Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 02.djvu/147

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BOSTON MASSACRE 125 BOSWELL and it is commonly supposed to occupy the site of the Benedictine Abbey founded on the Witham by St. Botolph in 654, and destroyed in 870 by the Danes. The parish church of St. Botolph measures 283 by 99 feet, and is one of the largest without transepts in England. In 1843 the restoration of the church was com- menced, the work continuing 10 years, and over $50,000 being expended. A chapel to the memory of the Rev. Thomas Cotton, at one time Vicar of Boston, was erected at the expense of the inhabitants of the city of Boston, Mass. A promen- ade by the river is tastefully laid out, with a people's park, public gardens, and recreation ground adjoining. Boston has also a free grammar, charity, national, and other schools, a guildhall, etc. The chief exports are coal, machinery, corn, and wool; and the imports consist of timber, maize, cotton seed, and general merchandise. The river and canals furnish communication with Lincoln and several other towns. Boston is a great market for cattle and sheep, and has manufactures of canvas, sail cloth, ropes, sacking, beer, iron, brass, leather, bricks, whiting and hats, with some ship- building. Fox, the martyrologist, and Herbert Ingram, founder of the "Illus- trated London News," to whom a statue was erected in 1862, were natives of Boston. Since the Distribution of Seats Act (1885) Boston returns only one member to Parliament. The town owns extensive docks. Pop. about 17,000. BOSTON MASSACRE, an affray in that city, March 5, 1770, that resulted from the exasperated feeling between residents of the town and the British soldiers quartered there. It began on the 2d of March, with the exchange of insults and blows between a group of workmen and some passing soldiers. Minor injuries resulted, but the affair was stopped before it had reached large proportions. Three days later, toward evening, another party of soldiers was denied passage by a crowd of people armed with canes and clubs. The officer of the detachment sent his soldiers back, and then the crowd began to taunt a sentinel on guard in front of the Custom House. He struck a boy with the butt of his musket, and the latter ran off and brought up a crowd, who pressed upon the sentinel with shouts of "Kill him! Knock him down!" The sentinel was as- sailed with a shower of snowballs and driven up the steps. He called for as- sistance and his comrades responded, their colonel, Preston, at their head. The crowd surged about them, and at last a volley was fired by the soldiers tbi^^ 9— Vol. resulted in the killing of three men and the mortal wounding of two others. Alarm bells were rung, enraged citizens hurried to the scene and there was tre- mendous excitement, that was quieted only when Preston was put under ar- rest by order of Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson and the soldiers ordered back to their barracks. A trial ensued and Preston, who was defended by eminent counsel, including John Adams and Josiah Quincy, was acquitted, while two of the soldiers who were found guilty of manslaughter were branded in the hand and discharged. A monument was erected in 1888 to the memory of the victims. BOSTON MOUNTAINS, a mountain range in western Arkansas, extending into the Indian Territory; highest sum- mits, 3,000 feet above the sea. BOSTON TEA PARTY, THE, a famous exploit preceding the American Revolution. In order to make as em- phatic a protest as possible against the British crown's policy of taxing im- ports, a party of Bostonians, disguised as Indians, threw into the water on the night of Dec. 16, 1773, the cargoes of three English tea ships that had just arrived in the harbor. Enraged at this act, Parliament passed (March, 1774) the Boston Port Bill, taking away from that town the privileges of a port of entry from June 1, 1774, on. This bill aroused much indignation in the colonies and was an important factor in precipi- tating the outbreak of hostilities. BOSTON UNIVERSITY, a coeduca- tional institution in Boston, Mass.; or- ganized in 1869 under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The university reported at the end of 1919; Professors and instructors, 364; stu- dents, about 5,700; volumes in the libra- ries, 63,000; productive funds, $3,212,- 448; income, $160,000; president, L. H. Murlin, D. D., LL. D, BOSWELL, JAMES, a Scotch biog- rapher; the eldest son of Lord Auchin- leck, one of the Supreme Judges of Scot- land, born in Edinburgh, Oct. 29, 1740. He was educated at Edinburgh and Cambridge, became a member of the Scottish bar, but rarely practiced. In 1763 he became acquainted with Dr. Johnson — a circumstance which he him- self calls the most important event of his life. In 1768, when Corsica attracted much attention, he published his account of Corsica, with "Memoirs of Paoli." In 1785 he settled at London, and was called to the English bar. Being on ♦^-rms of the closest intimacy with Dr. II— Cyc