636 



BOSTON BOSWELL. 



ami reviving ot streets, the erection of new anil ele- 

 gant buildings, and tin- embellishment of the public 

 grounds. The principal public square is the com- 

 inon, which, with the mall, a gravelled walk which 

 Mil-rounds it, covers a surface ofabout fit'iy acres. It 

 ISH handsome piece of ground, has a sloping and un- 

 dulating surface, is partly shaded with elms, and is 

 surrounded by some of the most elegant buildings in 

 the city. 



There are six newspapers published daily, three 

 semi-weekly, several weekly, and a number of other 

 periodical journals, some of which an- conducted with 

 great ability, antl are extensively circulated. Among 

 these are the North American Review and the Chris- 

 tian Examiner. 



Boston was founded in August, 1630. It received 

 the name of H. from a borough of the same name in 

 Lincolnshire, Kngland (from which a part of the in- 

 habitants emigrated), by a vote of the court of assis- 

 tants September 7, and on the 19th of October of 

 the same year, the general court of the colony was 

 held there. This general court was not composed of 

 representatives, but of the proprietors under the char- 

 ter, acting in their own right. The first church was 

 built in 1632. The Middlesex canal, leading from 

 Boston harbour to the Merrimack river, forms with 

 this river a navigable channel to Concord in New 

 Hampshire. There are no other means of transpor- 

 tation to and from the interior, except such as are 

 afforded by the common roads. In this respect, B. 

 is behind the other principal cities of the United 

 States, and its inland trade is much less than it would 

 otherwise have been. Projects are now before the 

 public for remedying this inconvenience by the con- 

 struction of rail roads. 



The population has doubled from the year 1783 

 once in about twenty-three years. Previously to that 

 date, the population of the town had been, for 100 

 years, nearly stationary, and for fifty years entirely so ; 

 its trade, and that of the colony, having been sub- 

 jected to severe restraints and heavy burdens. 



In the reign of Charles II., the inhabitants of the 

 colony fell under the royal displeasure, and, in 1683, 

 a writ of quo warranto was issued against the charter 

 of the colony. A legal town- meeting of the freemen 

 of B. was held, ana the question was put to vote, 

 whether it was their wish tliat the general court 

 should resign the charter and the privileges therein 

 granted, and it was resolved in the negative unani- 

 mously. The charter, however, was declared for- 

 feited by a decree of the court of chancery, and soon 

 after Sir Edmund Andros was appointed the first royal 

 governor. His administration, which endured for two 

 or three years, was arbitrary and oppressive. In 

 April, 1 689, the people of B. took forcible possession 

 of the fort in B. and the castle in the harbour, 

 turned the guns upon the frigate Rose, and com- 

 pelled her to surrender, seized the governor, and 

 held him a close prisoner under guard in the castle. 

 A little more than a month afterwards, news was re- 

 ceived of the. revolution in England, and the event 

 was celebrated with great rejoicings. In 1765, after 

 the passage of the stamp act, the person appointed 

 distributor of stamps was compelled, by threats of 

 violence, to decline the acceptance of the office, and 

 the house of the lieutenant-governor was destroyed 

 by a mob. A large military and naval force was sta- 

 tioned at B. for the purpose of overawing the people. 

 On the evening of March 5, 1770, a sergeant's guard 

 fired upon a crowd of people, who were surrounding 

 them, and pelting them with snow-balls, and killed 

 five men. Dec, 16, 1773, on the arrival of three ships 

 loaded with tea, after various unsuccessful attempts 

 had been made by public meetings of the citizens, to 

 prevent its being landed and sold, in violation of the 



non-importation resolves of the people, a number of 

 men, disguised as Indians, went on Ixxml the ships,' 

 and threw all the tea overboard. In the following 

 spring, the port of B. was closed by an act of parlia- 

 ment (lioston Port-bill), and the landing and shipping 

 of goods within the harbour was ordered to be discon- 

 tinued. The session of the general court was re- 

 moved to Salem, and additional bodies of troops and 

 a military governor were ordered to B. In 1775, the 

 war commenced with the battles of Lexington ami 

 Bunker hill, and the town of B., in which the British 

 troops were encamped to the number of 10,000 men, 

 was besieged by the American army. The 

 continued until the March following, when the I'.i-i- 

 tish troops evacuated the town and castle, embarked 

 on board their own ships, and withdrew to another 

 part of the country. The inhabitants were among 

 the earliest and most ardent assertors of the rights of 

 the people, and among the earliest advocates and ac- 

 tive supporters of independence. During the revolu- 

 tionary struggle, popular meetings were frequent. 

 These meetings were usually held in Faneuil halL 

 Benjamin Franklin was born in B., Jan. 17, 1706. 



BOSTON, Thomas, a popular Scottish divine and 

 doctrinal writer, was born at the town of Dunse, in 

 1676, and received his education at the university of 

 Edinburgh. In 1699, he was ordained minister of 

 the parish of Simprin, and in 1707, he became pastor 

 of Ettrick, where he died in 1732. His most esteemed 

 work is entitled, " Human Nature in its Fourfold 

 State," which first appeared in 1720, and has gone 

 through numerous editions. lie also wrote a treatise, 

 in Latin, on Hebrew accents, entitled " Tractatus 

 Sligmologicus Hebneo Biblicus," &c. A collection 

 of his whole works was published in 1768, folio, with 

 a memoir of his life written by himself. 



BOSWELL, James, the friend and biographer of 

 Johnson, was the eldest son of one of the supreme 

 judges of Scotland, styled lord Auchinleck, from the 

 name of his estate in Ayrshire. He was born at 

 Edinburgh, in 1740, and studied in his native city, 

 in Glasgow, and in the Dutch university of Utrecht. 

 He afterwards resided several times in London, and 

 cultivated the acquaintance of the most distinguished 

 men of his time. Here he became acquainted 

 with Johnson a circumstance which he himself calls 

 the most important event of his life. He afterwards 

 visited Voltaire at Ferney, Rousseau at Neufchatel, 

 and Paoli in Corsica, with whom he became inti- 

 mate. He then returned by the way of Paris to 

 Scotland, and devoted himself to the bar. In 1768, 

 when Corsica attracted so much attention, he pub- 

 lished his valuable account of Corsica, with Me- 

 moirs of Paoli. At a later period, he settled at 

 London, where he lived in the closest intimacy 

 with Johnson. In 1773, he accompanied him on 

 a tour to the Scottish Highlands and Hebrides, and 

 published an account of the excursion after their 

 return. After the death of Johnson, he became his 

 biographer. The minuteness and accuracy of his 

 account, and the stfire of literary anecdote which 

 it contains, render this vork very valuable. It is, in 

 short, the most complete, the most instructive, and 

 the most entertaining piece of biography ever pre- 

 sented to the world. It was published in 2 vols. 

 4to, in 1790, and has been repeatedly reprinted. 

 Boswell died in 1795. He left two sons, Alexander 

 and James. 



Alexander Boswell was born in 1775, and suc- 

 ceeded his father in the possession of the family estate. 

 He was distinguished as a spirited and amiable coun- 

 try gentleman, and also as a literary antiquary of no in- 

 considerable erudition. Perhaps his taste, in the lat- 

 ter capacity, was greatly fostered by the possession ot 

 an excellent collection of old manuscripts and books, 



