Events from the year 1800 in Great Britain. Incumbents Monarch – George III Prime Minister – William Pitt the Younger (Tory) Foreign Secretary – Lord Grenville Parliament – 18th Events January – Maria Edgeworth's first extended work of fiction, the pioneering historical novel Castle Rackrent, is published anonymously in London. 8 January – first soup kitchens open in London. 13 January – Royal Institution granted a royal charter. March – Robert Bloomfield's popular poem The Farmer's Boy is published. 17 March – catches fire off the coast of Cabrera, Balearic Islands, with the loss of 700 lives. 22 March – Company of Surgeons granted a royal charter to become the Royal College of Surgeons in London. 15 May – George III survives two assassination attempts in London: In Hyde Park, a bullet intended for him hits a man standing alongside; and later at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, two bullets fired by an insane man (James Hadfield) hit the wooden panel behind him. 30 June – Glasgow Police Act authorises creation of the City of Glasgow Police, which first musters on 15 November. 2 July & 1 August – Acts of Union 1800: The complementary Union with Ireland Act 1800, an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, and Act of Union (Ireland) 1800, an Act of the Parliament of Ireland, are passed by the respective legislatures, to unite the Kingdom of Ireland and Kingdom of Great Britain into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland with effect from 1 January 1801. The latter Act achieves its majority of 43 in the Irish House of Commons (which will be abolished under the measures) partly through the bribing of former opponents by the award of peerages and honours. The British act is given royal assent by King George III in August. 28 July – two acts of Parliament are passed in response to James Hadfield's assassination attempt on the King: the Criminal Lunatics Act requires and provides a procedure for the indefinite detention of mentally ill offenders; and the Treason Act aligns procedures for the trial of anyone attempting to take the monarch's life with those for murder in general. 4 September – Siege of Malta (1798–1800): The French garrison in Valletta surrenders to British troops who have been called at the invitation of the Maltese. The islands of Malta and Gozo become the Malta Protectorate. 22 September – Downing