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Rh grammar school founded by Philip and Mary in 1554, three subscription libraries, a court house, spacious market houses, and commodi-

ons salt-water baths, with pleasant grounds, established in 1830 for the use of the public. The manufactures consist of sail cloth, cordage,

leather, iron and brass work, &c. There is a considerable foreign trade, chiefly with the Baltic, whence timber, iron, hemp, and tar are imported, while large quantities of agricul- tural produce are transported to London. A monastery was founded here in 654 by the Saxon St. Botolph, and destroyed by the Danes in 870; "hence," as Lombard says, " the name of Botolph's town, commonly and corruptly called Boston." There were several other ecclesiastical establishments, which were suppressed in the time of Henry VIII. Dur- ing the civil war Boston was for a time the headquartei's of Cromwell's army. Its decline subsequent to the 16th century was caused by the prevalence of the plague, to which its low situation particularly exposed it, and by the gradually increasing difficulty of the Witham navigation. The healthiness of the place has been unproved by draining the surrounding fens, and its commercial prosperity has been in some degree restored by great improvements in the channel of the river. Vessels of 300 tons now unlade in the heart of the town. It is connected by canals and railroads with the principal towns in the north. Boston was the birthplace of Fox the martyrologist. See " The History and Antiquities of Boston," &c., by Pishey Thompson (royal 8vo, Boston, 1856).

 BOSTON, Thomas, a Scottish Presbyterian clergyman, born at Dunse in March, 1676, died at Ettrick, May 20, 1732. He was edu- cated at Edinburgh university, and ordained minister of Simprin in 1699, whence he was transferred to Ettrick in 1707. He was a member of the general assembly and an un- compromising champion of the independence of the Scottish church. His works, which are strongly Oalvinistic, were first published col- lectively in 1852 in 12 volumes. The best known are the "Fourfold State," the " Crook in the Lot," and a "Body of Divinity," which is esteemed of high authority in the Presbyte- rian church. He also left "Memoirs of his own Life and Times."

 BOSTRA. See BOZEAH.

 BOSWELL, James, the biographer of Samuel Johnson, born in Edinburgh, Oct. 29, 1740, died in London, June 19, 1795. His father, as judge of the court of session, bore the title of Lord Auchinleck, after the family estate in Ayrshire. James studied at the universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, and early in life became a high churchman and a tory, although his father was a rigid Presbyterian and a whig. His early ambition for intimate relations with distinguished persons was strengthened on his first visit to London in 1760, and it was with difficulty that his father prevailed upon him to give up the notion of going into the guards, and to resume the study of law. After re- maining for a short time at the university of Utrecht, he travelled extensively, visiting Vol- taire, Rousseau, and other men of note. In 1766 he became a member of the faculty of ad- vocates, but never practised, and soon after- ward published a pamphlet concerning the celebrated Douglas cause, and one in 1774 containing a report of the decisions of the court of session on literary property. He was 