to increase the taxable property of the city in any one year by

that sum.

I shall, as I say, call your attention to the effect of the present system of taxation upon the city proper in reference to this question, and then I shall ask your attention to the situation of East Boston itself. I understand the population of East Boston to be about 30,000; I understand its valuation in 1870 to have been $13,296,000. I understand the amount of tax collected in East Boston last year to have been $186,144 - or thereabouts; and I understand that East Boston complains that her prosperity is diminished by reason of the fact that her communication with Boston proper must be by ferry; that her wharves are deserted, her workshops depopulated, and all her industries affected by the ferry.

Now, Mr. President and gentlemen, I shall have the honor to submit to the Council, that the depression in East Boston does not grow out of the ferries; but that her business depression, if it exists to a greater extent in Ward One than in the other wards of the city, grows not out of the ferries, but out of the commercial depression which affects the business which has created East Boston, and which has hitherto supported its inhabitants. The foreign commerce of Boston the coastwise commerce of Boston, for aught I know - has been steadily diminishing for some years. The shipyards, upon which the people of East Boston depended so largely for their welfare, have, in the present situation of affairs in this country, been compelled to abandon substantially the building of ships. The number of ships entering Boston harbor is very much less than ever before; the number of ships being repaired in East Boston yards is very much less than ever before. The loss of that business is the secret of the declining fortunes of East Boston; and the fortunes of East Boston must continue to decline unless that business is restored, or unless her people substitute some other business for that one in which they have been engaged since

East Boston became a business Ward. That, I propose to substantiate, to some extent, by the observations and opinions of gentlemen whom I shall call here. I shall claim, that freeing the ferries, so that a party may come across the water without paying two cents instead of paying it, will not fill your shipyards with mechanics, will not start up your foundries, or your blacksmith shops, or your spar yards or any other branch of industry that depends upon commerce, but that you must find some business and locate it in East Boston, which shall take the place of that which has been lost, before you can expect to restore East Boston to its former prosperity.

Now it is the misfortune of East Boston that she is an island ; and she cannot be made mainland by the ferries. She must remain forever, except by the interposition of Divine providence, an island, so far as Boston proper is concerned; and she does not become mainland, nor does she gain the same elements of prosperity with the mainland, after you have made the ferries free. You cannot bridge from here to East Boston; you cannot lay a railroad from here to East Boston. Nature made the channel between here and East Boston, and the people when they located in East Boston, went there because it was an island, because it had facilities for a particular kind of business, was surrounded with deep water, and because of the fact that, located away from the city proper to which access was to be gained only by a ferry, land was worth less there than it was upon this side; and the advantages which East Boston gained in that direction gave her her population; and so long as the business of East Boston prospered under that regime there was no complaint, so far as I know, in relation to the matter of ferries, except the ordinary complaint which people make when they are reasonably well served, but are not quite sure that they could not be better served for the same money.

That being the situation of East Boston, I shall endeavor to establish, as I have said, that giving her free ferries will not

restore her business. It will not bring back the business, which can only be regained either by legislation at the hands of Congress, or by a change in the value of products and the value of those industries which enter into the business which has hitherto contributed to the growth and wealth of East Boston.

Then, for the purpose of showing, as well as I may, that Boston ought not to run these ferries free for the benefit of East Boston, I shall endeavor to establish several propositions:

First. That East Boston has no claim to free ferries. She has no right to come here and demand of the city government free ferries, because she does not, never has, and never can pay for them; and it is not reasonable that the inhabitants of the city proper should pay for East Boston more than they pay proportionately to any other portion of the city for a great public improvement.

Secondly. They have no right to demand free ferries because the tax which they already pay does not repay to the city treasury the expenditures now made for the benefit of the inhabitants of East Boston.

Thirdly. They have no right to demand free ferries because the benefit to East Boston, and thus to the whole city, would be utterly disproportionate to the expense to be incurred. Let me re-state that: I say, that she has no right to claim free ferries because, the benefit which she would derive, and so the whole city (since the friends of free ferries say that East Boston should have free ferries because a benefit to East Boston is a benefit to the whole city) is utterly disproportionate to the expense which would thereby be saddled upon the city treasury.

Fourthly. I say she has no claim to free ferries, because she can pay no betterments, as betterments are received for public improvements elsewhere within the limits of the city, because you can adopt no system of betterments that I know of; and if you can adopt a system, I call upon the friends of free ferries, for I suppose the friends of free ferries are friends of equity

and justice, to show me how a system of betterments can be framed to be paid by the citizens of East Boston which shall be just and equitable as between them and the rest of the city.

Fifth. I say that East Boston has no right to free ferries, because the benefit that would accrue from free ferries would accrue mainly to private interests, and not to the interests of the mass of the inhabitants of East Boston. I say, to private interests: Pardon me, Mr. President, if I dwell upon this a little. I say that the freeing of these ferries would inure to the advantage mainly of private interests. Let us see what they are. I asked Mr. Hills, the Chairman of the Board of Assessors, to furnish me, for a future hearing, with the amount of property taxed in East Boston, which is owned by persons who do not reside there. That property, of course, would be benefited; if a rise in property is assumed, as I suppose it will be by the friends of free ferries, to be one of the benefits which East Boston would derive, and which would thus inure to the benefit of the whole city. The whole number of acres in Ward 1, as I calculate, is between 600 and 650, exclusive of the flats. I do not know what number of acres the flats contain; and I have had no time to inquire or examine for the purpose of ascertaining how many land companies there are in East Boston; but I know there are some. I know there is an East Boston Land Company, and I know that there is a land company which was incorporated last winter, a year ago, because the bill was reported by the committee of which I have the honor to be chairman, which owns 135 acres of land, bought at an expense of some two or three cents a foot, if I am not mistaken. I was told last winter what that land was bought for, but I do.not recollect the figures at this time. There is a private interest which would be benefited, if the prophecies of the friends of free ferries are to be fulfilled, as I should certainly hope they might be. I expect to be able to ascertain before the next hearing, and hope to show you that the rise in land,

which might be predicated upon the freeing of the ferries, would, to a very large extent, inure to the benefit of private parties. If it would, I know of no argument in favor of putting money into the pockets of private parties, except the general benefit which the city is to derive from an increase of values in Ward 1.

Then there is a large amount of wharf property, owned I do not know by whom; but I know that there are several corporations in East Boston whose property would be benefited by free ferries. I know that the Horse Railroad Co. would be benefited by free ferries. I understand that they now pay two cents a passenger upon the horse cars that go across the ferry. Here is another private interest. I know that the Eastern R. R. would be benefited by free ferries, for I understand that they pay some $5,000 a year for freights. Whether that is correct or not, I do not know; but I propose to verify it by evidence. I know that there are express companies running into Essex Co., that now pay the ferry a very handsome sum of money per annum; but what that sum is, I have not had time to ascertain, and I am not prepared to state, much less to prove. But all these are private interests, and as against the interests of the masses of the people of East Boston, they outweigh the interests of those who are merely passengers day by day, or week by week across the ferry, and they account, in my judgment, for very much of the clamor which you hear about the streets, and in some of the newspapers, in favor of free ferries. Take that, Mr. President and gentlemen, along with you, as one of the elements in this inquiry, - how much are private interests to be benefited, and how much can you, holding the city treasury, afford to pay into the pockets of private parties for the benefits which are to accrue to the inhabitants of East Boston?

Of course, I am utterly unable to express any opinion to-night as to the extent of these private interests; but I know that the amount of travel from Essex Co., which now goes over Chelsea