He lived for some time at Morrisville, in Pennsylvania, in a house purchased by him on the banks of the Delaware, the most conspicuous in the place. The general was very affable and hospitable. He also resided in New York, where he was much consulted by American politicians, though he sedulously abstained from party intrigue himself. After a residence of about eight years in the United States he returned to Europe, to engage in the strife then raging there. The American vessel which carried Moreau - this was in 1813. was permitted to pass the blockade by Admiral Cockburn, at the request of the Russian minister. His death-bed was attended by the King of Prussia, the Emperor of Austria, and Emperor Alexander, who manifested the deepest grief at his loss. Metternich, Schwartzenburg, and the allied generals visited him, and Alexander, who had a great friendship for the dying general, held him a long time in his arms. The following is an extract of a letter to Madame Moreau, written by him, with a steady hand, while sinking under the amputation of his limbs : "My dear friend, at the battle of Dresden, three days ago, I had both legs carried away by a cannot shot. That scoundrel, Bonaparte, is always lucky." Charles Francis Adams passed his boyhood with his father at St. Petersburg, and while the elder Adams was minister at the court of St. James, the son went to an English school. He studied law in Webster's office, and was admitted to the bar, but never practised. Mr. Adams, after having edited a Boston newspaper, and served in the legislature, was the candidate of the Free Soil party for the Vice-presidency in 1848. But Mr. Adams is best known by his diplomatic services at the same court where his father served so long. His conduct of delicate negotiations during the great civil war was such as to place him. at the head of American diplomats. His services were recently required by our government in the negotiations at Geneva, arising from the Alabama and other claims. Mr. Adams married a daughter of Peter C. Brooks, a wealthy citizen of Boston. In this corner of the Common, and adjoining the Burying Ground on the east, were situated the hay-scales, after their removal from the corner of West Street, and also a gun-house; the latter was transferred, in 1826, to a location near the present Providence depot. It contained a laboratory, well furnished with warlike material. There was also a laboratory on Pleasant Street, between the corner of Boylston and Pfaff's Hotel, during the Revolution, on what is now called Park Square, and another, subsequently used by Frothingham, Wheeler, and Jacobs as a carriage factory, and seen in the frontispiece. The first manufacture of duck was begun by an incorporated company in Boston, about 1790. They erected buildings on a large lot in Boylston Street, at the corner of Tremont. In 1792 they were in the full tide of success, employing four hundred operatives, and turning out fifty pieces a week of excellent canvas. Here were manufactured the Constitution's sails, so that she was an American ship throughout, except in her armament. The manufacture of cotton began in New England as early as 1643, and calico printing was undertaken in Boston before 1794. OLD LOOM. During the war of 1812 a number of field-pieces belonging to the government were collected in this corner of the Common, and the city military took turns mounting guard over the park. The New England Guards, which were organized in 1812, performed their share of this duty, and several of the members, among whom was Abbott Lawrence, got their one hundred and sixty acres of land from the general government in requital for a certain term of service here, at the Charlestown Navy Yard, and at Noddle's Island. There were sixty-seven names on the muster-roll in 1814, and in 1859, after the lapse of nearly half a century, forty-three of the sixty-seven were still living, of whom a mere handful of aged men now survive. CHAPTER XI. A TOUR ROUND THE COMMON CONTINUED. Beacon Street. Prescott. Volunteers. Common Burying-Ground. - Joshua Bates. - Public Garden. - Ropewalks. THE Samuel Dexter. HE Common Burying-Ground has but little antiquity compared with the Chapel, Copp's Hill, or Granary Cemeteries. It was opened after these in 1756, and has, according to its changing relations with others, been called at various times the South and Central Ground. Under Mayor Armstrong, the Boylston Street Mall was carried across the foot of the Common, cutting off some of the tombs on that side of the graveyard. The owners of the vaults resisted the invasion of the sacred dust, but the improvement was accomplished by which Beacon and Tremont Street Malls were connected. Unsupported tradition has given to the Common Ground the credit of being first used for negro burials, but we find no better evidence of this than that some very thick skulls were dug up at a considerable depth from the surface. It is known, however, that this was the sepulchre of such of the common soldiers as died from disease during the British occupation, and of those who died from their wounds received at Bunker Hill. They were buried in a common trench, according to military custom, and many of the remains were exhumed when the excavations were proceeding at the northwest corner of the yard. The officers who died of their hurts at Bunker Hill were interred in the churches and cemeteries, hastily, but with greater decency. Many of these have been forwarded to their faraway homes. We cannot pass the Public Library without an allusion to its great benefactor, Joshua Bates. This eminent Bostonian, who became the chief of the great house of the Barings in London, was a poor boy, almost as humble as the least among those who daily benefit by his generosity. He attracted the attention of his patron, William Gray, while driving a load of stones on his father's team. His quick, ready replies interested the merchant, who gave him a place in his counting-house, whence graduated a financier second to none in the Old or New World. In the Public Library is a Revolutionary relic of interest, which acquired an even greater importance in connection with the Sanitary Commission in the war of Rebellion. It is the original capitulation of Burgoyne at Saratoga, with the signatures of the king's commander, Riedesel, and the lesser officers, English and Hessian, in order of rank. "In vain they fought, in vain they fled; To save the rest, soon thought it best Where now the Public Garden is teeming with beauty, nearly the whole extent of the ground was occupied by ropewalks, five in number. As you pass along Charles Street going in the direction of Beacon, these ropewalks stretched about three fourths of the distance, there meeting the water which washed Charles Street. On the other hand, they continued nearly to Eliot Street. Charles Street was divided from the Common about 1804. These ropewalks were the successors of those in Pearl and Atkinson Streets, destroyed by fire in 1794. The town granted the tract in order to prevent the erection of new buildings in a district they endangered, as well as to render substantial aid to the unfortunate rope-makers; they were again consumed in their new location in 1806. The land whereon these ropewalks were situated was marsh, or flats, which indeed was the prior condition of nearly all that low ground now known as the parade of the Common. At high tides most of this tract was probably overflowed. On the verge of it was a little elevation known as Fox Hill, long ago levelled to contribute to the filling of the marsh. As long ago as 1750 the town voted to lease these marsh-lands; but if they were used, the purpose has not transpired. To continue the topography of this region of the Common, from the bottom of Beacon Street to Cambridge Bridge was a high bluff, similar to the headlands of the harbor islands; the base washed by the river. Excellent springs, covered at high water, trickled along the beach. This eminence, known as West Hill, was occupied by the British as a mortar-battery; it has been reduced to a convenient grade, and employed in making Charles Street. It seems clear that the shore or beach once left this headland with an inward sweep, southerly to the higher ground at the foot of Boylston Street. After the era of improvement was begun by the Mount Vernon proprietors, the hill was reduced by them. In this labor they employed the first railway used in New England, by an inclined plane, over which box cars conveyed their loads to the water at the foot of the hill. About this time a sea wall was built along Charles Street from Beacon to Boylston. To return to the ropewalks. The town, in its generosity, invested the proprietors with a title which might have forever prevented the existence of the Public Garden, now properly a part and parcel of the Common. The rights of the proprietors were finally purchased by the city. The question whether the city should sell these lands lying west of Charles Street, was, in 1824, negatived by the citizens, who thus decided to preserve the beautiful view of the river and its shores beyond, now obstructed by the newly erected city of the Back Bay. In this manner has been secured the Public Garden, "Where opening roses breathing sweets diffuse, - |