Tetrammine Series. This group may be divided into the

Praseo-salts [R2Co(NH3)4]X, where X = Cl.

Croceo-salts [(NO2)2Co(NH3)4]X, which may be considered as a

subdivision of the praseo-salts.

Tetrammine purpureo-salts [RCo(NH3)4.H2O]X2.

Tetrammine roseo-salts [Co(NH3)4.(H2O)2]X3.

Fuseo-salts [Co(NH3)4]OH.X2.

Pentammine Series.

Pentammine purpureo-salts [R.Co(NH3)5]X2 where X = Cl, Br, NO3,

N02, 1/2SO4, &c.

Pentammine roseo-salts [Co(NH3)5.H2O]X2.

Hexammine or Luteo Series [Co(NH3)6]X3.

The hexammine salts are formed by the oxidizing action of air on

dilute ammoniacal solutions of cobaltous salts, especially in presence

of a large excess of ammonium chloride. They form yellow or

bronze-coloured crystals, which decompose on boiling their aqueous

solution. On boiling their solution in caustic alkalis, ammonia is

liberated. The pentammine purpureo-salts are formed from the

luteo-salts by loss of ammonia, or from an air slowly oxidized

ammoniacal cobalt salt solution, the precipitated luteo-salt being

filtered off and the filtrate boiled with concentrated acids. They are

violet-red in colour, and on boiling or long standing with dilute

acids they pass into the corresponding roseo-salts.

The pentammine nitrito salts are known as the xanthocobalt salts and

have the general formula [NO2.Co.(NH3)5]X2. They are formed by the

action of nitrous fumes on ammoniacal solutions of cobaltous salts, or

purpureo-salts, or by the mutual reaction of chlorpurpureo-salts and

alkaline nitrites. They are soluble in water and give characteristic

precipitates with platinic and auric chlorides, and with potassium

ferrocyanide. The pentammine roseo-salts can be obtained from the

action of concentrated acids, in the cold, on air-oxidized solutions

of cobaltous salts. They are of a reddish colour and usually

crystallize well; on heating with concentrated acids are usually

transformed into the purpureo-salts. Their alkaline solutions liberate

ammonia on boiling. They give a characteristic pale red precipitate

with sodium pyrophosphate, soluble in an excess of the precipitant;

they also form precipitates on the addition of platinic chloride and

potassium ferrocyanide. For methods of preparation of the tetrammine

and triammine salts, see O. Dammer's _Handbuch der anorganischen

Chemie_, vol. 3 (containing a complete account of the preparation of

the cobaltammine salts). The diammine salts are prepared by the action

of alkaline nitrites on cobaltous salts in the presence of much

ammonium chloride or nitrate; they are yellow or brown crystalline

solids, not very soluble in cold water.

The above series of salts show striking differences in their behaviour

towards reagents; thus, aqueous solutions of the luteo chlorides are

strongly ionized, as is shown by their high electric conductivity; and

all their chlorine is precipitated on the addition of silver nitrate

solution. The aqueous solution, however, does not show the ordinary

reactions of cobalt or of ammonia, and so it is to be presumed that

the salt ionizes into [Co(NH3)6] and 3Cl'. The purpureo chloride has

only two-thirds of its chlorine precipitated on the addition of silver

nitrate, and the electric conductivity is much less than that of the

luteo chloride; again in the praseo-salts only one-third of the

chlorine is precipitated by silver nitrate, the conductivity again

falling; while in the triammine salts all ionization has disappeared.

For the constitution of these salts and of the "metal ammonia"

compounds generally, see A. Werner, _Zeit. fur anorg. Chemie_, 1893 et

seq., and _Berichte_, 1895, et seq.; and S. Jorgensen, _Zeit. fur

anorg. Chemie_, 1892 et seq.

The _oxycobaltammines_ are a series of compounds of the general type

[Co2O3.H2(NH3)10]X4 first observed by L. Gmelin, and subsequently

examined by E. Fremy, W. Gibbs and G. Vortmann (_Monatshefte fur

Chemie_, 1885, 6, p. 404). They result from the cobaltammines by the

direct taking up of oxygen and water. On heating, they decompose,

forming basic tetrammine salts.

The atomic weight of cobalt has been frequently determined, the

earlier results not being very concordant (see R. Schneider, _Pog.

Ann._, 1857, 101, p. 387; C. Marignac, _Arch. Phys. Nat._ [2], 1, p.

373; W. Gibbs, _Amer. Jour. Sci._ [2], 25, p. 483; J. B. Dumas, _Ann.

Chim. Phys._, 1859 [3], 55, p. 129; W. J. Russell, _Jour. Chem. Soc._,

1863, 16, p. 51). C. Winkler, by the analysis of the chloride, and by

the action of iodine on the metal, obtained the values 59.37 and

59.07, whilst W. Hempel and H. Thiele (_Zeit. f. anorg. Chem_., 1896,

II, p. 73), by reducing cobalto-cobaltic oxide, and by the analysis of

the chloride, have obtained the values 58.56 and 58.48. G. P. Baxter

and others deduced the value 58.995 (O = 16).

Cobalt salts may be readily detected by the formation of the black

sulphide, in alkaline solution, and by the blue colour they produce

when fused with borax. For the quantitative determination of cobalt,

it is either weighed as the oxide, Co3O4, obtained by ignition of the

precipitated monoxide, or it is reduced in a current of hydrogen and

weighed as metal. For the quantitative separation of cobalt and

nickel, see E. Hintz (_Zeit. f. anal. Chem._, 1891, 30, p. 227), and

also NICKEL.

COBALTITE, a mineral with the composition CoAsS, cobalt sulpharsenide.

It is found as granular to compact masses, and frequently as beautifully

developed crystals, which have the same symmetry as the isomorphous

mineral pyrites, being cubic with parallel hemihedrism. The usual forms

are the cube, octahedron and pentagonal dodecahedron {210}. The colour is

silver-white with a reddish tinge, and the lustre brilliant and

metallic, hence the old name cobalt-glance; the streak is greyish-black.

The mineral is brittle, and possesses distinct cleavages parallel to the

faces of the cube; hardness 5-1/2; specific gravity 6.2. The brilliant

crystals from Tunaberg in Sodermanland and Hakansboda in Vestmanland,

Sweden, and from Skutterud near Drammen in Norway are well known in

mineral collections. The cobalt ores at these localities occur with

pyrites and chalcopyrite as bands in gneiss. Crystals have also been

found at Khetri in Rajputana, and under the name _sehta_ the mineral is

used by Indian jewellers for producing a blue enamel on gold and silver

ornaments. Massive cobaltite has been found in small amount in the

Botallack mine, Cornwall. A variety containing much iron replacing

cobalt, and known as ferrocobaltite (Ger. _Stahlkobalt_), occurs at

Siegen in Westphalia. (L. J. S.)

COBAN, or SANTO DOMINGO DE COBAN, the capital of the department of Alta

Vera Paz in central Guatemala; about 90 m. N. of the city of Guatemala,

on the Cojabon, a left-hand tributary of the Polochic. Pop. (1905) about

31,000. The town is built in a mountainous and fertile district, and

consists chiefly of adobe Indian cottages, surrounded by gardens of

flowering shrubs. More modern houses have been erected for the foreign

residents, among whom the Germans are numerically predominant. In the

chief square of the town stands a 16th-century Dominican church,

externally plain, but covered internally with curious Indian

decorations. The municipal offices, formerly a college for priests, are

remarkable for their handsome but disproportionately large gateway in

Renaissance style. Despite the want of a railway, Coban has a

flourishing trade in coffee and cinchona; cocoa, vanilla and sugar-cane

are also cultivated, and there are manufactures of rum, cotton fabrics,

soap and cigars. The prosperity of the town is largely due to the

industry of the Quecchi, Kacchi or Kakchi Indians who form the majority

of the inhabitants.

Coban was founded in the 16th century by Dominican monks under Fray

Pedro de Angulo, whose portrait is preserved in the church. In honour of

the emperor Charles V. (1500-1558), Coban received the name of _Ciudad

Imperial_ (which soon became obsolete), together with a coat of arms and

other privileges belonging to a Spanish city of the first class.

COBAR, a mining town of Robinson county, New South Wales, Australia, 459

m. N.W. by W. of Sydney by rail. Pop. (1901) 3371. The district of which

Cobar is the centre abounds in minerals of all kinds, but copper and

gold are those most extensively worked. The Great Cobar copper-mine is

the most important in the state, and there are a number of successful

gold-mines. In addition to the mining, the district produces large

quantities of wool. Cobar is a municipality, as also is the adjacent

township of Gladstone, with a mining population.

COBB, HOWELL (1815-1868), American political leader, was born at Cherry

Hill, Jefferson county, Georgia, on the 7th of September 1815. He

graduated from Franklin College (University of Georgia) in 1834, and two

years later was admitted to the bar. From 1837 to 1840 he was

solicitor-general for the western circuit of his state; from 1843 to

1851 and from 1855 to 1857 he was a member of the National House of

Representatives, becoming Democratic leader in that body in 1847, and

serving as speaker in 1849-1851; from 1851 to 1853 he was governor of

his state; and from March 1857 to December 1860 he was secretary of the

treasury in President Buchanan's cabinet. He was president of the

convention of the seceded states which drafted a constitution for the

Confederacy. In 1861 he was appointed colonel of a regiment and two

years later was made a major-general. He died in New York on the 9th of

October 1868. He sided with President Jackson on the question of

nullification; was an efficient supporter of President Polk's

administration during the Mexican War; and was an ardent advocate of

slavery extension into the Territories, but when the Compromise of 1850

had been agreed upon he became its staunch supporter as a Union

Democrat, and on that issue was elected governor of Georgia by a large

majority. In 1860, however, he ceased to be a Unionist, and became a

leader of the secession movement. From the close of the war until his

death he vigorously opposed the Reconstruction Acts.

COBBETT, WILLIAM (1766-1835), English politician and writer, was born

near Farnham in Surrey, according to his own statement, on the 9th of

March 1766. He was the grandson of a farm-labourer, and the son of a

small farmer; and during his early life he worked on his father's farm.

At the age of sixteen, inspired with patriotic feeling by the sight of

the men-of-war in Portsmouth harbour, he thought of becoming a sailor;

and in May 1783, having, while on his way to Guildford fair, met the

London coach, he suddenly resolved to accompany it to its destination.

He arrived at Ludgate Hill with exactly half-a-crown in his pocket, but

an old gentleman who had travelled with him invited him to his house,

and obtained for him the situation of copying clerk in an attorney's

office. He greatly disliked his new occupation; and rejecting all his

father's entreaties that he would return home, he went down to Chatham

early in 1784 with the intention of joining the marines. By some

mistake, however, he was enlisted in a regiment of the line, which

rather more than a year after proceeded to St John's, New Brunswick. All

his leisure time during the months he remained at Chatham was devoted to

reading the contents of the circulating library of the town, and getting

up by heart Lowth's _English Grammar_. His uniform good conduct, and the

power of writing correctly which he had acquired, quickly raised him to

the rank of corporal, from which, without passing through the

intermediate grade of sergeant, he was promoted to that of

sergeant-major. In November 1791 he was discharged at his own request,

and received the official thanks of the major and the general who signed

his discharge. In February 1792 Cobbett married the daughter of a

sergeant-major of artillery, whom he had met some years before in New

Brunswick. But his liberty was threatened in consequence of his bringing

a charge of peculation against certain officers in his old regiment, and

he went over to France in March, where he studied the language and

literature. In his absence, the inquiry into his charges ended in an

acquittal.

In September he crossed to the United States, and supported himself at

Wilmington, Delaware, by teaching English to French emigrants. Among

these was Talleyrand, who employed him, according to Cobbett's story,

not because he was ignorant of English, but because he wished to

purchase his pen. Cobbett made his first literary sensation by his

_Observations on the Emigration of a Martyr to the Cause of Liberty_, a

clever retort on Dr Priestley, who had just landed in America

complaining of the treatment he had received in England. This pamphlet

was followed by a number of papers, signed "Peter Porcupine," and

entitled _Prospect from the Congress Gallery_, the _Political Censor_

and the _Porcupine's Gazette_. In the spring of 1796, having quarrelled

with his publisher, he set up in Philadelphia as bookseller and

publisher of his own works. On the day of opening, his windows were

filled with prints of the most extravagant of the French Revolutionists

and of the founders of the American Republic placed side by side, along

with portraits of George III., the British ministers, and any one else

he could find likely to be obnoxious to the people; and he continued to

pour forth praises of Great Britain and scorn of the institutions of the

United States, with special abuse of the French party. Abuse and threats

were of course in turn showered upon him, and in August 1797, for one of

his attacks on Spain, he was prosecuted, though unsuccessfully, by the

Spanish ambassador. Immediately on this he was taken up for libels upon

American statesmen, and bound in recognizances to the amount of $4000,

and shortly after he was prosecuted a third time for saying that Dr

Benjamin Rush, who was much addicted to blood-letting, killed nearly all

the patients he attended. The trial was repeatedly deferred, and was not

settled till the end of 1799, when he was fined $5000. After this last

misfortune, for a few months Cobbett carried on a newspaper called the

_Rushlight_; but in June 1800 he set sail for England.

At home he found himself regarded as the champion of order and monarchy.

Windham invited him to dinner, introduced him to Pitt, and begged him to

accept a share in the _True Briton_. He refused the offer and joined an

old friend, John Morgan, in opening a book shop in Pall Mall. For some

time he published the _Porcupine's Gazette_, which was followed in

January 1802 by the _Weekly Political Register_. In 1801 appeared his

_Letters to Lord Hawkesbury_ (afterwards earl of Liverpool) and his

_Letters to the Rt. Hon. Henry Addington_, in opposition to the proposed

peace of Amiens. On the conclusion of the peace (1802) Cobbett made a

still bolder protest; he determined to take no part in the general

illumination, and--assisted by the sympathy of his wife, who, being in

delicate health, removed to the house of a friend--he carried out his

resolve, allowing his windows to be smashed and his door broken open by

the angry mob. The letters to Addington are among the most polished and

dignified of Cobbett's writings; but by 1803 he was once more revelling

in personalities. The government of Ireland was singled out for

wholesale attack; and a letter published in the _Register_ remarked of

Hardwicke, the lord-lieutenant, that the appointment was like setting

the surgeon's apprentice to bleed the pauper patients. For this, though

not a word had been uttered against Hardwicke's character, Cobbett was

fined L500; and two days after the conclusion of this trial a second

commenced, at the suit of Plunkett, the solicitor-general for Ireland,

which resulted in a similar fine. About this time he began to write in

support of Radical views; and to cultivate the friendship of Sir Francis

Burdett, from whom he received considerable sums of money, and other

favours, for which he gave no very grateful return. In 1809 he was once

more in the most serious trouble. He had bitterly commented on the

flogging of some militia, because their mutiny had been repressed and

their sentence carried out by the aid of a body of German troops, and in

consequence he was fined L1000 and imprisoned for two years. His

indomitable vigour was never better displayed. He still continued to

publish the _Register_, and to superintend the affairs of his farm; a

hamper containing specimens of its produce and other provisions came to

him every week; and he amused himself with the company of some of his

children and with weekly letters from the rest. On his release a public

dinner, presided over by Sir F. Burdett, was held in honour of the

event. He returned to his farm at Botley in Hampshire, and continued in

his old course, extending his influence by the publication of the

_Twopenny Trash_, which, not being periodical, escaped the newspaper

stamp tax. Meanwhile, however, he had contracted debts to the amount of

L34,000 (for it is said that, notwithstanding the aversion he publicly

expressed to paper currency, he had carried on his business by the aid

of accommodation bills to a very large amount); and early in 1817 he

fled to the United States. But his pen was as active as ever; from Long

Island his MS. for the _Register_ was regularly sent to England; and it

was here that he wrote his clear and interesting _English Grammar_, of

which 10,000 copies were sold in a month.

His return to England was accompanied by his weakest exhibition--the

exhuming and bringing over of the bones of Thomas Paine, whom he had

once heartily abused, but on whom he now wrote a panegyrical ode. Nobody

paid any attention to the affair; the relics he offered were not

purchased; and the bones were reinterred.

Cobbett's great aim was now to obtain a seat in the House of Commons. He

calmly suggested that his friends should assist him by raising the sum

of L5000; it would be much better, he said, than a meeting of 50,000

persons. He first offered himself for Coventry, but failed; in 1826 he

was by a large number of votes last of the candidates for Preston; and

in 1828 he could find no one to propose him for the office of common

councillor. In 1830, that year of revolutions, he was prosecuted for

inciting to rebellion, but the jury disagreed, and soon after, through

the influence of one of his admirers, Mr Fielden, who was himself a

candidate for Oldham, he was returned for that town. In the House his

speeches were listened to with amused attention. His position is

sufficiently marked by the sneer of Peel that he would attend to Mr

Cobbett's observations exactly as if they had been those of a

"respectable member"; and the only striking part of his career was his

absurd motion that the king should be prayed to remove Sir Robert Peel's

name from the list of the privy council, because of the change he had

proposed in the currency in 1819. In 1834 Cobbett was again member for

Oldham, but his health now began to give way, and in June 1835 he left

London for his farm, where he died on the 16th of that month.

Cobbett's account of his home-life makes him appear singularly happy;

his love and admiration of his wife never failed; and his education of

his children seems to have been distinguished by great kindliness, and

by a good deal of healthy wisdom, mingled with the prejudices due to the

peculiarities of his temper and circumstances. Cobbett's ruling

characteristic was a sturdy egoism, which had in it something of the

nobler element of self-respect. A firm will, a strong brain, feelings

not over-sensitive, an intense love of fighting, a resolve to get on, in

the sense of making himself a power in the world--these are the

principal qualities which account for the success of his career. His

opinions were the fruits of his emotions. It was enough for him to get a

thorough grasp of one side of a question, about the other side he did

not trouble himself; but he always firmly seizes the facts which make

for his view, and expresses them with unfailing clearness. His argument,

which is never subtle, has always the appearance of weight, however

flimsy it may be in fact. His sarcasm is seldom polished or delicate,

but usually rough, and often abusive, while coarse nicknames were his

special delight. His style is admirably correct and always extremely

forcible.

Cobbett's contributions to periodical literature occupy 100 volumes,

twelve of which consist of the papers published at Philadelphia

between 1794 and 1800, and the rest of the _Weekly Political

Register_, which ended only with Cobbett's death (June 1835). An

abridgment of these works, with notes, was published by his sons, John

M. Cobbett and James P. Cobbett. Besides this he published _An Account

of the Horrors of the French Revolution_, and a work tracing all these

horrors to "the licentious politics and infidel philosophy of the

present age" (both 1798); _A Year's Residence in the United States_;

_Parliamentary History of England from the Norman Conquest to 1800_

(1806); _Cottage Economy_; _Roman History_; _French Grammar_ and

_English Grammar_, both in the form of letters; _Geographical

Dictionary of England and Wales_; _History of the Regency and Reign of

George IV._, containing a defence of Queen Caroline, whose cause he

warmly advocated (1830-1834); _Life of Andrew Jackson, President of

the United States_ (1834); _Legacy to Labourers_; _Legacy to Peel_;

_Legacy to Parsons_ (1835), an attack on the secular claims of the

Established Church; _Doom of Tithes_; _Rural Rides_ (1830; new ed.

1885), an account of his tours on horse-back through England, full of

admirable descriptive writing; _Advice to Young Men and Women_;

_Cobbett's Corn_ (1828); and _History of the Protestant Reformation in

England and Ireland_ (1824-1827), in which he defends the monasteries,

Queen Mary and Bonner, and attacks the Reformation, Henry VIII.,

Elizabeth and all who helped to bring it about, with such vehemence

that the work was translated into French and Italian, and extensively

circulated among Roman Catholics.

In 1798 Cobbett published in America an account of his early life,

under the title of _The Life and Adventures of Peter Porcupine_; and

he left papers relating to his subsequent career. His life has been

written by R. Huish (1835), E. Smith (1878), and E. I. Carlyle (1904).

See also the annotated edition of the _Register_ (1835).

COBBOLD, THOMAS SPENCER (1828-1886), English man of science, was born at

Ipswich in 1828, a son of the Rev. Richard Cobbold (1797-1877), the

author of the _History of Margaret Catchpole_. After graduating in

medicine at Edinburgh in 1851, he was appointed lecturer on botany at St

Mary's hospital, London, in 1857, and also on zoology and comparative

anatomy at Middlesex hospital in 1861. From 1868 he acted as Swiney

lecturer on geology at the British Museum until 1873, when he became

professor of botany at the Royal Veterinary College, afterwards filling

a chair of helminthology which was specially created for him at that

institution. He died in London on the 20th of March 1886. His special

subject was helminthology, particularly the worms parasitic in man and

animals, and as a physician he gained a considerable reputation in the

diagnosis of cases depending on the presence of such organisms. His

numerous writings include _Entozoa_ (1864); _Tapeworms_ (1866);

_Parasites_ (1879); _Human Parasites_ (1882); and _Parasites of Meat and

Prepared Flesh Food_ (1884).

COBDEN, RICHARD (1804-1865), English manufacturer and Radical

politician, was born at a farmhouse called Dunford, near Midhurst, in

Sussex, on the 3rd of June 1804. The family had been resident in that

neighbourhood for many generations, occupied partly in trade and partly

in agriculture. Formerly there had been in the town of Midhurst a small

manufacture of hosiery with which the Cobdens were connected, though all

trace of it had disappeared before the birth of Richard. His grandfather

was a maltster in that town, an energetic and prosperous man, almost

always the bailiff or chief magistrate, and taking rather a notable part

in county matters. But his father, forsaking that trade, took to farming

at an unpropitious time. He was amiable and kind-hearted, and greatly

liked by his neighbours, but not a man of business habits, and he did

not succeed in his farming enterprise. He died when his son Richard was

a child, and the care of the family devolved upon the mother, who was a

woman of strong sense and of great energy of character, and who, after

her husband's death, left Dunford and returned to Midhurst.

The educational advantages of Richard Cobden were not very ample. There

was a grammar school at Midhurst, which at one time had enjoyed

considerable reputation, but which had fallen into decay. It was there

that he had to pick up such rudiments of knowledge as formed his first

equipment in life, but from his earliest years he was indefatigable in

the work of self-cultivation. When fifteen or sixteen years of age he

went to London to the warehouse of Messrs Partridge & Price, in

Eastcheap, one of the partners being his uncle. His relative, noting

the lad's passionate addiction to study, solemnly warned him against

indulging such a taste, as likely to prove a fatal obstacle to his

success in commercial life. But the admonition was unheeded, for while

unweariedly diligent in business, he was in his intervals of leisure a

most assiduous student. During his residence in London he found access

to the London Institution, and made ample use of its large and

well-selected library.

When he was about twenty years of age he became a commercial traveller,

and soon became eminently successful in his calling. But never content

to sink into the mere trader, he sought to introduce among those he met

on the "road" a higher tone of conversation than usually marks the

commercial room, and there were many of his associates who, when he had

attained eminence, recalled the discussions on political economy and

kindred topics with which he was wont to enliven and elevate the

travellers' table. In 1830 Cobden learnt that Messrs Fort, calico

printers at Sabden, near Clitheroe, were about to retire from business,

and he, with two other young men, Messrs Sheriff and Gillet, who were

engaged in the same commercial house as himself, determined to make an

effort to acquire the succession. They had, however, very little capital

among them. But it may be taken as an illustration of the instinctive

confidence which Cobden through life inspired in those with whom he came

into contact, that Messrs Fort consented to leave to these untried young

men a large portion of their capital in the business. Nor was their

confidence misplaced. The new firm had soon three establishments,--one

at Sabden, where the printing works were, one in London and one in

Manchester for the sale of their goods. This last was under the direct

management of Cobden, who, in 1830 or 1831, settled in the city with

which his name became afterwards so closely associated. The success of

this enterprise was decisive and rapid, and the "Cobden prints" soon

became known through the country as of rare value both for excellence of

material and beauty of design. There can be no doubt that if Cobden had

been satisfied to devote all his energies to commercial life he might

soon have attained to great opulence, for it is understood that his

share in the profits of the business he had established amounted to from

L8000 to L10,000 a year. But he had other tastes, which impelled him

irresistibly to pursue those studies which, as Bacon says, "serve for

delight, for ornament and for ability." Prentice, the historian of the

Anti-Corn-Law League, who was then editor of the _Manchester Times_,

describes how, in the year 1835, he received for publication in his

paper a series of admirably written letters, under the signature of

"Libra," discussing commercial and economical questions with rare

ability. After some time he discovered that the author of these letters

was Cobden, whose name was until then quite unknown to him.

In 1835 he published his first pamphlet, entitled _England, Ireland and

America, by a Manchester Manufacturer_. It attracted great attention,

and ran rapidly through several editions. It was marked by a breadth and

boldness of views on political and social questions which betokened an

original mind. In this production Cobden advocated the same principles

of peace, non-intervention, retrenchment and free trade to which he

continued faithful to the last day of his life. Immediately after the

publication of this pamphlet, he paid a visit to the United States,

landing in New York on the 7th of June 1835. He devoted about three

months to this tour, passing rapidly through the seaboard states and the

adjacent portion of Canada, and collecting as he went large stores of

information respecting the condition, resources and prospects of the

great western republic. Soon after his return to England he began to

prepare another work for the press, which appeared towards the end of

1836, under the title of _Russia_. It was mainly designed to combat a

wild outbreak of Russophobia which, under the inspiration of David

Urquhart, was at that time taking possession of the public mind. But it

contained also a bold indictment of the whole system of foreign policy

then in vogue, founded on ideas as to the balance of power and the

necessity of large armaments for the protection of commerce. While this

pamphlet was in the press, delicate health obliged him to leave England,

and for several months, at the end of 1836 and the beginning of 1837,

he travelled in Spain, Turkey and Egypt. During his visit to Egypt he

had an interview with Mehemet Ali, of whose character as a reforming

monarch he did not bring away a very favourable impression. He returned

to England in April 1837. From that time Cobden became a conspicuous

figure in Manchester, taking a leading part in the local politics of the

town and district. Largely owing to his exertions, the Manchester

Athenaeum was established, at the opening of which he was chosen to

deliver the inaugural address. He became a member of the chamber of

commerce, and soon infused new life into that body. He threw himself

with great energy into the agitation which led to the incorporation of

the city, and was elected one of its first aldermen. He began also to

take a warm interest in the cause of popular education. Some of his

first attempts in public speaking were at meetings which he convened at

Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Rochdale and other adjacent towns, to

advocate the establishment of British schools. It was while on a mission

for this purpose to Rochdale that he first formed the acquaintance of

John Bright, who afterwards became his distinguished coadjutor in the

free-trade agitation. Nor was it long before his fitness for

parliamentary life was recognized by his friends. In 1837, the death of

William IV. and the accession of Queen Victoria led to a general

election. Cobden was candidate for Stockport, but was defeated, though

not by a large majority.

In 1838 an anti-Corn-Law association was formed at Manchester, which, on

his suggestion, was afterwards changed into a national association,

under the title of the Anti-Corn-Law League (see CORN LAWS). Of that

famous association Cobden was from first to last the presiding genius

and the animating soul. During the seven years between the formation of

the league and its final triumph, he devoted himself wholly to the work

of promulgating his economic doctrines. His labours were as various as

they were incessant--now guiding the councils of the league, now

addressing crowded and enthusiastic meetings of his supporters in London

or the large towns of England and Scotland, now invading the

agricultural districts and challenging the landlords to meet him in the

presence of their own farmers, to discuss the question in dispute, and

now encountering the Chartists, led by Feargus O'Connor. But whatever

was the character of his audience he never failed, by the clearness of

his statements, the force of his reasoning and the felicity of his

illustrations, to make a deep impression on the minds of his hearers.

In 1841, Sir Robert Peel having defeated the Melbourne ministry in

parliament, there was a general election, when Cobden was returned for

Stockport. His opponents had confidently predicted that he would fail

utterly in the House of Commons. He did not wait long, after his

admission into that assembly, in bringing their predictions to the test.

Parliament met on the 19th of August. On the 24th, in course of the

debate on the Address, Cobden delivered his first speech. "It was

remarked," says Miss Martineau, in her _History of the Peace_, "that he

was not treated in the House with the courtesy usually accorded to a new

member, and it was perceived that he did not need such observance." With

perfect self-possession, which was not disturbed by the jeers that

greeted some of his statements, and with the utmost simplicity,

directness and force, he presented the argument against the corn-laws in

such a form as startled his audience, and also irritated some of them,

for it was a style of eloquence very unlike the conventional style which

prevailed in parliament.

From that day he became an acknowledged power in the House, and though

addressing a most unfriendly audience, he compelled attention by his

thorough mastery of his subject, and by the courageous boldness with

which he charged the ranks of his adversaries. He soon came to be

recognized as one of the foremost debaters on those economical and

commercial questions which at that time so much occupied the attention

of parliament; and the most prejudiced and bitter of his opponents were

fain to acknowledge that they had to deal with a man whom the most

practised and powerful orators of their party found it hard to cope

with, and to whose eloquence, indeed, the great statesman in whom they

put their trust was obliged ultimately to surrender. On the 17th of

February 1843 an extraordinary scene took place in the House of Commons.

Cobden had spoken with great fervour of the deplorable suffering and

distress which at that time prevailed in the country, for which, he

added, he held Sir Robert Peel, as the head of the government,

responsible. This remark, when it was spoken, passed unnoticed, being

indeed nothing more than one of the commonplaces of party warfare. But a

few weeks before, Mr Drummond, who was Sir Robert Peel's private

secretary, had been shot dead in the street by a lunatic. In consequence

of this, and the manifold anxieties of the time with which he was

harassed, the mind of the great statesman was no doubt in a moody and

morbid condition, and when he arose to speak later in the evening, he

referred in excited and agitated tones to the remark, as an incitement

to violence against his person. Sir Robert Peel's party, catching at

this hint, threw themselves into a frantic state of excitement, and when

Cobden attempted to explain that he meant official, not personal

responsibility, they drowned his voice with clamorous and insulting

shouts. But Peel lived to make ample and honourable amend for this

unfortunate ebullition, for not only did he "fully and unequivocally

withdraw the imputation which was thrown out in the heat of debate under

an erroneous impression," but when the great free-trade battle had been

won, he took the wreath of victory from his own brow, and placed it on

that of his old opponent, in the following graceful words:--"The name

which ought to be, and will be associated with the success of these

measures, is not mine, or that of the noble Lord (Russell), but the name

of one who, acting I believe from pure and disinterested motives, has,

with untiring energy, made appeals to our reason, and has enforced those

appeals with an eloquence the more to be admired because it was

unaffected and unadorned; the name which ought to be chiefly associated

with the success of these measures is the name of Richard Cobden."

Cobden had, indeed, with unexampled devotion, sacrificed his business,

his domestic comforts and for a time his health to the public interests.

His friends therefore felt, at the close of that long campaign, that the

nation owed him some substantial token of gratitude and admiration for

those sacrifices. No sooner was the idea of such a tribute started than

liberal contributions came from all quarters, which enabled his friends

to present him with a sum of L80,000. Had he been inspired with personal

ambition, he might have entered upon the race of political advancement

with the prospect of attaining the highest official prizes. Lord John

Russell, who, soon after the repeal of the corn laws, succeeded Sir

Robert Peel as first minister, invited Cobden to join his government.

But he preferred keeping himself at liberty to serve his countrymen

unshackled by official ties, and declined the invitation. He withdrew

for a time from England. His first intention was to seek complete

seclusion in Egypt or Italy, to recover health and strength after his

long and exhausting labours. But his fame had gone forth throughout

Europe, and intimations reached him from many quarters that his voice

would be listened to everywhere with favour, in advocacy of the

doctrines to the triumph of which he had so much contributed at home.

Writing to a friend in July 1846, he says--"I am going to tell you of a

fresh project that has been brewing in my brain. I have given up all

idea of burying myself in Egypt or Italy. I am going on an agitating

tour through the continent of Europe." Then, referring to messages he

had received from influential persons in France, Prussia, Austria,

Russia and Spain to the effect mentioned above, he adds:--"Well, I will,

with God's assistance during the next twelve months, visit all the large

states of Europe, see their potentates or statesmen, and endeavour to

enforce those truths which have been irresistible at home. Why should I

rust in inactivity? If the public spirit of my countrymen affords me the

means of travelling as their missionary, I will be the first ambassador

from the people of this country to the nations of the continent. I am

impelled to this by an instinctive emotion such as has never deceived

me. I feel that I could succeed in making out a stronger case for the

prohibitive nations of Europe to compel them to adopt a freer system

than I had here to overturn our protection policy." This programme he

fulfilled. He visited in succession France, Spain, Italy, Germany and

Russia. He was received everywhere with marks of distinction and honour.

In many of the principal capitals he was invited to public banquets,

which afforded him an opportunity of propagating those principles of

which he was regarded as the apostle. But beside these public

demonstrations he sought and found access in private to many of the

leading statesmen, in the various countries he visited, with a view to

indoctrinate them with the same principles. During his absence there was

a general election, and he was returned (1847) for Stockport and for the

West Riding of Yorkshire. He chose to sit for the latter.

When Cobden returned from the continent he addressed himself to what

seemed to him the logical complement of free trade, namely, the

promotion of peace and the reduction of naval and military armaments.

His abhorrence of war amounted to a passion. Throughout his long labours

in behalf of unrestricted commerce he never lost sight of this, as being

the most precious result of the work in which he was engaged,--its

tendency to diminish the hazards of war and to bring the nations of the

world into closer and more lasting relations of peace and friendship

with each other. He was not deterred by the fear of ridicule or the

reproach of Utopianism from associating himself openly, and with all the

ardour of his nature, with the peace party in England. In 1849 he

brought forward a proposal in parliament in favour of international

arbitration, and in 1851 a motion for mutual reduction of armaments. He

was not successful in either case, nor did he expect to be. In pursuance

of the same object, he identified himself with a series of remarkable

peace congresses--international assemblies designed to unite the

intelligence and philanthropy of the nations of Christendom in a league

against war--which from 1848 to 1851 were held successively in Brussels,

Paris, Frankfort, London, Manchester and Edinburgh.

On the establishment of the French empire in 1851-1852 a violent panic

took possession of the public mind. The press promulgated the wildest

alarms as to the intentions of Louis Napoleon, who was represented as

contemplating a sudden and piratical descent upon the English coast

without pretext or provocation. By a series of powerful speeches in and

out of parliament, and by the publication of his masterly pamphlet,

_1793 and 1853_, Cobden sought to calm the passions of his countrymen.

By this course he sacrificed the great popularity he had won as the

champion of free trade, and became for a time the best-abused man in

England. Immediately afterwards, owing to the quarrel about the Holy

Places which arose in the east of Europe, public opinion suddenly veered

round, and all the suspicion and hatred which had been directed against

the emperor of the French were diverted from him to the emperor of

Russia. Louis Napoleon was taken into favour as England's faithful ally,

and in a whirlwind of popular excitement the nation was swept into the

Crimean War. Cobden, who had travelled in Turkey, and had studied the

condition of that country with great care for many years, discredited

the outcry about maintaining the independence and integrity of the

Ottoman empire which was the battle-cry of the day. He denied that it

was possible to maintain them, and no less strenuously denied that it

was desirable even if it were possible. He believed that the jealousy of

Russian aggrandizement and the dread of Russian power were absurd

exaggerations. He maintained that the future of European Turkey was in

the hands of the Christian population, and that it would have been wiser

for England to ally herself with them rather than with the doomed and

decaying Mahommedan power. "You must address yourselves," he said in the

House of Commons, "as men of sense and men of energy, to the

question--what are you to do with the Christian population? for

Mahommedanism cannot be maintained, and I should be sorry to see this

country fighting for the maintenance of Mahommedanism.... You may keep

Turkey on the map of Europe, you may call the country by the name of

Turkey if you like, but do not think you can keep up the Mahommedan rule

in the country." The torrent of popular sentiment in favour of war was,

however, irresistible; and Cobden and Bright were overwhelmed with

obloquy.

At the beginning of 1857 tidings from China reached England of a rupture

between the British plenipotentiary in that country and the governor of

the Canton provinces in reference to a small vessel or lorcha called the

"Arrow," which had resulted in the English admiral destroying the river

forts, burning 23 ships belonging to the Chinese navy and bombarding the

city of Canton. After a careful investigation of the official documents,

Cobden became convinced that those were utterly unrighteous proceedings.

He brought forward a motion in parliament to this effect, which led to a

long and memorable debate, lasting over four nights, in which he was

supported by Sydney Herbert, Sir James Graham, Gladstone, Lord John

Russell and Disraeli, and which ended in the defeat of Lord Palmerston

by a majority of sixteen. But this triumph cost him his seat in

parliament. On the dissolution which followed Lord Palmerston's defeat,

Cobden became candidate for Huddersfield, but the voters of that town

gave the preference to his opponent, who had supported the Russian War

and approved of the proceedings at Canton. Cobden was thus relegated to

private life, and retiring to his country house at Dunford, he spent his

time in perfect contentment in cultivating his land and feeding his

pigs.

He took advantage of this season of leisure to pay another visit to the

United States. During his absence the general election of 1859 occurred,

when he was returned unopposed for Rochdale. Lord Palmerston was again

prime minister, and having discovered that the advanced liberal party

was not so easily "crushed" as he had apprehended, he made overtures of

reconciliation, and invited Cobden and Milner Gibson to become members

of his government. In a frank, cordial letter which was delivered to

Cobden on his landing in Liverpool, Lord Palmerston offered him the

presidency of the Board of Trade, with a seat in the Cabinet. Many of

his friends urgently pressed him to accept; but without a moment's

hesitation he determined to decline the proposed honour. On his arrival

in London he called on Lord Palmerston, and with the utmost frankness

told him that he had opposed and denounced him so frequently in public,

and that he still differed so widely from his views, especially on

questions of foreign policy, that he could not, without doing violence

to his own sense of duty and consistency, serve under him as minister.

Lord Palmerston tried good-humouredly to combat his objections, but

without success.

But though he declined to share the responsibility of Lord Palmerston's

administration, he was willing to act as its representative in promoting

freer commercial intercourse between England and France. But the

negotiations for this purpose originated with himself in conjunction

with Bright and Michel Chevalier. Towards the close of 1859 he called

upon Lord Palmerston, Lord John Russell and Gladstone, and signified his

intention to visit France and get into communication with the emperor

and his ministers, with a view to promote this object. These statesmen

expressed in general terms their approval of his purpose, but he went

entirely on his own account, clothed at first with no official

authority. On his arrival in Paris he had a long audience with Napoleon,

in which he urged many arguments in favour of removing those obstacles

which prevented the two countries from being brought into closer

dependence on one another, and he succeeded in making a considerable

inpression on his mind in favour of free trade. He then addressed

himself to the French ministers, and had much earnest conversation,

especially with Rouher, whom he found well inclined to the economical

and commercial principles which he advocated. After a good deal of time

spent in these preliminary and unofficial negotiations, the question of

a treaty of commerce between the two countries having entered into the

arena of diplomacy, Cobden was requested by the British government to

act as their plenipotentiary in the matter in conjunction with Lord

Cowley, their ambassador in France. But it proved a very long and

laborious undertaking. He had to contend with the bitter hostility of

the French protectionists, which occasioned a good deal of vacillation

on the part of the emperor and his ministers. There were also delays,

hesitations and cavils at home, which were more inexplicable. He was,

moreover, assailed with great violence by a powerful section of the

English press, while the large number of minute details with which he

had to deal in connexion with proposed changes in the French tariff,

involved a tax on his patience and industry which would have daunted a

less resolute man. But there was one source of embarrassment greater

than all the rest. One strong motive which had impelled him to engage in

this enterprise was his anxious desire to establish more friendly

relations between England and France, and to dispel those feelings of

mutual jealousy and alarm which were so frequently breaking forth and

jeopardizing peace between the two countries. This was the most powerful

argument with which he had plied the emperor and the members of the

French government, and which he had found most efficacious with them.

But while he was in the midst of the negotiations, Lord Palmerston

brought forward in the House of Commons a measure for fortifying the

naval arsenals of England, which he introduced in a warlike speech

pointedly directed against France, as the source of danger of invasion

and attack, against which it was necessary to guard. This produced

irritation and resentment in Paris, and but for the influence which

Cobden had acquired, and the perfect trust reposed in his sincerity, the

negotiations would probably have been altogether wrecked. At last,

however, after nearly twelve months' incessant labour, the work was

completed in November 1860. "Rare," said Mr Gladstone, "is the privilege

of any man who, having fourteen years ago rendered to his country one

signal service, now again, within the same brief span of life, decorated

neither by land nor title, bearing no mark to distinguish him from the

people he loves, has been permitted to perform another great and

memorable service to his sovereign and his country."

On the conclusion of this work honours were offered to Cobden by the

governments of both the countries which he had so greatly benefited.

Lord Palmerston offered him a baronetcy and a seat in the privy council,

and the emperor of the French would gladly have conferred upon him some

distinguished mark of his favour. But with characteristic

disinterestedness and modesty he declined all such honours.

Cobden's efforts in furtherance of free trade were always subordinated

to what he deemed the highest moral purposes--the promotion of peace on

earth and goodwill among men. This was his desire and hope as respects

the commercial treaty with France. He was therefore deeply disappointed

and distressed to find the old feeling of distrust still actively

fomented by the press and some of the leading politicians of the

country. In 1862 he published his pamphlet entitled _The Three Panics_,

the object of which was to trace the history and expose the folly of

those periodical visitations of alarm as to French designs with which

England had been afflicted for the preceding fifteen or sixteen years.

When the Civil War threatened to break out in the United States, Cobden

was deeply distressed. But after the conflict became inevitable his

sympathies were wholly with the North, because the South was fighting

for slavery. His great anxiety, however, was that the British nation

should not be committed to any unworthy course during the progress of

that struggle. And when relations with America were becoming critical

and menacing in consequence of the depredations committed on American

commerce by vessels issuing from British ports, he brought the question

before the House of Commons in a series of speeches of rare clearness

and force.

For several years Cobden had been suffering severely at intervals from

bronchial irritation and a difficulty of breathing. Owing to this he had

spent the winter of 1860 in Algeria, and every subsequent winter he had

to be very careful and confine himself to the house, especially in damp

and foggy weather. In November 1864 he went down to Rochdale and

delivered a speech to his constituents--the last he ever delivered. That

effort was followed by great physical prostration, and he determined not

to quit his retirement at Midhurst until spring had fairly set in. But

in the month of March there were discussions in the House of Commons on

the alleged necessity of constructing large defensive works in Canada.

He was deeply impressed with the folly of such a project, and he was

seized with a strong desire to go up to London and deliver his

sentiments on the subject. He left home on the 21st of March, and caught

a chill. He recovered a little for a few days after his arrival in

London; but on the 29th there was a relapse, and on the 2nd of April

1865 he expired peacefully at his apartments in Suffolk Street.

On the following day there was a remarkable scene in the House of

Commons. When the clerk read the orders of the day Lord Palmerston rose,

and in impressive and solemn tones declared "it was not possible for the

House to proceed to business without every member recalling to his mind

the great loss which the House and country had sustained by the event

which took place yesterday morning." He then paid a generous tribute to

the virtues, the abilities and services of Cobden, and he was followed

by Disraeli, who with great force and felicity of language delineated

the character of the deceased statesman, who, he said, "was an ornament

to the House of Commons and an honour to England." Bright also attempted

to address the House, but, after a sentence or two delivered in a

tremulous voice, he was overpowered with emotion, and declared he must

leave to a calmer moment what he had to say on the life and character of

the manliest and gentlest spirit that ever quitted or tenanted a human

form.

In the French Corps Legislatif, also, the vice-president, Forcade la

Roquette, referred to his death, and warm expressions of esteem were

repeated and applauded on every side. "The death of Richard Cobden,"

said M. la Roquette, "is not alone a misfortune for England, but a cause

of mourning for France and humanity." Drouyn de Lhuys, the French

minister of foreign affairs, made his death the subject of a special

despatch, desiring the French ambassador to express to the government

"the mournful sympathy and truly national regret which the death, as

lamented as premature, of Richard Cobden had excited on that side of the

Channel." "He is above all," he added, "in our eyes the representative

of those sentiments and those cosmopolitan principles before which

national frontiers and rivalries disappear; whilst essentially of his

country, he was still more of his time; he knew what mutual relations

could accomplish in our day for the prosperity of peoples. Cobden, if I

may be permitted to say so, was an international man."

He was buried at West Lavington church, on the 7th of April. His grave

was surrounded by a large crowd of mourners, among whom were Gladstone,

Bright, Milner Gibson, Charles Villiers and a host besides from all

parts of the country. In 1866 the Cobden Club was founded in London, to

promote free-trade economics, and it became a centre for political

propaganda on those lines; and prizes were instituted in his name at

Oxford and Cambridge.

Cobden had married in 1840 Miss Catherine Anne Williams, a Welsh lady,

and left five surviving daughters, of whom Mrs Cobden-Unwin (wife of the

publisher Mr Fisher Unwin), Mrs Walter Sickert (wife of the painter) and

Mrs Cobden-Sanderson (wife of the well-known artist in bookbinding),

afterwards became prominent in various spheres, and inherited their

father's political interest. His only son died, to Cobden's

inexpressible grief, at the age of fifteen, in 1856.

The work of Cobden, and what is now called "Cobdenism," has in recent

years been subjected to much criticism from the newer school of English

economists who advocate a "national policy" (on the old lines of

Alexander Hamilton and Friedrich List) as against his cosmopolitan

ideals. But it remains the fact that his success with the free-trade

movement was for years unchallenged, and, that the leaps and bounds with

which English commercial prosperity advanced after the repeal of the

corn-laws were naturally associated with the reformed fiscal policy, so

that the very name of protectionism came to be identified with all that

was not merely heterodox but hateful. The tariff reform movement in

England started by Mr Chamberlain (_q.v._) had the result of giving new

boldness to the opponents of Manchesterism, and the whole subject once

more became controversial (see FREE TRADE; CORN LAWS; PROTECTION;

TARIFF; ECONOMICS). Cobden has left a deep mark on English history, but

he was not himself a "scientific economist," and many of his confident

prophecies were completely falsified. As a manufacturer, and with the

circumstances of his own day before him, he considered that it was

"natural" for Great Britain to manufacture for the world in exchange for

her free admission of the more "natural" agricultural products of other

countries. He advocated the repeal of the corn-laws, not essentially in

order to make food cheaper, but because it would develop industry and

enable the manufacturers to get labour at low but sufficient wages; and

he assumed that other countries would be unable to compete with England

in manufactures under free trade, at the prices which would be possible

for English manufactured products. "We advocate," he said, "nothing but

what is agreeable to the highest behests of Christianity--to buy in the

cheapest market, and sell in the dearest." He believed that the rest of

the world must follow England's example: "if you abolish the corn-laws

honestly, and adopt free trade in its simplicity, there will not be a

tariff in Europe that will not be changed in less than five years"

(January 1846). His cosmopolitanism--which makes him in the modern

Imperialist's eyes a "Little Englander" of the straitest sect--led him

to deplore any survival of the colonial system and to hail the removal

of ties which bound the mother country to remote dependencies; but it

was, in its day, a generous and sincere reaction against popular

sentiment, and Cobden was at all events an outspoken advocate of an

irresistible British navy. There were enough inconsistencies in his

creed to enable both sides in the recent controversies to claim him as

one who if he were still alive would have supported their case in the

altered circumstances; but, from the biographical point of view, these

issues are hardly relevant. Cobden inevitably stands for "Cobdenism,"

which is a creed largely developed by the modern free-trader in the

course of subsequent years. It becomes equivalent to economic

_laisser-faire_ and "Manchesterism," and as such it must fight its own

corner with those who now take into consideration many national factors

which had no place in the early utilitarian individualistic regime of

Cobden's own day.

The standard biography is that by John Morley (1881). Cobden's

speeches were collected and published in 1870. The centenary of his

birth in 1904 was celebrated by a flood of articles in the newspapers

and magazines, naturally coloured by the new controversy in England

over the Tariff Reform movement.

COBET, CAREL GABRIEL (1813-1889), Dutch classical scholar, was born at

Paris on the 28th of November 1813, and educated at the Hague Gymnasium

and the university of Leiden. In 1836 he won a gold medal for an essay

entitled _Prosopographia Xenophontea_, a brilliant characterization of

all the persons introduced into the _Memorabilia_, _Symposium_ and

_Oeconomicus_ of Xenophon. His _Observationes criticae in Platonis

comici reliquias_ (1840) revealed his remarkable critical faculty. The

university conferred on him an honorary degree, and recommended him to

the government for a travelling pension. The ostensible purpose of his

journey was to collate the texts of Simplicius, which, however, engaged

but little of his time. He contrived, however, to make a careful study

of almost every Greek manuscript in the Italian libraries, and returned

after five years with an intimate knowledge of palaeography. In 1846 he

married, and in the same year was appointed to an extraordinary

professorship at Leiden. His inaugural address, _De Arte interpretandi

Grammatices et Critices Fundamentis innixa_, has been called the most

perfect piece of Latin prose written in the 19th century. The rest of

his life was passed uneventfully at Leiden. In 1856 he became joint

editor of _Mnemosyne_, a philological review, which he soon raised to a

leading position among classical journals. He contributed to it many

critical notes and emendations, which were afterwards collected in book

form under the titles _Novae Lectiones_, _Variae Lectiones_ and

_Miscellanea Critica_. In 1875 he took a prominent part at the Leiden

Tercentenary, and impressed all his hearers by his wonderful facility in

Latin improvisation. In 1884, when his health was failing, he retired as

emeritus professor. He died on the 26th of October 1889. Cobet's special

weapon as a critic was his consummate knowledge of palaeography, but he

was no less distinguished for his rare acumen and wide knowledge of

classical literature. He has been blamed for rashness in the emendation

of difficult passages, and for neglecting the comments of other

scholars. He had little sympathy for the German critics, and maintained

that the best combination was English good sense with French taste. He

always expressed his obligation to the English, saying that his masters

were three Richards--Bentley, Porson and Dawes.

See an appreciative obituary notice by W.G. Rutherford in the

_Classical Review_, Dec. 1889; Hartman in Bursian's _Biographisches

Jahrbuch_, 1890; Sandys, _Hist. Class. Schol._ (1908), iii. 282.

COBHAM, a village in the Medway parliamentary division of Kent, England,

4 m. W. of Rochester. The church (Early English and later, and restored

by Sir G.G. Scott) is famous for its collection of ancient brasses, of

which thirteen belonging to the years 1320-1529 commemorate members of

the Brooke and Cobham families. There are some fine oak stalls and some

tilting armour of the 14th century in the chancel. Cobham college,

containing 20 almshouses, took the place, after the dissolution, of a

college for priests founded by Sir John de Cobham in the 14th century.

The present mansion of Cobham Hall is mainly Elizabethan. The picture

gallery contains a fine collection of works by the great masters,

Italian, Dutch and English.

The Cobham family was established here before the reign of King John. In

1313 Henry de Cobham was created Baron Cobham, but on the execution of

Sir John Oldcastle (who had been summoned to parliament, _jure uxoris_,

as Baron Cobham) in 1417, the barony lay dormant till revived in 1445 by

Edward, son of Sir Thomas Brooke and Joan, grand-daughter of the 3rd

Baron Cobham. In 1603 Henry Brooke, Lord Cobham, was arraigned for

participation in the Raleigh conspiracy, and spent the remainder of his

life in prison, where he died in 1618. With him the title expired, and

Cobham Hall was granted to Lodowick Stewart, duke of Lennox, passing

subsequently by descent and marriage to the earls of Darnley. The

present Viscount Cobham (cr. 1718) belongs to the Lyttelton family (see

Lyttelton, 1st Baron).

COBIJA, or PUERTO LA MAR (the official title given to it by the Bolivian

government), a port and town of the Chilean province of Antofagasta,

about 800 m. N. of Valparaiso. It is the oldest port on this part of the

coast, and was for a time the principal outlet for a large mining

district. It was formerly capital of the Bolivian department of Atacama

and the only port possessed by Bolivia, but the seizure of that

department in 1879 by Chile and the construction of the Antofagasta and

Oruro railway deprived it of all importance, and its population,

estimated at 6000 in 1858, has fallen to less than 500. Its harbour is

comparatively safe but lacks landing facilities. Smelting for

neighbouring mines is still carried on, and some of its former trade

remains, but the greater part of it has gone to Tocopilla and

Antofagasta. The town occupies a narrow beach between the sea and

bluffs, and was greatly damaged by an earthquake and tidal wave in 1877.

COBLE (probably of Celtic origin, and connected with the root _ceu_ or

_cau_, hollow; cf. Welsh _ceubol_, a ferry-boat), a flat-bottomed

fishing-boat, with deep-lying rudder and lug-sail, used off the

north-east coast of England.

COBLENZ (KOBLENZ), a city and fortress of Germany, capital of the

Prussian Rhine Province, 57 m. S.E. from Cologne by rail, pleasantly

situated on the left bank of the Rhine at its confluence with the Mosel,

from which circumstance it derived its ancient name _Confluentes_, of

which Coblenz is a corruption. Pop. (1885) 31,669; (1905) 53,902. Its

defensive works are extensive, and consist of strong modern forts

crowning the hills encircling the town on the west, and of the citadel

of Ehrenbreitstein (q.v.) on the opposite bank of the Rhine. The old

city was triangular in shape, two sides being bounded by the Rhine and

Mosel and the third by a line of fortifications. The last were razed in

1890, and the town was permitted to expand in this direction.

Immediately outside the former walls lies the new central railway

station, in which is effected a junction of the Cologne-Mainz railway

with the strategical line Metz-Berlin. The Rhine is crossed by a bridge

of boats 485 yds. long, by an iron bridge built for railway purposes in

1864, and, a mile above the town, by a beautiful bridge of two wide and

lofty spans carrying the Berlin railway referred to. The Mosel is

spanned by a Gothic freestone bridge of 14 arches, erected in 1344, and

also by a railway bridge.

The city, down to 1890, consisted of the Altstadt (old city) and the

Neustadt (new city) or Klemenstadt. Of these, the Altstadt is closely

built and has only a few fine streets and squares, while the Neustadt

possesses numerous broad streets and a handsome frontage to the Rhine.

In the more ancient part of Coblenz are several buildings which have an

historical interest. Prominent among these, near the point of confluence

of the rivers, is the church of St Castor, with four towers. The church

was originally founded in 836 by Louis the Pious, but the present

Romanesque building was completed in 1208, the Gothic vaulted roof

dating from 1498. In front of the church of St Castor stands a fountain,

erected by the French in 1812, with an inscription to commemorate

Napoleon's invasion of Russia. Not long after, the Russian troops

occupied Coblenz; and St Priest, their commander, added in irony these

words--"_Vu et approuve par nous, Commandant Russe de la Vitte de

Coblence: Janvier 1er, 1814._" In this quarter of the town, too, is the

Liebfrauenkirche, a fine church (nave 1250, choir 1404-1431) with lofty

late Romanesque towers; the castle of the electors of Trier, erected in

1280, which now contains the municipal picture gallery; and the family

house of the Metternichs, where Prince Metternich, the Austrian

statesman, was born in 1773. In the modern part of the town lies the

palace (Residenzschloss), with one front looking towards the Rhine, the

other into the Neustadt. It was built in 1778-1786 by Clement Wenceslaus

the last elector of Trier, and contains among other curiosities some

fine Gobelin tapestries. From it some pretty gardens and promenades

(_Kaiserin Augusta Anlagen_) stretch along the bank of the Rhine, and in

them is a memorial to the poet Max von Schenkendorf. A fine statue to

the empress Augusta, whose favourite residence was Coblenz, stands in

the Luisen-platz. But of all public memorials the most striking is the

colossal equestrian statue of the emperor William I., erected by the

Rhine provinces in 1897, standing on a lofty and massive pedestal, at

the point where the Rhine and Mosel meet. Coblenz has also handsome law

courts, government buildings, a theatre, a museum of antiquities, a

conservatory of music, two high grade schools, a hospital and numerous

charitable institutions. Coblenz is a principal seat of the Mosel and

Rhenish wine trade, and also does a large business in the export of

mineral waters. Its manufactures include pianos, paper, cardboard,

machinery, boats and barges. It is an important transit centre for the

Rhine railways and for the Rhine navigation.

_Coblenz_ (Confluentes, Covelenz, Cobelenz) was one of the military

posts established by Drusus about 9 b.c. Later it was frequently the

residence of the Frankish kings, and in 860 and 922 was the scene of

ecclesiastical synods. At the former of these, held in the

Liebfrauenkirche, took place the reconciliation of Louis the German with

his half-brother Charles the Bald. In 1018 the city, after receiving a

charter, was given by the emperor Henry II. to the archbishop of Trier

(Treves), and it remained in the possession of the archbishop-electors

till the close of the 18th century. In 1249-1254 it was surrounded with

new walls by Archbishop Arnold II. (of Isenburg); and it was partly to

overawe the turbulent townsmen that successive archbishops built and

strengthened the fortress of Ehrenbreitstein (q.v.) that dominates the

city. As a member of the league of the Rhenish cities which took its

rise in the 13th century, Coblenz attained to great prosperity; and it

continued to advance till the disasters of the Thirty Years' War

occasioned a rapid decline. After Philip Christopher, elector of Trier,

had surrendered Ehrenbreitstein to the French the town received an

imperial garrison (1632), which was soon, however, expelled by the

Swedes. They in their turn handed the city over to the French, but the

imperial forces succeeded in retaking it by storm (1636). In 1688 it

was besieged by the French under Marshal de Boufflers, but they only

succeeded in bombarding the Altstadt into ruins, destroying among other

buildings the old merchants' hall (_Kaufhaus_), which was restored in

its present form in 1725. In 1786 the elector of Trier, Clement

Wenceslaus of Saxony, took up his residence in the town, and gave great

assistance in its extension and improvement; a few years later it

became, through the invitation of his minister, Ferdinand, Freiherr von

Duminique, one of the principal rendezvous of the French _emigres_. This

drew down upon the archbishop-elector the wrath of the French

republicans; in 1794 Coblenz was taken by the Revolutionary army under

Marceau (who fell during the siege), and, after the peace of Luneville,

it was made the chief town of the Rhine and Mosel department (1798). In

1814 it was occupied by the Russians, by the congress of Vienna it was

assigned to Prussia, and in 1822 it was made the seat of government of

the Rhine province.

See Daniel, _Deutschland_ (Leipzig, 1895); W. A. Gunther, _Geschichte

der Stadt Koblenz_ (Cobl., 1815); and Bar, _Urkunden und Akten zur

Geschichte der Verfassung und Verwaltung der Stadt Koblenz bis zum

Jahre 1500_ (Bonn, 1898).

COBOURG, the capital of Northumberland county, Ontario, Canada, on Lake

Ontario and the Grand Trunk railway; 70 m. E.N.E. of Toronto. Pop.

(1901) 4239. It has a large, safe harbour, and steamboat communication

with St Lawrence and Lake Ontario ports. It contains car-works,

foundries, and carpet and woollen factories, and is a summer resort,

especially for Americans. Victoria University, formerly situated here,

was removed to Toronto in 1890.

[Illustration: Head of Cobra.]

COBRA (_Naja tripudians_), a poisonous Colubrine snake, belonging to the

family _Elapidae_, known also as the hooded snake, cobra di capello or

_naga_. In this genus the anterior ribs are elongated, and by raising

and bringing forward these, the neck can be expanded at will into a

broad disk or hood. It possesses two rows of palatine teeth in the upper

jaw, while the maxillary bones bear the fangs, of which the anterior one

only is in connexion with the poison gland, the others in various stages

of growth remaining loose in the surrounding flesh until the destruction

of the poison fang brings the one immediately behind to the front, which

then gets anchylosed to the maxillary bone, and into connexion with the

gland secreting the poison, which in the cobra is about the size of an

almond. Behind the poison fangs there are usually one or two ordinary

teeth. The cobra attains a length of nearly 6 ft. and a girth of about 6

in.

The typical cobra is yellowish to dark-brown, with a black and white

spectacle-mark on the back of the hood, and with a pair of large black

and white spots on the corresponding under-surface. There are, however,

many varieties, in some of which the spectacle markings on the hood are

wanting. The cobra may be regarded as nocturnal in its habits, being

most active by night, although not unfrequently found in motion during

the day. It usually conceals itself under logs of wood, in the roofs of

huts and in holes in old walls and ruins, where it is often come upon

inadvertently, inflicting a death wound before it has been observed. It

feeds on small quadrupeds, frogs, lizards, insects and the eggs of

birds, in search of which it sometimes ascends trees. When seeking its

prey it glides slowly along the ground, holding the anterior third of

its body aloft, with its hood distended, on the alert for anything that

may come in its way. "This attitude," says Sir J. Fayrer, "is very

striking, and few objects are more calculated to inspire awe than a

large cobra when, with his hood erect, hissing loudly and his eyes

glaring, he prepares to strike." It is said to drink large quantities of

water, although like reptiles in general it will live for many months

without food or drink. The cobra is oviparous; and its eggs, which are

from 18 to 25 in number, are of a pure white colour, somewhat resembling

in size and appearance the eggs of the pigeon, but sometimes larger.

These it leaves to be hatched by the heat of the sun. It is widely

distributed, from Transcaspia to China and to the Malay Islands, and is

found in all parts of India, from Ceylon to the Himalayas up to about

8000 ft. above the level of the sea.

Closely allied is _N. haje_, the common hooded cobra of all Africa, the

_Spy-slange_, i.e. spitting snake of the Boers.

The cobra is justly regarded as one of the most deadly of the Indian

Thanatophidia. Many thousand deaths are caused annually by this

unfortunately common species, but it is difficult to obtain accurate

statistics. The bite of a vigorous cobra will often prove fatal in a few

minutes, and as there is no practicable antidote to the poison, it is

only in rare instances that such mechanical expedients as cauterizing,

constriction or amputation can be applied with sufficient promptitude to

prevent the virus from entering the circulation. Owing to a small reward

offered by the Indian government for the head of each poisonous snake,

great numbers of cobras have been destroyed; but only low-caste Hindus

will engage in such work, the cobra being regarded by the natives

generally with superstitious reverence, as a divinity powerful to

injure, and therefore to be propitiated; and thus oftentimes when found

in their dwellings this snake is allowed to remain, and is fed and

protected. "Should fear," says Sir J. Fayrer, "and perhaps the death of

some inmate bitten by accident, prove stronger than superstition, it may

be caught, tenderly handled, and deported to some field, where it is

released and allowed to depart in peace, not killed" (_Thanatophidia of

India_). Great numbers, especially of young cobras, are killed by the

adjutant birds and by the mungoos--a small mammal which attacks it with

impunity, apparently not from want of susceptibility to the poison, but

by its dexterity in eluding the bite of the cobra. Mere scratching or

tearing does not appear to be sufficient to bring the poison from the

glands; it is only when the fangs are firmly implanted by the jaws being

pressed together that the virus enters the wound, and in those

circumstances it has been shown by actual experiment that the mungoos,

like all other warm-blooded animals, succumbs to the poison. In the case

of reptiles, the cobra poison takes effect much more slowly, while it

has been proved to have no effect whatever on other venomous serpents.

In the Egyptian hieroglyphics the cobra occurs constantly with the body

erect and hood expanded; its name was _ouro_, which signifies "king,"

and the animal appears in Greek literature as _ouraios_ and

_basiliscus_. With the Egyptian snake-charmers of the present day the

cobra is as great a favourite as with their Hindu colleagues. They

pretend to change the snake into a rod, and it appears that the supple

snake is made stiff and rigid by a strong pressure upon its neck, and

that the animal does not seem to suffer from this operation, but soon

recovers from the cataleptic fit into which it has been temporarily

thrown.

The cobra is the snake usually exhibited by the Indian jugglers, who

show great dexterity in handling it, even when not deprived of its

fangs. Usually, however, the front fang at least is extracted, the

creature being thus rendered harmless until the succeeding tooth takes

its place, and in many cases all the fangs, with the germs behind, are

removed--the cobra being thus rendered innocuous for life. The snake

charmer usually plays a few simple notes on the flute, and the cobra,

apparently delighted, rears half its length in the air and sways its

head and body about, keeping time to the music.

The cobra, like almost all poisonous snakes, is by no means aggressive,

and when it gets timely warning of the approach of man endeavours to get

out of his way. It is only when trampled upon inadvertently, or

otherwise irritated, that it attempts to use its fangs. It is a good

swimmer, often crossing broad rivers, and probably even narrow arms of

the sea, for it has been met with at sea at least a quarter of a mile

from land.

COBURG, a town of Germany, the twin capital with Gotha of the duchy of

Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, on the left bank of the Itz, an affluent of the

Regen, on the southern slope of the Frankenwald, the railway from

Eisenach to Lichtenfels, and 40 m. S.S.E. of Gotha. Pop. (1905) 22,489.

The town is for the most part old, and contains a number of interesting

buildings. The ducal palace, known as the Ehrenburg, is a magnificent

building, originally erected on the site of a convent of bare-footed

friars by Duke John Ernest in 1549, renovated in 1698, and restored in

1816 by Duke Ernest I. It contains a vast and richly decorated hall, the

court church and a fine picture gallery. In the gardens are the

mausoleum of Duke Francis (d. 1806) and his wife, a bronze equestrian

statue of Duke Ernest II. and a fountain in commemoration of Duke Alfred

(duke of Edinburgh). In the market square are the medieval Rathaus, the

government buildings, and a statue of Prince Albert (consort of Queen

Victoria), by William Theed the younger (1804-1891). In the

Schloss-platz are the Edinburgh Palace (Palais Edinburg), built in 1881,

the theatre and an equestrian statue of Duke Ernest I. Among the

churches the most remarkable is the Moritzkirche, with a lofty tower.

The educational establishments include a gymnasium, founded in 1604 by

Duke John Casimir (d. 1633) and thus known as the Casimirianum, a

commercial, an agricultural and other schools. The Zeughaus (armoury)

contains the ducal library of 100,000 volumes, and among other public

buildings may be mentioned the Augustenstift, formerly the seat of the

ministerial offices, and the Marstall (royal mews). On a commanding

eminence above the town is the ancient castle of Coburg, dating from the

11th century (see below). In 1781 it was turned into a penitentiary and

lunatic asylum, but in 1835-1838 was completely restored, and now

contains a natural history museum. The most interesting room in this

building is that which was occupied by Luther in 1530, where the

surroundings may have inspired, though (as is now proved) he did not

compose, the famous hymn, _Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott_; the bed on

which he slept, and the pulpit from which he preached in the old chapel

are shown. Coburg is a place of considerable industry, the chief

branches of the latter being brewing, manufactures of machinery, colours

and porcelain, iron-founding and saw-milling; and there is an important

trade in the cattle reared in the neighbourhood. Among various places of

interest in the vicinity are the ducal residences of Callenberg and

Rosenau, in the latter of which Albert, Prince Consort, was born in

1819; the castle of Lauterburg; and the village of Neuses, with the

house of the poet J. M. F. Ruckert, who died here in 1866, and on the

other side of the river the tomb of the poet Moritz August von Thummel

(1738-1817).

The town of Coburg, first mentioned in a record of 1207, owed its

existence and its name to the castle, and in the 15th and 16th centuries

was of considerable importance as a halting-place on the great trade

route from Nuremberg _via_ Bamberg to the North. In 1245 the castle

became the seat of the elder branch of the counts of Henneberg

(Coburg-Schmalkalden). The countships of Coburg and Schmalkalden passed

by the marriage of Jutta, daughter of Hermann I. (d. 1290), to Otto V.

of Brandenburg, whose grandson John, however, sold them to Henry VIII.

of Henneberg, his brother-in-law. Henry's daughter Catherine (d. 1397)

married Frederick III. of Meissen, and so brought the castle, town and

countship into the possession of the Saxon house of Wettin. In 1549 Duke

John Ernest of Saxony made Coburg his residence and turned the old

castle into a fortress strong enough to stand a three years' siege

(1632-1635) during the Thirty Years' War. In 1641 Coburg fell to the

dukes of Saxe-Altenburg. In 1835 it became the residence of the dukes of

Saxe-Coburg. For the princes of the house of Coburg see WETTIN And

SAXE-COBURG.

COCA, or CUCA (_Erythroxylon coca_), a plant of the natural order

Erythroxylaceae, the leaves of which are used as a stimulant in the

western countries of South America.[1] It resembles a blackthorn bush,

and grows to a height of 6 or 8 ft. The branches are straight, and the

leaves, which have a lively green tint, are thin, opaque, oval, more or

less tapering at the extremities. A marked characteristic of the leaf

is an areolated portion bounded by two longitudinal curved lines one on

each side of the midrib, and more conspicuous on the under face of the

leaf. Good samples of the dried leaves are uncurled, are of a deep green

on the upper, and a grey-green on the lower surface, and have a strong

tea-like odour; when chewed they produce a sense of warmth in the mouth,

and have a pleasant, pungent taste. Bad specimens have a camphoraceous

smell and a brownish colour, and lack the pungent taste. The flowers are

small, and disposed in little clusters on short stalks; the corolla is

composed of five yellowish-white petals, the anthers are heart-shaped,

and the pistil consists of three carpels united to form a

three-chambered ovary. The flowers are succeeded by red berries. The

seeds are sown in December and January in small plots (_almacigas_)

sheltered from the sun, and the young plants when from 1-1/2 to 2 ft. in

height are placed in holes (_aspi_), or, if the ground is level, in

furrows (_uachos_) in carefully-weeded soil. The plants thrive best in

hot, damp situations, such as the clearings of forests; but the leaves

most preferred are obtained in drier localities, on the sides of hills.

The leaves are gathered from plants varying in age from one and a half

to upwards of forty years. They are considered ready for plucking when

they break on being bent. The first and most abundant harvest is in

March, after the rains; the second is at the end of June, the third in

October or November. The green leaves (_matu_) are spread in thin layers

on coarse woollen cloths and dried in the sun; they are then packed in

sacks, which, in order to preserve the quality of the leaves, must be

kept from damp.

In the Kew Bulletin for January 1889 is an account of the history and

botany of the plant, which has been so long under cultivation in South

America that its original home is doubtful. As the result of this

cultivation numerous forms have arisen. The writer distinguishes from

the typical Peruvian form with pointed leaves a variety

_novo-granatense_, from New Granada, which has smaller leaves with a

rounded apex. The plant is now cultivated in the West Indies, India,

Ceylon, Java and elsewhere. It has been estimated that coca is used by

about 8,000,000 of the human race, being consumed in Bolivia, Peru,

Ecuador, Colombia and Rio Negro. In Peru the Indians carry a leathern

pouch (the _chuspa_ or _huallqui_) for the leaves, and a supply of

pulverized unslaked lime, or a preparation of the ashes of the quinoa

plant (_Chenopodium Quinoa_), called _llipta_ or _llucta_. Three or four

times a day labour is suspended for _chacchar_ or _acullicar_, as the

mastication of coca is termed. The leaves, deprived of their stalks, are

chewed and formed into a ball (_acullico_) in the mouth; a small

quantity of the lime or llipta is then applied to the acullico to give

it a proper relish. Two or three ounces of coca are thus daily consumed

by each Indian.

Coca was used by the Peruvian Indians in the most ancient times. It was

employed as an offering to the sun, or to produce smoke at the great

sacrifices; and the priests, it was believed, must chew it during the

performance of religious ceremonies, otherwise the gods would not be

propitiated. Coca is still held in superstitious veneration among the

Peruvians, and is believed by the miners of Cerro de Pasco to soften the

veins of ore, if masticated and thrown upon them.

The composition of different specimens of coca leaves is very

inconstant. Besides the important alkaloid _cocaine_ (q.v.), occurring

to the extent of about O.2% in fresh specimens, there are several other

alkaloids. The preparations of coca leaves are incompatible with certain

drugs which might often be prescribed in combination with them, such as

salts of mercury, menthol and mineral acids, which latter decompose

cocaine into benzoic acid and ecgonine.

Coca leaves and preparations of them have no external action. Internally

their action is similar to that of opium, though somewhat less narcotic,

and causing a dilatation of the pupil of the eye instead of a

contraction. When masticated, the leaves first cause a tingling in the

tongue and mucous membrane of the mouth, owing to a stimulation of the

nerves of common sensation, and then abolish taste owing to a paralysis

of the terminals of the gustatory nerves. They have a definite

anaesthetic action upon the mucous membrane of the stomach, from which

there come in large part those organic sensations which we interpret as

hunger. Hence it is possible, under the influence of coca, to go without

food or consciousness of needing it, for as long a period as three days.

The drug is not a food, however, as its composition and history in the

body clearly show, and the individual who comfortably fasts under its

influence nevertheless shows all the physical signs of starvation, such

as loss of weight. In small doses coca stimulates the intestinal

peristalsis and thus is an aperient, but in large doses it paralyses the

muscular coat of the bowel, causing constipation, such as is constantly

seen in coco-maniacs, and in those inhabitants of Peru and the adjacent

countries who take it in excess or are markedly susceptible to its

influence.

The injection of coca leaves has a very remarkable effect upon the

higher tracts of the nervous system--an effect curiously contrary to

that produced by their chief ingredient upon the peripheral parts of the

nervous apparatus. The mental power is, at any rate subjectively,

enhanced in marked degree. In the absence of extended experiments in

psychological laboratories, such as have been conducted with alcohol, it

is not possible to say whether the apparent enhancement of the intellect

is an objectively demonstrable fact. The physical power is

unquestionably increased, such muscular exercises as are involved in

ascending mountains being made much easier after the chewing of an ounce

or so of these leaves. Excess in coca-chewing leads in many cases to

great bodily wasting, mental failure, insomnia, weakness of the

circulation and extreme dyspepsia. For other pharmacological characters

and the therapeutic employments of coca see Cocaine.