VOLUME VI SLICE V Clervaux to Cockade (continued 10)

Other forms of obstacle to torpedo boat attack, based on a modification of contact mines or a combination of mines and passive obstructions, have been tried but never definitely adopted, though some form of under-water defence of this description seems necessary to meet attack by submarines.

We may now summarize the anti-torpedo boat defences. These are, first, an outpost or look-out line of electric search-lights, then a main lighted area composed of fixed lights with which there are a considerable number of 12-pounder or 4-in. Q.F. guns fitted with auto-sights, and behind all this, usually at the narrowest part of the entrance, the boom.

Once coast defences are designed and installed, little change is possible during an attack, so that the operation of fighting a system of defence, such as we have considered above, is mainly a matter of peace training of gun-crews, electric light men and look-outs, coupled with careful organization. To facilitate the transmission of order and intelligence, a considerable system of telephonic and other electrical communication has been established. This may be considered under the three heads of (1) orders, (2) intelligence, (3) administration.

The communication of orders follows the organization adopted for the whole fortress. Each fortress is commanded by a fortress commander, who has a suitable staff. This officer sends orders to commanders of artillery, engineers, and infantry. The artillery officer in charge of a group of batteries is called a “fire commander”; his command is generally confined to such batteries as fire over the same area of water and can mutually support one another. Thus there may be several fire commanders at a defended port. Anti-torpedo boat batteries are not in a fire command, and are connected to the telephone system for intelligence only and not for orders. The engineers require orders for the control of electric lights or Brennan torpedo. The officer in charge of a group of lights or of a torpedo station is called a director. Though receiving orders direct from the fortress commander, he has also to co-operate with the nearest artillery commander. The infantry are posted on the flanks of the fixed defences, or on the land front. They are divided into suitable groups, each under a commanding officer, who communicates with the fortress commander. In large fortresses the area is divided into sections, each including some portion of the artillery, engineers, and infantry defence. In such cases the section commanders receive orders from the fortress commander and pass them on to their subordinates.

The intelligence system includes communication with the naval signal stations in the vicinity, one of which is specially selected for each port as the warning station and is directly connected to some part of the defences. Another part of the intelligence system deals with the arrangements for examining all ships entering a harbour. This is usually effected by posting in each entrance examination vessels, which are in communication by signal with a battery or selected post on shore. Any points on shore which can see the approaches are connected by a special alarm circuit, mainly for use in case of torpedo boat attack.

The administrative system of telephones is used for daily routine messages. These usually take the form of telephone lines radiating from a central exchange. In many stations the same lines may be used for command and administration, or intelligence and command, but at the larger stations each class of line is kept distinct.

(W. B. B.)

COASTGUARD, a naval force maintained in Great Britain and Ireland to suppress smuggling, aid shipwrecked vessels and serve as a reserve to the navy. The coastguard was originally designed to prevent smuggling. Before 1816 this duty was entrusted to the revenue cutters, and to a body of “riding officers,” mounted men who were frequently supported by detachments of dragoons. The crews of the cutters and the riding officers were under the authority of the custom house in London, and were appointed by the treasury. On the conclusion of the war with Napoleon in 1815 it was resolved to take stricter precautions against smuggling. A “coast blockade” was established in Kent and Sussex. The “Ramillies” (74) was stationed in the Downs and the “Hyperion” (42) at Newhaven. A number of half-pay naval lieutenants were appointed to these vessels, but were stationed with detachments of men and boats at the Martello towers erected along the coast as a defence against French invasion. They were known as the “preventive water guard” or the “preventive service.” The crews of the boats were partly drawn from the revenue cutters, and partly hired from among men of all trades. The “coast blockade” was extended to all parts of the coast. The revenue cutters and the riding officers continued to be employed, and the whole force was under the direction of the custom house. The whole was divided into districts under the command of naval officers. In 1822 the elements of which the preventive water guard was composed were consolidated, and in 1829 it was ordered that only sailors or fishermen should be engaged as boatmen. In 1830 the whole service consisted of 50 revenue cutters, fine vessels of 150 and 200 tons, of the “preventive boats,” and the riding officers. In 1831, during the administration of Sir James Graham, the service was transferred to the admiralty, though the custom house flag was used till 1857. After 1840 the men were drilled “in the common formations,” mainly with a view to being employed for the maintenance of order and in support of the police, in case of Chartist or other agitations. But in 1845 the first steps were taken to utilize the coastguard as a reserve to the navy. The boatmen were required to sign an engagement to serve in the navy if called upon. In May 1857 the service was transferred entirely to the admiralty, and the coastguard became a part of the navy, using the navy flag. The districts were placed under captains of the navy, known as district captains, in command of ships stationed at points round the coast. Since that year the coastguard has been recruited from the navy, and has been required to do regular periods of drill at sea, on terms laid down by the admiralty from time to time. It has, in fact, been a form of naval reserve.

The rise and early history of the coastguard are told in Smuggling Days and Smuggling Ways, by the Hon. Henry N. Shore, R.N., (London, 1892). Its later history must be traced in the Queen’s (and King’s) Regulations and Admiralty Instructions of successive years.

(D. H.)

COASTING, usually called tobogganing (q.v.) in Europe, the sport of sliding down snow or ice-covered hills or artificial inclines upon hand-sleds, or sledges, provided with runners shod with iron or steel. It is uncertain whether the first American sleds were copied from the Indian toboggans, but no sled without runners was known in the United States before 1870, except to the woodsmen of the Canadian border. American laws have greatly restricted, and in most places prohibited, the practice, once common, of coasting on the highways; and the sport is mainly confined to open hills and artificial inclines or chutes. Two forms of hand-sled are usual in America, the original “clipper” type, built low with long, pointed sides, originally shod with iron but since 1850 with round steel runners; and the light, short “girls’ sled,” with high skeleton sides, usually flat shod. There is also the “double-runner,” or “bob-sled,” formed of two clipper sleds joined by a board and steered by ropes, a wheel or a cross-bar, and seating from four to ten persons.

In Scandinavia several kinds of sled are common, but that of the fishermen, by means of which they transport their catch over the frozen fjords, is the one used in coasting, a sport especially popular in the neighbourhood of Christiania, where there are courses nearly 3 m. in length. This sled is from 4 to 6 ft. long, with skeleton sides about 7 in. high, and generally holds three persons. It is steered by two long sticks trailing behind. On the ice the fisherman propels his sled by means of two short picks. The general Norwegian name for sledge is skijälker, the primitive form being a kind of toboggan provided with broad wooden runners resembling the ski (q.v.). In northern Sweden and Finland the commonest form of single sled is the Sparkstottinger, built high at the back, the coaster standing up and steering by means of two handles projecting from the sides.

Coasting in its highest development may be seen in Switzerland, at the fashionable winter resorts of the Engadine, where it is called tobogganing. The first regular races there were organized by John Addington Symonds, who instituted an annual contest for a challenge cup, open to all comers, over the steep post-road from Davos to Klosters, the finest natural coast in Switzerland, the sled used being the primitive native Schlittli or Handschlitten, a miniature copy of the ancient horse-sledge. Soon afterwards followed the construction of great artificial runs, the most famous being the “Cresta” at St Moritz, begun in 1884, which is about 1350 yds. in length, its dangerous curves banked up like those of a bicycle track. On this the annual “Grand National” championship is contested, the winner’s time being the shortest aggregate of three heats. In 1885 and the following year the native Schlittli remained in use, the rider sitting upright facing the goal, and steering either with the heels or with short picks. In 1887 the first American clipper sled was introduced by L. P. Child, who easily won the championship for that year on it. The sled now used by the contestants is a development of the American type, built of steel and skeleton in form. With it a speed of over 70 m. an hour has been attained. The coaster lies flat upon it and steers with his feet, shod with spiked shoes, to render braking easier, and helped with his gloved hands. The “double-runner” has also been introduced into Switzerland under the name of “bob-sleigh.”

See Ice Sports, in the Isthmian Library, London (1901); Tobogganing at St Moritz, by T. A. Cook (London, 1896).

COATBRIDGE, a municipal and police burgh, having the privileges of a royal burgh, of Lanarkshire, Scotland. Pop. (1891) 15,212; (1901) 36,991. It is situated on the Monkland Canal, 8 m. E. of Glasgow, with stations on the Caledonian and North British railways. Until about 1825 it was only a village, but since then its vast stores of coal and iron have been developed, and it is now the centre of the iron trade of Scotland. Its prosperity was largely due to the ironmaster James Baird (q.v.), who erected as many as sixteen blast-furnaces in the immediate neighbourhood between 1830 and 1842. The industries of Coatbridge produce malleable iron, boilers, tubes, wire, tinplates and railway wagons, tiles, fire-bricks and fire-clay goods. There are two public parks in the town, and its public buildings include a theatre, a technical school and mining college, hospitals, and the academy and Baird Institute at Gartsherrie. Janet Hamilton, the poetess (1795-1873), spent most of her life at Langloan—now a part of Coatbridge—and a fountain has been erected to her memory near the cottage in which she lived. For parliamentary purposes the town, which became a municipal burgh in 1885, is included in the north-west division of Lanarkshire. About 4 m. west by south lies the mining town of Baillieston (pop. 3784), with a station on the Caledonian railway. It has numerous collieries, a nursery and market garden.

COATESVILLE, a borough of Chester county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on the west branch of Brandywine Creek, 39 m. W. of Philadelphia. Pop. (1890) 3680; (1900) 5721 (273 foreign-born); (1910) 11,084. It is served by the Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia & Reading railways, and interurban electric lines. For its size the borough ranks high as a manufacturing centre, iron and steel works, boiler works, brass works, and paper, silk and woollen mills being among its leading establishments. Its water-works are owned and operated by the municipality. Named in honour of Jesse Coates, one of its early settlers, it was settled about 1800, and was incorporated in 1867.

COATI, or Coati-Mundi, the native name of the members of the genus Nasua, of the mammalian family Procyonidae. They are easily recognized by their long body and tail, and elongated, upturned snout; from which last feature the Germans call them Rüsselbären or “snouted bears.” In the white-nosed coati, a native of Mexico and Central America, the general hue is brown, but the snout and upper lip are white, and the tail is often banded. In the red coati, ranging from Surinam to Paraguay, the tail is marked with from seven to nine broad fulvous or rufous rings, alternating with black ones, and tipped with black. Coatis are gregarious and arboreal in habit, and feed on birds, eggs, lizards and insects. They are common pets of the Spaniards in South America. (See Carnivora.)

COB, a word of unknown origin with a variety of meanings, which the New English Dictionary considers may be traced to the notions of something stout, big, round, head or top. In “cobble,” e.g. in the sense of a round stone used in paving, the same word may be traced. The principal uses of “cob” are for a stocky strongly built horse, from 13 to 14 hands high, a small round loaf, a round lump of coal, in which sense “cobble” is also used, the fruiting spike of the maize plant, and a large nut of the hazel type, more commonly known as the cob-nut.

“Cobbler,” a patcher or mender of boots and shoes, is probably from a different root. It has nothing to do with an O. Fr. coubler, Mod. coupler, to fasten together. In “cobweb,” the web of the spider, the “cob” represents the older cop, coppe, spider, cf. Dutch spinnekop.

COBALT (symbol Co, atomic weight 59), one of the metallic chemical elements. The term “cobalt” is met with in the writings of Paracelsus, Agricola and Basil Valentine, being used to denote substances which, although resembling metallic ores, gave no metal on smelting. At a later date it was the name given to the mineral used for the production of a blue colour in glass. In 1735 G. Brandt prepared an impure cobalt metal, which was magnetic and very infusible. Cobalt is usually found associated with nickel, and frequently with arsenic, the chief ores being speiss-cobalt, (Co,Ni,Fe)As2, cobaltite (q.v.), wad, cobalt bloom, linnaeite, Co3S4, and skutterudite, CoAs3. Its presence has also been detected in the sun and in meteoric iron. For the technical preparation of cobalt, and its separation from nickel, see Nickel. The metal is chiefly used, as the oxide, for colouring glass and porcelain.

Metallic cobalt may be obtained by reduction of the oxide or chloride in a current of hydrogen at a red heat, or by heating the oxalate, under a layer of powdered glass. As prepared by the reduction of the oxide it is a grey powder. In the massive state it has a colour resembling polished iron, and is malleable and very tough. It has a specific gravity of 8.8, and it melts at 1530° C. (H. Copaux). Its mean specific heat between 9° and 97° C. is 0.10674 (H. Kopp). It is permanent in dry air, but in the finely divided state it rapidly combines with oxygen, the compact metal requiring a strong heating to bring about this combination. It decomposes steam at a red heat, and slowly dissolves in dilute hydrochloric and sulphuric acids, but more readily in nitric acid. Cobalt burns in nitric oxide at 150° C. giving the monoxide. It may be obtained in the pure state, according to C. Winkler (Zeit. für anorg. Chem., 1895, 8, p. 1), by electrolysing the pure sulphate in the presence of ammonium sulphate and ammonia, using platinum electrodes, any occluded oxygen in the deposited metal being removed by heating in a current of hydrogen.

Three characteristic oxides of cobalt are known, the monoxide, CoO, the sesquioxide, Co2O3, and tricobalt tetroxide, Co3O4; besides these there are probably oxides of composition CoO2, Co8O9, Co6O7 and Co4O5. Cobalt monoxide, CoO, is prepared by heating the hydroxide or carbonate in a current of air, or by heating the oxide Co3O4 in a current of carbon dioxide. It is a brown coloured powder which is stable in air, but gives a higher oxide when heated. On heating in hydrogen, ammonia or carbon monoxide, or with carbon or sodium, it is reduced to the metallic state. It is readily soluble in warm dilute mineral acids forming cobaltous salts. Cobaltous hydroxide, Co(OH)2, is formed when a cobaltous salt is precipitated by caustic potash in the absence of air. A blue basic salt is precipitated first, which, on boiling, rapidly changes to the rose-coloured hydroxide. It dissolves in acids forming cobaltous salts, and on exposure to air it rapidly absorbs oxygen, turning brown in colour. A. de Schulten (Comptes Rendus, 1889, 109, p. 266) has obtained it in a crystalline form; the crystals have a specific gravity of 3.597, and are easily soluble in warm ammonium chloride solution. Cobalt sesquioxide, Co2O3, remains as a dark-brown powder when cobalt nitrate is gently heated. Heated at 190-300° in a current of hydrogen it gives the oxide Co3O4, while at higher temperatures the monoxide is formed, and ultimately cobalt is obtained. Cobaltic hydroxide, Co(OH)3, is formed when a cobalt salt is precipitated by an alkaline hypochlorite, or on passing chlorine through water containing suspended cobaltous hydroxide or carbonate. It is a brown-black powder soluble in hydrochloric acid, chlorine being simultaneously liberated. This hydroxide is soluble in well cooled acids, forming solutions which contain cobaltic salts, one of the most stable of which is the acetate. Cobalt dioxide, CoO2, has not yet been isolated in the pure state; it is probably formed when iodine and caustic soda are added to a solution of a cobaltous salt. By suspending cobaltous hydroxide in water and adding hydrogen peroxide, a strongly acid liquid is obtained (after filtering) which probably contains cobaltous acid, H2CoO3. The barium and magnesium salts of this acid are formed when baryta and magnesia are fused with cobalt sesquioxide. Tricobalt tetroxide, Co3O4, is produced when the other oxides, or the nitrate, are heated in air. By heating a mixture of cobalt oxalate and sal-ammoniac in air, it is obtained in the form of minute hard octahedra, which are not magnetic, and are only soluble in concentrated sulphuric acid.

The cobaltous salts are formed when the metal, cobaltous oxide, hydroxide or carbonate, are dissolved in acids, or, in the case of the insoluble salts, by precipitation. The insoluble salts are rose-red or violet in colour. The soluble salts are, when in the hydrated condition, also red, but in the anhydrous condition are blue. They are precipitated from their alkaline solutions as cobalt sulphide by sulphuretted hydrogen, but this precipitation is prevented by the presence of citric and tartaric acids; similarly the presence of ammonium salts hinders their precipitation by caustic alkalis. Alkaline carbonates give precipitates of basic carbonates, the formation of which is also retarded by the presence of ammonium salts. For the action of ammonia on the cobaltous salts in the presence of air see Cobaltammines (below). On the addition of potassium cyanide they give a brown precipitate of cobalt cyanide, Co(CN)2, which dissolves in excess of potassium cyanide to a green solution.

Cobalt chloride, CoCl2, in the anhydrous state, is formed by burning the metal in chlorine or by heating the sulphide in a current of the same gas. It is blue in colour and sublimes readily. It dissolves easily in water, forming the hydrated chloride, CoCl2·6H2O, which may also be prepared by dissolving the hydroxide or carbonate in hydrochloric acid. The hydrated salt forms rose-red prisms, readily soluble in water to a red solution, and in alcohol to a blue solution. Other hydrated forms of the chloride, of composition CoCl2·2H2O and CoCl2·4H2O have been described (P. Sabatier, Bull. Soc. Chim. 51, p. 88; Bersch, Jahresb. d. Chemie, 1867, p. 291). Double chlorides of composition CoCl2·NH4Cl·6H2O; CoCl2·SnCl4·6H2O and CoCl2·2CdCl2·12H2O are also known. By the addition of excess of ammonia to a cobalt chloride solution in absence of air, a greenish-blue precipitate is obtained which, on heating, dissolves in the solution, giving a rose-red liquid. This solution, on standing, deposits octahedra of the composition CoCl2·6NH3. These crystals when heated to 120° C. lose ammonia and are converted into the compound CoCl2·2NH3 (E. Frémy). The bromide, CoBr2, resembles the chloride, and may be prepared by similar methods. The hydrated salt readily loses water on heating, forming at 100° C. the hydrate CoBr2·2H2O, and at 130° C. passing into the anhydrous form. The iodide, CoI2, is produced by heating cobalt and iodine together, and forms a greyish-green mass which dissolves readily in water forming a red solution. On evaporating this solution the hydrated salt CoI2·6H2O is obtained in hexagonal prisms. It behaves in an analogous manner to CoBr2·6H2O on heating.

Cobalt fluoride, CoF2·2H2O, is formed when cobalt carbonate is evaporated with an excess of aqueous hydrofluoric acid, separating in rose-red crystalline crusts. Electrolysis of a solution in hydrofluoric acid gives cobaltic fluoride, CoF3.

Sulphides of cobalt of composition Co4S3, CoS, Co3S4, Co2S3 and CoS2 are known. The most common of these sulphides is cobaltous sulphide, CoS, which occurs naturally as syepoorite, and can be artificially prepared by heating cobaltous oxide with sulphur, or by fusing anhydrous cobalt sulphate with barium sulphide and common salt. By either of these methods, it is obtained in the form of bronze-coloured crystals. It may be prepared in the amorphous form by heating cobalt with sulphur dioxide, in a sealed tube, at 200° C. In the hydrated condition it is formed by the action of alkaline sulphides on cobaltous salts, or by precipitating cobalt acetate with sulphuretted hydrogen (in the absence of free acetic acid). It is a black amorphous powder soluble in concentrated sulphuric and hydrochloric acids, and when in the moist state readily oxidizes on exposure.

Cobaltous sulphate, CoSO4·7H2O, is found naturally as the mineral bieberite, and is formed when cobalt, cobaltous oxide or carbonate are dissolved in dilute sulphuric acid. It forms dark red crystals isomorphous with ferrous sulphate, and readily soluble in water. By dissolving it in concentrated sulphuric acid and warming the solution, the anhydrous salt is obtained. Hydrated sulphates of composition CoSO4·6H2O, CoSO4·4H2O and CoSO4·H2O are also known. The heptahydrated salt combines with the alkaline sulphates to form double sulphates of composition CoSO4·M2SO4·6H2O (M = K, NH4, &c.).

The cobaltic salts corresponding to the oxide Co2O3 are generally unstable compounds which exist only in solution. H. Marshall (Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin. 59, p. 760) has prepared cobaltic sulphate Co2(SO4)3·18H2O, in the form of small needles, by the electrolysis of cobalt sulphate. In a similar way potassium and ammonium cobalt alums have been obtained. A cobaltisulphurous acid, probably H6[(SO3)6·Co2] has been obtained by E. Berglund (Berichte, 1874, 7, p. 469), in aqueous solution, by dissolving ammonium cobalto-cobaltisulphite (NH4)2Co2[(SO3)6·Co2]·14H2O in dilute hydrochloric or nitric acids, or by decomposition of its silver salt with hydrochloric acid. The ammonium cobalto-cobaltisulphite is prepared by saturating an air-oxidized ammoniacal solution of cobaltous chloride with sulphur dioxide. The double salts containing the metal in the cobaltic form are more stable than the corresponding single salts, and of these potassium cobaltinitrite, Co2(NO2)6·6KNO2·3H2O, is best known. It may be prepared by the addition of potassium nitrite to an acetic acid solution of cobalt chloride. The yellow precipitate obtained is washed with a solution of potassium acetate and finally with dilute alcohol. The reaction proceeds according to the following equation: 2CoCl2 + 10KNO2 + 4HNO2 = Co2(NO2)6·6KNO2 + 4KCl + 2NO + 2H2O (A. Stromeyer, Annalen, 1855, 96, p. 220). This salt may be used for the separation of cobalt and nickel, since the latter metal does not form a similar double nitrite, but it is necessary that the alkaline earth metals should be absent, for in their presence nickel forms complex nitrites containing the alkaline earth metal and the alkali metal. A sodium cobaltinitrite is also known.

Cobalt nitrate, Co(NO3)2·6H2O, is obtained in dark-red monoclinic tables by the slow evaporation of a solution of the metal, its hydroxide or carbonate, in nitric acid. It deliquesces in the air and melts readily on heating. By the addition of excess of ammonia to its aqueous solution, in the complete absence of air, a blue precipitate of a basic nitrate of the composition 6CoO·N2O5·5H2O is obtained.

By boiling a solution of cobalt carbonate in phosphoric acid, the acid phosphate CoHPO4·3H2O is obtained, which when heated with water to 250° C. is converted into the neutral phosphate Co3(PO4)2·2H2O (H. Debray, Ann. de chimie, 1861, [3] 61, p. 438). Cobalt ammonium phosphate, CoNH4PO4·12H2O, is formed when a soluble cobalt salt is digested for some time with excess of a warm solution of ammonium phosphate. It separates in the form of small rose-red crystals, which decompose on boiling with water.

Cobaltous cyanide, Co(CN)2·3H2O, is obtained when the carbonate is dissolved in hydrocyanic acid or when the acetate is precipitated by potassium cyanide. It is insoluble in dilute acids, but is readily soluble in excess of potassium cyanide. The double cyanides of cobalt are analogous to those of iron. Hydrocobaltocyanic acid is not known, but its potassium salt, K4Co(CN)6, is formed when freshly precipitated cobalt cyanide is dissolved in an ice-cold solution of potassium cyanide. The liquid is precipitated by alcohol, and the washed and dried precipitate is then dissolved in water and allowed to stand, when the salt separates in dark-coloured crystals. In alkaline solution it readily takes up oxygen and is converted into potassium cobalticyanide, K3Co(CN)6, which may also be obtained by evaporating a solution of cobalt cyanide, in excess of potassium cyanide, in the presence of air, 8KCN + 2Co(CN)2 + H2O + O = 2K3Co(CN)6 + 2KHO. It forms monoclinic crystals which are very soluble in water. From its aqueous solution, concentrated hydrochloric acid precipitates hydrocobalticyanic acid, H3Co(CN)6, as a colourless solid which is very deliquescent, and is not attacked by concentrated hydrochloric and nitric acids. For a description of the various salts of this acid, see P. Wesselsky, Berichte, 1869, 2, p. 588.

Cobaltammines. A large number of cobalt compounds are known, of which the empirical composition represents them as salts of cobalt to which one or more molecules of ammonia have been added. These salts have been divided into the following series:—

Diammine Series, [Co(NH3)2]X4M. In these salts X = NO2 and M = one atomic proportion of a monovalent metal, or the equivalent quantity of a divalent metal.

Triammine Series, [Co(NH3)3]X3. Here X = Cl, NO3, NO2, ½SO4, &c.

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, ½SO4, &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. für anorg. Chemie, 1893 et seq., and Berichte, 1895, et seq.; and S. Jörgensen, Zeit. für 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. Frémy, W. Gibbs and G. Vortmann (Monatshefte für 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 5½; specific gravity 6.2. The brilliant crystals from Tunaberg in Sodermanland and Håkansboda 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.)

COBÁN, or Santo Domingo de Cobán, the capital of the department of Alta Vera Paz in central Guatemala; about 90 m. N. of the city of Guatemala, on the Cojabón, 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, Cobán 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.

Cobán 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), Cobán 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 £500; 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 £1000 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 £34,000 (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 £5000; 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 £8000 to £10,000 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 £80,000. 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 Législatif, also, the vice-president, Forçade 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 régime 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 approuvé 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 émigrés. 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 Lunéville, 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.