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��Colofiel Fletcher Webster.
��It would seem, however, that a revival of business was deemed within the range of possibilities, for in con- veyances made in 1852 the company reserved the right to use the land "for canalling purposes"; and the directors annually went through with the form of electing an agent and collector as late as 1853.
Its vocation gone, and valueless for any other service," says Amory,
��' ' the canal property was sold for $130,000. After the final dividends, little more than the original assess- ments had been returned to the stock- holders." Oct. 3, 1859, the Supreme Court issued a decree, declaring that the proprietors had " forfeited all their franchises and privileges, by reason of non-feasance, non-user, misfeasance and neglect." Thus was the corporation forever extinguished.
��COLONEL FLETCHER WEBSTER.
By Charles Cowley, LL.D.
��Fletcher Webster, son of Daniel and Grace (Fletcher) Webster, was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, July 23, 1 81 3. He was but three years old when his father removed to Boston, where he was fitted for college in the Public Latin School, — the nursery of so many eminent men.
On the seventeenth of June, 1825, when Lafayette laid the corner-stone of the monument on Bunker Hill, when Daniel Webster delivered one of the most famous of his orations, Fletcher Webster, then twslve years old, was present. " The vast procession, im- patient of unavoidable delay, broke the line of march, and, in a tumultuous crowd, rushed towards the orator's platform," which was in imminent danger of being crushed to the earth. Fletcher Webster was only saved from being trampled under foot, by the thoughtful care of George Sullivan, who lifted the boy upon his own shoulders, shouting, "Don't kill the orator's son ! " and bore him through the crowd, and placed him upon the staging at his
��father's feet. It required the utmost efforts of Daniel Webster to control that multitudinous throng. "Stand back, gentlemen ! " he repeatedly shouted with his double-bass voice ; " you must stand back ! " " We can't stand back, Mr. Webster; it is impossible ! " cried a voice in the crowd. Mr. Webster rephed, in tones of thunder : " On Bunker Hill nothing is impossible." And the crowd stood back.
At the age of sixteen, he lost his mother by death. This was the great- est of all the calamities that happened to his father, and it was not less unfor- tunate for himself, for it deprived him of the best influence that ever con- tributed to mould his career.
In 1829, Fletcher Webster entered Harvard College, and was graduated in the class of 1833, when he delivered the class oration, which Charles Sumner, who was present, said " was character- ized by judgment, sense, and great directness and plainness of speech."
While at college, he was distinguished for his fine social qualities, for his
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