per money, with nothing to rest upon [laughter], or
whether we shall have genuine parks, with life and trees, and have
sheets of water? Now we are here to-night to say it is the latter that
we want. [Applause.]

Fellow-citizens, that statute authorized the appointment by the MAYOR,
subject to approval, of three commissioners. Well, that was wise. It
was not nine, seven, nor five; but it was three. Well, his Honor the
Mayor, who has presided with so much dignity, wisdom, and integrity
[applause] over the city of Boston for two years,--and we would be glad
to get him for a third year, if his health would permit it
[applause],--his Honor the Mayor appointed three gentlemen as
commissioners, in whom this community have entire confidence. There are
no politics among the Board of Commissioners; there is no jobbery in the
Board of Commissioners; and I will venture to predict, gentlemen, that,
when they finish their task, there will be no investigation. [Great
applause.]

I was amazed on looking over their charge. Why, I found an item of
coach-hire for the whole period of their service, nine dollars. Why, it
would not have been enough to take three common councilmen from Parker's
or Young's. [Laughter.] But it is all they have charged; and how, on
that sum, they succeeded in riding around Boston, I do not know. Their
experience with persons who let carriages must have been much more
favorable than mine has been. But not only have they done honorably,
economically, and frugally, they have put into their work an amount of
brain-labor, an amount of patient investigation and of good judgment,
which no one can have an adequate opinion of who has not read their
book; but, if he has not, I hope he will. And at least this I may be
allowed to say, I do not think any citizen of Boston has the right to
object to those parks, or to be silent or indifferent on the subject,
unless he has read the report of the Commission, and knows what is
proposed, and has been done. [Applause.] They have consulted the best
authorities. They have consulted Mr. FREDERICK LAW OLMSTEAD, who laid
out Central Park in New York, and he is the highest authority on the
construction of parks in the country; and he has been all over this
neighborhood, viewing the localities, and they have taken every thing
into consideration; and, gentlemen, what is the result? They do not
propose to us one great park of a thousand acres, at an almost
unattainable distance; they do