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associate judges declared it to be an indictable | the murderers of Sir Thomas Overbury gave offence to question a judgment of the king's further offence to James, and, he probably inbench or common pleas; and an effort was tended the removal of Coke upon the first famade to get an indictment against the parties, vorable opportunity. This intention was no solicitors, and officers of the court of chancery, doubt precipitated by the enmity of the new in two cases in which injunctions had been favorite Villiers, who had been thwarted by the granted by the chancellor against judgments chief justice in a corrupt attempt at the dispoat law. But as it appeared that gross fraud sition of a lucrative clerkship in the king's had been committed in the obtaining of these bench. The removal was, however, put upon judgments, the grand jury could not be per- very different grounds. Among the charges suaded to bring in a bill. The proceeding hav- which he was required to answer before the ing attracted public attention, the king ap- council were: 1, the alleged concealment of a pointed commissioners to inquire into the sub- bond belonging to the crown; 2, his misconject of dispute. The report of the commis- duct in the dispute with the chancellor respectsioners sustained the proceeding of the chan- ing injunctions; 3, his disrespectful conduct to cellor. Proceedings were thereupon instituted the king in the matter of the commendams. A in the star chamber against the private parties few days afterward he was again called before concerned in resisting the authority of the the council, when sentence was pronounced chancellor. The conduct of Coke on this oc- that he be suspended from the council and from casion has been generally censured; but there his judicial functions till the king's pleasure can be no doubt that it had the effect of estab- should be further known, and in the mean lishing with more precision the rule by which time that he should revise his books of reports, the interposition of the court of chancery wherein it was alleged that "many extravagant should be regulated. The case as to the com- and exorbitant opinions were set down for mendams was this: In a suit against the bish- good law." After the summer vacation he was op of Lichfield and Coventry respecting a bene- again cited before the privy council to answer fice, the defendant pleaded that he held it in as to revision of errors in his reports, when he commendam, which was an appointment by the made a specification, showing that there were not king in certain cases until a new incumbent more errors in his 11 books of reports, containcould be regularly appointed. The question ing 500 cases, than could be found in a few cases was involved as to the right of the king to in Plowden. The whole charge was indeed make such grants. Upon being advised of the frivolous; but a supersedeas nevertheless issued, discussion, the king sent a message to Coke removing him from his office (1616), and Monsignifying his pleasure that all proceedings tague was appointed in his place. Not long should be stayed till the judges should have a after his disgrace Coke offered his daughter in conference with his majesty on the subject. marriage to Sir John Villiers, brother of the A meeting of all the judges having been held duke of Buckingham, the royal favorite. She for consultation, it was resolved by them that was only 14 years of age, but was a rich heirthe court ought to proceed as though they had ess, as the estate of her mother, Lady Hatton, received no notice, which was accordingly done, was entailed upon her, and she also had an exand a memorial signed by the 12 judges was pectancy from her father's immense wealth. sent to the king, in which they say: "We hold The match had been sought by Villiers, who was it our duty to inform your majesty that our poor, and had been rejected by Coke while chief oath is in these express words, 'that in case justice. He determined on availing himself of any letter come to us contrary to law, we do it now for the purpose of recovering from his nothing therefore but certify your majesty disgrace and humbling Bacon, who was now thereof, and go forth to do the law notwith- his open enemy. Lady Hatton, who was not on standing the same.' We have advisedly con- good terms with her husband, and had not been sidered the said letter of Mr. Attorney, and consulted, refused consent, and carried off her with one consent do hold the same to be con- daughter to a place of concealment. Coke, havtrary to law, and such as we could not yield to ing ascertained where they had fled, pursued, the same by oath." A sharp response followed broke open the house, and took his daughter from the king, ordering the judges to proceed away. The mother appealed to the privy counno farther till his coming in town. He then cil. Bacon, who had been appointed lord keepcalled them before him, and commented se- er, warmly supported her, and proceedings were verely upon their course of proceeding and the instituted in the star chamber against Coke. form of their letter; upon which the judges The king, however, who was then in Scotkneeled and craved pardon. But Coke, though land, sharply reproved the lord keeper, and he expressed sorrow for any error of form, on his return the parties were so far reconciled still persisted in defending the substantial right that the marriage took place. Coke was reof what he had done. The king himself seems stored to his place in the privy council (1617), to have been impressed by the noble bearing but received no other appointment, except of the chief justice, for the court was permitted temporarily as one of the commissioners of the to proceed in the cause of the bishop, which treasury while the office of lord treasurer was was finally decided against him.-The active vacant. Bacon, on the other hand, entirely measures taken by Coke for the conviction of recovered a good understanding with the king,

and was shortly after made lord chancellor. | The lord treasurer's office, which Coke expected to have had, was finally given to Montague, who had succeeded him as chief justice; and instead of his being restored to the chief justiceship, that place was filled by an obscure lawyer. After his removal from office Coke did not intermit his legal pursuits. The 12th and 13th parts of his reports were prepared, though not published, as they contained the obnoxious opinions he had expressed upon proclamations, the court of high commission, and some other matters. He had also commenced his great work, the "Commentary on Littleton." Utterly destitute of orderly arrangement, this work is exuberant in legal learning and curious illustrations of English customs; vigorous in style, and interesting even to nonprofessional readers by the quaint and amusing analogies with which the gravest discussions are interspersed. The commentary is written in English, for which he deemed it necessary to make an apology in the preface. The reports, that is, the 11 parts which had then appeared, were printed in Norman French; the 12th and 13th parts were not published till 1654, having been translated into English, as were subsequently the other parts. The reports had one peculiarity which has never been adventured upon by any other author, viz.: that they represent many questions to have been resolved which in fact did not arise in the cause, or which were not at all events decided; and these he disposes of according to his own judgment, with abundant citations of authorities. Yet such was the respect entertained for his opinion, that these resolutions were always regarded as of equal weight with the opinions of the judges actually expressed.-The closing period of the life of Coke was brilliant and eventful. He was a member of parliament in 1621, and when the motion for a supply was made, secured a reference of the subjects of supply and grievances to a committee of the whole house. His first measure was a report upon the illegal grants of monopolies to Sir Giles Mompesson and Sir Edward Villiers, which report was agreed to, and sent to the upper house for concurrence. Consentaneously with this, an investigation of judicial abuses was instituted, which was aimed at Bacon; and although Coke declined acting as chairman of the committee, yet he directed all the proceedings, prepared the charges, and prescribed the mode of prosecution. Coke was to have been the manager of the prosecution before the house of lords; but Bacon shrank from the contest, and by a plea of guilty sought to shelter himself from his revengeful adversary under the sympathy of the lords and the dispensing power of the crown. Coke followed up his success by carrying through the house an address against the proposed match of Prince Charles with the infanta of Spain. This called forth a threatening response from the king, in which he mentioned Sir Edward Coke by name as particularly ob

noxious to censure. Finally, in a letter to the speaker, the king intimated his intention "to punish any man's misdemeanor in parliament, as well during the sitting as after." Coke immediately moved a protestation for the privileges of the house, which having been reported by a committee, setting forth the right of every member of the house to freedom of speech, and the "like freedom from all impeachment, imprisonment, and molestation," on account of anything said or done in parliament, it was carried and entered on the journals of the house. The king immediately prorogued parliament, sent for the journals, and with his own hand tore out the offensive protestation. This was followed by a dissolution, and the arrest of Coke, Philips, Pym, and other leaders of the commons. The ex-chief justice was confined in the tower, but after some months' imprisonment was set at liberty, upon the intercession of Prince Charles; his name was however stricken out of the list of privy councillors. He was returned again as member of parliament on the accession of Charles I. (1625), and obtained the appointment of a committee on expenditures, which was proceeding so vigorously that the king suddenly dissolved parliament. An attempt was made to keep him out of the next parliament by appointing him sheriff of the county of Norfolk; nevertheless, he was returned as a member, but the parliament was dissolved before his right to a seat was settled. In 1628 he was again elected, and he proceeded at once to attack the recent illegal measures of the king. The first was commitments by order of the privy council, without specifying the cause in the warrant; and he carried through two resolutions, which constituted the basis of the famous habeas corpus act, passed many years after, in the 31st of Charles II. (1679). He then framed the famous petition of right, which enumerated the prominent grievances of the nation from the abuse of prerogative, and declared them all to be contrary to the laws and customs of the realm. This was carried through the house in spite of all the subterfuges of the king, and finally passed by the lords after a fruitless attempt to nullify the bill by a clause which was rejected by the commons; and after a treacherous attempt by the king to cheat the house by an evasive form of assent, he was finally compelled to approve the bill and it became a law. In every step of this arduous contest, Coke, now in his 76th year, rendered important service by his sagacity and firmness. It was his last appearance in public; though he survived six years, he lived in retirement. During this time he prepared a new edition of the commentary on Littleton, and wrote the second, third, and fourth Institutes. In 1633, when he was on his.deathbed, his house was searched by order of the king for seditious papers, and all his manuscripts were carried off. He died two days afterward, in his 82d year. It is said that, except a slight attack of the gout, he was never sick until his 80th year.

COKE, Thomas, the first bishop of the Meth- | in Virginia he heard of the death of Wesley, odist Episcopal church, born at Brecon, South and resolved on returning immediately to EngWales, Sept. 9, 1747, died at sea, May 2, 1814. land, where he was chosen secretary of the At the age of 16 he was sent to Oxford, and conference. The revolution in France openthe succeeding year entered as gentleman com- ing a field for Protestant missionaries, he set moner at Jesus college in that university. Af- out for that country; but as he could not obter graduating he returned to Brecon, of which tain a congregation in Paris, he returned to place he was elected mayor at the age of 25. England, and devoted his time to soliciting aid Meanwhile he pursued his studies, and in 1775 for missions, and to preparing with Mr. Moore, received the degree of D. C. L. Soon after- who, with himself and Dr. Whitehead, had been ward he entered the ministry of the established designated by Wesley as his biographers, a life church, and obtained a curacy at South Peth- of that distinguished man. The conference erton. His preaching was thought too evan- this year engaged him to make a commentary gelical, and he was finally excluded from the on the Scriptures, and he made preparation for pulpit. Sympathizing strongly with the Meth- entering upon that work, which he prosecuted odists, he sought an interview with Wesley, at intervals during another visit to the West which resulted in his joining the Wesleyan Indies and the United States, ending in 1793. society, and being appointed to London, where With a view of settling some difficulties which his zeal and talents soon brought him into had arisen in the West Indies, he visited Holnotice. He rendered valuable assistance to land; and on his return in 1794, he devoted Wesley in procuring what was called the deed himself to his commentary and to soliciting of declaration, which provided for the settle- subscriptions for his missions. In 1795 he proment of the Methodist chapels in the connec- jected a mission among the Foolahs in Africa, tion, and restricted the conference to 100 of and sent out a company of mechanics, but it the preachers, and their successors. So fully proved a failure. In 1796 he again embarked had he gained the confidence of Wesley, that for America, where he continued fulfilling his he was appointed president of the Irish con- duties as bishop till 1797, when he went to ference in 1782. The American revolution Scotland and thence to Ireland. After the seshaving resulted in dissolving not only the po- sion of the English conference he again turned litical but the ecclesiastical relation between his course to America, where he arrived plunEngland and the former colonies, Wesley in dered of everything but his books, the vessel 1784 ordained Coke as bishop of the Methodist having been taken by a privateer. Again in church in America. In the same year he reach- England in 1798, he devised a plan of domesed New York, and sought an interview with tic missions for Ireland, and also established a Francis Asbury, to whom he communicated mission in Wales. Before leaving once more the object of his mission. The authority of for America, he published parts of his comCoke was fully recognized, and he ordained mentary, comprising the Old Testament; the Asbury as bishop, and both were duly accred- remainder was not completed till 1807. The ited as the joint superintendents of the church years 1802-3 were mostly occupied in this in America. In company with Asbury he work, so that he did not make his ninth and travelled through the different conferences last visit to America till 1803. When his labors until June, 1785, when he returned to England, here were finished, he returned, and established and visited Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. a mission in Gibraltar. From this time till Subsequently he went again to America, and 1808 he was engaged in travelling in aid of the attended the conferences throughout the en- missionary cause. Meanwhile he had finished tire connection. Thenceforth he devoted him- his commentary, made preparations for a hisself to missionary work. The first mission tory of the West Indies and a history of the which he established was among the blacks in Bible, and had compiled a system of philosophy. the West Indies, in 1786, whence, after visit- Through his influence a mission was established ing the several islands, he went to South Caro- in 1811 at Sierra Leone, and several missionlina, travelled through the states, and embark- aries were sent out. In 1813 he opened a cored for England in 1787. Soon after the ses- respondence with the Rev. Claudius Buchanan sion of the English conference, he went with in regard to India, which resulted in a determiWesley to the Channel isles, and having spent nation on his part to establish a mission on the some time there returned to England. The island of Ceylon. At the conference this year conference having appointed three mission- five preachers volunteered to go with him; and aries for the West Indies, Coke accompanied such was his zeal that when the conference them in 1788; and having passed through the hesitated on account of the expense that would islands he sailed for the continent, and arrived be incurred, he furnished £6,000 from his own at Charleston in 1789. After visiting all the private fortune. The missionaries embarked conferences, and with Asbury making pro- Dec. 30, and after having been out four months, vision for the wants of the churches under Coke was found dead in his cabin, and was their care, he returned to England. Again in buried at sea. He was a voluminous writer. 1790 we find him among the West India isl- Besides numerous addresses and letters to the ands, whence he proceeded to the continent church, he published "Life of John Wesley," and made the round of the conferences. While written in conjunction with Henry Moore

(1792); "A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (6 vols. 4to, 1807); "History of the West Indies" (3 vols., 1808-'11); "History of the Bible," and "Defence of the Doctrine of Justification by Faith and the Witness of the Holy Spirit."

COKE, Thomas William, earl of Leicester of Holkham, an English agriculturist, born May 4, 1752, died June 30, 1842. He was regarded, after the death of the duke of Bedford, as the first agriculturist in the kingdom. His estate of Holkham, in Norfolk, the rental of which he raised in the period of some 60 years that it was in his possession from £2,000 to above £20,000, was the pride of the county. His annual sheep shearing, at which he entertained hundreds of guests for several days, was reckoned the greatest agricultural festival in the world. His methods of cultivation were based upon scientific principles. He introduced choice breeds of cattle and the rotation of crops, and recommended the extensive planting of turnips. He represented the county of Norfolk in parliament, with a brief interval, from 1776 to 1832. An intense hatred of toryism constituted almost the whole of his political system, but he spoke little except when agricultural measures were before the house. In 1837 he was created earl of Leicester of Holkham. Sixty years before he had been twice offered a peerage; but he refused to accept anything but the earldom of Leicester, which had been held by his maternal great-uncle, whose estates he inherited, but not his title, which had meantime been given to another person. As this earldom was still held by Marquis Townshend, the title was varied for Mr. Coke by the addition of the name of his own estate.

COLAPOOR, or Kolapoor. I. A rajahship of Bombay presidency, British India, bounded N. and N. E. by Sattara, E. and S. by Belgaum, and W. by the Ghauts; area, 3,445 sq. m.; pop., including dependencies, about 500,000, mostly Mahrattas and Ramooses. The latter are a predatory, warlike tribe, resembling the Bheels, to whom, however, they are superior in intelligence. The people of certain maritime towns formerly subject to the rajah were much addicted to piracy, and in 1765 the Bombay government undertook to check them by sending an expedition against Colapoor. The fort of Malwan was captured, but the evil was not entirely suppressed till 1812. The country was afterward repeatedly occupied by British troops. In 1842 the government was confided to an agent of the British, against whom a general rebellion was aroused in 1844. The rising was put down, and the control of the state was thenceforth exercised directly by the British in the name of the rajah. II. The capital of the rajahship, situated in a secluded valley, little visited by Europeans, 185 m. S. S. E. of Bombay, and 130 m. S. of Poonah. It is fortified, though with little strength. The first decided outbreak in the Bombay presidency, during the rebellion of 1857, occurred here.

COLBERG, or Kolberg, a town of Pomerania, Prussia, in the circle and 24 m. W. of the city of Köslin, on the Persante, near its mouth in the Baltic; pop. in 1872, 13,130, exclusive of a garrison of about 1,600 men. It possesses a harbor called Münde, and contains a cathedral, an ancient ducal castle, now used for a charitable institution, several churches, hospitals, factories, salt works, distilleries, extensive salmon and lamprey fisheries, and considerable export trade. The town house and aqueduct are worthy of note. Colberg has a gymnasium and a house of correction, and is noted for its sea bathing. It is memorable for the sieges it stood in 1760 and again in 1761 against the Russians, to whom it capitulated in the latter year, and in 1806-27 against the French, when it was successfully defended by Gneisenau. In February, 1873, the government proposed to dismantle the fortress.

COLBERT, a N. W. county of Alabama, recently formed from a portion of Franklin county, bounded N. by the Tennessee river, and W. by Mississippi; pop. in 1870, 12,537, of whom 4,639 were colored. It is intersected by Big Bear creek and other affluents of the Tennessee. The Memphis and Charleston railroad passes through it. The chief productions in 1870 were 12,682 bushels of wheat, 291,402 of Indian corn, 14,347 of oats, and 3,986 bales of cotton. There were 1,190 horses, 799 mules and asses, 1,623 milch cows, 2,699 other cattle, 2,735 sheep, and 8,267 swine. Capital, Tuscumbia.

COLBERT. I. Jean Baptiste, marquis de Seignelay, a French statesman, born at Rheims, Aug. 29, 1619, died in Paris, Sept. 6, 1683. The son of a merchant, he obtained employment as a clerk in an Italian banking house at Paris, at the recommendation of Mazarin, who soon after intrusted him with the management of his private affairs. On his deathbed the cardinal said to Louis XIV.: “Sire, I am indebted to you for all that I possess; but I think I am requiting all your majesty's favors by giving you Colbert." At once admitted to the king's confidence, he began by exposing the maladministration of Fouquet, whom he succeeded in 1661 as comptroller general. Colbert's administration became a blessing to France. Order was restored in the finances, the revenue was increased, and the treasury was enabled to furnish the means for foreign wars as well as for internal improvements. The public debt was greatly reduced, and the manufacturing interest was revived. Several large manufactories were established at the expense of the government, the most celebrated of which was that of the Gobelins. Land taxes were lessened and more justly assessed; the excise upon salt was reduced; highways and roads were kept in repair, and new ones established; the Atlantic was united to the Mediterranean by the canal of Languedoc, and water communications were extended through nearly all parts of France. He was appointed

minister of the navy in 1669, and the French fleet, which then consisted of but 50 ships, numbered in a few years 198 men-of-war. Colbert also encouraged literature, science, and art. He founded the academies of inscriptions and belles-lettres, of science, and of architecture, sculpture, and painting, and at Rome reestablished the French school of painting. He founded the observatory and the jardin des plantes; increased the royal library and the collection of coins and medals; bestowed pensions on eminent artists and scholars; and enriched Paris with the garden of the Tuileries and the colonnade of the Louvre, and with many quays, bridges, boulevards, public buildings, triumphal arches, and monuments. He opposed the wars and follies of Louis XIV., and succeeded for many years in restraining him within the limits of reasonable ambition. But about 1670 his favor was on the wane, and the influence of Louvois, the minister of war, prevailed. Then commenced a series of European wars that partly exhausted the wealth and resources accumulated by Colbert. He continued however serving the government, but the reckless course which was now pursued impaired his usefulness. He had been so long engaged in public affairs that he was loath to retire, but he suffered much from the ingratitude of the king. During his last moments he gave vent to his feelings by saying: "If I had done for God what I have for that man (Louis XIV.), I would have more than deserved salvation, and I do not know now what will become of me." Thus died one of the greatest ministers of France. He was hated by his colleagues, perhaps by the king, and certainly by the people, who held him responsible for taxes which had been established notwithstanding his remonstrances, and for vexations of which he was not the author. To protect his funeral against the attacks of the mob, it took place at night, attended by a military escort. A monument was erected by his family in the church of St. Eustace, and his statue was placed in 1844 in the Palais Bourbon. Posterity has placed Colbert among the most eminent statesmen; and although his commercial policy has been the object of severe animadversion, it cannot be denied that it was perhaps the best adapted to his time and country. An edition of the Lettres, instructions et mémoires de Colbert was published at Paris in 1872. II. Jean Baptiste, marquis de Seignelay, son of the preceding, born in Paris in 1651, died Nov. 3, 1690. He succeeded his father as minister of the navy, and raised the French navy to its highest power by his capacity and energy. In 1684 he led in person the maritime expedition against Genoa.

COLBURN, Warren, an American mathematican, born at Dedham, Mass., March 1, 1793, died at Lowell, Sept. 15, 1833. He was the eldest son of a large family. His parents were poor, and during his childhood made frequent removals to different manufacturing villages,

where Warren as well as some of the other children found employment in the factories. He early manifested a remarkable taste for mathematics, and having acquired the trade of a machinist, he entered Harvard college in 1816. He graduated in 1820, and soon afterward opened a select school in Boston. In the autumn of 1821 the first edition of his "First Lessons in Mental Arithmetic " was issued. While in college the necessity of such a work had been forced upon his mind, and its plan digested. He was accustomed to say that the pupils who were under his tuition made his arithmetic for him;" that the questions they asked, and the necessary answers and explanations which he gave in reply, were embodied in that book. No other elementary work on arithmetic ever had such a sale. It has been translated into most of the languages of Europe, and into several of those of India. After teaching nearly three years, he accepted the situation of superintendent of the Boston manufacturing company at Waltham, in April, 1823; and in August, 1824, he was appointed superintendent of the Merrimack manufacturing company at Lowell. Here he projected a system of lectures of an instructive character, presenting commerce and useful subjects in such a way as to gain attention. In the autumn of 1825 he commenced a course of lectures on the natural history of animals. This he followed in subsequent years with lectures on light, the eye, the seasons, electricity, hydraulics, astronomy, &c. His "Sequel" had been published just before he left Waltham. In 1828 he published his "Algebra." In May, 1827, he was elected a fellow of the American academy of arts and sciences. He was also for a number of years one of the examining committee on mathematics in Harvard college, and some time superintendent of schools at Lowell.

COLBURN, Zerah, an arithmetical prodigy, born at Cabot, Vt., Sept. 1, 1804, died March 2, 1840. In his 6th year he began to give evidence of those extraordinary powers of computation which afterward excited the wonder of the learned and curious in the United States and Europe. His father decided to exhibit them in public, and accordingly left Vermont with Zerah in the winter of 1810-'11. Passing through Hanover, N. H., Dr. Wheelock, then president of Dartmouth college, offered to take upon himself the whole care and expense of his education, but his father rejected the offer. At Boston the performances of the boy excited much attention. He was visited by the professors of Harvard college, and by eminent men in all professions, and the newspapers were filled with articles concerning his wonderful powers of computation. Questions in multiplication of four and five places of figures, reduction, rule of three, practice, involution, evolution, compound fractions, and the obtaining of factors even of large numbers, were answered with accuracy and with a rapidity to which the most experienced mathematicians could not at

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