmund Spenser, London; Fairy Queen, and other poems.

1615-25 Beaumont and Fletcher; 53 dramatic pieces.

1616 William Shakespeare, Stratford; 42 tragedies and comedies.

1622 John Napier, of Marcheston, Scotland; discoverer of logarithms.

1623 William Camden, London; history and antiquities.

1626 Lord chancellor Bacon, London; natural philosophy, literature in general. 1631 Lord Chief Justice Coke, Norfolk; laws of England.

1638 Ben Jonson, London; 53 dramatic pieces.

1641 Sir Henry Spelman, Norfolk; laws and antiquities.

1654 John Selden, Sussex; antiquities and laws.

1657 Dr. William Harvey, Kent; discovered the circulation of the blood.

1667 Abraham Cowley, London; miscellaneous poetry.

1674 John Milton, London; Paradise Lost, Regained, and various other pieces in verse and prose.

Hyde, earl of Clarendon, Wiltshire; History of the Civil Wars in England. 1675 James Gregory, Aberdeen; mathematics, geometry, and optics.

.1677 Reverend Dr. Isaac Barrow, London; natural philosophy, mathematics, and

sermons.

1680 Samuel Butler, Worcestershire; Hudibras, a burlesque poem.

1685 Thomas Otway, London; 10 tragedies and comedies, with other poems.

1687 Edmund Waller, Bucks; poems, speeches, letters, &c.

1683 Dr. Ralph Cudworth, Somersetshire; Intellectual System.

1689 Dr. Thomas Sydenham, Dorsetshire; History, of Physic.

1690 Nathaniel Lee, London; 11 tragedies.

Robert Barclay, Urie; Apology for the Quakers.

1691 Hon. Robert Boyle; natural and experimental philosophy and theology. Sir George M'Kenzie, Dundee; Antiquities and Laws of Scotland.

1694 John Tillotson, archbishop of Canterbury, Halifax: 254 sermons.

1697 Sir William Temple, London; politics and polite literature.

1701 John Dryden, Northamptonshire; 27 tragedies and comedies, satiric poems,

Virgil.

1704 John Locke, Somertshire; philosophy, government, and theology.

1705 John Ray, Essex; botany, natural philosophy, aud divinity.

1707 George Farquhar, Londonderry; eight comedies.

1713 Ant. Ash. Cowper, earl of Shaftsbury; Characteristics.

1714 Gilbert Burnet, Edinburgh, bishop of Salisbury; history, biography,divinity,&c. 1718 Nicholas Rowe, Devonshire; 7 tragedies, translation of Lucan's Pharsalia, 1719 Rev. John Flamsteed, Derbyshire; mathematics and astronomy.

Joseph Addison, Wiltshire; Spectator, Guardian, poems, politics.
Dr. John Keil, Edinburgh; mathematics and astronomy.

1721 Matthew Prior, London; poems and politics.

1724 William Wollaston, Staffordshire; religion of nature delineated. 1727 Sir Isaac Newton, Lincolnshire; mathematics, geometry, astronomy, optics. 1729 Rev. Dr. Samuel Clarke, Norwich; mathematics, divinity, &c.

Sir Richard Steele, Dublin; four comedies, papers in Tatler, &c.

1729 William