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Key Events in the History of Nova Scotia: 1799.
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[Backward In Time (1798)]
[Forward In Time (1800)]
§Nelson's victory at the Battle of the Nile reestablished Britain's hold on the Mediterranean and locks Bonaparte up in Egypt, thus, the timid princes of Europe are encouraged to form the "Second Coalition:" England, Austria, and Russia. The Russians drive the French out of northern Italy; Nelson aids the counter-revolutionaries in the south. "Austria ... having found herself tricked, was arming once again. ... with the fleets of great Britain in absolute supremacy at sea; and Napoleon blockaded in Egypt; the year 1799 opened with splendid prospects for the new confederacy." (Lord Rosebery.)
§January: Beef, pork, mutton, and veal are sold by the quarter at the market in Halifax; fowls, oats and butter can also be had.
§May 17th, Duke of Kent was made Commander in Chief of British forces in North America.
§26 May: "... There comes into the river a remarkable boar, or wave, the tide rising suddenly & running very rapidly." (Perkins.)
§The people of St. John's Island were tired of having their parcels sent to the wrong St. John's Island, somewhere else on this earth, and, thus, they are granted a petition to change the name of their island to Prince Edward Island.
§The assembly meets on Friday, 7 June, 1799 (7th general assembly, 7th and last session). Governor Wentworth in his speech recommends quarantine laws to guard against "yellow fever"; he recommends the completion of the roads to Annapolis and Pictou.
§June 28th: "A general fast." (Haliburton.)
§August 19th: "Several attempts having been made to set fire to the Dock-Yard," a reward is offered for the arrest of the arsonists." (Haliburton.)
§"In this month, September, the yellow fever continued to rage in Philadelphia and in New York. Business of every kind was at a stand, and those who could afford it removed into the country. At Boston and Halifax a strict quarantine was enforced." (Murdoch.)
§On the 6 September, 1799, the Duke of Kent returns to Halifax in "the Arethusa, capt. Wooley, 43 days from England. As she came up the harbour, royal salutes were fired from the batteries and from the ships of war, whose yards were manned ..." (Murdoch.)
§On 30 October, 1799, the Duke of Orleans, in the midst of a tortuous journey from the U.S. to France, calls over at Halifax. He and his two brothers, arrived at Halifax in HMS Porcupine which had come in from New Providence. Though these French aristocrats were technically prisoners, they were royalty entertained by Governor Wentworth and the Duke of Kent.
§The 7th General Assembly, elected in 1793, is dissolved. An election was called and commenced at Halifax on Monday, 18 November, at 11, A.M., and closed there on Saturday, the 23rd. The election led to the 8th General Assembly which was dissolved in 1806. The voters in 1799 were freeholders only. (Murdoch.) "The 1799 election saw the birth of political parties in Nova Scotia ..." (Cuthbertson.)
§In England: "It had been a miserable summer, accompanied by gales of wind, rain and cold, which had meant another bad harvest, with the price of corn and meat raised, necessitating great distress among England's poor."
§Napoleon takes over as a dictator and the French Revolution ends.
§There was by this time a regular packet which ran between Boston and Halifax. She was usually the Nancy. She was commanded by Capt. J. Huxford, Crazy Huxford who became the best pilot on the coast and was on the Shannon, presumably as her pilot, in 1813 when off of Boston during the War of 1812, she took the American frigate, Chesapeake.
§15 Nov: "... There was a ship with 300 hundred troops on board, last Tuesday night got in back of the islands at Port Midway, where she let go her anchor & rode it out til morning, and then went for Halifax. She came from Quebec." (Perkins.)
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[Backward In Time (1798)]