Suffolk County, Massachusetts - The whole text, 1894 (part 4 of 17)

In Niles's Register of October 21, 1826, we find an account of a sale by public auction in Boston, on the 12th of September of that year, of three thousand packages of cotton, and woolen, and mixed domestic goods, consisting of broadcloths, cassimeres, satinets, flannels, shirtings, sheetings, prints and ginghams. On succeeding days nearly sixty thousand pairs of boots and shoes were sold in the same way ; also eighteen hundred sides of leather, seven thousand leather and morocco skins, many thousand pounds of wool, one hundred and fiftytwo casks of American olive oil, etc. The manufacturing interest in New England had grown considerably since 1820, and public opinion was beginning to divide on the question of tariff duties for protection. What we may call the commercial class, however, was opposed to taking any further steps towards high protection. On the 30th of November, 1827, an adjourned meeting was held " to take into consideration the proposed increase of duties, especially vipon woolen goods," and to receive and act upon a report from a committee of fifteen, Which had been appointed to consider the subject. Among the members of this committee were Nathaniel Goddard, Lemuel Shaw, Isaac Winslow, Lot Wheelwright, Henry Lee and Thomas W. Ward. The report presented by the committee was written by Mr. Henry Lee; it has been preserved in a pamphlet of nearly two hundred pages, and is regarded as one of the ablest papers ever written against the protective principle. The meeting accepted the report; with a memorial to Congress which accompanied it and which was to receive individual signatures, and the following resolution was adopted : Resolved, That in the present state of the agriculture, manufactures and commerce of the United States, it would be unjust, impolitic and inconsistent with the best interests of the community, to impose further and higher duties upon imported articles generally, and more particularly on imported woolen goods.

We know little about the line of Liverpool packets established in 1822, but there is every reason to believe that the enterprise was not a successful one. So important, however, did it seem to the active business men of Boston to maintain regular communication with England, especially in view of the circumstance that one or more lines of transatlantic packets ran regularly and at short intervals from New York, that, in 1827, another Liverpool line was projected here, the third of which we have had occasion to speak. In the si:mmer of this year, Henry Hall, Joshua Blake, David Henshaw, George Bond, and James T. Austin, "in behalf of certain citizens of this Commonwealth, who" had "associated to establish a regular line of packets between Boston and Liverpool in England," prayed "to be incorporated for the purpose of better managing the said concern, with such powers and privileges, and under such limitations and restrictions as to the wisdom of the Legislature" might "seem expedient." The petitioners asked for no monopoly or exclusive privileges, and disclaimed all thout^'ht of hostility or rivalry towards other citizens. The public spirit which moved them to undertake the work in which they had enlisted is well illustrated in the following sentences in their petition, and has had its reproduction in connection with many an enterprise to which the business men of Boston have given their thought and mone}^ in the years which have passed since then. These were their words: " The subscribers beg leave very respectfully to state that they have engaged in this association without any view of personal advantage or emolument peculiar to themselves, but only with a desire of preserving for this Commonwealth its fair share of a great and important branch of commerce, which, of late years, has declined; and which cannot be restored without some hazard to individuals, and much aid from the Legislature ; and while they are willing that the government of the vState should at all times possess a control over their proposed corporation, they earnestly entreat such an exercise of its liberality, in the grant of corporate privileges, as may enable them successfully to acquire the public objects for the securing of which the association has been projected."

The petition was presented by Mr. Nathaniel P. Russell, and the Hon. Jonathan Phillips, for the committee to which it was referred, reported a bill to the Senate, June S, incorporating the Liverpool Packet Company "for the term of twenty years and no longer." The company was authorized to purchase or charter American built vessels, but the value of said vessels with their tackle was never to exceed $200,000. The number of shares was fixed by the bill at four hundred, and the assessments on each share were limited to $500. On the 9th of June the committee on bills in the second reading, to which it had gone in course, reported it back with a .slight amendment, and it had its second reading ; it was then laid on the table, and that seems to have been the end of the matter, so far as the Legislature was concerned.

The company went forward with its project under articles of association, as we suppose, and on the 3d of October, 1827, George G. Jones, agent, 41 India Wharf, advertised a list of ships and the early departure of the first of the new line for Liverpool. " Mattresses, bedding, wines and all other stores " were to be furnished to passengers in the cabin, and for them the fare to Liverpool was to be $140, and from Liverpool thirty-five guineas. The Avtctliyst, which had done good service for the company of 1822, and of whose long and successful career we have given some account, sailed November 1, under the command of Jabez Howes, "with a full freight and forty-two passengers, viz., Messrs. Jacob Famsworth and Robert B. Storer, and forty in the steerage." '\:\ie N civ England, Captain Himt, was announced for the 1st of December, and this was to be the onh^ departure during the winter. In the spring of 1828 the company advertised the Amctliyst, the New England, the Boston, and the Liverpool, and it was added: "The last two named now building by Mr. Magoun, and a third to take the place of one of the preceding, b}' Mr. Robinson, all to be about four hundred and thirty tons government measure. " In addition to the Boston and the Liverpool in 1828, Mr. Magoun built at Medford for the company a second ship called the Boston, also the Trenton and the

Lcnccl I in 1832, and the Plymouth in 1833. Among the captains employed by the company were Howes and Hunt, already named, Nye, Bnrsley, and Mackay. Mr. Martin in his history of the Boston Stock Market quotes the shares of the Liverpool Packet Company in 1829 at $245 to $270, in 1831 at $310, and in 1833 at $400, the nominal par of the shares being $500 each. In 1834 some of the ships belonging, or which had belonged, to the line arrived from Liverpool, but they could not obtain return cargoes here and were obliged to proceed coastwise to Charleston or New Orleans, where they took in cargoes of cotton for Europe. We do not find mention of the company in the Boston Directory of 1834 or any later year. Business was much depressed throughout the country in 1834, as we shall explain more fully presently. We are told that in vSeptember of this year one hundred and fifty-two registered vessels (of which fifty-one were ships), with a total measurement of 37,030 tons, were in the port of Boston, " most of them unemployed, and many of them hauled up and dismantled," besides many large vessels under coasting licenses.

It is very difficult for us in this day to realize the extent to which coastwise and river navigation was made use of before the first railway routes were opened, or the exceeding value to trade of this means of transportation. After the opening of the Erie canal (1825) communication with it was established by lines of sloops which sailed from Boston round Cape Cod, through Long Island Sound, and up the Hudson to Albany and Troy. The Rev. Edward Everett Hale in the reminiscences of his boyhood, tells us of the difficulties and delays which then attended the occasional transmission of a box to Boston from a town one hundred and ten miles to the westward; " The box would be sent, say from Westhampton to Northampton, and carried by boat to Hartford. There it would be put on board a sloop which was to sail out of the Connecticut River and around Cape Cod to Boston ; and the consignee was fortunate if the sloop was not frozen in opposite Lyme or elsewhere in the Connecticut River and detained there until the next spring." Shipments for the towns on or near the Mississippi and the Ohio, even those far to the northward, were sent coastwise to New Orleans, and there were transferred to the river craft for further transit to their destination.

It is not within our purpose to trace the development of the railway system of which Boston is the centre ; but it will interest our readers, we think, to see the newspaper advertisement, which in the spring of

1834 comprised the entire passenger business by rail westward!)- from Boston: "Boston and Worcester Raih-oad. Depot 017 Washington Street. The passenger cars run daily from the Depot to Newton at fj and 10 o'clock, a. m., and 3^ o'clock, p. m.. and returning, leave Newton at 7 and a quarter past 11 a. m., and a quarter before 5 p. m." From this small beginning the present enormous traffic of the Boston and Albany Railroad has been evolved.

It was well said early in the present century: " The hemp, iron and duck brought from Russia have been to our fisheries and navigation like seed to a crop." The first vessel to go to St. Petersburg from New England was the barque Lij^lit Horse, sent out by Mr. Derby from Salem in the summer of 1784, and occasional vessels from .Salem and Boston followed, but it was several years before the trade assumed large proportions. Captain Swain, who arrived from St. Petersburg at Boston in the brig Betsey, in the autumn of 1803, gave a list of ninety American vessels which had arrived at that port between February 28 and July t\, and of these fifty-four belonged to Massachusetts. In the year 1822 Captain Wise, of the brig Essex, reported that t(j the 16th of August one hundred American vessels had passed Elsinore on their way up the Baltic. Of this number thirt3'-eight were from Boston, twelve from Salem, and twelve from other Massachusetts ports, in all sixty-two from this State ; eleven from New York, and twentyseven from other States. Seventy-four were bound to vSt. Petersburg ; eleven to Copenhagen and St. Petersburg; ten to Stockholm, and five to other ports. Sixty-six had cargoes up, and thirty-four were in ballast. In 1806, and later, this difficulty existed, that the United States sold little or nothing to Rus.sia, and bought to a large amount. The ships went " dead-freighted," and their cargoes had to be paid for in cash or in bills on London, which were better than cash, having cost a considerable premium in Spain or some other country where outward cargoes had been sold. After the War of 1812, American vessels began to go to Havana and Matanzas to load with sugar for Cronstadt, the port of St. Petersburg, and to return with Russian cargoes to Boston and New York. It was common for these cargoes to be owned in thirds, by the American shipowner, the West India shipper, and the vSt. Petersburg consignee, the first getting the advantage of the freight, the second the commission and shipping charges on the whole, and the last taking the lion's share by a commission on the amount of import duty, which was about equal to the prime cost, and another lart;:e commission on the gross proceeds. Among the articles imported were hemp, bolt-rope, cordage, oakum or tarred hemp, codilla, occasionally flax and flax-tow, junk for both oakum and paper, sail-cloth, ravensduck, diaper, crash, bar-iron, sheetiron, feathers, down, horse hair, hog's hair, felt of cow's hair, occasionally red leather, cantharides, and China rhubarb. At a later period large quantities of rags were imported from Russia, and under the tariff of 184() large quantities of hemp-yarns. In 18-^0 Mr. William Ropes, previously of the firms of Ropes, Pickman & Company, Ropes & Ward, and Ropes, Reed Sz Company, made a voyage, by way of Havana, to Crqnstadt, as supercargo of the ship Course)-, and he found the conditions there so favorable that he repeated the experiment, and in 18:52 removed to St. Petersburg and established the house of William Ropes & Company, which still continues. Mr. Ropes was the first to import cotton from the United States direct to supply the mills of Russia. The trade continued to be large and profitable imtil ISGl ; from and after this time the development of native industry in Russia, and the adoption of an extreme protective policy there as well as here, nearly destroyed it. More recently there was a large demand for American petroleum in Russia, and as many as one hundred thousand barrels have been imported at St. Petersburg in a single year; but this has become almost wholly superseded by the native article brought from the neighborhood of the Caspian >Sea. Among other Boston merchants wdio participated in this trade when it was at its best were Curtis & vStevenson, Robert B. Storer and Josiah Bradlee.

We must return to the spring of 18:U. The removal of the government deposits from the United States Bank a few months before, by order of President Jackson, and the discussion of the question of continuing the existence of the bank by a renewal of its charter, had created the most intense exciteinent and very general distrust throughout the country. Business was depressed, money was scarce, and widespread disaster seemed imminent. A protest, adopted at a vast assemblage in Faneuil Hall, which received more than six thousand six himdred signatures, had been sent to Wa.shington in deprecation of what was regarded as the perilous financial polic}' to which the administration had committed itself. At this juncture the business men of Boston did what perhaps has never been done in any other business community ; they associated themselves for their own protection and " for the mutual benefit of creditor and debtor." At a meeting held at the Exchange Coffee House, March 11, 1834, the following basis of aoreement was adopted: " Whereas, the present scarcity of money has a tendency to produce a want of confidence between creditor and debtor, the undersigned associate for the term of nine months from this date for the purpose of inspiring confidence among oui^selves, and with the view of preventing alarm and failures among those indebted to lis. We hereby agree tliat in case we deem it necessary to sue for, \sic\ compel, or take security of any one, we will do it for the mutual benefit of all the parties hereto, in proportion to the amounts due to each, whether the same are then payable or not ; and if, in any case, we consider it necessary to compel or take security, we will, if possible, confer with those of our number supposed to be interested, previous to demanding security, and act in concert; and if, in the prosecution of our association, any difference of opinion shall arise between any of the parties hereto, the same shall be referred for final adjustment to one or more of our number, mutually selected, who have no pecuniary interest in the decision." It was provided, .subsequently, that the operation of the agreement .should be "limited to debts which had been or might be contracted by persons doing business in New England at the time of the contracting thereof; " and further, that "any member of the association having the misfortune to fail " should be "bound to subject his assignee, in the collection and settlement of the debts assigned, to the same obligation which he himself " had " come under by becoming one of the association."

There was no national bankrupt law at this time, and the attachment laws of the several New England States, as the associated business men declared, were "imequal and oppressive " in their operation lioth to the debtor and the creditor. The former was liable to be pounced upon at the caprice of any one of his creditors, and the creditor who made the first demand for paj'ment or security, by destroj-ing a man's credit, breaking up his business, and winding up his affairs in a siurimary way, would be the only one, in most instances, to collect the face of his debt. These liabilities were always impending, but they were greatly increased in times of panic, and they aggravated the conditions of a panic. Hence the wisdom of the movement of which we are speaking. Stephen Fairbanks, a large dealer in hardware, was chairman of the association, and Charles Scaver and George Baty Blake were the secretaries. More than three hundred and fifty firms entered into the association, including almost all of any prominence in the town, whether wholesale or retail, and their names were printed. The names of tlnjse "who declined to become parties to the association," eighteen in number, were printed also. A permanent standing committee, "representing the various mercantile trades," was chosen, namely, George W. Crockett, Levi Bartlett, Prince Hawes, James Read, Stephen Fairbanks, William G. Lambert, Norman Seaver, Gustavus Tuckerman, James Fullerton, Amasa Walker, John Henshaw, Andrew T. Hall.

We have referred to the ice trade of Boston and to Mr. Frederic Tudor. In May, 1833, at the request of English and American merchants resident in Calcutta, Mr. Tudor sent a small cargo, about two hundred tons, to that port. The result, like that of the first shipment to the West Indies, was not a pecuniary success, but it proved that ice carried twenty thousand miles, with all the attendant waste and loss, could be made to compete successfully with that prepared by the natives. The establishment of a regular trade followed, and this increased steadily in volume and importance, and enabled Boston to hold for many years "the key to the rich and extensive commerce between Calcutta and the United States." A cargo was sent to Rio Janeiro in 1834. In 1842 Messrs. Gage, Hittinger & Company shipped a cargo to London in the barque Sharon, but it was not a success, and later attempts to introduce the American article into that market were not more fortunate. In 1855 'twelve companies were engaged jn the business in and about Boston, and the estimated vakie of the plant, including ponds, ice-houses, wharves and tools, was $000,000. The quantity shipped to the East Indies in 1857 was ten or eleven thousand tons, and during the next two or three years it increased to twenty thousand. In 1S(;7 it reached twenty-seven thou.sand tons and then gradually fell away, until the annual shipment was only one or two thousand. The total export of ice from Boston, foreign and coastwise, according to the custom-house returns, was 142,403 tons in 1800, and this was the highest point reached. In 1SG5 it was 131,275, and in 1880 124,751. In later years the total export was from fifty to sixty thousand tons per annum.

We have referred to a Chamber of Commerce which existed in Boston in 1793, and for a few years thereafter, but we know almost nothing of its proceedings. On the 11th of January, 1830, a meeting of merchants and traders was held at the "Old Common Council Room in Court Square," to act definitely upon the formation of a Chamber of

Commerce. " The mercantile interest of this city was never more fully represented than it was at the meeting on Monday; the hall was crowded, and it was a subject of regret that more could not be accommodated. Mr. Thomas B. Wales, a gentleman whose efforts are never withheld in the cause of improvement and public spirit, was called to the chair, and Mr. George William Gordon was chosen secretary." A committee appointed at a previous meeting reported in favor of forming a Chamber, and presented a preamble and code of by-laws which, at its suggestion, was recommitted to a new committee, of which Mr. Henry Lee was chairman, to report at a future meeting. On the ISth of January the organization of the Chamber was completed and officers were chosen, namely, William Sturgis, president; Thomas B. Wales, Robert G. Shaw, David Henshaw, vice-presidents ; and a Board of forty-eight directors. These officei^s chose George M. Thacher for secretary, and James C. Wild for treasurer. The Chamber met twice a year, in January and July; the current business was transacted by the Board of Government.

The Chamber held its second annual meeting January lii, ISlJi. The treasurer, Mr. Wild, reported that the cash on hand amounted to $l,;j(lO, which had been received for entrance fees and fees for arbitrating mercantile eases. The number of members was reported as rising three Inmdred, "shipowners, importers, grocers, traders." After a long discussion on the usury laws, a memorial to the Legislature was unanimously adopted, asking for a repeal or modification of the laws relating to interest on money. The Chamber took an active interest in ptiblic affairs for three or four years, and then its influence waned. The last meeting, March 14, 1843, was called to receive a communication from Canada relating to proposed railway communication between that colony and Boston. The officers, besides those already mentioned, were Thomas B. Wales, Nathan Appleton, and Abbott Lawrence, presidents, and Francis J. Oliver, Charles Henshaw, William Appleton, John Bryant, Amos Lawrence, vice-presidents.

From 1(S20 to 1830 the trade of Boston, both foreign and domestic, grew and advanced steadily ; and from 1830 to 1840 it prospered still more. The taxable valuation in 1820 was $38,389,200; in 1830, .$50,- .58(;,000; in 1840, $94,581, (;oo. While the valuation increased fifty fier cent, between 1830 and 1840, the arrivals from foreign ports increased from 042 to 1028 during this decade. The disasters of 1837 checked this growth only for the time. The railroads to Providence, Lowell and Worcester were built, and the line from Worcester to the Hudson River was almost completed. The development of railway transportation, and the opening of steam communication with Liverpool, combined to make the next decade, from 1840 to 1850, one of the most marked in the commercial history of Boston.

Before we take up the subject of ocean steam navigation, we will make some quotations from an interesting article in the Boston Daily Atlas of January 11, 1842, in which a comparison is drawn between the year 1821, the last year in the history of Boston as a town, and 1841. The population increased from 43,000 to 93,000 ; and the tonnage entered from foreign ports from 129,003 to 280,315. In 1821, 259,030 barrels of flour, (141,080 bushels of corn, and 17,120 bales of cotton were received coastwise; in 1841, 574,233 barrels of flour, 2,044,129 bushels of corn, and 131,800 bales of cotton. In the mean time the town of Lowell had sprung into being. The imports from foreign countries for the year ended September 30, 1841, were $18,911,958; the exports were $i),424,180. The only States from which the receipts of their domestic products had fallen off in Boston during the period under review were North Carolina and Connecticut. In explanation of this it was said that in 1821 packets were sailing regularly to Liverpool, and that they carried large quantities of naval stores, the great staple of North Carolina ; as thei-e had been no direct export trade to Liverpool for several years, the business of that State had naturally inclined toward New York. As related to Connecticut, it was said that twenty years before it sent large quantities of grain to Boston, but since it had become a great manufacturing State, the products of its soil were consumed within its own borders.

It will be interesting to trace the connection of Boston with some of the earliest propositions for the establishment of transatlantic sterunship lines. A companj' was formed in London in 1825 to open communication between Europe and America by means of steam vessels. Subsci"iptions to its stock are said to have been made to the amount of ;^270,00O, of which ten per cent, had actually been paid down. It was said further: " Two very fine vessels have been offered to the directors, one of four himdred and thirty-nine tons, with two engines each of fifty horse power, and another of five hundred tons, built at Greenock, with two engines of ninet)' horse power each. The directors, acting upon advice offered them from this country |the United States], have wisely given up the idea of employing vessels of one thousand tons burthen.

Two lines of communication have been proposed, besides inferior branches ; one from Valentia Island, the starting point to Nova Scotia and New York; the other from Valentia to Antigua, Carthagena, Jamaica, and the countries at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. The latter will probably be chosen, as the transportation of bullion and specie has been promised them. The seas are less tempestuous on this route, and freight and passengers to and from the West Indies will be obtained to a great extent." The boldness of this undertaking will be the more apparent when we remember that at this time, although the possibilities of steam had been pretty thoroughly tested on the rivers and coasts both of Great Britain and the United States, only one passage had been made across the Atlantic by a steam vessel - the Savminah, in 181'.), - and a considerable part of that under canvas.

The prospectus of the London company reached Boston, and was made the subject of extended comment by some of the papers here. The Daily Advertiser said: " It may be as.sumed as an incontrovertible fact that wherever steam navigation has been established on a proper footing, and on a sufficient scale of vessels and machinery, it has not only been abundantly successful, but its performance has surpassed expectations, overcome the natixral prejudices, and commanded the confidence of even nautical men ; and it has not only drawn to it all the most valuable communication in its line of transit, but also increased it in a tenfold proportion." The editorial further commended to the attention of its readers " the importance of establishing this species of communication between Boston and Halifax, as a branch of the grand line of communication between America and England;" and added, " all that is necessary to be done on our part to secure to us a full share of the benefits of the enterprise is to provide a single steamboat of five hundred tons, of the most approved construction, to ply regularly between this port and Halifax." The editor of the Advertiser y}i\.sM.r. Nathan Hale, one of the most far-.seeing men of his time, and not long after the.se words were written, he did .splendid .service as an educator of the public mind on the question of steam transportation on the land.

A meeting of the citizens of Boston was held October U), 18-25, the Hon. Harrison Gray Otis in the chair, to consider the question of steam communication (indirect) with Europe, and a committee was appointed " to devise a plan for establishing a steamboat line between this port and Halifax, in the event of the contemplated line between that port and Valentia going into operation; " also, a plan for establishing a line between Boston and Eastport, Me. The committee consisted of Thomas H. Perkins, George Bond, William Lawrence, David Henshaw, David Low, William J. Loring, and Henry Oxnard ; and at a second meeting, December 2, it reported: " Having opened a correspondence with the president and directors of the Atlantic Steam Navigation Company of London, on the first branch of their commission, they recommend that its further consideration be postponed for the present. They do this with the more confidence as they learn from sources entitled to credit that the enterprising citizens of St. John, N. B., have already made arrangements for establishing a line between Eastport and Windsor, N. S. , and they find it to be the opinion of intelligent men that this route will be preferred by many to a direct passage from Halifax to Boston, the distance to Windsor being but about forty-two miles, and the road very good." The committee recommended the immediate establishment of a permanent line to Eastport; one or more boats had ah'cady been running on this route, and during the last season, it was said, the number of passengers brought from Eastport by that line and the packets had ranged from one hundred to two hundred a week. A large committee, of which Mr. Lewis Tappan was chairman, was chosen to adopt such measures as might be deemed expedient for .securing subscriptions for the line recommended by the committee of seven.

The establishment of steamship lines upon the Atlantic seems to have engaged the thought and effort of enterprising men on both sides of the ocean, at as early a date as the construction of steam railroads; although, for reasons which we will not now try to explain, the former object had to wait several years for its successful realization. The Steam Navigation Company in London, of which we have spoken, secured a large subscription to its capital stock a year before the bill was passed for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. And at the very hour when the prominent business men of Boston were devising plans to make a connection at Halifax with the ocean line projected in London, Mr. Gridley Bryant was endeavoring to obtain their cooperation in his plan for a railway, or what we should now call a tramway, four miles long, for the conveyance of granite from the Quincy quarries to a point at which it could be .shipped to Charlestown for the monument on P.unker Hill. "In the fall of 182o," he says, "I consulted Thomas H. I'erkins, William Sullivan, Amos Lawrence, Isaac P. Davis and

David Moody, all of Boston, in reference to it. These gentlemen thought the project visionar)^ and chimerical; but, being anxious to aid the Bunker Hill monument, consented that I might sec what could be done. I awaited the meeting of our Legislature in the winter of 1825- :i(i, and after every delay and obstruction that could be thrown in the wa}', I finally obtained a charter. " Even then. Colonel Perkins was the only man who was willing to pay any assessments on the siibscription to the stock, and the result was that he built the road. Four years, or more, passed before charters could be obtained for the lines to Lowell, Providence and Worcester.

An able and enterprising merchant in Halifax, Mr. Samuel Cunard, was among the first to give serious thought to the problem of ocean steam navigation. Whether he had any connection with the project in London in 1825 (mentioned above) we do not know, but he managed for many years a line of brigs which carried the mails between Halifax and Falmouth, England, and he foresaw at an early day that the time would come when such a service, in the interest of dispatch as well as security, must be performed by steamers. In 1830 he had in contemplation a steam packet service between Liverpool and Halifax, which should include Boston, and probably he never for a moment abandoned the idea. It was his firm belief that trans-oceanic steamers might start and arrive from and at their terminal points, with a punctuality not diiTering greatly from that of railway trains. The steamship was to be the railway train, without the longitudinal pair of metal rails. Mr. Brunei, the great English engineer, had a similar opinion. At a meeting of the directors of the Great Western Railway in the autumn of 1835, when some one spoke of the enormous length, as it then appeared, of the proposed railway from London to Bristol, Mr. Brunei exclaimed, "Why not make it longer, and have a steamboat to go from Bristol to New York, and call it the Great Western?" The suggestion was treated as a joke at first, but it bore fruit at no distant day.

That the idea of a steamship service from England or Ireland to Halifax and Boston was never lost sight of, is evident from a statement made b)' Dr. Dionysius Lardner in 1850; " Projects had been started in 1830 by two diiTerent and opposing interests, one advocating the establishment of a line of steamers to ply between the west coast of Ireland and Boston, touching at Halifax , and the other a direct line, making an uninterrupted trip between Bristol and New York. In the year 1830, in Dublin, I advocated the former of these projects, and in 1837, at Bristol, at the next meeting- of the British Association, I again urged its advantages, and by comparison discouraged the project of a direct line between Bristol and New York. When I say that I advocated one of these projects, it is needless to add that the popular rumor that I had pronounced the Atlantic voyage by steam impracticable, is utterly destitute of foundation. "

It does not appear that the Atlantic Steam Navigation Company accomplished anything, except to prepare the way for those who were to follow. In July, 183G, subscription books were opened in London for the British and American Steam Navigation Company, which was "established under a preliminary deed of settlement " on the '^Ist of the next October. Two of the directors were Americans, Mr. Jimius Smith, of New York, who had been living in London for several years, and by whose persistent efforts the company had been started, and Col. Thomas Aspinwall, of Boston, for many years American consul in London. The plan of the company at the outset, as we learn from the London Atluiucuni^ was as follows: "To build a line, composed of two British and two American steamships, of great size each, as sufficient to keep up a communication twice a month to and from New York ; the reason for uniting the two classes being, of course, that British ships, by treaty of commerce, are not permitted to take foreign goods to the United .States - the}' must be shipped in American bottoms ; while, on the other hand, American ships are not permitted U.i bring foreig'n goods to England, except for exportation only. By the imion of both, all descriptions of goods are secured."

According to the third prospectus, a copy of which lies before us, the vessels of the company were to start alternately from London and Liverpool, and it may have been the intention, ultimatelv, to call at an Irish port, for one of the directors lived in Dublin and another in Cork. The company contracted with builders at Blackwall for a large steamer, the British Queen, which was to have "capacity for five hundred passengers, twenty-five days' fuel, and eighty tons of measurement goods, exclusive of stores, provisions, etc." The Great Western was contracted for at Bristol at about the same time, and the question was, whether the first departure under the new order of things would be from the Thames or the Severn. The Great 1 Vest em was the first to be ready, and was advertised to sail April S, 1838. The Britisli Queen could not be fitted for sea by that time; the London company, therefore, chartered a steamer to take her place, the Sirius, a fine vessel of seven hun- dred tons, schooner-rigged, built for the trade between London and Cork, and owned by the .St. George Steam Packet Company, and she was dispatched from the Thames late in the month of March. She started from Cork harbor, now Queenstown, April 4, and arrived in New York harbor on the evening of the 'I'lA.. She was under command of Lieutenant Roberts, of the royal navy, who was Ujst threeyears later in the President. On the 8th of the same month the Great Western, commanded by Lieutenant Hosken, also of the navy, started from Bristol, and making a distance, by her log, of three thousand three hundred and twenty-two miles, she reached New York on the 'l'.\(\.. Both passages had been successful beyond anticipation. The judgment of one of the New York papers was strictly true : ' ' Steam navigation across the Atlantic is no longer an experiment, but a plain matter o[ fact. The thing has been done triumphantly."

The following statement from a New York paper of February 2;J, 1838, will show how much it meant to the cities of the American seaboard, to receive as the result of these passages what they were pursuaded was a well-grounded assurance of regular and speedy communication in the immediate future with the countries beyond sea: "It is a fact that the latest advices we have from Europe were received first at Halifax, thence conveyed overland to Quebec, to Montreal, to Kingston, Upper Canada, and have reached us from the latter place by an extra dated the 15th inst. " Twelve packets from England and France were due and overdue at that date at the port of New York.

The now famous steamers returned to England with the news of their great achievement, and they were received there with the greatest enthusiasm. The lords of the admiralty, who had charge of the ocean mails, saw that the time was come for instituting radical changes in the packet service of the empire, and their first step was to advertise for tenders for the conveyance of the royal mails by steam from Liverpool to Halifax, Quebec and Boston. The object of the British government in intervening at this juncture, as it did, in the establishment of ocean steamship lines was political more than commercial. The opportunity was presented to it, to unite the widely separated members of the empire more closely together than had ever seer^ed possible; and it promptly took the first great step to this end, by providing for the maintenance of a transatlantic line to its great dependency, British North America, with Halifax and Quebec as the objective points. The question of regular communication with the United States, thnuigli the ports

Whether Mr. Cunard went to England on hearing of the announcement of the plans of the British government, or whether he happened to be there at the time, we do not know ; but he saw that the time for action on his part, for which he had long been waiting, had arrived. He made the acquaintance of Robert Napier, already a celebrated engineer on the Clyde, and by him was introduced to George Burns and Uavid Maclver, of the firm of Burns it Maclver, proprietors of a line of steamers, of from five hundred to seven hundred tons, plying successfully between Glasgow and Liverpool. All the details of the new undertaking, the size of the ships, the power, the cost of construction, the probable running expenses, etc., were thoroughly discussed by these able and practical men ; the aid of a few capitalists was secured, with subscriptions by them to the amount of _p^37(),l)00 ; and the British and North American Royal Mail vSteam Packet Company was brought into existence. In behalf of this company, Mr. Cunard made a tender for the conveyance of the mails across the Atlantic, in accordance with the proposals of the government, and his tender was accepted. The only other bid came from the Great Western Steamship Company.

The important news reached Boston by way of Halifax, and was given to the public April 13, 1S3!1, in the following statement: "A contract has been made by the British government with the Hon. vSamuel Cunard for the conveyance of the mails from England to Halifax, and from Halifax to Boston, and also from Halifax by Pictou to (Juebec, twice a month, for the sum of ^55,000 sterling per annum. The contract is for seven years. The first boat is to leave Liverpool May 1, 1840. The boats from Halifax to Boston, and from Pictou to Quebec, to run as long as the navigation continues open between the two latter pcjrts, to be of one hundred and fifty horse power."

This information was confirmed by a letter from Mr. Cunard to his Boston correspondents, Messrs. Uana, Fenno & Henshaw, dated London, 32d March, 1S3'.I, in which he said ; " You will be pleased to learn that steam boats are to proceed from this country twice in each month for Boston, calling at Halifax. The government have given the contract to me for seven years certain, and it ma}' continue much longer, - a year's notice is to be given on either side. I am building powerful boats; they will be equal to any ever built in this country. They are 1 10(1 tons and \i^) horse power, and as the government have been very liberal to me, I am determined to hav^e the best boats that can be procured. I am bound onl}^ to carry the mail on account of irovernmcnt, and am to j^et fifty-five thousand pounds sterling-, paid quarterly, - which is no small sum to assist mc in paying the way; and I think when the boats are seen, that I shall have all the passengers from Boston, and to the eastward of Boston. I hope to make the passage to Boston, calling at Halifax, in twelve days. I have no doubt a steam packet will leave each port before long, three times in the month. It will be a great advantage to Boston, and I think you should all encourage me, and I have no doubt but you will do so.

" I hope to find that you have established peace on your borders. It is not to the interest of either country to go to war, and it is to be regretted that the acts of indiscreet people should lead to results injurious to the welfare of two great nations."

The precise relation of Boston to the proposed line, as defined in the contract, was not what its business men were likely to be satisfied with. They had no objection to Halifax as a place of call ; bitt they believed that for the sake of the line itself, as well as for their own advantage, Boston should be the terminal point on this side of the Atlantic. A meeting, therefore, was convened in the hall of the Tremont Bank, April :3(), "to consider what steps should be pursued to encourage the proposed commimication by steam packets between Boston and England." Mr. Francis J. Oliver presided, and Mr. Benjamin T. Reed served as secretary. Remarks were made by Mr. George Bond, and others; and a series of resolutions was presented by Mr. Elias Hasket Derby, and received imanimous approval. Mr. Derby was an able lawyer and public spirited citizen, and we have had an account of this meeting from his own lips. We give the most important of the resolutions:

RcsotTcd, That we regard the establishment of a Hne of steam packets lietween Liverpool a:ad Boston as tending greatly to advance the prosperity of this city, by increasing facilities for the direct importation of merchandise from England, as making this port an extensive depot for the receipt of cotton and naval stores for foreign shipment, and the favorite resort from the south, the west and the east, as well for embarkation for Europe as for the purchase of goods, and, finally, as a measure destined to promote our rajiid growth in population, in commerce, and in wealth.

Ri-sol-,'Ci{, That while we rely on the justice of the British nation, and the intelligence of our own, for a speedy adjustment of the fpicstions which have recently disturbed our frontiers, we regard the enterprise as a harbinger of future peace, Ijoth with the mother country and the provinces, being persuaded that frequent communication is the most effectual mode to wear away all jealousies and prejudices which are not yet extinguished.

Resolved, That it is of the highest importance to the success of this great enterprise that the larger class of steam packets should run entirely through from Liverjjool to Boston, and vice versa, stopping sufficient time at Halifax for the reception of fuel and to receive and discharge passengers and freight. That this arrangement alone will inspire confidence in the safe and uninterrupted conveyance of passengers and goods, and secure a liberal and ample patronage of the route.

Resolved, That it is the sense of this meeting that a suitable pier and dock should be provided for a term of years for the reception of the Liverpool steam packets in this port, where they may receive J,nd discharge their lading free from expense to the owners of the steamers, and that such other facilities be afforded as the importance of the subject may require.

Resolved, That the Hon. Samuel Cunard, of Nova Scotia, the spirited projector and conductor of this enterprise, is entitled to the warmest acknowledgments of the inhabitants of this city and State for the vast benefits which must accrue to them from the measure he has originated, and that he be assured of our sincere and ardent wishes for his success.

Resolved, That F. J. Oliver, R. G. Shaw, William Appleton, George Bond, George Bancroft, Charles Leighton, E. Hasket Derby, James Read, Martin Brimmer, George Darracott and Benjamin T. Reed be a committee to communicate the.se resolutions to the Hon. Mr. Cunard, and to devise measures to carry the fifth [fourth] resolution into effect.

T(i explain the alliLsion in Mr. Ciinard's letter and in the second reso- Intion, we would remind our readers that at this time the northeastern boundary question was seriously threatening the peace of the two nations concerned. Governor Fairfield, of Maine, had greatly aggravated the impending difficulty, by marching State troops into the disputed territory; and only by the exercise of mttch tact on the ])art off those highest in attthority, was actual war averted.

The Boston resolutions, confirmed by many private letters, reached Mr. Cunard as he was getting ready to sail for America in the Great Wcstirii. He went with them at once to the Lords of the Admiralty, and offered to increase the size and power of his ships, and to extend the main route to Boston, promising also, half jocosely, to settle the northeastern boundary question, if they would add ten thousand pounds per anninn to the subsidy. His proposition was accepted, and a new contract was signed in May. Mr. Cunard then went to Glasgow, where the keels of four steamers had alread}' been laid. These were broken up, and four ships of about twelve hundred tons each were started in four different shipyards, Mr. Napier's firm agreeing to btiild the engines. These slii]-)s were smaller than the Great IVcster//, and much smaller than the Hn't/'s// Oincii; they were, of course, of wood, with paddle wheels, and afterward made a reputation for themselves as the Hrltaii- nia, Wvi Acadia, thu Caledonia and the Co/innlna. ( )n the otlier hand the merchants of Boston were preparing to J4'ive substantial encouragement to the new line. On the l"2th of August, the coinmittee appointed at the meeting held four months before reported as follows: "The East Boston Company are to build and make all the necessary provisions with three docks to receive steamships of the largest size, to be leased to Mr. Cunard for twenty years, reserving no rent except the usual charge of wharfage of goods or freight. The wharf now erecting is to be eleven hundred and fifty feet long. "

The Unicorn, a steamer of six hundred and forty-nine tons, built in 18:i(i for the Glasgow and Liverpool trade, arrived in Boston harbor June 2, 1S40, as the pioneer of the Cimard line. The wharves were thronged with enthusiastic spectators, who gave her a hearty welcome, and amid much display of bunting and firing of salutes, she proceeded to the newly-constructed Ctmard dock. Three days later a dinner was given in Faneuil Hall to her commander, Captain Douglas, and a sf)n of Mr. Cunard who came as a passenger; the mayor, Mr. Jonathan Chapman, presided, and addresses were made by the special guests of tlic occasion, tlie Briti.sh C(msul, Mr. Grattan, Mr. Robert C. Winthro]), and several others. The excitement was even more intense when the first of the new steamers, the Britannia, Lieutenant Woodrutf, R. N., commander, arrived in port on the ISth of July, after a fine passage from Liverpool, by way of Halifax, of f(nirteen and a half days. Mr. Ctmard, the distinguished projector of the line, came in this ship, and a banquet in his honor was given at East Boston, July 22, at which Mr. Josiah Quincy, jr., presided, and speeches were made by Judge Story, President Quincy of Harvard College, Mr. Webster and Mr. Bancroft. The subsequent success of the line, its influence in the promotion of international traffic, and the impulse given by it to steam navigation on the Atlantic Ocean, have more than justified all that was predicted by those who participated in these congratulatory proceedings.

Nor were the citizens of Boston mistaken in their anticipation of immediate advantage to their own port from the .successful initiation of this new means of transatlantic communication. They certainly had good reason to felicitate themselves on the circumstance that Boston had been selected by the Cunard Company, and by the government with which it was under cofitract, in preference to its neighbor cities, as the American terminus of the line. The reasons for this choice were obvious, - nearness to the lower Britisli pmx-inccs, and convenience of access from them, a shorter distance from Europe, and siiperiorit}- of harbor and wharf accommodations. The railway system of New Enijland also, althoii-h in its infancy, had already attracted attention in Europe. It may be interesting- to remember that the trains starting from Boston then reached their limits respectively at Newburyport, Exeter, Nashua, Springfield, Stonington, and New Bedford. But the establishment of a first-class steamship line from Liverpool hastened the work of railroad construction, and gave a new impulse to every liranch of business.

The trips of the line were to be semi-monthly during eight months of the year, and monthly in the winter, but it took a little time to carry (nit the programme. The Acadia came out as the second ship in August, the Britannia again in September, the Caledonia and the Acadia in October, the Britannia and the Caledonia in November, and the Aeadia in December. The amount of duties paid at the custom-house on these eight arrivals was only $2,!)2S. 99. It soon became apparent, however, that all the finer and more valuable fabrics could be advantageously imported by steam, although the rate of freight was seven pounds sterling for the ton of forty cubic feet. In 1841 the duties collected on twentyone arrivals were $7:!, 809. 23 ; in 1842, on eighteen arrivals, $12n,974.(;7 ; in 1843, on twenty arrivals, $640,572.05; in 1844, on twenty arrivals, $916,198.30; in 1845, on twenty arrivals, $1,022,992.75.

The Colundna came out for the first time in January, 1841 ; the Uibcrnia in May, 1843; and the Candiria in January, 1845. The average length of the twenty-nine passages from Liverpool to Boston, including the detention at Halifax, from July, 1840, to December, 1841, was fourteen days, twenty-three hours. In 1842 the February and March packets came only to Halifax, and the passengers and mails were brought to and taken from Boston in the Unicorn.

When the Britannia left Boston, July, 1842, she carried with her a .silver vase for presentation to Mr. Cunard. It had been made by Jones, Lows & Ball, and it was described as "the greatest triumph in the silver worker's art as yet achieved in Boston." In an address to Mr. Ctinard which accompanied it, it was said; "To the public spirit and enterprise of yourself and your honorable associates, we arc indebted for a frequent, rapid and thus far unfailing mode of intercourse, unsurpassed for comfort and safety, and for an additional bond of imion between two great commercial nations, united by every tie of descent, common lani>'uasje and mutual interests, never as we trust to be weaken- cd or severed." The signers uf the address, in behall of the eitizens of Boston, were Martin Brimmer, Isaae P. Davis, James Read, Thomas Lamb, William T. Andrews and E. Hasket Derby.

The Coluiiilna was wreeked on Seal Island, in the Bay of Fundy, July -I, 18-i;5, but without loss of life. The people of New York had been miable to look with entire complacency upon the superior facilities which lioston now enjoyed for communication with Europe. The London line to their port had been broken up by the loss of the President and the sale of the Jlritish Queen; and although the Great Western was making her trips from Bristol or Liverpool with rci^ularity, and was re.narded as a successful competitor of the Hibernia, whose size was about the same as her own. New York was mainly dependent upon the Boston steamers for its passenger and mail service. The loss of the Columbia suggested a text to the newspapers of that city, which they were ready enough to make use of, and they preached fluently and continuously concerning the extraordinary dangers of the Boston route, which they described as " four hundred and fifty miles of rock, ledge, shoal, fog, and narrow intricate channels." An imexpected event, the next winter, made it doubtful for the moment whether a fatal mistake had not been made in bringing the transatlantic steamers to Boston. After the arrival of the Britannia in January, 1844, the harbor was frozen over, and it looked as though she would be seriously delayed in starting on her return trip. But the merchants were equal to the emergency. A meeting, was held on the Exchange, with the mayor, Mr. Martin Hrimmer, in the chair, and it was decided that the steamer should be cut out without expense to her owners, and sent to sea as near the advertised time of her departure as possible. A committee to collect the requisite money was chosen, consisting of Benjamin Rich, Caleb Curtis, Ozias Goodwin, Thomas C. Smith, Samuel Ouincy, Thomas Gray, Charles Brown, Thomas B. Curtis, and Ammi C. Lombard. A contract was made with Gage, Hittinger & Company and John Hill, for cutting two canals in the ice, one from the East Boston ferry to the open sea, and the other from the ferry to India Wharf, into which other channels could be opened as might be desired. For this work the contractors were to receive fifteen hundred dollars. Mr. Richard Henry Dana says in his diary: "I went down to see the work in company with hundreds, or rather thousands, of others. The scene was peculiar and exciting in the extreme. The whole harbor was one field of ice, frozen on a perfect level, though somewhat roughly in parts, and strong enough to bear heavy loads of merchandise drawn by cattle. Two gangs of men were at work, one beginning at the wharves and cutting down, the other beginning at the clear water and cutting II]). Each gang numbered over a hundred. Perhaps there for the sale of refreshments at different parts of the track, and from the end of Long Wharf to the place where the lower gang was at work, a distance of five miles, there was a well-marked footway, and travelers upon it were as frequent as on the great highway to a city on a festival day." It was an impressive scene when the Britannia, on the afternoon of Fel)ruary 3, slowly steamed through the passage which had been cut for her, cheered by thousands of spectators. This evidence of the enterprise of the Boston meixhants made a most favorable impression in England, and if there had been any misgivings there, in reference to sending the mail steamers to this port, they were speedily dispelled. Only once since has it been necessary to do a similar work. In January, 1857, a canal was cut in the ice through which the America passed out to sea one afternoon, and the Arabia came u]) to her dock on the next day.

The increasing commerce of Boston called for various public improvements; one of these was the new custom-house, l^egun in 1838 and completed in 1845; another was the Merchants' Exchange in State street. The Exchange was built by a company of which Robert (j Shaw was president, and Samuel Dana secretary. Isaiah Rogers was the architect, and the building committee consisted of Andrew E. Belknap, Samuel Henshaw, Isaac Livcrmore, Thaddeus Nichols, jr., and Thomas Lamb. The corner stone was laid August 3, 1841, by the venerable Colonel Perkins, who made an interesting address giving his reminiscences of " sixty years ago. " A leaden box was placed under the stone, containing a silver plate, suitably inscribed, together with one or more of each of the American coins then in use, a pine-tree shilling contributed by Isaac P. Davis, a Boston Directory, and copies of the newspapers of the day. When the building was taken down in 1889, this box was deposited with the Bostonian Society, and at the monthly meeting, October S, it was formally opened and its contents were examined with much interest by the members of the society and others present.

with South America, started his celebrated line of Liverpool sailing packets. It may seem strange to ns now, that a sagacious merchant should undertake to establish snch a line from Boston, side by side with the Cunard steamers ; but it should be remembered that the paddlewheel vessels then in use could accommodate only a small quantity of cargo, and that this was subject to a high rate of freight. Instead of interfering with the transportation on the ocean of ordinary merchandise, these mail steamers stimulated the foreign trade of the port by the facilities they offered for the transmission of orders and for the speedy conveyance of business men to and from Europe. So far as exports were concerned, it may be said that they took away next to nothing, and the goods they brought from England were of the most valuable kind. It was twelve or fifteen years after the first arrival of the Britannia in Boston harbor before the impcn-tance of the iron screw steamship in the Atlantic trade began to be understood.

The first ships advertised by Enoch Train & Company were the Dorchester, 500 tons; the Cairo, GOO tons; the Governor Davis, 800 tons; and the St. Petersluirg, 800 tons, "all first-class, Medford-builL, copper-fastened, coppered, and fast sailing ships." The Dorchester, Captain Caldwell, sailed for Liverpool May 27, and was followed by the El/en June 10, and the Cairo July S. The first ship built expressly for the line was the /oshna Bates, and this was followed in rapid succession by the Ani^lo-Saxon, the Anglo-American, the Washington Irving, the Ocean Monarch, the Parliament, the Daniel Webster, the Star of Empire, the Chariot of Eame, the Staffordshire, the Cathedral, and the John Eliot Thayer. These were all fine vessels; some of them were very large for those days and very beautiful vessels. Through Mr. Train, Donald McKay was first brought into prominence as a shipbuilder. Among the captains in this service, all men of ability and high character, were Caldwell, Murdock, Thayer, Brown, Howard, Richardson and Knowles. For a few years the business of the line in Liverpool was managed by Baring, Brothers & Company. Mr. Train then sent over his young partner, Mr. Frederick W. Thayer, and established a house there, to which the present house of Warren & Company is the successor.

in its history, its taxable valuation doubled, advancing from $04,580,- COO in 1840, to $180,0(10,5(10 in 1850. The imports increased duringthe same period from about $14,000,000 to $28,(!6'.),7;33. At no time since have there been so many importing and jobbing houses, although a few houses now probably do a larger business than all of them did then. The coastwise shipping trade was also very large. The supplies of cotton for the mills of New England came by sea, and the products of the Si)uthwest, such as provisions, lard, lead, etc. In return we .shipped to the Southern ports domestic dry goods, boots and shoes, furniture and wooden ware, in large quantities. There were several fine lines of ships and barques to New Orleans and Mobile, lines of brigs to Savannah, Alexandria, Baltimore and Philadelphia, and lines of schooners to New York.

In 1851 the railways leading to the Canadas and the northern lakes were completed, and so high an estimate was placed upon the commercial value of this connection, that the vState and the City joined with the business men of Boston in a celebration such as had never been witnessed before, and perhaps such as has not been seen since. In an official rejjort published by the City it was said: " However extensive and brilliant ma)^ have been the public pageants on other occasions, not one, it is believed, has on this continent surpassed, if any have equaled, that of September 17, 18, and I'.i. " The president of the United States, Millard Fillmore, with members of his cabin-et, arrived on the morning of the first day. He was followed by Lord Elgin, governor-general of Canada, with his suite. All the large towns of British America were represented by their mayors and other officials, and the British army was represented by several distinguished officers then stationed in Canada. The public festivities consisted of a military review on the Common, an excursion down the harbor, a military ball, and, on the third day, which was a general holiday, a procession, and a dinner on the Common, at which three thousand six himdred persons sat down, with fireworks in the evening.

Two enterprises were initiated in connection with "the railroad jubilee " as it was called; neither, unfortunately, brought anything but embarrassment to the public-spirited men who started them, but one of them exists as an integral and essential part of our raih-oad system ioday. The Grand Junction Railroad Company, chartered in 1847 with a capital of $1,200,000, formally opened its line, six and .six-tenths miles in length, which joined the Eastern, Boston and Maine, Fitch- buri', and Lowell Railroads, with the steamship wharves at East Boston. No such facilities then existed at any other port. The directors of the company, whose names deserve to be perpetuated, were Samuel S. Lewis, David Henshaw, John W. Fenno, Charles Paine, of Vermont, and Ichabod Goodwin, of New Hampshire. Mr. Lewis was the Boston aijcnt of the Cunard line from 184-0 to 1867. Lewis street in East Boston and Lewis wharf were named for him.

The Ocean Steamship Company of New England was the other enterprise to be ushered into public notice amid the festivities of which wc have spoken. Its purpose was to build four steamships, to be called after well-known Boston merchants, and its first and only vessel, the .S'. i". Lcivis, Captain Cole, a propeller of 1,104 tons register, built in Philadelphia, arrived in the harbor on the 17th of September, after a run of forty-seven hours from Delaware breakwater. She had a large party on board, including two or three members of the Vanderbilt family, and resolutions were adopted speaking in terms of praise of her accommodations and performances. She sailed for Liverpool October 4, with forty-five cabin and twenty steerage passengers, but, we believe, she never made a second voyage in this service. The projectors of the imdertaking, Harnden & Company, the pioneers in the express business in the United States, were brought to bankruptcy during the autumn.

The screw propeller, as adapted to the requirements of the Atlantic trade, had not yet passed beyond the experimental stage. Captain YorhQ?,hviW'il\vQMassacliuscttsm 1845, a propeller of about seven hundred and seventy tons, and, in the autumn of that year, with his relative. Colonel Perkins, took passage in her from New York to Liverpool ; but she was only what was called an " auxiliary " steamship, as on her outward passage she sailed under canvas six or seven days out of the seventeen. Her engines were designed by Ericsson. Mr. William Inman, of Liverpool, was the first, not only to foresee the possibilities of the iron screw steamer, but also to realize them in actual service ; and when the -S". .S'. Lewis was building, he was taking the initial steps towards the establishment of the steamship line which in a few years held such a leading position in the transatlantic trade. A year or two later the Cunard Company built the Alps, the Andes, the Jura and the n.tna, iron propellers varying from eighteen hundred to twenty-two hundred tons, which brought large cargoes to Boston. It was not until 18(;2 that the company brought out its first screw steamer for the mail and pas- senger service, - the China, a fine ship of about twenty-six hundred tons register. Her first trips were made to New York, bnt later she was placed on the Boston route.

Boston participated largely in the commercial activity created by the discovery of gold in California and Australia while it la.sted. The clearances at this port for those countries were: In 1852, 98; in 1853, 140; in 1854, 50; in 1855, lH; in 1856, 54; in 1857, 47. Forty-four vessels were built in and about Boston in the year 1855, with a tonnage amounting to 45,088; and twenty-two more, of 27,877 tons, were on the stocks at the close of the year. The tonnage owned in Boston in 1855 was larger than ever before or since - 541,(144 tons.

In 1854 the merchants of Boston organized again for the purpose of considering, and, by concerted action, promoting measures for the benfit of the city. This time they formed a Board of Trade ; its objects and methods were similar to those of the Chamber of Commerce of 18;5(1, but it was much more active and aggressive, and it made its influence felt far and near. It issued a series of annual reports which contain much information relating to the trade and commerce both of Boston and of the country at large. The first president was Samuel Lawrence, and he was succeeded by James M. Beebe, George B. Upton, Edward S. Tobey, James C. Converse, George C. Ricliardson, and others. Its secretaries from 1854 to 1873 were Isaac Chapman Bates, Lorenzo Sabine, and the writer of the.se pages. After this the Board merged itself in the Merchants' Exchange and a few years afterward ceased to exist. The rooms on the corner of Bedford and Chauncy streets, occupied by the Board from 18(15 to 1873, are now occupied by the Merchants' Association, which, in many of its functions, may be regarded as having .succeeded to the work of the Board.

The Boston Corn Exchange was formed in 1855 for the purpose of regulating and promoting dealings in breadstuffs. Its first president was Alpheus Hardy, a merchant in the Mediterranean trade, and alarge exporter of flour. In 1871, for the purpose of broadening its sphere and of bringing to its membership other branches of business, particularly the provision, fish, and salt interests, the oi-ganization changed its name to the Boston Commercial Exchange. In 1885 it consolidated with the Boston Produce Exchange (incorporated in 1877) under the name of the Boston Chamber of Commerce, and, as such, it now represents the general commercial interests of the city. On the 21st of January, 1802, the Chamber dedicated a beautiful building for its uses, erected by the enterprise and liberality of the membership.

In the spring of ISoo the Legislature of Massachusetts incorporated Donald McKa}', George B. Upton, Enoch Train, Andrew T. Hall, and James M. Beebe, under the name of the Boston and European Steamship Company, with a capital of $500,000, " for the purpose of navigating the ocean by steam." The plan was to build "a splendid line of Atlantic steamers rivaling in every respect the Collins line of New York," and Milford Haven was thought of as the terminal port in Great Britain. It was felt that there should be an American line of steamers at this port, under full control here. The Cunard steamers had been temporarily withdrawn from the New York service, the company having chartered several of its ships to the British Government for its use in connection with the Crimean War; and there was a rumor that the Boston steamers were to be withdrawn also, but this was contradicted by the agent, Mr. Lewis, in a note to the newspapers dated May 15. A public meeting was held on the Exchange, in the interest of the proposed line, July \'l. Mr. George B. Upton presided, Robert B. Forbes, James M. Beebe, Charles G. Greene and Edward S. Tobey were chosen vice-presidents, and Vernon Brown and Henry N. Hooper, secretaries. Stirring speeches were made by George R. Sampson, Elias H. Derby, Enoch Train, and others. Mr. .Sampson referred to the Canadian transit trade, of which we shall speak prcsentl)', which, he said, had grown from $24,000 in 1S40 to $5,424,000 in 1S54, and which, at certain seasons of the year, furnished half the lading of the Cunard steamers on their passage to the westward. Mr. Train said: " It had been thought that he would oppo.sc the line as antagonistic to his own. He should do no such thing. There is a vast difference between steam and sailing vessels, and steam would not interfere with his regular business - the transportation of coar.se and weighty commodities and passengers who could not afford the luxury of a steam passage. He would, instead of opposing the proposed line, lend it the strength of his right arm. Boston, though the principal commercial city of New England, had never yet owned a proper, hard-weather, sea-going steamship. Our capitalists have done much in building up manufacturing towns. Here was another enterprise that demanded their consideration."

Mr. Derby, in addressing the meeting, predicted that steam would at no distant day supersede canvas in the commerce of the world. Mr. McKay exhibited a model of the pioneer steamer of the pro]io.scd line; it was to be called the Cradle of Ubcrty, and was to cross the Atlantic in -six days. A series of resoltitions was adopted, and, on the nomina- tion of a committee of three, a large committee to solicit subscriptions was chosen, consisting of the following business men: Robert B. Forbes, George B. Upton, Enoch Train, George Baty Blake, Samuel llunper, William H. Bordman, William Perkins, Isaac Rich, Andrew T. Hall, James M. Beebe, Francis Skinner, William F. Weld, James Lawrence, James Sturgis, J. Bowdoin Bradles, George R. Sampson, Nathaniel H. Emmons, William B. Bacon, William Amory, G. Rowland Shaw, John H. Pearson, William T. (Tliddcn, William B. Reynolds, Hamilton A. Hill, Charles Bockus, Adam W. Thaxter, jr., Ammi C. Lombard, Donald McKay, Frederic W. Thayer, Williomi Bramhall, Edward S. Tobey, Ezra H. Baker, Israel Whitney, Edward D Brigham, William S. Billiard, Vernon Brown. The following were afterward added to the committee, the first three being presidents of insurance companies: Thomas C. Smith, Joseph H. Adams, Charles W. Cartwright, David Snow, Thomas Nickerson, Isaac Taylor. Here the matter ended, and we can now see that it was well that it went no further. Great changes in ocean steam navigation were imminent; and the Collins line, on which the new line was to be modeled, was even then .seriously embarrassed, and went into bankruptcy a year later. Mr. Train also, not long after this, became seriously involved, and a new firm, Thayer & Warren, undertook to build upon the foundations which he had laid with so much ability and foresight.

In connection with the tariff of IS-K; Mr. Robert J. Walker, secretary of the treasury, established the present warehouse system, copied in most of its details from that which had proved so beneficial to the foreign commerce of Great Britain and France. Under this system merchandise might be carried imder bond and seal in transitu through the territory of the United States between Great Britain and the Canadas; and on the completion of the Northern New England Railroads Boston became the most eligible port for this transit trade. In the year 1851 the invoice cost of the merchandise arriving here froni Euro|}e for Canada was about six hundred thousand dollars ; in 1852, two millions ; and in the years 1853 to 185(), about five millions annually. After 1857 this trade was largely diverted to Portland under an arrangement by which the Allan Steamship Company and the Grand Trunk Railway Company issued through bills of lading from Liverpool to all parts of British North America. The commercial relations of Boston with its provincial neighbors were most intimate and satisfactory at this time, under the operation of the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854, the product of the labors after lonj;- years of negotiation of such statesmen as Mr. Webster and jMr, j\Iarey, Sir Henry Bulwer and Lord Elyin. The followinjf estimate of this treaty is from the pen of Mr. Sabine, wlio was one of the best authorities of that day on all questions liearing upon our trade with the Canadas and the fisheries:

"At the dismemberment of the British Empire, in 1783, it was proposed to allow the United States to participate in the trade of the remaining colonies in this hemisphere, on terms of equality with the mother country; but the EnglLsh merchants, who enjoyed that trade in monopoly, were alarmed, and defeated the measure. Two years after, our first minister at the Court of St. James was instructed to renew the proposition, and was curtly answered that it could not be admitted even as a subject of negotiation. A third effort was made in ITS'.l, with no l)etter success; and, from that period down to the year 1822, the colonial ports were fast closed against our flag save under certain defined restrictions. Retaliation on our part followed from time to time, and, in the end, the legislation both of Parliament and Congress became utterly barbarous. If wiser counsels occasional!}' prevailed, or were about to prevail, the controversies which arose between the two governments as to the intent of the laws passed by the one or the other, in the spirit of concession, became so bitter, finalh^ as to produce restraints greater than ever before. Nor was it until the ' McLane Arrangement,' so called, in 1830, that any change of moment occtirred, or that a direct and free intercourse was permanently allowed. In the twenty-four years that followed the 'Arrangement,' the increase of the colonies in commerce, navigation, wealth, and happiness, was very considerable The Reciprocity Treaty is the crowning measure of the wise and humane policy adopted in 1830. How marked the change ! In place of alienation and hatred, of ports barred and bolted, the people of the colonies and the United States, joined in bonds of amity deal with one another at will; exchange without customs even, 'the wealth of the seas,' and the principal raw staples of the soil ; mingle, as if of the same nation, on all the sea fishing grotmds ; and, as if of the same nation too, use the vSt. Lawrence, and the canals which connect it with the most distant of the great lakes."

To the great damage of New England, this treaty was abrogated in 1805 by the action of the government of the United States, for political reasons chiefly.

year 1800 twelve vessels were loaded at Calcutta in one season for the United States, with cargoes valued altogether at about $-2, 400, 000. These cargoes consisted chiefly of cotton and silk manufactures. In IS-trO twenty-one vessels arrived with Calcutta cargoes, amounting in quantity to seventeen thousand tons, and in value (first cost and freight money,) to $l,'.J50,0OO. The tonnage had increased but the value had been reduced by one-half, owing to the change in the character of the goods imported. The trade steadily increased imtil, in 1857, one hundred and twenty-two ships were loaded at Calcutta for the United States, carrying 189,307 tons, valued at $17,000,000. Of this tonnage more than seventy-five per cent, came to Boston, and the freight money earned on it was estimated at two million dollars. The arrivals in Boston for the four years mentioned above were: 1856, 78 ships, 110,11:5 tons; 1857, 'JO ships, 147,131 tons; 1858, 59 ships, 80,013 tons; 1859, 81 ships, 141,835 tons. From and after 1859 New York began to gain upon Boston; but it was not until 1807 that the tons imported at the former city actually exceeded the importation here.

We have already spoken of the changes which take place in trade in the course of time. We have another instance in the history of the importation of gunny-bags and gunny-cloth. In 1840 the quantity was less than five thousand bales; in 1850 it was ninety thousand bales; in 1859, eighty-seven thousand; in 180O, eighty-eight thousand; and in 1807, eighty-six thousand. Since then the importation has almost entirely ceased. It was estimated, before the war, that seventy-five per cent, of the goods imported from Calcutta at Boston was shipped again coastwise, and upon this, of course, freight money was earned by our shipowners a second time.

The most prominent and best informed, although not the largest, merchant in the Calcutta trade, early in the century, was Mr. Henry Lee, of whom we have already had occasion to speak. He lived in Calcutta for several years, and established friendly relations with the great English houses there, which were continued by correspondence after his return to this country ; Captain Ozias Goodwin sailed in his employ, and, afterward, became his partner; and, later, he took as partners Mr. William S. BuUard, and his son, Mr. Henry Lee, jr., who carried on the business under the firm name of Bullard, Lee & Com- ])any, and who, happily, still survive as these pages are passing through the press. Other members of his family and several members of the Cabot family were also engaged in the Calcutta trade ; and we may mention also, in this connection, Daniel C. Bacon, Thomas Wigglesworth, Samuel and Edward Austin, Ingersoll Bowditch, John L. Gardner, Israel Whitney, Nathaniel and Benjamin Goddard, Benjamin A. Gould and Mackay & Coolidge.

Some of the principal merchants and shipowners in Boston, in the years immediately preceding the war of the rebellion, besides those already mentioned, were, Robert G. Shaw & Company, William F. Weld & Company, Bordman & Pope, Sampson & Tappan, Glidden & Williams, Andrew Cunningham, John M. Forbes, William Perkins, Bramhall & Howe, Alpheus Hardy, Howes & Crowell, George Hallett, Thomas Nickerson, George C. Lord & Company, Phineas Sprague & Company, Snow & Rich, Thomas B. Wales & Company, Reed & Wade, Bates & Company and Isaac Taylor. As the shipping interest declined, many of these merchants transferred their capital to transportation enterprises on the land, and were successful as the projectors, builders or managers of some of the great railway lines of the country.

In 1858 a steamship line was projected by Mr. John Orrell Lever and others, of Manchester, to connect the port of Galway with New York and Boston, by way of St. John's, Newfoundland. This was before the transatlantic steamers began to call regularly at Irish ports. Partly for political considerations, and partly on the theory that much of the Irish traffic with America would take the direct route, as a matter of course, instead of crossing the channel to Liverpool, the British government agreed to give to the new company as liberal a subsidy, proportionately to the service to be performed, as it was paying to Mr. Cunard and his associates. Galway remitted all port, harbor and pilot dues; and through-t;'affic arrangements were made with the principal places in the United Kingdom and with North Sea ports. The report of the Boston Board of Trade of 185'.) contains all the correspondence which passed during the summer of 1858 between the secretary, Mr. Sabine, and Mr. Lever, in reference to the facilities which might be offered here. A pioneer steamer, the Indian Empire, was dispatched from Galway to New York in July, and a second, the Propeller, arrived in Boston in September; but the first vessel built by the company, the Connaught, a large paddle-wheel steamer, did not make her appearance in Boston until August, 18(iO. She was advertised as of forty-four hundred tons, but was probably not nearly so large, and was to be followed by the Leiiister, the Minister, and the Ulster. These names were changed to the Ilibernia, the Colninbia, and the Aiiglia. On her second voyage to Boston, in the autumn of 1800, the Coiiiiaiight was h)st, three hundred miles from Cape Cod, most fortunately without any sacrifice of life, althoutj^h she had nearly five hundred passengers on board. The Hibcrnia was so completely disabled in a gale which she encountered on her way from the Tyne to Galway, that she never entered the service at all. The third ship of the line, the Columbia, made one trip to Boston, arriving here April 27, 18G1, after a passage of nineteen days from Galway by way of St. John's and Halifax. We doubt whether the Aiti^lia was ever built; but, in 18(il, the company bought the Collins Company's fine ship, the Adriatic, which made the run to St. John's in six days, the only instance in which the contract with the government was kept as to time. The company sent the paddlewheel steamer Parana to New York in 18G0, and the screw-steamer Prince Albert in 18111 ; but it did not long survive. It lacked every requisite for success. Its capital consisted largely of promises on paper; its managers had from the first shown themselves to be utterly incompetent; it did not keep faith with the government, whose mistaken liberality had helped to bring it into existence ; and it injured the purse or the reputation of every one who had any prominent connection with it. The commercial prosperity of Boston, under the old order of things, reached its high water mark in lS5(i and 1857. There is no doubt that the country at large had prospered greatly under the tariff of 1810; its foreign commerce and its domestic industries had been growing side by side, in healthful competition; and the marvelous gain it had made in shipbuilding, and in the ocean carrying trade of the globe, seemed likely to go on indefinitely. In all this, Boston had participated to its full share; and, in addition, it had been greatly benefited by its system of railroad communication, and by the operation of the Reciprocity Treaty of 1851. So, too, in common with the rest of the country, lioston suffered frcmi the financial reverses of 1857; but there were local influences which prolonged and aggravated the effect of these reverses here, as compared with some of the other cities on the scal)oard. The Calcutta trade, in which Boston was especially interested, had been overdone; and a reaction in the shipbuilding industry of New England, having its center here, was inevitable, after the impulse it had received from the discovery of gold in California and Australia, and the demand for shipping created by the Crimean War. All this, however, was only what might have been expected, and had it not been fi)r other circumstances, would not have been permanently disastrous.

It was at this juncture that Boston began to find itself imable to hold its own as against the strong competing force of New York, and for reasons for which its own citizens were responsible. The establishment of branch commission houses in New York for the sale of the manufactured dry goods of this part of New England was a heav^y blow to Boston. The movement began in 184(1, and a few j'ears later there were nineteen of these Boston houses in New York, and their aggregate sales amounted to twcnty-tive millions of dollars a year. The reason assigned for the change was the greater facility for shipping to the South and West which New York then offered ; but there is no question that some of the houses who were the first in the movement wanted the use of more money than the Boston banks were able or willing to advance to them. The Boston Board of Trade made a vigorous effort to abolish the system of branch houses, and to recall the trade to Boston, Init without success. In an able report on the subject it said: " Unless we mistake, had some of the parent houses seen the consequences, the step would not have been taken; and unless, too, we greatly err, .some of them would now [December, 1S5S] gladly abolish the system could all be induced to come into the measure." Reference was made in the report to the oil trade at New Bedford, the fish trade at Gloucester, and the Calcutta trade in Boston, as instances of the successful maintenance of the system of home sales and the avoidance of the "uncertainties, expenses, and losses" of sales or consignments abroad.

But the most striking illustration on the subject was drawn from the boot and shoe trade, the "vigor and stability" of which, it was said, "are attributable mainly to the adoption of the plan of sales at home." Before 1825 this trade had only a feeble and flickering existence; it was insignificant in amount and imremunerativc in its results. " The custom of the manufacturers was to .send their goods after purchasers, and to incur tlic expenses and risks incident to that jjractice; and it turned out that the majority of them failed as often as once in every seven years. At this period the whole business in Massachusetts could hardly have been estimated bv millions of dollars, and nearly the entire sale was made by consignments to southern and western markets. But about the year 18150 an important change in this particular was commenced: the plan of foreign sales through branch houses or by consignments was vcr}- generally abandoned, and the policy of selling exclusively at our own warehou.ses, and of limiting the manufacture to the demand, was substituted. During the seven years that followed, and until the great crisis of 1S;57, the business was very prosperous, and rose in amount to fourteen millions of dollars per annum; and if it did not entirely escape the memorable revulsion of that year, yet most of the important shoe houses that suspended in this city finally recovered and paid their obligations in full. New York, on the other hand, presented a striking contrast. There were then in that city twenty-five wholesale boot and shoe houses that received their supplies chiefly from Massachusetts. Of these, twenty-four failed, and from their failure came nearly all the embarrassments which the business in this State experienced ; . . . few, if any, paid in full, and many of them made but trifling dividends. . . . Since 1837 the trade has rapidly increased in Massachusetts, and at the present time amounts to more than fifty millions of dollars per annum. Its stability may be seen by the circumstance that during the unparalleled revulsion of 1S57 not a single house of high standing in Boston stopped payment."

The report from which we have quoted was approved by the Board of Trade, and so much interest was felt in the subject of which it treated that it was presented at a meeting of gentlemen called for the purpose at the rooms of the Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company, and, on motion of Mr. David Sears, it was approved, and the Board was asked to print and circulate it. A second meeting was held in the same place two days later, in which Messrs. William Appleton, Thomas G. Cary, William T. Andrews and Albert Fearing took part, and it was again voted, "that the reasonings and recommendations of the report meet the approval of this meeting." As we have already intimated, the effort to close the branch houses in New York and to recall this errant trade to Boston was unsuccessful.

Boston sulfered at the time of which we are speaking for another reason, and for this again it had itself chiefly to blame. It was the first seaboard city to become the key to an extended system of railway communication ; unfortiinately, however, this system after a few years was "arrested " in its development, to use a scientific expression, and not only made no advance with the times, but was allowed to lapse into retrogression. All the railroad lines starting from Boston were .short, and we had no trunk routes under otir control. The Boston and Worcester and the Western- Railroad Companies, which together furnished the direct means of communication with the West, were always at cross purposes with each other. The fonncr had no track connection with tidewater, and the latter, until 18G5, had no hridi;-e aeross the Hudson River, and was only partially double-traekcd. All mcrehandise, whether passin}:;^ east or west, had to be handled and transhipped at Albany, at a serious cost of money and, what was of more importance, of time ; the delays there in the spring of the year were often most disastrous. While the New York Central Railroad, in the interest of the port of New York, increased its rolling stock threefold during- the decade, 1855 to 18G5, the Western Railroad, supposed to be managed in the interest of the port of Boston, added to its freight cars in the same period about twelve and a half per cent. It appeared also, in evidence before a legislative committee in 18(j(i, that the Worcester Railroad Company had not added a single freight car to its rolling stock for through business in twenty years, and that the through traffic from Albany to Boston was a trifle less in 1865 than it had been in 1847. Under these circumstances it was impossible for the export trade of the city to grow. This amounted in 1857 to $28,320,918; the next year it fell off onethird, and it was not until 1873 that the figures of 1857 were again reached. Such legislation was enacted in 18(j7 as compelled the Worcester Railroad Company, which had been the reluctant party, to enter into a consolidation with its connecting line, the Western ; and after the long-desired union had been arranged, a better state of things began at once. In 1868 the double track between Boston and Albany was completed, and a connection was perfected with the wharves at East Boston ; and in 1870 an elevator for grain was erected on these wharves with a capacity which was afterward increased to a million bushels.

At the beginning of the year 18(18, the Cunard >Steamship Companjwithdrew its mail steamers from Boston, after an uninterrupted service froiTi Liverpool by way of Halifax to this port of nearly twenty-eight years. The company was feeling the competition of other transatlantic lines at the port of New York and thought it expedient to concentrate its best energies there. Its subsidy from the British government, also, was being steadily diminished, and it was necessary for it to obtain full cargoes for its passages to the eastward, which, while it cmploA-cd only or chiefly paddle-wheel steamers, and while its mail contract was large, it had cared little or nothing for. For such vessels as the China, the Cuba, and Ihe Ja-i'a - screw-propellers - return cargoes were indispen.sable, and, as we have just shown, Boston was not in a position at this time to furnish them. Railroad connections were becoming closer and more direct, and terminal conveniences on a broad scale were in process of construction ; but these improvements for the purposes of the Cunard Company came rather late. The company continued to send cargo steamers here, but they proceeded to New York to complete their unloading and to load for Liverpool direct.

In the same year, 1868, an effort to establish a line of steamers between Boston and Liverpool failed disastrously, and it seemed as though the foreign trade of the port which, in various ways, had been declining for several years, would soon cease to exist at all. The American Steamship Company was organized under a legislative charter in July, 1804. Its board of directors included many merchants and business men of high standing, such as Edward S. Tobey, Osbom Howes, William Perkins, James L. Little, Avery Pluraer, George C. Richardson, Chester W. Chapin and others. It raised by subscriptions to its capital stock nearly one million dollars, and by bonds three or foiir hundred thousand dollars more. It built two fine wooden screw steamers, of three thousand tons each, the Fric and the Ontario; but, with all the money it had procured, the company could barely pay the first cost of these ships, and had nothing left with which to meet current expenses, or to begin, the construction of two more vessels, which were needed to form a bi-weekly line. After two or three trips, the steamers were laid up in ordinary for a time ; and when they were disposed of, and the company wound up its alTairs, there was a total loss.

It should be said, however, that the labors of the Anieriean Steamship Company, protracted during four or five years, were not in vain ; and what it accomplished indirectly was worth to the community, perhaps, all the pecuniary loss, to which the stockholders had been subjected. It aroused the people to the general importance of ocean steam navigation; it stimulated the railroad companies to the extensions and improvements which have been referred to ; it inspired the local press with new spirit in its utterances upon all business questions; and it was the first to fix the attention of the West upon what Boston might do, and was about to attempt, as an export city. At its instance, representatives from the commercial bodies of Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, and St. Louis, came to Boston in the month f)f Jime, 18()5, and to them the capabilities of the port, and the far-reaching plans of our more progressive business men were carefully explained. All this effort was of no advantage to the company in whose especial behalf it was put forth; but it made it not only possible, but easy, for