He continued at Mézières sixteen years, during which time he obtained alone, or in conjunction with others, several of the prizes of the academy. He divided one with Albert Euler (son of the Euler) another with the son of Daniel Bernoulli. He published, during this period, his course of mathematics, which for a long time was in high reputation, and procured him the means of living when he lost his professorship by the revolution. He succeeded his friend Camus as member of the Academy of Sciences, and as examiner of the candidates for the artillery and engineers. He was one of the contributors to the Encyclopédia, and wrote the introductory discourse to the mathematical volumes. His articles are signed I. B. in that work. He gave, in 1779, a complete edition of Pascal, of whose writings he was a great admirer.

His treatise of Hydrodynamics, and his memoirs on that subject in the memoirs of the academy, contributed materially to the connexion between the theory and practice of that science. It is not that much has been done, but of that little Bossut may claim an important part. In a memoir which gained the prize in 1796, he endeavoured to account for the acceleration of the moon's mean motion by the supposition of a resisting medium.

When he lost all his places by the revolution he went into retirement, and wrote his sketch of the history of mathematics. [BONNYCASTLE.] The second edition of this work he published in 1810: it is a lively and interesting sketch, but written, as it appears to us, in strong colouring. Delambre asserts that a misanthropic feeling, the consequence of his misfortunes, made him unjust towards his contemporaries; but at the same time it is the only compendium which is likely to be useful to the student. Bossut was not likely to be either intentionally unjust or complaisant: Delambre remarks that his impartial intentions would necessarily be a consequence of that roideur de caractère' which distinguished him. Perhaps he copied his early friend D'Alembert: he certainly did so in a description of himself in the third person [D'ALEMBERT], the tone of which is curiously like the one in the article cited.

Bossut was originally intended for the church, and was indeed an abbé, which title he bore until the abolition of clerical distinctions. He died Jan. 14, 1814. The preceding account is entirely (as to facts) from Delambre's éloge in the Memoirs of the Institute for 1816. We do not know of any other account whatsoever.

BOSTANJI, from Bostan, a garden. The class of men who bear this name, who now perform a curious variety of functions, and whose head or chief (Bostanji-Bashi) is one of the grand dignitaries of the Turkish empire, seem originally to have been nothing more than the sultan's gardeners, at tached to the imperial residence or seraglio of Constantinople. They still work as gardeners in the sultan's pleasuregrounds at Constantinople and on the Bosporus, but the more conspicuous of their duties are, to mount guard in the seraglio, to row the sultan's barge, to row the caïques of all the officers of the palace, to follow those great men, on foot, when they ride on business through the city, and to attend to the execution of the numerous orders of the bostanjibashi. They were aggregated with the janissaries, with whom they formerly did military duty in the field, but the bostanjis were not suppressed at the sanguinary dissolution of that turbulent militia, although their number has been considerably decreased. When the Ottoman Court was in its splendour, the bostanji corps amounted to 2500 men, who were divided into ortas, or companies, like the janissaries. The distinctive part of their costume was an enormous bonnet, or caouk, made of scarlet cloth.

The bostanji-bashi, who has the rank of a pasha, is governor of the seraglio and the other imperial residences. He is inspector-general of the woods and forests in the neighbourhood of Constantinople. The shores of the Bosporus and the Sea of Marmora, from the mouth of the Black Sea to the Straits of the Dardanelles, are under his jurisdiction, and formerly no person whatsoever could build or even repair a house on those coasts without his permission. For this license fees were exacted, which were generally fixed in the most arbitrary manner. Whenever the sultan makes an excursion by water (and in the fine seasons

Except when at the helm of the imperial barge, the bostanji-bashi used rarely to be seen abroad by daylight; no doubt,' says D'Ohsson, with much naïveté, on account of the sensation produced by the presence of the supreme minister of executions.'

Another very lucrative duty attached to this composite office was the inspection of the trade in wine, and lime, or mortar for building, carried on in the capital and its vicinity. Of late years, however, since Sultan Mahmoud has become a reformer, both the money-getting branches of the office, and the more horrible functions of the bostanji-bashi, have been considerably abridged; and in time we may hope to see him as harmless a character as the commander of a royal yacht or a court chamberlain in Christendom.

BOSTON (Lincolnshire), a sea port, bor., and m. t., on the Witham; partly in the wap. of Skirbeck, and partly in that of Kirton. The church is in 53° 10' N. lat., 0° 25′ W. long. Its measured distance from London is 116 m.; its computed distance, in a straight line, 93 m. It is 36 m. S.S.E. of Lincoln. Previous to the Reform Act, it was in the division of Holland; it is now in the parts of Kesteven and Holland, which form the S. division of the co., and is one of the polling-places for the election of knights of the shire. 'A small addition is made to the par. by the Boundary Act to constitute the new borough.' (Corp. Rep.) These additions are the parish of Skirbeck, the hamlet of Skirbeck Quarter, and the fen-allotment of Skirbeck-Quarter. Boston has sent two members to parliament since the 37th Henry VIII., when it was first made a free borough. It sent members to three councils in the reign of Edward III.

Origin, History, Antiquities.-The origin and antient history of Boston are obscure. The great canal or drain, called the Car-dyke, which extends forty miles in length from the Welland, in the S. of the county, near Lincoln, to the Witham, is generally attributed to the Romans. It is stated on various authorities that Roman coins have been found on the banks of this dyke. The Foss-dyke is a continuation of the drain from Lincoln to the Trent at Torksey, and appears to have been the work of the same hands. The Westlode, another antient drain in the parts of Holland, carries off the upland waters, by its communication with the Welland at Spalding. The old sea-dyke is a great bank erected along the coast, in order to render the drains safe from the influx of the ocean. (Dugdale's History of Embanking and Draining.)

The marshes and fens which had been hitherto, or at least for some previous centuries, extensive lakes of stagnant water, were now drained, and furnished large tracts of rich land, suitable for every agricultural purpose. The country was intersected with canals, and guarded from the future inroads of the sea by stupendous works of embankment, erected under the directions and by the skill of the Roman generals and commanders. (Noble's Gazetteer of Lincolnshire.) Several of the great works bere alluded to are said to have been performed in Nero's time, and during the procuratorship of Catus Decianus. The county of Lincoln was included in the Roman province of Flavia Cæsariensis, and there were several military stations in different parts of the county. Whether Boston was one of them is a disputed point among antiquaries. By one authority it is considered, with a great degree of plausibility, as the Causennis of the Romans. (Reynolds's Commentary on the Itinerary of Antoninus.) To those who are curious on the subject of these antient military stations, the Itinerarium of Dr. William Stukeley, and his account of Richard of Cirencester, may be consulted with satisfaction. Three of the principal Roman roads were carried through Lincolnshire, but none of them passed through Boston, and it

Boston not being mentioned in Domesday Book, Mr. P. Thompson supposes that it was included with Skirbeck, for at the present day, it is very nearly surrounded by Skirbeck, and appears to occupy the very centre of the land which, in the Domesday Survey, was returned as belonging to that parish.'

Modern History.-Little worthy of notice is recorded of Boston during the early part of the Norman government. In the year 1204 it was a wealthy town; for when the quinzième was levied (a duty which was raised on the fifteenth part of land and goods, at the several ports of England), the merchants of Boston paid 7807.; London paid 8361. (Madox's Hist. of the Exchequer.) London paid the largest sum of any port, and Boston was the second in amount. (Thompson.) A great annual fair was held at Boston; at what date established is unknown, but it is on record that it was resorted to from Norwich, Bridlington, and Craven during the thirteenth century. Articles of dress, wine, and groceries formed part of its commerce. In 1281 part of Boston was destroyed by fire; and in 1286 a great part of the town and the surrounding district suffered from an inundation. This flood is probably the same as that mentioned in Stowe's Chronicle, p. 229. An intolerable number of men, women, and children were overwhelmed with the water, especially the towne of Boston, or Buttolphe's-towne, a great part whereof was destroyed. It was one of the towns, appointed by the statute of staple (27th Edward III.), where the staple of wools, leather, woolfels, and lead, should be held. A staple town is described by Weever as a place to which, by authority and privilege, wool, hides, wine, corn, and other foreign merchandize are conveyed to be sold; or, it is a town or city whither the merchants of England, by command, order, or commandment, did carry their lead, tin, or other home produce for sale to foreign merchants. Many merchants from the important commercial towns of the continent resided at Boston during this early period, and it is probable that both the above characteristics of a staple town were combined in it. It also ranked high as one of the sea-ports of the kingdom, its situation at the mouth of the Witham giving it advantages equal to those of any other port on the eastern coast. The advantages which Boston possessed as a place of trade, brought over the merchants of the Hanseatic league, who established their guild here. In 1359 Edward III. assessed eighty-two towns to provide ships and men for the invasion of Brittany. Boston furnished to this navy seventeen ships and 361 men, a greater number of vessels than was supplied by Portsmouth, Hull, Harwich, or Lynn; and equal in number of ships, and superior in number of men to those furnished by Newcastle; out of the eighty-two towns, only eleven sent a superior number of ships to Boston. (Archæologia, and Thompson's Collections.)

About 1470 the trade of Boston received a check in consequence of some dispute, when one Humphrey Littlebyri, marchant of Boston, did kill one of the Esterlinges;' (supposed to be the same as the Hanseatic merchants); this caused the Esterlinges to quit Boston, and syns the town sore decayed. (Leland's Itinerary, vol. vii.) At the time when Leland wrote his account of Boston (1530), the commerce of the town had begun to decline. He speaks of the great and famous fair, and of the old glory and riches that it had,' as matters of history, and says, the staple and the stilliard houses yet there remayne, but the stilliard is little or nothing at all occupied. The stilliardhouse was the antient custom-house, and the merchants of

the steelyard were so called, from the circumstance of their trading almost entirely by weight, and using the steelyard as their weighing apparatus. Boston was still further re duced by the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII. Some amends were made by Henry in granting the town a charter of incorporation; it was thus made a free borough, and enjoyed many important privileges. By this charter, granted in the 37th of Henry VIII., the borough is at present chiefly governed. Philip and Mary, in the first year of their reign, endowed the corporation with a rich grant of lands and messuages, to assist in maintaining the bridge and port, for supporting a school in the town, for in the parish church, and for the maintenance of four beadsmen to pray there for ever for the good and prosperous state of the queen while living. This valuable endowment, according to the original record, in the Chapel of the Rolls, consisted of fifty messuages, ten gardens, and 227 acres of land, situated immediately near Boston. The late municipal inquiry however shows the property to be '511 acres, 1 rood, and 21 perches of land, and some houses, and yields a yearly rent of 2142l. 16s. 6d. This difference is accounted for partly by a presumed inaccuracy in the measurements, and partly by the circumstance of many allotments having been made to the corporation under Inclosure Acts. (Corporation Reports.)

During the reign of Elizabeth the port continued to decline, though she granted the mayor and burgesses a charter of admiralty, giving them power to levy certain duties on ships entering the Norman Deeps. In 1571 Boston and the surrounding district suffered much from a violent tempest, an account of which is given by Hollinshed. During the latter part of that century it was visited by the plague, and in 1625 it had a similar visitation. In 1643 Boston was strongly fortified for the king and parliament, but it was soon crowded with the parliamentary soldiery, and made the head-quarters of Cromwell's army. The principal men of the district favoured the cause of the Protector. In June, 1643, Colonel Cavendish defeated the parliamentary troops at Donington, near Boston, and soon after Cromwell removed his quarters to Sleaford. On the restoration of Charles II. a warrant was issued, by which some of the officers of the borough were removed, in consequence of the favour they had shown in the cause of Cromwell. About the middle of the eighteenth century, the commerce of Boston fell into still greater decay, through the ruinous state into which the river and haven had fallen, in consequence of neglect and mismanagement, and from errors committed in the execution of works of drainage.' (Thompson.)

Ecclesiastical History.-Dr. Stukeley supposes that the monastery of St. Botolph stood on the south of the present church; he saw vast stone walls dug up there, and a plain leaden cross. Nothing is known of this establishment except the dates of its foundation and destruction, which have been mentioned. The Dominican, or black friars, were established at Boston in the early part of the thirteenth century in A.D. 1288 their church was burnt in a riot (Tanner's Notitia Monastica); but they were afterwards re-established. The Carmelite friars had a priory at Boston, founded in 1301, and various small grants of land from pious individuals, and from Henry IV.; and their order was patronized by Thomas Earl of Rutland. Not a vestige of this priory remains: at the dissolution of the religious houses, its site was granted to the mayor and burgesses of Boston. The Augustine friars had also an establishment at Boston, founded in 1307; and also the Franciscans, or grey friars, one founded in 1332, and under the wardenship of the monastery at York. The sites of these houses were granted to the corporation at the Reformation. Some other minor religious houses are recorded as having existed at Boston. Several associations, called Guilds, existed at Boston, some of which seem to have had a mixed character. The monks are supposed to have been their first founders. The guild of St. Botolph was a fraternity of merchants, which appears to have had only mercantile objects in view. The guild of Corpus Christi is thought to have been a religious one; at the Dissolution it was called a college. The guild of the Blessed Mary was one of greater importance, and in its purposes partly religious. Its hall is at present used by the corporation for their judicial proceedings, public dinners, &c. The council-chamber contains a portrait of Sir Joseph Banks, by Lawrence, which was presented by him to the corporation on his election to the office of recorder of Boston,

in 1809. The guild of St. Peter and St. Paul was a religious establishment, and had a chapel, or an altar in the parish church. St. George's guild was a trading community, and respecting that of the Holy Trinity nothing is known. The possessions of all these guilds were vested in the corporation of Boston when the religious houses were dissolved.

The first stone of the present church of St. Botolph was laid in 1309, but the existence of a church at Boston is recorded so early as 1090. The vicarage is now in the gift of the corporation, and its annual value is 360l. (Ecclesiastical Reports), which is paid out of the grant of Philip and Mary. This church is one of the largest parish churches without transepts in the kingdom. It is 245 feet long, and 98 feet wide within the walls. Its tower is one of the loftiest in the kingdom, being 300 feet high, and ascended by 365 steps. The tower, which is visible at sea for more than forty miles, is surmounted by an elegant octagonal lantern, which is a guide to mariners on entering the Boston and Lynn Deeps. This lantern,' says Rickman, is panelled throughout, and each side is pierced with a large two light window, having double transoms; this composition gives to the upper part of the steeple a richness and lightness scarcely equalled in the kingdom. The church is principally decorated, and the tower perpendicular, both excellent in their kind. The chancel is partly decorated and partly perpendicular, and there is a good south porch. The tower, which is one of the finest compositions of the perpendicular style, is a complete arrangement of panelling over walls and buttresses, except the belfry story, in which the window is so large as nearly to occupy the whole face of the tower.' (Rickman on Gothic Architecture, p. 251.) The altar-piece, set up in 1741, is in four compartments, and represents the Crucifixion, the Annunciation, the Presentation in the Temple, and the Ascension; it is a copy from the celebrated one by Rubens in the great church at Antwerp. In a chamber over the south door is the parish library, which contains several hundred volumes, among which are many valuable and scarce works on divinity; it was formed by Anthony Tuckney. (Britton's Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain.)

The chapel of ease, which was erected by subscription in 1822, is a perpetual curacy, in the gift of the subscribers, for fifteen years from the time of its erection; after which time the corporation become its patrons. There was formerly a church called St. John's, which was taken down nearly 200 years ago; its burying-ground is still used as a place of interment. The dissenting places of worship in Boston are for Independents, Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists, General and Particular Baptists, Unitarians, and Quakers. Most of these denominations have their own Sundayschools, which altogether educate nearly a thousand children.

The Haven.-The history of the Witham, and the harbour, and the influence of the drainage of the fens upon them, abound with interesting details. The changes which have taken place from local circumstances appear to have greatly affected the prosperity of the town. Speaking of the fall in the Witham from Lincoln to the sea, Sir William Dugdale says, the descent of the stream is so little, that the water, having a slow passage, cannot keep it wide and deep enough either for navigation or for draining the adjacent marshes.' It appears, notwithstanding, that during the commercial prosperity of Boston, ships of a heavy burden could get up to the town; it appears also that in those days great attention was paid to the removal of obstructions, and to the cleansing of the river. In 1751 it was stated that thirty years before a ship of 250 tons could get up to Boston; but that then even a small sloop of forty or fifty tons, drawing only six ft. of water, could not sail to or from the town except at a spring-tide. One of the causes of this decay of the haven is attributed to the diversion of the waters of the neighbouring fens from their antient entrance into the Witham, above Boston, which had formerly discharged themselves in such large quantities, as to assist in scouring away the sediment brought up by every tide. (Kinderley's Report, and Chapman's Facts and Remarks relative to the Witham.) Ân act of parliament was obtained in 1762, empowering the corporation to cut a canal, and to construct a great sluice, to assist in the drainage, and to remove the impediments in the navigation of Boston haven. This was done, and the sluice was opened in 1766. Various subsequent acts of parliament for minor improvements in draining, deepening,

and embanking have also been obtained. The most favourable results have followed these measures, which began to be visible as soon as the larger works were completed.

Town Government, Population, Expenses, &c.- Boston has been chiefly governed by the charter of Henry VIII., already mentioned. The title of the corporation was, The Mayor and Burgesses of the borough of Boston;' the officers being a mayor, recorder, deputy-recorder, twelve aldermen, eighteen common councilmen, coroner, town-clerk, judge of the court of admiralty, gaoler, and subordinate officers connected either with the borough or port. Freemen were created by birth, servitude, gift, and purchase. The number of resident freemen was about four hundred and eighty; that of non-residents, about forty. Under the new Municipal Act, it is placed in the second section of the boroughs which are to have a commission of the peace, to be divided into three wards, to have six aldermen, eighteen commoncouncil men, and the other officers provided in the Act, by which the government of the borough will be materially changed. The court of quarter-sessons is held before the mayor, deputy-recorder, and other magistrates. There is a court of requests for the recovery of small debts, which seems to be beneficial. The borough gaol is very inadequate for that classification of the prisoners which the law re quires, as there is no provision for a separation of the untried from the convicted,' and the young offender has to associate, day and night, with the hardened culprit. The number of prisoners committed to this gaol was, in 1830, 308; in 1831, 290; in 1832, 289. For details respecting the income and application of the corporate funds, we refer to the Corporation Reports. The town is but indifferently supplied with water; attempts have been made to supply this deficiency by boring, but they have not been suc cessful. In 1828, a depth of 600 feet was attained without any favourable result, and the object was then abandoned. In dry seasons, the inhabitants have to buy water. It is well supplied with coal by the coasting vessels from Sunderland, Newcastle, &e. Its foreign trade is chiefly with the Baltic, whence it imports hemp, iron, timber, and tar; it exports corn, particularly oats. In the years 1811 and 1812, one-third of the whole quantity of oats which arrived in the port of London, were shipped from Boston.'

The borough and parish of Boston contains 7923 acres 39 poles. Its pop., in 1801, was 5926; in 1811, 8180; in 1821, 10,373; in 1831, 11,240; of whom 5094 were males, and 6146 females. Under its extended boundary by the Reform Act, the pop. of the borough is 12,818.

Families employed in agriculture, 149; in trade, manufactures, &c., 1234; not comprised in the above, 1104. Annual value of real property, in 1833, 40,000%. Assessed taxes, for years ending 5th of April, 1829, 30647. 138. 6d.; 1830, 29797. ls. 64d.; 1831, 2952ł. 14s. 7d. ; 1832, 30051. 48. 6td.

Parochial assessments, for years ending 25th of March, 1829, 48631. 38.; 1830, 88107. 188. 6d.; 1831, 8451l. 38.; 1832, 9091. 19s. 6d.; 1833, 8578/. 19s.

Number of houses, in 1833 (as charged to the houseduty), 10%. and under 20%. rent, 310; 201. and under 40%., 161; 407, and upwards, 79. (Municipal Report.)

Public Buildings, Trade, &c.-The town on the E. side of the river consists of one long street, called Bargate, the market-place, and some minor streets; there is another long street on the W. side of the river, called High-street. The market-place is spacious, and very suitable for the well attended and well-supplied fairs and markets which are held: the market days are Wednesdays and Saturdays, and are particularly noted for sea and river fish. Immense numbers of sheep and horned cattle are sold at the markets, and there are convenient areas in several adjacent parts of the town, where the cattle are folded and penned during the time of sale. As an out-port in the centre of a very fertile agricultural district, equally adapted to pasturage and corn, and with a breed of cattle of a very fine description-being remarkably large and famed for their symmetry-Boston is favoured above many coast-towns. The drainage and inclosure of the neighbouring fens have materially increased its internal means. of wealth, by enabling it to bring into its market immense quantities of agricultural produce; while the conveyance of this produce to London and other places gives occupation to its shipping. There are some few manufactures at Boston for sail-cloth, canvass, and sacking; there are also iron and brass founderies. By means of the Witham and the canals connected with it, Boston has a navigable com

been twice driven back, succeeded in dislodging their opponents, but with a loss of 1100 killed and wounded, including eighty-nine officers. In the heat of the action, Charlestown, a suburb of Boston on the north side of Charles River, containing several hundred houses, was set en fire by the British and entirely consumed. In the following month General Washington, then newly appointed commander-in-chief of the American forces, arrived before Boston, which he continued to invest until the following February. He then commenced offensive operations, and having with a considerable force obtained possession of the heights of Dorchester, and thrown up some works by which the town was commanded, the British general was forced to evacuate the town, which Washington entered on the 17th March, 1766.

With the exception of a spot in the south-western part of the city, called the Common, and containing about seventyfive acres, the whole of the peninsula is occupied by buildings. The city is connected with the main land by six bridges-Charles River Bridge, leading to Charles-town on the north, is 1503 feet long; West Boston Bridge, leading to Cambridge port on the west, is 7810 feet long; between these two is Canal Bridge connected with Lechmere point, 2796 feet long; two bridges unite the peninsula to a suburb on the main land, called South Boston; and the sixth connexion with the main land is by means of a mill-dam, which serves also for a bridge on the southwest side of the city: this mill-dam is nearly two miles long, and 50 feet wide.

Boston Bay or harbour is formed by numerous small islands, on one of which, at the entrance, is a light-house sixty five feet high with a revolving light. The islands, and the numerous shoals, render it necessary for vessels to take on board a pilot. There is in general sufficient d'epth of water within the bay at all times of the tide, to enable the largest vessels to reach the town where they are moored alongside wharfs, of which there are about sixty, some of them of extensive dimensions: one, called Long Wharf, is 550 yards long; and another, called Central Wharf,' is more than 400 yards long and 50 broad, with a range of lofty brick warehouses along its entire length: vessels lie here in perfect safety from whatever quarter the wind may blow. The entrance to the harbour is so narrow as scarcely to admit two ships abreast; it is defended by forts constructed on several of the islands, close to which ships

must pass.

In the oldest part of the town, those streets which remain as they were originally planned, are narrow and crooked, the houses are of small dimensions, and plainly built of wood. The more modern parts of the city are planned in better taste, the streets are wide and straight, and the houses spacious: several are constructed of granite. Many of the old streets have also been improved, and the antient wooden buildings replaced by others of brick and stone. Among the public buildings are the State House; the County Court House; the Municipal Court House; Faneuil Hall, in which the citizens hold their public meetings; two theatres, and several halls belonging to different associations. The State House stands on an elevated spot, and commands an extensive view of the bay and surrounding country it contains a fine statue of Washington. There are in the city between forty and fifty churches, some of which are handsome buildings. St. Paul's Church, in Common Street, contains a monument to the memory of Dr. Warren, who was killed at the battle of Bunker's Hill. Boston, which was the birth-place of Franklin, is also the place of his burial. He was interred in the Granary ground, where the spot is marked by a cenotaph.

The progress of the city will be seen from the following statement of the amount of its population at various dates from the beginning of the last century :

free and equal, which declaration was decided by the supreme court of Massachusetts in 1783, to be equivalent to the abolition of slavery.

The trade of Boston is very extensive, both with foreign countries and with the southern states of the American Union, to which it sends large supplies of salted meat and cured fish, as well as domestic and European manufactures, receiving in return cotton, rice, tobacco, staves, and flour. The quantity of shipping employed from, and belonging to, the port of Boston, and the nature of their employment, may be seen from the following table:

Sweden and Denmark

Brazils
Great Britain

"

British East Indies West Indies North American Colonie's Cuba and Spanish West Indies

China

Other countries

1829.

1830.

1831.

Imports Exports. Imports. Exports. Imports, Exports.

£. £. £. 318,750 38,020 166,666 94,166 33,333 76,041 59,791 62,916 71,197 833,333 72,916 735,520 256,041 57,083 135,000

£. £. 43,229 334,645 39,729 67,250

£.

36.750

59,500

31,250 1,256,250 41,666

62,708 142.708 88.750 19,166 16,770

13,854 86,562 19,166 110,625

153,125 219,583 248,958 187,916 414,854 224.375 239,583 141,145 200,504 39,270 158,750 67,708 416,666 416,666, 333,333 416,666 208,333, 416,666

2.371.455 1,041,662 1,981,073 981,007 2,703,726 1.152.080

The imports consist principally of woollen, cotton, linen, and silk manufactures, sugar, coffee, indigo, hemp, and iron; the quantity of iron annually imported amounts to 15.000 tons. The exports consist of fish and fish oils, salted meat, flour, soap, and candles, with a small quantity of the cotton manufactures of the country. The amount of tonnage frequenting the port from foreign places during the three years from 1829 to 1831 was:

nearly the whole of which was under the American flag; the amount of customs duties collected at this port in 1831 was 5,227,592 dollars, or 1,089,0817. sterling.

Boston contained in October, 1833, twenty-five banks, with an aggregate capital of upwards of sixteen millions of dollars. The highest rate of dividend made by any of these establishments is seven per cent. per annum, and the lowest is five per cent. per annum: the greatest number divide six per cent. annually. [For further particulars respecting the banks of Boston see the article BANK and BANKING, vol. iii. page 388.] There are also twenty-nine companies incorporated for fire and marine insurances, the aggregate of whose capitals is 8,100,000 dollars.

The trade of Boston is facilitated by means of the Middlesex canal, which was completed in 1808 and runs from Boston harbour to Merrimack river at Chelmsford, thus opening a cheap communication with the central part of New Hampshire. More than 120 stage coaches leave Boston, and as many arrive daily with passengers to and from all parts of the Union.

The General Court of Massachusetts, consisting of a senate and house of representatives, the former having forty and the latter an indefinite number, sometimes exceeding 500 members, meet at Boston twice in every year, in January and May. The supreme courts of judicature for the state are likewise held in the city. There is also a court consisting of three justices, styled the police court for the city of Boston, and a municipal court, consisting of one judge, who has cognizance of all crimes, not capital, committed within the city and the county of Suffolk, in which it stands.