1757. Pitt's first Administration.

The Seven Years' War

begins. Clive retakes Calcutta from Surajah Dowlah,

January 2; wins the battle of Plassey, June 23.

1759. Victory of Minden, August 1. Wolfe killed at the taking of Quebec, September 13. Cowper removes to the Inner Temple.

1760. Accession of King George III, October 25.

1761. Warren Hastings becomes a Member of Council at Calcutta.

1762. War declared against Spain, January 4. Lord Bute succeeds Pitt.

1763. The Seven Years' War ended by the Peace of Paris, whereby France cedes Canada to Great Britain, February 10. G. Grenville succeeds Bute. Cowper is confined at St. Alban's, December 7.

1765. Grenville's Stamp Act passed, March 22. Rockingham succeeds Grenville in July. The Treaty of Allahabad cedes Bengal to the East India Company, August 12. Dr. Edward Young died, aet. 81, April 12. Cowper becomes an inmate of Mr. Unwin's house at Huntingdon, November 11.

1766. Pitt created Earl of Chatham, August 4. His second Ministry.

1767. C. Townshend's Revenues Act. Cowper settles at Olney, Bucks, September 14.

1768. Chatham resigns; the Duke of Grafton continues at the Treasury.

1770. Lord North succeeds Grafton. William Wordsworth

born, April 7.

1772. Warren Hastings Governor of Bengal, April 13. Samuel Taylor Coleridge born, October 21.

1773. Cowper is deranged for the third time.

Oliver

1774. The Boston Port Bill passed, March 25. Warren Hastings Governor-General of all India. Goldsmith died, aet. 46, April 4.

1775. American War begins with the battle of Lexington, April 19; and of Bunker's Hill, June 17.

1776. American Declaration of Independence, July 4. David Hume died, aet. 65, August 25.

1777. The Convention of Saratoga, October 17.

1778. French Treaty of Alliance with the American States, February 6. Death of Chatham, May 14.

1779. Spain joins the Alliance of the States. David Garrick died, aet. 63, January 20. The Olney Hymns published, February 15.

1780. Rodney's victory at Cape St. Vincent, January 16. The Armed Neutrality. The Gordon Riots in London, June 2-8. War declared against Holland, December 20.

1781. Cornwallis' Capitulation at York Town, October 19. Sir Eyre Coote defeats Hyder Ali at Porto Novo, and at Pollilore. Cowper meets Lady Austen.

1782. Lord North resigns, March 15; is succeeded by Rockingham; and he (on his death, July 1) by Lord Shelburne. Preliminaries of Peace with the United States, Nov. 30. Cowper publishes his first volume of Poems, March 1.

1783. The Peace of Versailles, Sept. 3. The Task 'begun. 1784. Pitt's East India Bill passed. Dr. Samuel Johnson died, aet. 75, December.

1785. Cowper publishes 'The Task,' in July.

1786. Cowper removes from Olney to Weston Underwood, November 15.

1787. He is deranged for the fourth time.

1788. The Trial of Warren Hastings began, February 13: (he was acquitted in 1795). Lord Byron born, January 22.

1789. French Revolution breaks out: the Bastille destroyed,

July 14.

1791. Cowper publishes his Translation of Homer, in June. 1792. Sir Joshua Reynolds died, aet. 69, February 23. 1793. The Reign of Terror in Paris begins, May 31.

1794. Edw. Gibbon died, aet. 57, January 16. Cowper receives a Pension of £300 from the Crown, July 5.

1795. Cowper is removed into Norfolk, in July. 1796. Death of Mrs. Unwin, December 17. 1797. Edmund Burke died, aet. 69, July 9.

1799. Napoleon Buonaparte declared First Consul, November 10.

1800. Cowper dies at East Dereham, Norfolk, aet. 68, April 25.

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE history of the following production is briefly this: A lady, fond of blank verse, demanded a poem of that kind from the Author, and gave him the SOFA for a subject. He obeyed; and having much leisure, connected another subject with it; and pursuing the train of thought to which his situation and turn of mind led him, brought forth at length, instead of the trifle which he at first intended, a serious affair-a Volume.

In the poem on the subject of Education, he would be very sorry to stand suspected of having aimed his censure at any particular school. His objections are such as naturally apply themselves to schools in general. If there were not, as for the most part there is, wilful neglect in those who manage them, and an omission even of such discipline as they are susceptible of, the objects are yet too numerous for minute attention; and the aching hearts of ten thousand parents, mourning under the bitterest of all disappointments, attest the truth of the allegation. His quarrel, therefore, is with the mischief at large, and not with any particular instance of it.