FOOTNOTES:

[1] This was soon modified in detail. Arrears of debt, for instance,

were made recoverable for one year only, instead of the ten years

allowed by Turkish law.

[2] _De Administrando Imperio_, 33 and 34. The names of _Chulmia_ and

_Chelmo_, applied to this region by later Latin and Italian

chroniclers, are occasionally adopted by English writers.

[3] For the commercial and political relations of Ragusa and Bosnia,

see L. Villari, _The Republic of Ragusa_ (London, 1904).

[4] Given by Theiner, _Vetera monumenta Hungariam ... illustrantia_,

173-185.

[5] This is the first recorded instance of such an alliance. The

Slavs were probably Bogomils.

[6] These magnates played a considerable part in the politics of

south-eastern Europe; see especially their correspondence with the

Venetian Republic, given by Shafarik, _Acta archivi Veneti_, &c.

[7] For details of these events see Umar Effendi, _History of the War

in Bosnia_ (1737-1739). Translated by C. Fraser (London, 1830).

[8] For the Christian rebellion and its causes, see A.J. Evans,

_Through Bosnia and Herzegovina on Foot_ (London, 1876); and W.J.

Stillman, _Herzegovina and the Late Uprising_ (London, 1877).

BOSPORUS, or BOSPHORUS (Gr. [Greek: Bosporos] = ox-ford, traditionally

connected with Io, daughter of Inachus, who, in the form of a heifer,

crossed the Thracian Bosporus on her wanderings). By the ancients this

name, signifying a strait, was especially applied to the _Bosporus

Cimmerius_ (see below), and the _Bosporus Thracius_; but when used

without any adjective it now denotes the latter, which unites the

Black Sea with the Sea of Marmora and forms part of the boundary

between Europe and Asia. The channel is 18 m. long, and has a maximum

breadth at the northern entrance of 2-3/4 m., a minimum breadth of

about 800 yds., and a depth varying from 20 to 66 fathoms in

mid-stream. In the centre there is a rapid current from the Black Sea

to the Sea of Marmora, but a counter-current sets in the opposite

direction below the surface and along the shores. The surface current

varies in speed, but averages nearly 3 m. an hour; though at narrow

places it may run at double this pace. The strait is very rarely

frozen over, though history records a few instances; and the Golden

Horn, the inlet on either side of which Constantinople lies, has been

partially frozen over occasionally in modern times. The shores of the

Bosporus are composed in the northern portion of different volcanic

rocks, such as dolerite, granite and trachyte; but along the remaining

course of the channel the prevailing formations are Devonian,

consisting of sandstones, marls, quartzose conglomerates, and

calcareous deposits of various kinds. The scenery on both sides is of

the most varied and beautiful description, many villages lining each

well-wooded shore, while on the European side are numerous fine

residences of the wealthy class of Constantinople. The Bosporus is

under Turkish dominion, and by treaty of 1841, confirmed by the treaty

of Berlin in 1878 and at other times, no ship of war other than

Turkish may pass through the strait (or through the Dardanelles)

without the countenance of the Porte. (See also CONSTANTINOPLE.)

BOSPORUS CIMMERIUS, the ancient name for the Straits of Kerch or

Yenikale, connecting the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov; the Cimmerii

(q.v.) were the ancient inhabitants. The straits are about 25 m. long

and 2-1/2 m. broad at the narrowest, and are formed by an eastern

extension of the Crimea and the peninsula of Taman, a kind of

continuation of the Caucasus. This in ancient times seems to have formed

a group of islands intersected by arms of the Hypanis or Kuban and

various sounds now silted up. The whole district was dotted with Greek

cities; on the west side, Panticapaeum (Kerch, q.v.), the chief of all,

often itself called Bosporus, and Nymphaeum (Eltegen); on the east

Phanagoria (Sennaja), Cepi, Hermonassa, Portus Sindicus, Gorgippia

(Anapa). These were mostly settled by Milesians, Panticapaeum in the 7th

or early in the 6th century B.C., but Phanagoria (c. 540 B.C.) was a

colony of Teos, and Nymphaeum had some connexion with Athens--at least

it appears to have been a member of the Delian Confederacy. The towns

have left hardly any architectural or sculptural remains, but the

numerous barrows in their neighbourhood have yielded very beautiful

objects now mostly preserved in the Hermitage in St Petersburg. They

comprise especially gold work, vases exported from Athens, textiles and

specimens of carpentry and marquetry. The numerous terra-cottas are

rather rude in style.

According to Diodorus Siculus (xii. 31) the locality was governed from

480 to 438 B.C. by the Archaeanactidae, probably a ruling family, who

gave place to a tyrant Spartocus (438-431 B.C.), apparently a Thracian.

He founded a dynasty which seems to have endured until c. 110 B.C. The

Spartocids have left many inscriptions which tell us that the earlier

members of the house ruled as archons of the Greek cities and kings of

various native tribes, notably the Sindi of the island district and

other branches of the Maitae (Maeotae). The text of Diodorus, the

inscriptions and the coins do not supply sufficient material for a

complete list of them. Satyrus (431-387), the successor of Spartocus,

established his rule over the whole district, adding Nymphaeum to his

dominions and laying siege to Theodosia, which was a serious commercial

rival by reason of its ice-free port and direct proximity to the

cornfields of the eastern Crimea. It was reserved for his son Leucon

(387-347) to take this city. He was succeeded by his two sons

conjointly, Spartocus II. and Paerisades; the former died in 342 and his

brother reigned alone until 310. Then followed a civil war in which

Eumelus (310-303) was successful. His successor was Spartocus III.

(303-283) and after him Paerisades II. Succeeding princes repeated the

family names, but we cannot assign them any certain order. We know only

that the last of them, a Paerisades, unable to make headway against the

power of the natives, called in the help of Diophantus, general of

Mithradates VI. (the Great) of Pontus, promising to hand over his

kingdom to that prince. He was slain by a Scythian Saumacus who led a

rebellion against him. The house of Spartocus was well known as a line

of enlightened and wise princes; although Greek opinion could not deny

that they were, strictly speaking, tyrants, they are always described as

dynasts. They maintained close relations with Athens, their best

customers for the Bosporan corn export, of which Leucon I. set the

staple at Theodosia, where the Attic ships were allowed special

privileges. We have many references to this in the Attic orators. In

return the Athenians granted him Athenian citizenship and set up decrees

in honour of him and his sons. Mithradates the Great entrusted the

Bosporus Cimmerius to his son Machares, who, however, deserted to the

Romans. But even when driven out of his own kingdom by Pompey,

Mithradates was strong enough to regain the Bosporus Cimmerius, and

Machares slew himself. Subsequently the Bosporans again rose in revolt

under Pharnaces, another of the old king's sons. After the death of

Mithradates (B.C. 63), this Pharnaces (63-47) made his submission to

Pompey, but tried to regain his dominion during the civil war. He was

defeated by Caesar at Zela, and on his return to Rome was slain by a

pretender Asander who married his daughter Dynamis, and in spite of

Roman nominees ruled as archon, and later as king, until 16 B.C. After

his death Dynamis was compelled to marry an adventurer Scribonius, but

the Romans under Agrippa interfered and set Polemon (14-8) in his place.

To him succeeded Aspurgus (8 B.C.-A.D. 38?), son of Asander, who founded

a line of kings which endured with certain interruptions until A.D. 341.

These kings, who mostly bore the Thracian names of Cotys, Rhescuporis,

Rhoemetalces, and the native name Sauromates, claimed descent from

Mithradates the Great, and used the Pontic era (starting from 297 B.C.)

introduced by him, regularly placing dates upon their coins and

inscriptions. Hence we know their names and dates fairly well, though

scarcely any events of their reigns are recorded. Their kingdom covered

the eastern half of the Crimea and the Taman peninsula, and extended

along the east coast of the Sea of Azov to Tanais at the mouth of the

Don, a great mart for trade with the interior. They carried on a

perpetual war with the native tribes, and in this were supported by

their Roman suzerains, who even lent the assistance of garrison and

fleet. At times rival kings of some other race arose and probably

produced some disorganization. At one of these periods (A.D. 255) the

Goths and Borani were enabled to seize Bosporan shipping and raid the

shores of Asia Minor. With the last coin of the last Rhescuporis, A.D.

341, materials for a connected history of the Bosporus Cimmerius come to

an end. The kingdom probably succumbed to the Huns established in the

neighbourhood. In later times it seems in some sort to have been revived

under Byzantine protection, and from time to time Byzantine officers

built fortresses and exercised authority at Bosporus, which was

constituted an archbishopric. They also held Ta Matarcha on the Asiatic

side of the strait, a town which in the 10th and 11th centuries became

the seat of the Russian principality of Tmutarakan, which in its turn

gave place to Tatar domination.

The Bosporan kingdom is interesting as the first Hellenistic state, the

first, that is to say, in which a mixed population adopted the Greek

language and civilization. It depended for its prosperity upon the

export of wheat, fish and slaves, and this commerce supported a class

whose wealth and vulgarity are exemplified by the contents of the

numerous tombs to which reference has been made. In later times a Jewish

element was added to the population, and under its influence were

developed in all the cities of the kingdom, especially Tanais, societies

of "worshippers of the highest God," apparently professing a monotheism

which without being distinctively Jewish or Christian was purer than any

found among the inhabitants of the Empire.

We possess a large series of coins of Panticapaeum and other cities from

the 5th century B.C. The gold _staters_ of Panticapaeum bearing Pan's

head and a griffin are specially remarkable for their weight and fine

workmanship. We have also coins with the names of the later Spartocids

and a singularly complete series of dated _solidi_ issued by the later

or Achaemenian dynasty; in them may be noticed the swift degeneration of

the gold _solidus_ through silver and potin to bronze (see also

NUMISMATICS).

See, for history, introduction to V.V. Latyshev, _Inscrr. orae

Septent. Ponti Euxini_, vol. ii. (St Petersburg, 1890); art.

"Bosporus" (2) by C.G. Brandis in Pauly-Wissowa, _Realencycl._ vol.

iii. 757 (Stuttgart, 1899); E.H. Minns, _Scythians and Greeks_

(Cambridge, 1907). For inscriptions, Latyshev as above and vol. iv.

(St Petersburg, 1901). Coins: B. Koehne, _Musee Kotschoubey_ (St

Petersburg, 1855). Religious Societies: E. Schurer in _Sitzber. d. k.

pr. Akad. d. Wissenschaft zu Berlin_ (1897), i. pp. 200-227.

Excavations: _Antiquites du Bosphore cimmerien_ (St Petersburg, 1854,

repr. Paris, 1892) and _Compte rendu_ and _Bulletin de la Commission

Imp. Archeologique de St. Petersbourg_. (E. H. M.)

BOSQUET, PIERRE FRANCOIS JOSEPH (1810-1861), French marshal, entered the

artillery in 1833, and a year later went to Algeria. Here he soon did

good service, and made himself remarkable not only for technical skill

but the moral qualities indispensable for high command. Becoming captain

in 1839, he greatly distinguished himself at the actions of Sidi-Lakhdar

and Oued-Melah. He was soon afterwards given the command of a battalion

of native _tirailleurs_, and in 1843 was thanked in general orders for

his brilliant work against the Flittahs. In 1845 he became

lieutenant-colonel, and in 1847 colonel of a French line regiment. In

the following year he was in charge of the Oran district, where his

swift suppression of an insurrection won him further promotion to the

grade of general of brigade, in which rank he went through the campaign

of Kabulia, receiving a severe wound. In 1853 he returned to France

after nineteen years' absence, a general of division. Bosquet was

amongst the earliest chosen to serve in the Crimean War, and at the

battle of the Alma his division led the French attack. When the

Anglo-French troops formed the siege of Sevastopol, Bosquet's corps of

two divisions protected them against interruption. His timely

intervention at Inkerman (November 5, 1854) secured the victory for the

allies. During 1855 Bosquet's corps occupied the right wing of the

besieging armies opposite the Mamelon and Malakov. He himself led his

corps at the storming of the Mamelon (June 7), and at the grand assault

of the 8th of September he was in command of the whole of the storming

troops. In the struggle for the Malakov he received another serious

wound. At the age of forty-five Bosquet, now one of the foremost

soldiers in Europe, became a senator and a marshal of France, but his

health was broken, and he lived only a few years longer. He had the

grand cross of the Bath, the grand cross of the Legion of Honour, and

the Medjidieh of the 1st class.

BOSS. (1) (From the O. Eng. _boce_, a swelling, cf. Ital. _bozza_, and

Fr. _bosse_, possibly connected with the O. Ger. _bozan_, to beat), a

round protuberance; the projecting centre or "umbo" of a buckler; in

geology a projection of rock through strata of another species; in

architecture, the projecting keystone of the ribs of a vault which masks

their junction; the term is also applied to similar projecting blocks at

every intersection. The boss was often richly carved, generally with

conventional foliage but sometimes with angels, animals or grotesque

figures. The boss was also employed in the flat timber ceilings of the

15th century, where it formed the junction of cross-ribs. (2) (From the

Dutch _baas_, a word used by the Dutch settlers in New York for

"master," and so generally used by the Kaffirs in South Africa;

connected with the Ger. _Base_, cousin, meaning a "chief kinsman," the

head of a household or family), a colloquial term, first used in

America, for an employer, a foreman, and generally any one who gives

orders, especially in American political slang for the manager of a

party organization.

BOSSI, GIUSEPPE (1777-1816), Italian painter and writer on art, was born

at the village of Busto Arsizio, near Milan. He was educated at the

college of Monza; and his early fondness for drawing was fostered by the

director of the college, who supplied him with prints after the works of

Agostino Caracci for copies. He then studied at the academy of Brera at

Milan, and about 1795 went to Rome, where he formed an intimate

friendship with Canova. On his return to Milan he became assistant

secretary, and then secretary, of the Academy of Fine Arts. He rendered

important service in the organization of this new institution. In 1804,

in conjunction with Oriani, he drew up the rules of the three academies

of art of Bologna, Venice and Milan, and soon after was rewarded with

the decoration of the Iron Crown. On the occasion of the visit of

Napoleon I. to Milan in 1805, Bossi exhibited a drawing of the Last

Judgment of Michelangelo, and pictures representing Aurora and Night,

Oedipus and Creon, and the Italian Parnassus. By command of Prince

Eugene, viceroy of Italy, Bossi undertook to make a copy of the Last

Supper of Leonardo, then almost obliterated, for the purpose of getting

it rendered in mosaic. The drawing was made from the remains of the

original with the aid of copies and the best prints. The mosaic was

executed by Raffaelli, and was placed in the imperial gallery of Vienna.

Bossi made another copy in oil, which was placed in the museum of Brera.

This museum owed to him a fine collection of casts of great works of

sculpture acquired at Paris, Rome and Florence. Bossi devoted a large

part of his life to the study of the works of Leonardo; and his last

work was a series of drawings in monochrome representing incidents in

the life of that great master. He left unfinished a large cartoon in

black chalk of the Dead Christ in the bosom of Mary, with John and the

Magdalene. In 1810 he published a special work in large quarto, entitled

_Del Cenacolo di Leonardo da Vinci_, which had the merit of greatly

interesting Goethe. His other works are _Delle Opinioni di Leonardo

intorno alla simmetria de' corpi umani_ (1811), and _Del Tipo dell' arte

della pittura_ (1816). Bossi died at Milan on the 15th of December 1816.

A monument by Canova was erected to his memory in the Ambrosian library,

and a bust was placed in the Brera.

BOSSU, RENE LE (1631-1680), French critic, was born in Paris on the 16th

of March 1631. He studied at Nanterre, and in 1649 became one of the

regular canons of Sainte-Genevieve. He wrote _Parallele des principes de

la physique d'Aristote et de celle de Rene Descartes_ (1674), and a

_Traite du poeme epique_, highly praised by Boileau, the leading

doctrine of which was that the subject should be chosen before the

characters, and that the action should be arranged without reference to

the personages who are to figure in the scene. He died on the 14th of

March 1680.

BOSSUET, JAQUES BENIGNE (1627-1704), French divine, orator and writer,

was born at Dijon on the 27th of September 1627. He came of a family of

prosperous Burgundian lawyers; his father was a judge of the parliament

(a provincial high court) at Dijon, afterwards at Metz. The boy was sent

to school with the Jesuits of Dijon till 1642, when he went up to the

college of Navarre in Paris to begin the study of theology; for a pious

mother had brought him up to look on the priesthood as his natural

vocation. At Navarre he gained a great reputation for hard work;

fellow-students nicknamed him _Bos suetus aratro_--an ox broken in to

the plough. But his abilities became known beyond the college walls. He

was taken up by the Hotel de Rambouillet, a great centre of aristocratic

culture and the original home of the _Precieuses_. Here he became the

subject of a celebrated experiment. A dispute having arisen about

extempore preaching, the boy of sixteen was put up, late one night, to

deliver an impromptu discourse. He acquitted himself as well as in more

conventional examinations. In 1652 he took a brilliant degree in

divinity, and was ordained priest. The next seven years he spent at

Metz, where his father's influence had got him a canonry at the early

age of thirteen; to this was now added the more important office of

archdeacon. He was plunged at once into the thick of controversy; for

nearly half Metz was Protestant, and Bossuet's first appearance in print

was a refutation of the Huguenot pastor Paul Ferry (1655). To reconcile

the Protestants with the Roman Church became the great object of his

dreams; and for this purpose he began to train himself carefully for the

pulpit, an all-important centre of influence in a land where political

assemblies were unknown, and novels and newspapers scarcely born. Not

that he reached perfection at a bound. His youthful imagination was

unbridled, and his ideas ran easily into a kind of paradoxical subtlety,

redolent of the divinity school. But these blemishes vanished when he

settled in Paris (1659), and three years later mounted the pulpit of the

Chapel Royal.

In Paris the congregations had no mercy on purely clerical logic or

clerical taste; if a preacher wished to catch their ear, he must manage

to address them in terms they would agree to consider sensible and

well-bred. Not that Bossuet thought too much of their good opinion.

Having very stern ideas of the dignity of a priest, he refused to

descend to the usual devices for arousing popular interest. The

narrative element in his sermons grows shorter with each year. He never

drew satirical pictures, like his great rival Bourdaloue. He would not

write out his discourses in full, much less learn them off by heart: of

the two hundred printed in his _Works_ all but a fraction are rough

drafts. No wonder ladies like Mme de Sevigne forsook him, when

Bourdaloue dawned on the Paris horizon in 1669; though Fenelon and La

Bruyere, two much sounder critics, refused to follow their example.

Bossuet possessed the full equipment of the orator, voice, language,

flexibility and strength. He never needed to strain for effect; his

genius struck out at a single blow the thought, the feeling and the

word. What he said of Martin Luther applies peculiarly to himself: he

could "fling his fury into theses," and thus unite the dry light of

argument with the fire and heat of passion. These qualities reach their

highest point in the _Oraisons funebres_. Bossuet was always best when

at work on a large canvas; besides, here no conscientious scruples

intervened to prevent him giving much time and thought to the artistic

side of his subject. For the _Oraison_, as its name betokened, stood

midway between the sermon proper and what would nowadays be called a

biographical sketch. At least, that was what Bossuet made it; for on

this field he stood not merely first, but alone. His three great

masterpieces were delivered at the funerals of Henrietta Maria, widow of

Charles I. (1669), her daughter, Henrietta, duchess of Orleans (1670),

and the great soldier Conde (1687).

Apart from these state occasions, Bossuet seldom appeared in a Paris

pulpit after 1669. In that year he was gazetted bishop of Condom in

Gascony, though he resigned the charge on being appointed tutor to the

dauphin, only child of Louis XIV., and now a boy of nine (1670). The

choice was scarcely fortunate. Bossuet unbent as far as he could, but

his genius was by no means fitted to enter into the feelings of a child;

and the dauphin was a cross, ungainly, sullen lad, who grew up to be a

merely genealogical incident at his father's court. Probably no one was

happier than the tutor, when his charge's sixteenth birthday came round,

and he was promptly married off to a Bavarian princess. Still the nine

years at court were by no means wasted. Hitherto Bossuet had published

nothing, except his answer to Ferry. Now he sat down to write for his

pupil's instruction--or rather, to fit himself to give that

instruction--a remarkable trilogy. First came the _Traite de la

connaissance de Dieu et de soi-meme_, then the _Discours sur l'histoire

universelle_, lastly the _Politique tiree de l'Ecriture Sainte_. The

three books fit into each other. The _Traite_ is a general sketch of the

nature of God and the nature of man. The _Discours_ is a history of

God's dealings with humanity in the past. The _Politique_ is a code of

rights and duties drawn up in the light thrown by those dealings. Not

that Bossuet literally supposed that the last word of political wisdom

had been said by the Old Testament. His conclusions are only "drawn from

Holy Scripture," because he wished to gain the highest possible sanction

for the institutions of his country--to hallow the France of Louis XIV.

by proving its astonishing likeness to the Israel of Solomon. Then, too,

the veil of Holy Scripture enabled him to speak out more boldly than

court-etiquette would have otherwise allowed, to remind the son of Louis

XIV. that kings have duties as well as rights. Louis had often forgotten

these duties, but Louis' son would bear them in mind. The tutor's

imagination looked forward to a time when France would blossom into

Utopia, with a Christian philosopher on the throne. That is what made

him so stalwart a champion of authority in all its forms: _"le roi,

Jesus-Christ et l'Eglise, Dieu en ces trois noms"_, he says in a

characteristic letter. And the object of his books is to provide

authority with a rational basis. For Bossuet's worship of authority by

no means killed his confidence in reason; what it did was to make him

doubt the honesty of those who reasoned otherwise than himself. The

whole chain of argument seemed to him so clear and simple. Philosophy

proved that a God exists, and that He shapes and governs the course of

human affairs. History showed that this governance is, for the most

part, indirect, exercised through certain venerable corporations, as

well civil as ecclesiastical, all of which demand implicit obedience as

the immediate representatives of God. Thus all revolt, whether civil or

religious, is a direct defiance of the Almighty. Cromwell becomes a

moral monster, and the revocation of the edict of Nantes is "the

greatest achievement of the second Constantine." Not that Bossuet

glorified the _status quo_ simply as a clerical bigot. The France of his

youth had known the misery of divided counsels and civil war; the France

of his manhood, brought together under an absolute sovereign, had

suddenly shot up into a splendour only comparable with ancient Rome. Why

not, then, strain every nerve to hold innovation at bay and prolong that

splendour for all time? Bossuet's own _Discours sur l'histoire

universelle_ might have furnished an answer, for there the fall of many

empires is detailed. But then the _Discours_ was composed under a single

preoccupation. To Bossuet the establishment of Christianity was the one

point of real importance in the whole history of the world. Over Mahomet

and the East he passed without a word; on Greece and Rome he only

touched in so far as they formed part of the _Praeparatio Evangelica_.

And yet his _Discours_ is far more than a theological pamphlet. Pascal,

in utter scorn for science, might refer the rise and fall of empires to

Providence or chance--the nose of Cleopatra, or "a little grain of sand"

in the English lord protector's veins. Bossuet held fast to his

principle that God works through secondary causes. "It is His will that

every great change should have its roots in the ages that went before

it." Bossuet, accordingly, made a heroic attempt to grapple with origins

and causes, and in this way his book deserves its place as one of the

very first of philosophic histories.

From writing history he turned to history in the making. In 1681 he was

gazetted bishop of Meaux; but before he could take possession of his

see, he was drawn into a violent quarrel between Louis XIV. and the pope

(see GALLICANISM). Here he found himself between two fires. To support

the pope meant supporting the Jesuits; and he hated their casuists and

_devotion aisee_ almost as much as Pascal himself. To oppose the pope

was to play into the hands of Louis, who was frankly anxious to humble

the Church before the State. So Bossuet steered a middle course. Before

the general assembly of the French clergy he preached a great sermon on

the unity of the Church, and made it a magnificent plea for compromise.

As Louis insisted on his clergy making an anti-papal declaration,

Bossuet got leave to draw it up, and made it as moderate as he could.

And when the pope declared it null and void, he set to work on a

gigantic _Defensio Cleri Gallicani_, only published after his death.

The Gallican storm a little abated, he turned back to a project very

near his heart. Ever since the early days at Metz he had been busy with

schemes for uniting the Huguenots to the Roman Church. In 1668 he

converted Turenne; in 1670 he published an _Exposition de la foi

catholique_, so moderate in tone that adversaries were driven to accuse

him of having fraudulently watered down the Roman dogmas to suit a

Protestant taste. Finally in 1688 appeared his great _Histoire des

variations des eglises protestantes_, perhaps the most brilliant of all

his works. Few writers could have made the Justification controversy

interesting or even intelligible. His argument is simple enough. Without

rules an organized society cannot hold together, and rules require an

authorized interpreter. The Protestant churches had thrown over this

interpreter; and Bossuet had small trouble in showing that, the longer

they lived, the more they varied on increasingly important points. For

the moment the Protestants were pulverized; but before long they began

to ask whether variation was necessarily so great an evil. Between 1691

and 1701 Bossuet corresponded with Leibnitz with a view to reunion, but

negotiations broke down precisely at this point. Individual Roman

doctrines Leibnitz thought his countrymen might accept, but he flatly

refused to guarantee that they would necessarily believe to-morrow what

they believe to-day. "We prefer," he said, "a church eternally variable

and for ever moving forwards." Next, Protestant writers began to

accumulate some startling proofs of Rome's own variations; and here they

were backed up by Richard Simon, a priest of the Paris Oratory, and the

father of Biblical criticism in France. He accused St Augustine,

Bossuet's own special master, of having corrupted the primitive doctrine

of Grace. Bossuet set to work on a _Defense de la tradition_, but Simon

calmly went on to raise issues graver still. Under a veil of politely

ironical circumlocutions, such as did not deceive the bishop of Meaux,

he claimed his right to interpret the Bible like any other book. Bossuet

denounced him again and again; Simon told his friends he would wait

until "the old fellow" was no more. Another Oratorian proved more

dangerous still. Simon had endangered miracles by applying to them lay

rules of evidence, but Malebranche abrogated miracles altogether. It was

blasphemous, he argued, to suppose that the Author of nature would break

through a reign of law He had Himself established. Bossuet might

scribble _nova, mira, falsa_, in the margins of his book and urge on

Fenelon to attack them; Malebranche politely met his threats by saying

that to be refuted by such a pen would do him too much honour. These

repeated checks soured Bossuet's temper. In his earlier controversies he

had borne himself with great magnanimity, and the Huguenot ministers he

refuted found him a kindly advocate at court. Even his approval of the

revocation of the edict of Nantes stopped far short of approving

dragonades within his diocese of Meaux. But now his patience was wearing

out. A dissertation by one Father Caffaro, an obscure Italian monk,

became his excuse for writing certain violent _Maximes sur la comedie_

(1694) wherein he made an outrageous attack on the memory of Moliere,

dead more than twenty years. Three years later he was battling with

Fenelon over the love of God, and employing methods of controversy at

least as odious as Fenelon's own (1697-1699). All that can be said in

his defence is that Fenelon, four-and-twenty years his junior, was an

old pupil, who had suddenly grown into a rival; and that on the matter

of principle most authorities thought him right.

Amid these gloomy occupations Bossuet's life came slowly to an end. Till

he was over seventy he had scarcely known what illness was; but in 1702

he was attacked by the stone. Two years later he was a hopeless invalid,

and on the 12th of April 1704 he passed quietly away. Of his private

life there is little to record. Meaux found him an excellent and devoted

bishop, much more attentive to diocesan concerns than his more stirring

occupations would seem to allow. In general society he was kindly and

affable enough, though somewhat ill at ease. Until he was over forty, he

had lived among purely ecclesiastical surroundings; and it was probably

want of self-confidence, more than want of moral courage, that made him

shut his eyes a little too closely to the disorders of Louis XIV.'s

private life. After all, he was not the king's confessor; and to

"reform" Louis, before age and Mme de Maintenon had sobered him down,

would have taxed the powers of Daniel or Ezekiel. But in his books

Bossuet was anything but timid. All of them, even the attacks on Simon,

breathe an air of masculine belief in reason, rare enough among the

apologists of any age. Bossuet would willingly have undertaken, as

Malebranche actually undertook, to make an intelligent Chinaman accept

all his ideas, if only he could be induced to lend them his attention.

But his best praise is to have brought all the powers of language to

paint an undying picture of a vanished world, where religion and

letters, laws and science, were conceived of as fixed unalterable

planets, circling for ever round one central Sun.

AUTHORITIES.--The best edition of Bossuet's sermons is the _OEuvres

oratoires de Bossuet_, edited by Abbe Lebarq, in 6 vols. (Paris,

1890-1896). His complete works were edited by Lachat, in 31 vols.

(Paris, 1862-1864). A complete list of the innumerable works relating

to him will be found in the _Bossuet_ number of the _Bibliotheque des

bibliographies critiques_, compiled by Canon Charles Urbain, and

published by the Societe des Etudes Historiques (Paris, 1900). The

general reader will find all he requires in the respective studies of

M. Rebelliau, _Bossuet_ (Paris, 1900), and M. Gustave Lanson,

_Bossuet_ (Paris, 1901). In English there is a modest _Bossuet_ by Mrs

Sidney Lear (London, 1874), and two remarkable studies by Sir J.

Fitz-James Stephen in the second volume of his _Horae Sabbaticae_

(London, 1892). (St. C.)

BOSTANAI, the name of the first exilarch under Mahommedan rule, in the

middle of the 7th century. The exilarchs had their seat in Persia, and

were practically the secular heads of the Jewish community in the

Orient.

BOSTON, THOMAS (1676-1732), Scottish divine, was born at Duns on the

17th of March 1676. His father, John Boston, and his mother, Alison

Trotter, were both Covenanters. He was educated at Edinburgh, and

licensed in 1697 by the presbytery of Chirnside. In 1699 he became

minister of the small parish of Simprin, where there were in all "not

more than 90 examinable persons." In 1704 he found, while visiting a

member of his flock, a book which had been brought into Scotland by a

commonwealth soldier. This was the famous _Marrow of Modern Divinity_,

by Edward Fisher, a compendium of the opinions of leading Reformation

divines on the doctrine of grace and the offer of the Gospel. Its object

was to demonstrate the unconditional freeness of the Gospel. It cleared

away such conditions as repentance, or some degree of outward or inward

reformation, and argued that where Christ is heartily received, full

repentance and a new life follow. On Boston's recommendation, Hog of

Carnock reprinted _The Marrow_ in 1718; and Boston also published an

edition with notes of his own. The book, being attacked from the

standpoint of high Calvinism, became the standard of a far-reaching

movement in Scottish Presbyterianism. The "Marrow men" were marked by

the zeal of their service and the effect of their preaching. As they

remained Calvinists they could not preach a universal atonement; they

were in fact extreme particular redemptionists. In 1707 Boston was

translated to Ettrick. He distinguished himself by being the only member

of the assembly who entered a protest against what he deemed the

inadequate sentence passed on John Simson, professor of divinity at

Glasgow, who was accused of heterodox teaching on the Incarnation. He

died on the 20th of May 1732. His books, _The Fourfold State, The Crook

in the Lot_, and his _Body of Divinity_ and _Miscellanies_, long

exercised a powerful influence over the Scottish peasantry.

His _Memoirs_ were published in 1776 (ed. G.D. Low, 1908). An edition

of his works in 12 volumes appeared in 1849. (D. Mn.)

BOSTON, a municipal and parliamentary borough and seaport of

Lincolnshire, England, on the river Witham, 4 m. from its mouth in the

Wash, 107 m. N. of London by the Great Northern railway. Pop. (1901)

15,667. It lies in a flat agricultural fen district, drained by numerous

cuts, some of which are navigable. The church of St Botolph is a superb

Decorated building, one of the largest and finest parish churches in

the kingdom. A Decorated chapel in it, formerly desecrated, was restored

to sacred use by citizens of Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A., in 1857, in

memory of the connexion of that city with the English town. The western

tower, commonly known as Boston Stump, forms a landmark for 40 m. Its

foundations were the first to be laid of the present church (which is on

the site of an earlier one), but the construction was arrested until the

Perpendicular period, of the work of which it is a magnificent example.

It somewhat resembles the completed tower of Antwerp cathedral, and is

crowned by a graceful octagonal lantern, the whole being nearly 290 ft.

in height. The church of Skirbeck, 1 m. south-east, though extensively

restored, retains good Early English details. Other buildings of

interest are the guildhall, a 15th-century structure of brick;

Shodfriars Hall, a half-timbered house adjacent to slight remains of a

Dominican priory; the free grammar school, founded in 1554, with a fine

gateway of wrought iron of the 17th century brought from St Botolph's

church; and the Hussey Tower of brick, part of a mansion of the 16th

century. Public institutions include a people's park and large municipal

buildings (1904).

As a port Boston was of ancient importance, but in the 18th century the

river had silted up so far as to exclude vessels exceeding about 50

tons. In 1882-1884 a dock some 7 acres in extent was constructed, with

an entrance lock giving access to the quay sides for vessels of 3000

tons. The bed of the river was deepened to 27 ft. for 3 m. below the

town, and a new cut of 3 m. was made from the mouth into deep water. An

iron swing-bridge connects the dock with the Great Northern railway.

There is a repairing slipway accommodating vessels of 800 tons. Imports,

principally timber, grain, cotton and linseed, increased owing to these

improvements from L116,179 in 1881 to L816,698 in 1899; and exports

(coal, machinery and manufactured goods) from L83,000 in 1883 to

L261,873 in 1899. The deep-sea and coastal fisheries are important.

Engineering, oil-cake, tobacco, sail and rope works are the principal

industries in the town. Boston returns one member to parliament. The

parliamentary borough falls within the Holland or Spalding division of

the county. The municipal borough is under a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18

councillors. Area, 2727 acres.

Boston (Icanhoe, St Botolph or Botolph's Town) derives its name from

St Botolph, who in 654 founded a monastery here, which was destroyed

by the Danes, 870. Although not mentioned in Domesday, Boston was

probably granted as part of Skirbeck to Alan, earl of Brittany. The

excellent commercial position of the town at the mouth of the Witham

explains its speedy rise into importance. King John by charter of 1204

granted the bailiff of Boston sole jurisdiction in the town. By the

13th century it was a great commercial centre second only to London in

paying L780 for two years to the fifteenth levied in 1205, and Edward

III. made it a staple port for wool in 1369. The Hanseatic and Flemish

merchants largely increased its prosperity, but on the withdrawal of

the Hanseatic League about 1470 and the break-up of the gild system

Boston's prosperity began to wane, and for some centuries it remained

almost without trade. Nevertheless it was raised to the rank of a free

borough by Henry VIII.'s charter of 1546, confirmed by Edward VI. in

1547, by Mary in 1553, by Elizabeth (who granted a court of admiralty)

in 1558 and 1573, and by James I. in 1608. Boston sent members to the

great councils in 1337, 1352 and 1353; and from 1552 to 1885 two

members were returned to each parliament. The Redistribution Act 1885

reduced the representation to one member. In 1257 a market was granted

to the abbot of Crowland and in 1308 to John, earl of Brittany. The

great annual mart was held before 1218 and attended by many German and

other merchants. Two annual fairs and two weekly markets were granted

by Henry VIII.'s charter, and are still held. The Great Mart survives

only in the Beast Mart held on the 11th of December.

See Pishey Thompson, _History and Antiquities of Boston and the

Hundred of Skirbeck_ (Boston, 1856); George Jebb, _Guide to the Church

of St Botolph, with Notes on the History of Boston; Victoria County

History: Lincolnshire_.

BOSTON, the capital of the state of Massachusetts, U.S.A., in Suffolk

county; lat. 42 deg. 21' 27.6" N., long. 71 deg. 3' 30" W. Pop. (1900)

560,892, (197,129 being foreign born); (1905, state census) 595,580;

(1910), 670,585. Boston is the terminus of the Boston & Albany (New York

Central), the Old Colony system of the New York, New Haven & Hartford,

and the Boston & Maine railway systems, each of which controls several

minor roads once independent. The city lies on Massachusetts bay, on

what was once a pear-shaped peninsula attached to the mainland by a

narrow, marshy neck, often swept by the spray and water. On the north is

the Charles river, which widens here into a broad, originally much

broader, inner harbour or back-bay. The surface of the peninsula was

very hilly and irregular, the shore-line was deeply indented with coves,

and there were salt marshes that fringed the neck and the river-channel

and were left oozy by the ebbing tides. Until after the War of

Independence the primitive topography remained unchanged, but it was

afterwards subjected to changes greater than those effected on the site

of any other American city. The area of the original Boston was only 783

acres, but by the filling in of tidal flats (since 1804) this was

increased to 1829 acres; while the larger corporate Boston of the

present day--including the annexed territories of South Boston (1804),

Roxbury (1868), Charlestown, Dorchester, Brighton and West Roxbury

(1874)--comprehends almost 43 sq. m. The beautiful Public Garden and the

finest residential quarter of the city--the Back Bay, so called from

that inner harbour from whose waters it was reclaimed (1856-1886)--stand

on what was once the narrowest, but to-day is the widest and fairest

portion of the original site. Whole forests, vast quarries of granite,

and hills of gravel were used in fringing the water margins,

constructing wharves, piers and causeways, redeeming flats, and

furnishing piling and solid foundations for buildings. At the edge of

the Common, which is now well within the city, the British troops in

1775 took their boats on the eve of the battle of Lexington; and the

post-office, now in the very heart of the business section of the city,

stands on the original shore-line. The reclaimed territory is level and

excellently drained. The original territory still preserves to a large

degree its irregularity of surface, but its hills have been much

degraded or wholly razed. Beacon Hill, so called from its ancient use as

a signal warning station, is still the most conspicuous topographical

feature of the city, but it has been changed from a bold and picturesque

eminence into a gentle slope. After the great fire of 1872 it became

possible, in the reconstruction of the business district, to widen and

straighten its streets and create squares, and so provide for the

traffic that had long outgrown the narrow, crooked ways of the older

city. Atlantic Avenue, along the harbour front, was created, and

Washington Street, the chief business artery, was largely remade after

1866. It is probable that up to 1875, at least, there had been a larger

outlay of labour, material and money, in reducing, levelling and

reclaiming territory, and in straightening and widening thoroughfares[1]

in Boston, than had been expended for the same purposes in all the other

chief cities of the United States together. Washington Street, still

narrow, is perhaps the most crowded and congested thoroughfare in

America. The finest residence streets are in the Back Bay, which is laid

out, in sharp contrast with the older quarters, in a regular,

rectangular arrangement. The North End, the original city and afterwards

the fashionable quarter, is now given over to the Jews and foreign

colonies.

The harbour islands, three of which have been ceded to the United States

for the purpose of fortification, are numerous, and render the

navigation of the shipping channels difficult and easily guarded. Though

tortuous of access, the channels afford a clear passage of 27-35 ft.

since great improvements were undertaken by the national government in

1892, 1899, 1902 and 1907, and the harbour, when reached, is secure. It

affords nearly 60 sq. m. of anchorage, but the wharf line, for lack of

early reservation, is not so large as it might and should have been. The

islands in the harbour, now bare, were for the most part heavily wooded

when first occupied. It has been found impossible to afforest them on

account of the roughness of the sea-air, and the wash from their bluffs

into the harbour has involved large expense in the erection of

sea-walls. Castle Island has been fortified since the earliest days;

Fort Independence, on this island, and Forts Winthrop and Warren on

neighbouring islands, constitute permanent harbour defences. The broad

watercourses around the peninsula are spanned by causeways and bridges,

East Boston only, that the harbours may be open to the navy-yard at

Charlestown, being reached by ferry (1870), and by the electric subway

under the harbour. At the Charlestown navy-yard (1800) there are docks,

manufactories, foundries, machine-shops, ordnance stores, rope-walks,

furnaces, casting-pits, timber sheds, ordnance-parks, ship-houses, &c.

The famous frigate "Independence" was launched here in 1814, the more

famous "Constitution" having been launched while the yard was still

private in 1797. The first bridge over the Charles, to Charlestown, was

opened in 1786. The bridge of chief artistic merit is the Cambridge

Bridge (1908), which replaced the old West Boston Bridge, and is one

feature of improvements long projected for the beautifying of the

Charles river basin.

Comparatively few relics of the early town have been spared by time and

the improvements of the modern city. Three cemeteries remain

intact--King's chapel burying ground, with the graves of John Winthrop

and John Cotton; the Old Granary burial ground in the heart of the city,

where Samuel Sewall, the parents of Franklin, John Hancock, James Otis

and Samuel Adams are buried; and Copp's Hill burial ground, containing

the tombs of the Mathers. Christ church (1723) is the oldest church of

the city; in its tower the signal lanterns were displayed for Paul

Revere on the night of the 18th of April 1775. The Old South church

(1730-1782), the old state house (1748, restored 1882), and Faneuil Hall

(1762-1763, enlarged 1805, reconstructed 1898) are rich in memorable

associations of the period preceding the War of Independence. The second

was the seat of the royal government of Massachusetts during the

provincial period, and within its walls from 1760 to 1775 the questions

of colonial dependence or independence probably first came into evident

conflict. The Old South church has many associations; it was, for

instance, the meeting-place of the people after the "Boston Massacre" of

1770, when they demanded the removal of the British troops from the

city; and here, too, were held the meetings that led up to the "Boston

Tea Party" of 1773. Faneuil Hall (the original hall of the name was

given to the city by Peter Faneuil, a Huguenot merchant, in 1742) is

associated, like the Old South, with the patriotic oratory of

revolutionary days and is called "the cradle of American liberty." Its

association with reform movements and great public issues of later times

is not less close and interesting.[2] The adjoining Quincy market may be

mentioned because its construction (1826) was utilized to open six new

streets, widen a seventh, and secure flats, docks and wharf rights--all

without laying tax or debt upon the city. The original King's chapel

(1688, present building 1749-1754) was the first Episcopal church of

Boston, which bitterly resented the action of the royal governor in 1687

in using the Old South for the services of the Church of England. The

new state house, the oldest portion of which (designed by Charles

Bulfinch) was erected in 1795-1798, was enlarged in 1853-1856, and again

by a huge addition in 1889-1898 (total cost about $6,800,000 to 1900).

Architecturally, everything is subordinated to a conformity with the

style of the original portion; and its gilded dome is a conspicuous

landmark. Other buildings of local importance are the city hall (1865);

the United States government building (1871-1878, cost about

$6,000,000); the county court-house (1887-1893, $2,250,000); the

custom-house (1837-1848); and the chamber of commerce (1892).

Copley Square, in the Back Bay, is finely distinguished by a group of

exceptional buildings: Trinity church, the old Museum of Fine Arts, the

public library and the new Old South church. Trinity (1877, cost

$800,000), in yellowish granite with dark sandstone trimmings, the

masterpiece of H.H. Richardson, is built in the Romanesque style of

southern France; it is a Latin cross surmounted by a massive central

tower, with smaller towers and an adjacent chapel reached by open

cloisters that distribute the balance (see ARCHITECTURE, Plate XVI. fig.

137). It has windows by La Farge, William Morris, Burne-Jones and

others.

The library (1888-1895; cost $2,486,000, exclusive of the site, given

by the state) is a dignified, finely proportioned building of

pinkish-grey stone, built in the style of the Italian Renaissance,

suggesting a Florentine palace. It has an imposing exterior (see

ARCHITECTURE, Plate XVI. fig. 135), a beautiful inner court, and notable

decorative features and embellishments, including bronze doors by D.C.

French, a statue of Sir Henry Vane by Macmonnies, a fine staircase in

Siena marble, some characteristic decorative panels by Puvis de

Chavannes (illustrating the history of science and literature), and

other notable decorative paintings by John S. Sargent (on the history of

religion), Edwin A. Abbey (on the quest of the Holy Grail). The old

Museum of Fine Arts (1876) is a red brick edifice in modern Gothic

style, with trimmings of light stone and terra-cotta. The new Old South

(the successor of the Old South, which is now a museum) is a handsome

structure of Italian Gothic style, with a fine campanile. The dignified

buildings of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are near. In

Huntington Avenue, at its junction with Massachusetts Avenue, is another

group of handsome new buildings, including Horticultural Hall, Symphony

Hall (1900) and the New England Conservatory of Music. In the Back Bay

Fens, reclaimed swamps laid out by F.L. Olmsted, still other groups

have formed--among others those of the marble buildings of the Harvard

medical school; Fenway Court, a building in the style, internally, of a

Venetian palace, that houses the art treasures of Mrs. J.L. Gardner,

and Simmons College. Here, too, is the new building (1908) of the Museum

of Fine Arts. Throughout the Fens excellently effective use is being

made of monumental buildings grouped in ample grounds.

Boston compares favourably with other American cities in the character

of its public and private architecture. The height of buildings in the

business section is limited to 125 ft., and in some places to 90 ft.

One of the great public works of Boston is its subway for electric

trams, about 3 m. long, in part with four tracks and in part with two,

constructed since 1895 at a cost of about $7,500,000 up to 1905. The

branch to East Boston (1900-1904) passes beneath the harbour bed and

extends from Scollay Square, Boston, to Maverick Square, East Boston; it

was the first all-cement tunnel (diameter, 23.6 ft.) in the world. The

subway was built by the city, but leased and operated by a private

company on such terms as to repay its cost in forty years. Another

tunnel has been added to the system, under Washington Street. The narrow

streets and the traffic congestion of the business district presented

difficult problems of urban transit, but the system is of exceptional

efficiency. There is an elevated road whose trains, like the surface

cars, are accommodated in the centre of the city by the subway. All the

various roads--surface, elevated (about 7 m., built 1896-1901), and

subway--are controlled, almost wholly, by one company. They all connect

and interchange passengers freely; so that the ordinary American

five-cent fare enables a passenger to travel between almost any two

points over an area of 100 sq. m. The two huge steam-railway stations of

the Boston & Maine and the Boston & Albany systems also deserve mention.

The former (the North, or Union station, 1893) covers 9 acres and has 23

tracks; the latter (the South Terminal, 1898), one of the largest

stations in the world, covers 13 acres and has 32 tracks, and is used by

the Boston & Albany and by the New York, New Haven & Hartford railways.

A noteworthy feature of the metropolitan public water service was begun

in 1896 in the Wachusett lake reservoir at Clinton, on the Nashua river.

The basin here excavated by ten years of labour, lying 385 ft. above

high-tide level of Boston harbour, has an area of 6.5 sq. m., an average

depth of 46 ft., and a capacity of 63,068,000,000 gallons of water. It

is the largest municipal reservoir in the world[3], yet it is only part

of a system planned for the service of the metropolitan area.

The park system is quite unique among American cities. The Common, a

park of 48 acres, in the centre of the city, has been a public

reservation since 1634, and no city park in the world is cherished more

affectionately for historical associations. Adjoining it is the Public

Garden of 24 acres (1859), part of the made area of the city.

Commonwealth Avenue, one of the Back Bay streets running from the foot

of the Public Garden, is one of the finest residence streets of the

country. It is 240 ft. wide, with four rows of trees shading the parking

of its central mall, and is a link through the Back Bay Fens with the

beautiful outer park system. The park system consists of two concentric

rings, the inner being the city system proper, the outer the

metropolitan system undertaken by the commonwealth in co-operation with

the city. The former has been laid out since 1875, and includes upwards

of 2300 acres, with more than 100 m. of walks, drives and rides. Its

central ornament is Franklin Park (527 acres). The metropolitan system,

which extends around the city on a radius of 10 to 12 m., was begun in

1893. It embraces over 10,000 acres, including the Blue Hill reservation

(about 5000 acres), the highest land in eastern Massachusetts, a

beautiful reservation of forest, crag and pond known as Middlesex Fells,

two large beach bath reservations on the harbour at Revere and Hull

(Nantasket), and the boating section of the Charles river. At the end of

1907 more than $13,000,000 had been expended on the system. Including

the local parks of the cities and towns of the metropolitan district

there are over 17,000 acres of pleasure grounds within the metropolitan

park district. Boston was the pioneer municipality of the country in the

establishment of open-air gymnasiums. A great improvement, planned for

many years, was brought nearer by the completion of the new Cambridge

Bridge. This improvement was projected to include the damming of the

Charles river, and the creation of a great freshwater basin, with

drive-ways of reclaimed land along the shores, and other adornments,

somewhat after the model of the Alster basins at Hamburg.

_Art and Literature._--The Museum of Fine Arts was founded in 1870

(though there were art exhibits collected from 1826 onward) and its

present building was erected in 1908. It has one of the finest

collections of casts in existence, a number of original pieces of Greek

statuary, the second-best collection in the world of Aretine ware, the

finest collection of Japanese pottery, and probably the largest and

finest of Japanese paintings in existence. Among the memorials to men of

Massachusetts (a large part of them Bostonians) commemorated by

monuments in the Common, the Public Garden, the grounds of the state

house, the city hall, and other public places of the city, are statues

of Charles Sumner, Josiah Quincy and John A. Andrew by Thomas Ball; of

Generals Joseph Hooker and William F. Bartlett, and of Rufus Choate by

Daniel C. French; of W.L. Garrison and Charles Devens by Olin L. Warner;

of Samuel Adams by Anne Whitney; of John Winthrop and Benjamin Franklin

by R.S. Greenough; of Edward Everett (W.W. Story), Colonel W. Prescott

(Story), Horace Mann (E. Stebbins), Daniel Webster (H. Powers), W.E.

Channing (H. Adams), N.P. Banks (H.H. Kitson), Phillips Brooks (A. St

Gaudens), and J.B. O'Reilly (D.C. French).

Among other important monuments are a group by J.Q.A. Ward

commemorating the first proof of the anaesthetic properties of ether,

made in 1846 in the Massachusetts General Hospital by Dr W.T.G.

Morton; an emancipation group of Thomas Ball with a portrait statue of

Lincoln; a fine equestrian statue, by the same sculptor, of Washington,

one of the best works in the country (1869); an army and navy monument

in the Common by Martin Millmore, in memory of the Civil War; another

(1888) recording the death of those who fell in the Boston Massacre of

1770; statues of Admiral D.G. Farragut (H.H. Kitson), Leif Ericson

(Anne Whitney), and Alexander Hamilton (W. Rimmer); and a magnificent

bronze bas-relief (1897) by Augustus St Gaudens commemorating the

departure from Boston of Colonel Robert G. Shaw with the first regiment

of negro soldiers enlisted in the Civil War. There is an art department

of the city government, under unpaid commissioners, appointed by the

mayor from candidates named by local art and literary institutions; and

without their approval no work of art can now become the property of the

city.

The public library, containing 922,348 volumes in January 1908, is the

second library of the country in size, and is the largest free

circulating library in the world (circulation 1907, 1,529,111 volumes).

There was a public municipal library in Boston before 1674--probably in

1653; but it was burned in 1747 and was apparently never replaced. The

present library (antedated by several circulating, social and

professional collections) may justly be said to have had its origin in

the efforts of the Parisian, Alexandre Vattemare (1796-1864), from 1830

on, to foster international exchanges. From 1847 to 1851 he arranged

gifts from France to American libraries aggregating 30,655 volumes, and

a gift of 50 volumes by the city of Paris in 1843 (reciprocated in 1849

with more than 1000 volumes contributed by private citizens) was the

nucleus of the Boston public library. Its legal foundation dates from

1848. Among the special collections are the George Ticknor library of

Spanish and Portuguese books (6393 vols.), very full sets of United

States and British public documents, the Bowditch mathematical library

(7090 vols.), the Galatea collection on the history of women (2193

vols.), the Barton library, including one of the finest existing

collections of Shakespeariana (3309 vols., beside many in the general

library), the A.A. Brown library of music (9886 vols.), a very full

collection on the anthropology and ethnology of Europe, and more than

100,000 volumes on the history, biography, geography and literature of

the United States. The library is supported almost entirely by municipal

appropriations, though holding also considerable trust funds ($388,742

in 1905). The other notable book-collections of the city include those

of the Athenaeum, founded in 1807 (about 230,000 vols. and pamphlets),

the Massachusetts Historical Society (founded 1791; 50,300), the Boston

medical library (founded 1874; about 80,000), the New England

Historic-Genealogical Society (founded 1845; 33,750 volumes and 34,150

pamphlets), the state library (founded 1826; 140,000), the American

Academy of Arts and Sciences (founded 1780; 30,000), the Boston Society

of Natural History (founded 1830; about 35,000 volumes and 27,000

pamphlets).

The leading educational institutions are the Massachusetts Institute of

Technology, the largest purely scientific and technical school in the

country, opened to students (including women) in 1865, four years after

the granting of a charter to Prof. W.B. Rogers, the first president;

Boston University (chartered in 1869; Methodist Episcopal;

co-educational); the New England Conservatory of Music (co-educational;

private; 1867, incorporated 1880), the largest in the United States,

having 2400 students in 1905-1906; the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy

(1852); the Massachusetts Normal Art School (1873); the School of

Drawing and Painting (1876) of the Museum of Fine Arts; Boston College

(1860), Roman Catholic, under the Society of Jesus; St John's

Theological Seminary (1880), Roman Catholic; Simmons College (1899) for

women, and several departments of Harvard University. The Institute of

Technology has an exceptional reputation for the wide range of its

instruction and its high standards of scholarship. It was a pioneer in

introducing as a feature of its original plans laboratory instruction in

physics, mechanics and mining. The architects of the United States navy

are sent here for instruction in their most advanced courses. Boston

University was endowed by Isaac Rich (1801-1872), a Boston

fish-merchant, Lee Claflin (1791-1871), a shoe manufacturer and a

benefactor of Wesleyan University and of Wilbraham Seminary, and Jacob

Sleeper. It has been co-educational from the beginning. Its faculties of

theology--founded in 1841 at Newbury, Vt., as the Biblical Institute; in

1847-1867 in Concord, N.H.; and in 1867-1871 the Boston Theological

Seminary--law, music, medicine, liberal arts and agriculture (at

Amherst, in association with the Massachusetts Agricultural College),

all antedate 1876. The funds for Simmons College were left by John

Simmons in 1870, who wished to found a school to teach the professions

and "branches of art, science and industry best calculated to enable the

scholars to acquire an independent livelihood." The Lowell Institute

(q.v.), established in 1839 (by John Lowell, Jr., who bequeathed

$237,000 for the purpose), provides yearly courses of free public

lectures, and its lecturers have included many of the leading scholars

of America and Europe. During each winter, also, a series of public

lectures on American history is delivered in the Old South meeting

house. The public schools, particularly the secondary schools, enjoy a

very high reputation. The new English High and Latin school, founded in

1635, is the oldest school of the country. A girls' Latin school, with

the same standards as the boys' school, was established in 1878 (an

outcome of the same movement that founded Radcliffe College). There are

large numbers of private schools, in art, music and academic studies.

In theatrical matters Boston is now one of the chief American centres.

The Federal Street theatre--the first regular theatre--was established

in 1794, the old Puritan feeling having had its natural influence in

keeping Boston behind New York and Philadelphia in this respect. The

dramatic history of the city is largely associated with the Boston

Museum, built in 1841 by Moses Kimball on Tremont Street, and rebuilt in

1846 and 1880; here for half a century the principal theatrical

performances were given (see an interesting article in the _New England

Magazine_, June 1903), in later years under the management of R.

Montgomery Field, until in 1903 the famous Boston Museum was swept away,

as other interesting old places of entertainment (the old Federal Street

theatre, the Tremont theatre, &c.) had been, in the course of further

building changes. The Boston theatre dates from 1854, and there were

seventeen theatres altogether in 1900.

As a musical centre Boston rivals New York. Among musical organizations

may be mentioned the Handel and Haydn Society (1815), the Harvard

Musical Association (1837), the Philharmonic (1880) and the Symphony

Orchestra, organized in 1881 by the generosity of Henry Lee Higginson.

This orchestra has done much for music not only in Boston but in the

United States generally. In 1908 the Boston Opera Company was

incorporated, and an opera house has been erected on the north side of

Huntington Avenue.

Boston was the undisputed literary centre of America until the later

decades of the 19th century, and still retains a considerable and

important colony of writers and artists. Its ascendancy was identical

with the long predominance of the New England literary school, who lived

in Boston or in the country round about. Two Boston periodicals (one no

longer so) that still hold an exceptional position in periodical

literature, the _North American Review_ (1815) and the _Atlantic

Monthly_ (1857), date from this period. The great majority of names in

the long list of worthies of the commonwealth--writers, statesmen,

orators, artists, philanthropists, reformers and scholars, are

intimately connected with Boston. Among the city's daily newspapers the

_Boston Herald_ (1846), the _Boston Globe_, the _Evening Transcript_

(1830), the _Advertiser_ (1813) and the _Post_ (1831) are the most

important.

_Industry and Commerce._--Boston is fringed with wharves. Commercial

interests are largely concentrated in East Boston. Railway connexion

with Worcester, Lowell and Providence was opened in 1835; with Albany,

N.Y., and thereby with various lines of interior communication, in 1841

(double track, 1868); with Fitchburg, in 1845; and in 1851 connexion was

completed with the Great Lakes and Canada. In 1840 Boston was selected

as the American terminus of the Cunard Line, the first regular line of

trans-Atlantic steamers. The following decade was the most active of the

city's history as regards the ocean carrying trade. Boston ships went to

all parts of the globe. The Cunard arrangement was the first of various

measures that worked for a commercial rapprochement between the New

England states and Canada, culminating in the reciprocity treaty of

1854, and Boston's interests are foremost to-day in demanding a return

to relations of reciprocity. Beginning about 1855 the commerce of the

port greatly declined. The Cunard service has not been continuous. In

1869 there was not one vessel steaming directly for Europe; in 1900

there were 973 for foreign ports. Great improvements of the harbour were

undertaken in 1902 by the United States government, looking to the

creation of two broad channels 35 ft. deep. Railway rates have also been

a matter of vital importance in recent years; Boston, like New York,

complaining of discriminations in favour of Philadelphia, Baltimore, New

Orleans and Galveston. Boston also feels the competition of Montreal and

Portland; the Canadian roads being untrammelled in the matter of freight

differentials. Boston is the second import port of the United States,

but its exports in 1907 were less than those of Philadelphia, of

Galveston, or of New Orleans. The total tonnage in foreign trade

entering and leaving in 1907 was 5,148,429 tons; and in the same year

9616 coasting vessels (tonnage, 10,261,474) arrived in Boston. The value

of imports and exports for 1907 were respectively $123,414,168 and

$104,610,908. Fibres and vegetable grasses, wool, hides and skins,

cotton, sugar, iron and steel and their manufactures, chemicals, coal,

and leather and its manufactures are the leading imports; provisions,

leather and its manufactures, cotton and its manufactures, breadstuffs,

iron and steel and their manufactures are the leading exports. In the

exportation of cattle, and of the various meat and dairy products

classed as provisions, Boston is easily second to New York. It is the

largest wool and the largest fish market of the United States, being in

each second in the world to London only.

Manufacturing is to-day the most distinctive industry, as was commerce

in colonial times. The value of all manufactured products from

establishments under the "factory system" in 1900 was $162,764,523; in

1905 it was $184,351,163. Among the leading and more distinctive items

were printing and publishing ($21,023,855 in 1905); sugar and molasses

refining ($15,746,547 in 1900; figures not published in 1905 because of

the industry being in the hands of a single owner); men's clothing (in

1900, $8,609,475, in 1905, $11,246,004); women's clothing (in 1900,

$3,258,483, in 1905, $5,705,470); boots and shoes (in 1900, $3,882,655,

in 1905, $5,575,927); boot and shoe cut stock (in 1905, $5,211,445);

malt liquors (in 1900, $7,518,668, in 1905, $6,715,215); confectionery

(in 1900, $4,455,184, in 1905, $6,210,023); tobacco products (in 1900,

$3,504,603, in 1905, $4,592,698); pianos and organs ($3,670,771 in

1905); other musical instruments and materials (in 1905, $231,780);

rubber and elastic goods (in 1900, $3,139,783, in 1905, $2,887,323);

steam fittings and heating apparatus (in 1900, $2,876,327, in 1905,

$3,354,020); bottling, furniture, &c. Art tiles and pottery are

manufactured in Chelsea. Shipbuilding and allied industries early became

of great importance. The Waltham watch and the Singer sewing-machine had

their beginning in Boston in 1850. The making of the Chickering pianos

goes back to 1823, and of Mason & Hamlin reed organs to 1854; these are

to-day very important and distinctive manufactures of the city. The

ready-made clothing industry began about 1830.

_Government._--Beyond a recognition of its existence in 1630, when it

was renamed, Boston can show no legal incorporation before 1822;

although the uncertain boundaries between the powers of colony and

township prompted repeated petitions to the legislature for

incorporation, beginning as early as 1650. In 1822 Boston became a city.

Thus for nearly two centuries it preserved intact its old "town"

government, disposing of all its affairs in the "town-meeting" of its

citizens. Excellent political training such a government unquestionably

offered; but it became unworkable as disparities of social condition

increased, as the number of legal voters (above 7000 in 1822) became

greater, and as the population ceased to be homogeneous in blood. All

the citizens did not assemble; on the contrary ordinary business seldom

drew out more than a hundred voters, and often a mere handful. From very

early days executive officers known as "select-men," constables, clerks

of markets, hog reeves, packers of meat and fish, &c., were chosen; and

the select-men, particularly, gained power as the attendance of the

freemen on meetings grew onerous. Interested cliques could control the

business of the town-meeting in ordinary times, and boisterousness

marred its democractic excellence in exciting times. Large sums were

voted loosely, and expended by executive boards without any budgetary

control. The whole system was full of looseness, complexity and

makeshifts. But the tenacity with which it was clung to, proved that it

was suited to the community; and whether helpful or harmful to, it was

not inconsistent with, the continuance of growth and prosperity. Various

other Massachusetts townships, as they have grown older, have been

similarly compelled to abandon their old form of government. The powers

of the old township were much more extensive than those of the present

city of Boston, including as they did the determination of the residence

of strangers, the allotment of land, the grant of citizenship, the

fixing of wages and prices, of the conditions of lawsuits and even a

voice in matters of peace and war. The city charter was revised in 1854,

and again reconstructed in important particulars by laws of 1885

separating the executive and legislative powers, and by subsequent acts.

A complete alteration of the government has indeed been effected since

1885. Boston proper is only the centre of a large metropolitan area,

closely settled, with interests in large part common. This metropolitan

area, within a radius of approximately 10 m. about the state house,

contained in 1900 about 40% of the population of the state. In the last

two decades of the 19th century the question of giving to this greater

city some general government, fully consolidated or of limited powers,

was a standing question of expediency. The commonwealth has four times

recognized a community of metropolitan interests in creating state

commissions since 1882 for the union of such interests, beginning with a

metropolitan health district in that year. The metropolitan water

district (1895) included in 1908 Boston and seventeen cities or

townships in its environs; the metropolitan sewerage district (1889)

twenty four; the park service (1893) thirty-nine. Local sentiment was

firmly against complete consolidation. The creation of the state

commissions, independent of the city's control, but able to commit the

city indefinitely by undertaking expensive works and new debt, was

resented. Independence is further curtailed by other state boards

semi-independent of the city--the police commission of three members

from 1885 to 1906, and in 1906 a single police commissioner, appointed

by the governor, a licensing board of three members, appointed by the

governor; the transit commission, &c. There are, further, county offices

(Suffolk county comprises only Boston, Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop),

generally independent of the city, though the latter pays practically

all the bills.

A new charter went into effect in 1910. It provided for municipal

elections in January; for the election of a mayor for four years; for

his recall at the end of two years if a majority of the registered

voters so vote in the state election in November in the second year of

his term; for the summary removal for cause by the mayor of any

department head or other of his appointees, for a city council of one

chamber of nine members, elected at large each for three years; for

nomination by petition; for a permanent finance commission appointed by

the governor; for the confirmation of the mayor's appointments by the

state civil service commission; for the mayor's preparation of the

annual budget (in which items may be reduced but not increased by the

council), and for his absolute veto of appropriations except for school

use. The school committee (who serve gratuitously) appoint the

superintendent and supervisors of schools. The number of members of the

school-board was in 1905 reduced from twenty-four to five, elected by

the city at large, and serving for one, two or three years; at the same

time power was centralized in the hands of the superintendent of

schools. Civil service reform principles cover the entire municipal

administration. The city's work is done under an eight-hour law.

An analysis of city election returns for the decade 1890-1899 showed

that the interest of the citizens was greatest in the choice of a

president; then, successively, in the choice of a mayor, a governor, the

determination of liquor-license questions by referendum, and the

settlement of other referenda. On 21 referenda, 10 being questions of

license, the ratio of actual to registered voters ranged on the latter

from 57.00 to 75.38% (mean 61.15), and on other referenda from 75.63 to

33.40 (mean 61.39),--the mean for all, 64.18. But the average of two

presidential votes was 85.37%; and the maxima, minima and means for

mayors and governors were respectively 83.86, 74.99, 78.36 and 84.73,

61.78, 75.72. Of those who might, only some 50 to 65% actually register.

Women vote for school committee-men (categories as above, 95.18, 59.62,

76.49%). On a referendum in 1895 on the expediency of granting municipal

suffrage to women only 59.08% of the women who were registered voted,

and probably less than 10% of those entitled to be registered.

Hospitals, asylums, refuges and homes, pauper, reformatory and penal

institutions, flower missions, relief associations, and other charitable

or philanthropic organizations, private and public, number several

hundreds. The Associated Charities is an incorporated organization for

systematizing the various charities of the city. The Massachusetts

general hospital (1811-1821)--with a branch for mental and nervous

diseases, McLean hospital (1816), in the township of Belmont

(post-office, Waverley) about 6 m. W.N.W. of Boston; the Perkins

Institution and Massachusetts school for the blind (1832), famous for

its conduct by Samuel G. Howe, and for association with Laura Bridgman

and Helen Keller; the Massachusetts school for idiotic and feebleminded

children (1839); and the Massachusetts charitable eye and ear infirmary

(1824), all receive financial aid from the commonwealth, which has

representation in their management. The city hospital dates from 1864. A

floating hospital for women and children in the summer months, with

permanent and transient wards, has been maintained since 1894

(incorporated 1901). Boston was one of the first municipalities of the

country to make provision for the separate treatment of juvenile

offenders; in 1906 a juvenile court was established. A People's Palace

dedicated to the work of the Salvation Army, and containing baths,

gymnasium, a public hall, a library, sleeping-rooms, an employment

bureau, free medical and legal bureaus, &c., was opened in 1906. Simmons

College and Harvard University maintain the Boston school for social

workers (1904). Beneficent social work out of the more usual type is

directed by the music and bath departments of the city government. In

the provision of public gymnasiums and baths (1866) Boston was the

pioneer city of the country, and remains the most advanced. The beach

reservations of the metropolitan park system at Revere and Nantasket,

and several smaller city beaches are a special feature of this service.

Benjamin Franklin, who was born and spent his boyhood in Boston, left

L1000 to the city in his will; it amounted in 1905 to $403,000, and

constituted a fund to be used for the good of the labouring class of the

city.

Largely owing to activity in public works Boston has long been the

most expensively governed of American cities. The average yearly

expenditure for ten years preceding 1904 was $27,354,416, exclusive of

payments on funded and floating debts. The running expenses

_per-capita_ in 1900 were $35.23; more than twice the average of 86

leading cities of the country (New York, $23.92; Chicago, $11.62).

Schools, police, charities, water, streets and parks are the items of

heaviest cost. The cost of the public schools for the five years from

1901-1902 to 1906-1907 was $27,883,937, of which $7,057,895.42 was for

new buildings; the cost of the police department was $11,387,314.66

for the six years 1902-1907; and of the water department $4,941,343.37

for the six years 1902-1907; of charities and social work a much

larger sum. The remaking of the city was enormously expensive,

especially the alteration of the streets after 1866, when the city

received power to make such alterations and assess a part of the

improvements upon abutting estates. The creation of the city

water-system has also been excessively costly, and the total cost up

to the 31st of January 1908 of the works remaining to the city after

the creation of the metropolitan board in 1898 was about $17,000,000.

The metropolitan water board--of whose expenditures Boston bears only

a share--expended from 1895 to 1900 $20,693,870; and the system was

planned to consume finally probably 40 millions at least. The city

park system proper had cost $16,627,033 up to 1899 inclusive; and the

metropolitan parks $13,679,456 up to 1907 inclusive. There are no

municipal lighting-plants; but the companies upon which the city

depends for its service are (with all others) subject to the control

of a state commission. In 1885 a state law placed a limit on the

contractable debt and upon the taxation rate of the city. Revenues

were not realized adequate to its lavish undertakings, and loans were

used to meet current expenses. The limits were altered subsequently,

but the net debt has continued to rise. In 1822 it was $100,000; in

1850, $6,195,144; in 1886, $24,712,820; in 1904, $58,216,725; in 1907,

$70,781,969 (gross debt, $104,206,706)--this included the debt of

Suffolk county which in 1907 was $3,517,000. The chief objects for

which the city debt was created were in 1907, in millions of dollars:

highways, 24.07, parks, 16.29, drainage and sewers, 15.05, rapid

transit, 13.57 and water-works, 4.53. Boston paid in 1907 36% of all

state taxes, and about 33, 62, 47 and 79% respectively of the

assessments for the metropolitan sewer, parks, boulevards and water

services. About a third of its revenue goes for such uses or for

Suffolk county expenditures over which it has but limited control. The

improvement of the Back Bay and of the South Boston flats was in

considerable measure forced upon the city by the commonwealth. The

debt per capita is as high as the cost of current administration

relatively to other cities. The average interest rate on the city

obligations in 1907 was about 3.7%. The city's tax valuation in 1907

was $1,313,471,556 (in 1822, $42,140,200; in 1850, $180,000,500), of

which only $242,606,856 represented personalty; although in the

judgment of the city board of trade such property cannot by any

possibility be inferior in value to realty.

_Population._--Up to the War of Independence the population was not only

American, but it was in its ideas and standards essentially Puritan;

modern liberalism, however, has introduced new standards of social life.

In 1900 35.1% of the inhabitants were foreign-born, and 72.2% wholly or

in part of foreign parentage. Irish, English-Canadian, Russian, Italian,

English and German are the leading races. Of the foreign-born population

these elements constituted respectively 35.6, 24.0, 7.6, 7.0, 6.7 and

5.3%. Large foreign colonies, like adjoining but unmixing nations,

divide among themselves a large part of the city, and give to its life a

cosmopolitan colour of varied speech, opinion, habits, traditions,

social relations and religions. Most remarkable of all, the Roman

Catholic churches, in this stronghold of exiled Puritanism where

Catholics were so long under the heavy ban of law, outnumber those of

any single Protestant denomination; Irish Catholics dominate the

politics of the city, and Protestants and Catholics have been aligned

against each other on the question of the control of the public schools.

Despite, however, its heavy foreign admixture the old Americanism of the

city remains strikingly predominant. The population of Boston at the end

of each decennial period since 1790 was as follows:--(1790), 18,320;

(1800), 24,937; (1810), 33,787; (1820), 43,298; (1830), 61,392; (1840),

93,383; (1850), 136,881; (1860), 177,840; (1870), 250,526; (1880),

362,839; (1890), 448,477; (1900), 560,892.

_History._--John Smith visited Boston Harbour in 1614, and it was

explored in 1621 by a party from Plymouth. There were various attempts

to settle about its borders in the following years before John Endecott

in 1628 landed at Salem as governor of the colony of Massachusetts bay,

within which Boston was included. In June 1630 John Winthrop's company

reached Charlestown. At that time a "bookish recluse," William Blaxton

(Blackstone), one of the several "old planters" scattered about the bay,

had for several years been living on Boston peninsula. The location

seemed one suitable for commerce and defence, and the Winthrop party

chose it for their settlement. The triple summit of Beacon Hill, of

which no trace remains to-day (or possibly a reference to the three

hills of the then peninsula, Beacon, Copp's and Fort) led to the

adoption of the name Trimountaine for the peninsula,--a name perpetuated

variously in present municipal nomenclature as in Tremont; but on the

17th of September 1630, the date adopted for anniversary celebrations,

it was ordered that "Trimountaine shall be called Boston," after the

borough of that name in Lincolnshire, England, of which several of the

leading settlers had formerly been prominent citizens.[4]

For several years it was uncertain whether Cambridge, Charlestown or

Boston should be the capital of the colony, but in 1632 the General

Court agreed "by general consent, that Boston is the fittest place for

public meetings of any place in the Bay." It rapidly became the

wealthiest and most populous. Throughout the 17th century its history is

so largely that of Massachusetts generally that they are inseparable.

Theological systems were largely concerned. The chief features of this

epoch --the Antinomian dissensions, the Quaker and Baptist persecutions,

the witchcraft delusion (four witches were executed in Boston, in 1648,

1651, 1656, 1688) &c.--are referred to in the article MASSACHUSETTS

(q.v.). In 1692 the first permanent and successful printing press was

established; in 1704 the first newspaper in America, the _Boston

News-Letter_, which was published weekly until 1776. Puritanism steadily

mellowed under many influences. By the turn of the first century bigotry

was distinctly weakened. Among the marks of the second half of the 17th

century was growing material prosperity, and there were those who

thought their fellows unduly willing to relax church tests of fellowship

when good trade was in question. There was an unpleasant Englishman who

declared in 1699 that he found "Money Their God, and Large Possessions

the only Heaven they Covet." Prices were low, foreign commerce was

already large, business thriving; wealth gave social status; the

official British class lent a lustre to society; and Boston "town" was

drawing society from the "country." Of the two-score or so of families

most prominent in the first century hardly one retained place in the

similar list for the early years of the second. Boston was a prosperous,

thrifty, English country town, one traveller thought. Another, Daniel

Neal, in 1720, found Boston conversation "as polite as in most of the

cities and towns in England, many of their merchants having the

advantage of a free conversation with travellers; so that a gentleman

from London would almost think himself at home at Boston, when he

observes the number of people, their houses, their furniture, their

tables, their dress and conversation, which perhaps is as splendid and

showy as that of the most considerable tradesmen in London."

The population, which was almost stationary through much of the century,

was about 20,000 in the years immediately before the War of

Independence. At this time Boston was the most flourishing town of North

America. It built ships as cheaply as any place in the world, it carried

goods for other colonies, it traded--often evading British laws--with

Europe, Guinea, Madagascar and above all with the West Indies. The

merchant princes and social leaders of the time are painted with

elaborate show of luxury in the canvases of Copley. The great English

writers of Queen Anne's reign seem to have been but little known in the

colony, and the local literature, though changed somewhat in character,

showed but scant improvement. About the middle of the century

restrictions upon the press began to disappear. At the same time

questions of trade, of local politics, finally of colonial autonomy, of

imperial policy, had gradually, but already long since, replaced

theology in leading interest. In the years 1760-1776 Boston was the most

frequently recurring and most important name in British colonial

history. Sentiments of limited independence of the British government

had been developing since the very beginning of the settlement (see

MASSACHUSETTS), and their strength in 1689 had been strikingly exhibited

in the local revolution of that year, when the royal governor, Sir

Edmund Andros, and other high officials, were frightened into surrender

and were imprisoned. This movement, it should be noted, was a popular

rising, and not the work of a few leaders.

The incidents that marked the approach of the War of Independence need

barely be adverted to. Opposition to the measures of the British

government for taxing and oppressing the colonies began in Boston. The

argument of Otis on the writs of assistance was in 1760-1761. The Stamp

Act, passed in 1765, was repealed in 1766; it was opposed in Boston by a

surprising show of determined and unified public sentiment. Troops were

first quartered in the town in 1768. In 1770, on the 5th of March, in a

street brawl, a number of citizens were killed or wounded by the

soldiers, who fired into a crowd that were baiting a sentry. This

incident is known as the "Boston Massacre." The Tea Act of 1773 was

defied by the emptying into the harbour of three cargoes of tea on the

16th of December 1773, by a party of citizens disguised as Indians,

after the people in town-meeting had exhausted every effort, through a

period of weeks, to procure the return of the tea-ships to England. To

this act Great Britain replied by various penal regulations and

reconstructive acts of government. She quartered troops in Boston; she

made the juries, sheriffs and judges of the colony dependent on the

royal officers; she ordered capital offenders to be tried in Nova Scotia

or England; she endeavoured completely to control or to abolish

town-meetings; and finally, by the so-called "Boston Port Bill," she

closed the port of Boston on the 1st of June 1774. Not even a ferry, a

scow or other boat could move in the harbour. Marblehead and Salem were

made ports of entry, and Salem was made the capital. But they would not

profit by Boston's misfortune. The people covenanted not to use British

goods and to suspend trade with Great Britain. From near neighbours and

from distant colonies came provisions and encouragement. In October

1774, when General Gage refused recognition to the Massachusetts general

court at Salem, the members adjourned to Concord as the first provincial

congress. Finally came war, with Lexington and Bunker Hill, and

beleaguerment by the colonial army; until on the 17th of March 1776 the

British were compelled by Washington to evacuate the city. With them

went about 1100 Tory refugees, many of them of the finest families of

the city and province. The evacuation closed the heroic period of

Boston's history. War did not again approach the city.

The years from 1776 to the end of "town" government in 1822 were marked

by slow growth and prosperity. Commerce and manufactures alike took

great impetus. Direct trade with the East Indies began about 1785, with

Russia in 1787. A Boston vessel, the "Columbia" (Captain Robert Gray),

opened trade with the north-west coast of America, and was the first

American ship to circumnavigate the globe (1787-1790). In 1805 Boston

began the export of ice to Jamaica, a trade which was gradually extended

to Cuba, to ports of the southern states, and finally to Rio de Janeiro

and Calcutta (1833), declining only after the Civil War; it enabled

Boston to control the American trade of Calcutta against New York

throughout the entire period. But of course it was far less important

than various other articles of trade in the aggregate values of

commerce. It was Boston commerce that was most sorely hurt by the

embargo and non-importation policy of President Jefferson. In

manufactures the foundation was laid of the city's wealth. In politics

the period is characterized by Boston's connexion with the fortunes of

the Federalist party. The city was warmly in favour of the adoption of

the federal constitution of 1787; even Samuel Adams was rejected for

Congress because he was backward in its support. It was the losses

entailed upon her commerce by the commercial policy of Jefferson's

administration that embittered Boston against the Democratic-Republican

party and put her public men in the forefront of the opposition to its

policies that culminated in lukewarmness toward the War of 1812, and in

the Hartford Convention of 1814.

Some mention must be made of the Unitarian movement. Unitarian

tendencies away from the Calvinism of the old Congregational churches

were plainly evident about 1750, and it is said by Andrew P. Peabody

(1811-1893) that by 1780 nearly all the Congregational pulpits around

Boston were filled by Unitarians. Organized Unitarianism in Boston dates

from 1785. In 1782 King's chapel (Episcopal) became Unitarian, and in

1805 one of that faith was made professor of divinity in Harvard. But

the Unitarianism of those times, even the Unitarianism of Channing, was

very different from that of to-day. Theodore Parker and Channing have

been the greatest leaders. The American Unitarian Association, organized

in 1825, has always retained its headquarters in Boston. The theological

and philosophical developments of the second quarter of the 19th century

were characterized by the transcendental movement (see MASSACHUSETTS).

In the period from 1822 to the Civil War anti-slavery is the most

striking feature of Boston's annals. Garrison established the Liberator

in 1831; W.E. Channing became active in the cause of abolition in 1835,

and Wendell Phillips a little later. In 1835 a mob, composed in part of

wealthy and high-standing citizens, attacked a city-building, and

dragged Garrison through the streets until the mayor secured his safety

by putting him in gaol. But times changed. In 1850 a reception was given

in Faneuil Hall in honour of the English anti-slavery leader, George

Thompson, whose reported intention to address Bostonians in 1835

precipitated the riot of that year. In 1851 the Court House was

surrounded with chains to prevent the "rescue" of a slave (Sims) held

for rendition under the Fugitive Slave Law; another slave (Shadrach) was

released this same year, and in 1854 there was a riot and intense

excitement over the rendition of Anthony Burns. Boston had long since

taken her place in the very front of anti-slavery ranks, and with the

rest of Massachusetts was playing somewhat the same part as in the years

before the War of Independence.

Later events of importance have already been indicated in essentials. On

the 9th-10th of November 1872 a terrible fire swept the business part of

the city, destroying hundreds of buildings of brick and granite, and

inflicting a loss of some $75,000,000. Within two years the whole area,

solidly rebuilt and with widened and straightened streets, showed no

traces of the ruin except an appearance superior in all respects to that

presented before the fire. The expense of this re-creation probably

duplicated, at least, the loss from the conflagration. Since this time

there has been no set-back to the prosperity of the city. But it is not

upon material prosperity that Boston rests its claims for consideration.

It prides itself on its schools, its libraries, its literary traditions,

its splendid public works and its reputation as the chief centre of

American culture.

AUTHORITIES.--See the annual _City Documents_; also Justin Winsor

(ed.) _The Memorial History of Boston, including Suffolk County ...

1630-1880_ (4 vols., Boston, 1880-1881), a work that covers every

phase of the city's growth, history and life; S.A. Drake, _The History

and Antiquities of ... Boston_ (2 vols., Boston, 1854; and later

editions), and _Old Landmarks and Historic Personages of Boston_

(Boston, 1873, and later editions); Josiah Quincy, _A Municipal

History of ... Boston ... to ... 1830_ (Boston, 1852); C.W. Ernst,

_Constitutional History of Boston_ (Boston, 1894); H.H. Sprague, _City

Government in Boston--its Rise and Development_ (Boston, 1890); E.E.

Hale, _Historic Boston and its Neighbourhood_ (New York, 1898), and L.

Swift, _Literary Landmarks of Boston_ (Boston, 1903). A great mass of

original historical documents have been published by the registry

department of the city government since 1876 (34 v. to 1905). Boston

has been described in many works of fiction, and the reader may be

referred to the novels of E.L. Bynner, to L. Maria Childs' _The

Rebels_, to J.F. Cooper's _Lionel Lincoln_, to the early novels of

W.D. Howells (also those of Arlo Bates), to O.W. Holmes' _Poet_ and

_Autocrat_, and Hawthorne's _Scarlet Letter_, as pictures of Boston

life at various periods since early colonial days.