A NEW CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 595 



That event followed by the most daring riots in the city of London and in 

 Southwark, for several successive days, in which some Popish chapels are 

 destroyed, together with the prisons of Newgate, the King's Bench, the 

 Fleet, several private houses, &c. These alarming riots are at length 

 suppressed, by the interposition of the military, and many of the rioters 

 are tried and executed for felony. 



Five English East-Indiamen, and fifty English merchant ships bound for the 

 West Indies, taken by the combined fleets of France and Spain, Aug. 8. 



General Arnold deserts the service of the Congress, escapes to New York, 

 and is made a brigadier-general in the royal service, September 24. 



Major Andre, adjutant-general to the British army, hanged as a spy at Tap- 

 pan in the province of New York, October 2. 



Dreadful hurricanes in the West Indies, by which great devastation is made 

 in Jamaica, Barbadoes, St. Lucia, Dominica, and other islands, Oct. 8 

 and 10. 



A declaration of hostilities published by England against Holland, Decem- 

 ber 20. 



1781 The Dutch island of St. Eustatia, taken by admiral Rodney and general 



Vaughan, February 3, retaken by the French, November 27. 

 Earl Cornwallis, with a considerable British army, surrendered prisoners of 

 war to the American and French troops, under the command of general 

 Washington and count Rochambeau, at York-town in Virginia, Oct. 19. 



1782 The house of commons address the king against any further prosecution of 



offensive war on the continent of North America, March 4. 



Admiral Rodney obtains a signal victory over the French fleet, under the 

 command of count de Grasse, near Dominica in the West Indies, April 12. 



The Spaniards defeated in their grand attack on Gibraltar, Sept 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 Ameri- 

 can commissioners, by which the thirteen United American Colonies are 

 acknowledged by his Britannic majesty to be free, sovereign, and inde- 

 pendent states, November 30 



1783 Preliminary articles of peace between his Britannic majesty and the kings of 



France and Spain, signed at Versailles, January 20. 



Three earthquakes in Calabria Ulterior and Sicily, destroying a great num- 

 ber of towns and inhabitants, February 5, 7, and 28. 



Armistice between Great Britain and Holland, February 10. 



Ratification of the definitive treaty of peace between Great Britain, France, 

 Spain, and the United States of America, Septembers 



1784 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. 



Mr. Lunardi ascended in a balloon from the Artillery-ground, Moorfields, 

 the first attempt of the kind in England, September 15. 



The bull feasts abolished in Spain, except for pious or patriotic uses, by edict, 

 November 14. 



1785 Mr. Bianchard and Dr- JefTeries went from Dover to Calais in an air balloon 



in about two hours, January 7- 

 M de Kosier and M. Romain ascended at Boulogne, intending to cross the 

 channel :in twenty minutes the balloon took fire, and the aeronauts came 

 to the ground and were killed on the spot. 



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 hanged on a gib- 

 bet fifty feet high. 

 Commercial treaty signed between England and France, September 26. 



1789 Revolution in France, capture of the Bastile, execution of the governor, &c, 



July 14. 



1790 Grand confederation in the Champ de Mars, July 14. 



1791 Riots at Birmingham : the meeting-houses, and houses of Dr. Priestly and 



others destroyed by the mob, July 14. 



1792 The definitive treaty.of peace was signed between the British and their al- 



lies, the Nizam and Mahrattas on one part, and Tippoo Sultan on the 

 other, March 19, by which he ceded one half of his territorial possessions, 



