Hunt, Henry, 1773-1835; Social reformers -- Great Britain -- Biography
to orders, having sustained the fire of the gun-boats as he passed; he
blazed away at the enemy and received their fire in return, till he
himself was wounded in three places, and every man out of his complement
of sixty was either killed or wounded, with the exception of six. In
fact, the Chub was made into a cullender, and completely disabled,
before he struck her colours. The same fate attended the Confiance, the
Linnet, and the Finch, the latter of which grounded on a reef of rocks
about the middle of the engagement. The gun-boats appear absolutely to
have run away. Thus was the British fleet captured by an inferior
fleet of the Americans. Commodore Downie was killed by a ball from the
American gun-boats very early in the contest, and the Confiance is said
to have struck her colours without coming fairly into action; the result
was, the British fleet was lost, and the officers were tried by a Court
Martial. All the others were promoted, and the gallant Lieutenant M'Ghee
was reprimanded for taking his ship prematurely into action. This is
a pretty specimen of British justice in the naval department, and a
melancholy example of the reward bestowed upon the gallant officers and
men who fought our battles and maintained the British character.
On the 1st of November was opened the Congress at Vienna, where Lord
Castlereagh, as the representative of the King of England, attended,
and where it is generally believed he played second fiddle to Prince
Metternich.
In consequence of the peace, and the Bank of England having drawn in
a considerable quantity of its paper, preparatory to the payment in
specie, which, as the law stood, they were compelled to at the end of
six months after the peace had been proclaimed; in consequence of this,
and there having been a good crop of wheat and a fair harvest, the
average price of wheat during the year was seventy-four shillings per
quarter, and the price of the quartern loaf was reduced to one shilling.
Notwithstanding this, many riots took place in Nottinghamshire and
Leicestershire, by the Luddites, who continued to set the laws at
defiance, and to break the frames in the most lawless and unwarrantable
manner. Their hostility was directed against all sorts of machinery, but
particularly against the looms and frames used for weaving and knitting
in the stocking trade.
The supplies voted this year amounted to seventy-five millions six
hundred and twenty-four thousand five hundred and seventy-two pounds.
By a return, it appeared that the amount of Bank of England notes in
circulation was between twenty-eight and twenty-nine millions, and that
the number of private banks was seven hundred and twenty-four.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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