ness quarter of the city, laying in ruins most of the district bounded by Summer, Washington, and State Streets and the water front. An area embracing nearly sixty-five acres was burnt over, and seven hundred and nine buildings of brick or stone, and sixty-seven of wood, together ` valued at upward of thirteen million and a half dollars, were consumed. The amount of personal property destroyed was about sixty millions of dollars. . An extra session of the legislature was held on the 19th of November, for the purpose of devising means for the relief of Boston. Several insurance companies were rendered bankrupt by the fire, and a demand was made for new charters, or for a general insurance law. An insurance act, authorizing any ten or more residents of the state to associate themselves together for the purpose of carrying on the business of fire or marine insurance with an amount of capital of not less than two hundred thousand dollars, passed both houses of the legislature. This act contained several important conditions and restrictions framed for the better protection of policy holders. Another act of the legislature authorized the city of Boston to issue bonds to the extent of twenty millions of dollars, to aid the owners of land in the burnt district to restore their buildings within one year from the 1st of January, 1873. Matters of minor importance were also disposed of, and the extra session of the legislature ended on the 18th of December. The financial condition of the state at the close of the year was in every way satisfactory. At the beginning of the year the funded debt amounted to more than twentynine millions and a half, and on the 1st of January, 1873, this had been reduced to twenty-six millions and a half, plus the one million dollars added during the year on account of the Troy and Greenfield Railroad and Hoosac Tunnel loan. There were in the treasury at the close of the year about six hundred thousand dollars, and there remained no funded liabilities for the payment of which the state had not provided a sinking fund. On the 12th of December the Hoosac Tunnel was opened from the eastern portal to the central shaft. There still remained at that time three thousand feet of rock to penetrate between the shaft and the western portal, and the contractors were as confident as ever that they would be able to complete the work by the 1st of January, 1874. The session of the legislature which began in January, 1873, and closed on the 12th of June, was surpassed in duration only by those of 1869 and 1870. Early in the session, George S. Boutwell, who, by a coalition in 1851 of democrats and free soilers, had been chosen governor of the commonwealth, was elected as United States senator, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the election of Henry Wilson to the vice presidency. Among the important acts of the session was one authoriz ing the governor and council to expend two hundred thousand dollars in completing the Hoosac Tunnel and its approaches, and also prohibiting the consolidation of the Lowell and Fitchburg Railroads; an act doing away with the power of cities and towns to legalize the sale of malt liquors, and acts providing for the erection of a new state prison, and an insane asylum for the eastern portion of the state. With regard to the new liquor act, it was said, "It brings the prohibitory law back to where it was in 1867, the only drawback, in the opinion of the friends of the statute, being the still existing provision that apothecaries may sell. A bill to do away with this failed by a small majority in a thin house, and there was no attempt to reconsider; from which it is inferred that an impression prevailed that the matter had been pushed far enough for this year." An important change was made in the criminal code, to the effect that, when a person indicted for murder or manslaughter is acquitted on the ground of insanity, the court shall order such person to one of the state lunatic asylums for life; and he may be discharged from such custody only by the governor and council, when the former is satisfied, upon a careful hearing of the matter, that it may be done without injury to others. Notwithstanding the unusual monetary and commercial depression of the year, Massachusetts successfully maintained her financial credit and prosperity. The funded debt of the state did not exceed twenty-eight millions and a half, and, with few exceptions, the state had no debt whose liquidation was not contemplated by established sinking funds, and their large and increasing accumulations. The increase in the valuation of real and personal estate in 1873, amounted to nearly sixty-seven millions of dollars over that of the preceding year. The various educational, charitable, reformatory, and penal institutions of the state continued in a prosperous condition. During the year the new Normal School at Worcester was completed, the Agricultural College was established on a firmer basis, and the Technical Institutes were crowded with pupils. A site in the western part of the town of Concord, embracing nearly one hundred acres, was selected and approved by the executive council for the new state prison; and a portion of land, embracing about two hundred acres, |