under that of Fenelon. Bossuet, by his attitude, alike unjust and ungenerous, has left an indelible stain upon his otherwise brilliant reputation, while the man for whose condemnation he resorted to violence and intrigue con ducted himself with the meekness and charity of a saint. Attacked by a painful disorder, of which the premonitory symptoms appeared in 1696, the venerable prelate lingered on until the 12th of April 1704, when he died at Paris in his 77th year, amid the tokens of universal regret.
Of unrivalled eloquence and consummate learning, an intrepid controversialist and defender of the faith, as well as the most conscientious and diligent of bishops, he will probably be remembered longest as the champion of the ancient rights and liberties of the Gallican Church, and the representative of a phase of Catholicism which the Vatican council has for ever banished from within the Roman pale.
The best edition of Bossuet s works is that of Lachat in thirty-one vols., Paris (Vives). See also Life of Bossuet, by Cardinal de Bossuet ; Studies of his Life, by Floquet ; and the Memoirs of the Abbe le Dieu. There is a full and admirable English Life ofBossuet, by the author of the Life of St. Francis de Sales, 1874. For Brougham s estimate of Bossuet as an orator, which is very depre ciatory, see his Works, iii. 262-269. For a criticism of L ffistoire Universelle see Flint s Philosophy of History.
BOSTON, a parliamentary and municipal borough and seaport town of England, in the county of Lincoln and wapentake of Skirbeck. It is situated in a rich agricultural district on the Witham, six miles from the sea, and thirty miles S.E. of Lincoln on the Great Northern Railway, in 52° 59′ N. lat. and 2° E. long.
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Arms of Boston. |
Boston is by some supposed to have been a Roman station in the province of Flavia Cæsariensis, but of this sufficient evidence does not seem to exist. According to the Saxon Chronicle, St Botolph, the patron of sailors, founded a monastery at Icanhoe in 654, which was destroyed by the Danes in 870. From this Boston is said to have taken its name (Botolph's town). It became a place of considerable commercial importance after the Norman Conquest, and, in 1204, when the quinzième tax was imposed on the ports of England, that of Boston amounted to £780, and was exceeded only by that of London, which was £836. A great annual fair was held in the town at this period. By 27th Edward III. it was made a staple for wool, woolfells, leather, and lead. Its prosperity about this time induced merchants from the Hanseatic and other Continental commercial cities to settle here ; a century later, however, these foreigners were obliged to leave, in consequence of a quarrel with the townsmen. From this time it rapidly declined. The dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII. injured the town, though compensation was in some degree made by granting it a charter of incorporation; and Philip and Mary endowed it with upwards of 500 acres of land. It afterwards suffered from the plague and from inundations, to which its low situation rendered it particularly liable. It was for some time the headquarters of Cromwell's army.
Boston is well built, paved, and lighted. It is divided into two nearly equal parts by the Witham, here crossed by an elegant iron bridge of one arch, 86 feet in span. At one time the supply of water was very deficient ; but, in virtue of an Act passed in 1847, there is now a plentiful supply conveyed by pipes from a distance of twelve miles. The principal building is the parish church of St Botolph, founded in 1309, and partly restored in 1857 at the expense of the inhabitants of Boston in America, in memory of their connection with the English city. It is one of the largest churches without aisles in the kingdom, being 290 feet by 98 within the walls. The tower, 290 feet in height, resembles that of Antwerp cathedral, and is crowned by a beautiful octagonal lantern, forming a landmark seen forty miles off. A chapel of ease was erected in 1822. There is a free grammar school, founded in 1554, a charity school for the sons of poor freemen, a blue-coat, national, and other schools. There is also a dispensary, a town-hall, a market-house, a custom-house, assembly rooms, a theatre, a borough gaol, a house of correction, a union poor-house, Vauxhall gardens, a mechanics institution, public baths, subscription libraries, an athenæum, and a freemason's hall, built in imitation of Egyptian architecture. The manufactures consist chiefly of sail-cloth, canvas, sacking, ropes, beer, leather, hats, and bricks. There are also iron and brass foundries, and ship-yards, with patent slips, where vessels of 200 tons are built.
From neglect to clear the river, it became so obstructed that in 1750 a sloop of 40 or 50 tons could with difficulty come up to the town at spring tides. Since that period great improvements have been made, and vessels of 300 tons are enabled to unload in the town. The imports are chiefly timber, pitch, tar, and hemp from the Baltic, and coal and manufactures coastwise ; the exports, wool, wood, corn, and other agricultural produce. The total value of the former was in 1873, £200,825, and of the latter £86,571. By means of the river and the canals connected therewith, Boston has navigable communication with Lincoln, Gainsborough, Nottingham, and Derby. The East Lincolnshire Railway connects it with Louth, Grimsby, and other towns in the north, and the Great Northern with Peterborough and the south ; another line extends to Lincoln. It has returned two members to parliament since the reign of Edward IV. The title of Baron of Boston is borne by the Irby family. In 1871 the population within the parliamentary boundaries was 18,279; within the municipality, 14,526.
BOSTON, the capital of the State of Massachusetts, in Suffolk County, and the second city in commerce, wealth, banking capital, and valuation in the United States of North America. It lies at the bottom of Massachusetts Bay, and is one of many pear-shaped peninsulas formerly attached to the mainland only by narrow marshy necks, which fringed the shores of the bay. The Charles River, once more than double its present width, divides it from the similar promontory of Charlestown (the site of the battle of Bunker Hill), on the other side of which the Mystic River, uniting with the Charles, flows into the harbour. The latest determination gives the latitude of Boston 42° 21′ 27.6″ N., and the longitude 5° 59′ 18″ E. from Washington and 71° 3′ 30″ W. from Greenwich. When it is noon in Boston it is 4 o'clock 44 minutes and 14 seconds at Greenwich, and 36 minutes past 11 at Washington, which is distant by railroad 450 miles.
The Indian name of the peninsula was “Shawmut,” meaning “living fountains.” When Governor John Winthrop, with his company, came over from England with the king's charter, to establish a government under it in the bay, they reached Charlestown, as a temporary settlement, on June 17, 1630. Looking across the Charles, the Indian Shawmut presented to the eye an elevation nearly in its centre, with three distinct summit peaks, the remnants of the only one of which now remaining constitute the present Beacon Hill, so called from its ancient use as a signal warning station. These triple summits led to the substitution of the name “Trimountaine,” or “Tremont,” as the English designation of the whole peninsula—a favourite title perpetuated in the name of a central street,
