MASSACHUSETTS. 



191 



small ; the number of books they contain amounts to 70,000. One of these, the Athenaeum, 

 has 33,000 volumes and a reading-room where some of the most valuable periodicals from 

 Europe are received. Annexed to this is a picture gallery in which there is an annual ex- 

 hibition of paintings. 30 newspapers are published in the city, 8 of them d;!ily, and several 

 magazines and other periodicals ; among them may be mentioned the North American Review, 

 which is the oldest literary journal of our country, the Boston Review, the Journal of Edu- 

 cation, and Christian Examiner. The New England Museum may amuse the visiter who has 

 a taste for wax figures and miscellaneous rarities. As a scientific collection, the cabinet of 

 the Boston Natural History Society is one of the best in the country. 



As a commercial city, Boston holds the second rank among the seaports of the United 

 States The shipping owned here amounts to about 230,000 tons. The value of the yearly 

 imports is about 16,000,000 dollars, and of the exports 10,000,000. This statement, how- 

 ever, includes only the direct foreign trade ; the amount of the coastv.'ise imports and export? 

 is probably threefold or fourfold that of the foreign. The number of banks is about SO, with 

 a capital of 20,000,00t) dollars, of insurance offices nearly the same, with a capital of about 

 8,000,000. There are many manufactories in the city and vicinity, of glass, iron, cordage, 

 leather, chemical preparations, hats, clothing, furniture, machinery, musical instruments, every 

 thing connected with ship-building, printing, &c. The annual value of the manufactures is about 

 12,000,000 dollars. Much of the wealth of the capitalists of Boston is invested in the man- 

 ufacturing estabhshments at Waltham, Lowell, and other places in the State. 



There are 80,000 inhabitants within the limits of Boston, but including those parts of 

 Charlestown, Cambridge, andRoxbury, which in point of contiguity may be regarded as appen- 

 dages to the city, the whole population of the capital will exceed 100,000. Boston was found- 

 ed in 1630, and was called by the Indians, Shaicmut, and by the early settlers Trimounlain 

 or Tremont, from the three hills which struck the view of the spectator on approaching the 

 spot. It retained the denomination of a town, and continued to be governed by a body of 

 Selectmen, according to the ancient New England custom, till 1821. From that period its 

 concerns have been directed by a city government, consisting of a Jtlayor, S Alderm.en, and 

 a Common Council of 48 members, all chosen annually in Januarj^ .In connexion wiih the 

 town of Chelsea^ on the opposhe side of the harbor, Boston forms the county of Suflblk, 

 which is represented in the Senate of Massachusetts by six Senators. The city sends one 

 representative to Congress. Its yearly expenditures amount to 500,000 dollars, of which 

 90,000 are appropriated to the support of schools ; 80,000 for repairing streets ; 50,000 for 

 the poor. The free or public schools are a Latin grammar school, open to all boys between 

 nine and fifteen years of age ; a high school, in which are taught mathematics and other higher 

 branches of knowledge ; 10 grammar and writing schools with two masters each ; 75 primary 

 schools, and one African school ; number of pupils 8,850. 



The roads leading to the city are good, and are provided wkh niunerous and convenienl 

 inns. The accommodations for traveling are excellent, and there are more stagecoaches run 

 ning from Boston than any other city in America. Until the opening of the railroads, ther^- 

 were nearly a hundred different lines of stages, and the regular arrivals and departures were 

 about 250 daily. During the summer there are steamboats plying between the city and Portland 

 Nahant, and Ilingham. The view which the country around Boston presents to the eye is en 

 chanting. On every side appear towns, villages, country seats, gardens, and cultivated fields 

 intermixed with every graceful variety of hill, dale, and forest. From the dome of the State 

 house a prospect is afforded, which has been compared to the bay of P^aples, and the view 

 from Castle Hill at Edinburgh. The harbor of Boston spotted with islands ; the city with 

 wharves crowded with shipping ; the bridges and avenues thronged with passengers ; the sub- 

 urbs of Charlestown and East Cambridge, themselves compact and populous towns ; the pic- 

 turesque villages and hamlets scattered about among the hills in every direction, with their white 

 houses, and tall spires peeping out from among the trees ; the distant view of the bay, and 

 ocean to the east ; the blue water, dotted with white sails, — all unite in producing a panorama 

 of surpassing beauty. 



Charlestown is in point of locality a suburb of Boston, and is connected with the city by 

 three bridges, and with Chelsea and Maiden by two. The more compact part of the town is 

 built on a peninsula, the centre of which is occupied by Bunker Hill. The houses stand on 

 the eastern and southern slope of the hill, and along its base. The main street is a mile in 

 length, and there is a spacious and handsome square in the southern part. It is a pleasant but 



