VOLUME VII SLICE IV Coquelin to Costume (continued 5)

The best modern editions are by C. L. Kayser (1860), in the Tauchnitz, and W. Friedrich (1889), in the Teubner edition of Cicero’s works, and separately by F. Marx (1894); see also De scholiis Rhetorices ad Herennium, by M. Wisen (1905). Full references to authorities will be found in the articles by Brzoska in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopädie (1901); M. Schanz, Geschichte der römischen Litt., i. (2nd ed., pp. 387-394); and Teuffel-Schwabe, Hist. of Roman Lit. (Eng. trans., p. 162); see also Mommsen, Hist. of Rome, bk. iv. ch. 13.

CORNING, ERASTUS (1794-1872), American capitalist, was born in Norwich, Connecticut, on the 14th of December 1794. In 1807 he became a clerk in a hardware store at Troy, New York, but in 1814 he removed to Albany, where he eventually became the owner of extensive ironworks, obtained a controlling interest in various banking institutions, and accumulated a large fortune. He was prominently connected with the early history of railway development in New York, became president of the Utica & Schenectady line, and was the principal factor in the extension and consolidation of the various independent lines that formed the New York Central system, of which he was president from 1853 to 1865. He was also interested in the building of the Michigan Central and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railways, and was president of the company which constructed the Sault Sainte Marie ship canal, providing a navigable waterway between Lakes Huron and Superior. He was prominent in politics as a Democrat, and, after serving as mayor of Albany from 1834 to 1837, and as state senator from 1842 to 1845, he was a representative in Congress in 1857-1859 and in 1861-1863, being re-elected for a third term in 1862, but resigning before the opening of the session. In 1861 he was a delegate to the Peace Congress, but when the Civil War actually began he loyally supported the Lincoln administration. He was a delegate to the New York constitutional convention of 1867, and was for many years vice-chancellor of the board of regents of the University of the State of New York. He died at Albany, New York, on the 9th of April 1872.

CORNING, a city of Steuben county, New York, U.S.A., in the S. part of the state, on the Chemung river, 10 m. W.N.W. of Elmira. Pop. (1890) 8550; (1900) 11,061, of whom 1410 were foreign-born; (1910) 13,730. Corning is served by the Erie, the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, and the New York Central & Hudson River railways. Among the principal buildings and institutions are a fine city hall, a Federal building, a county court house, the Corning hospital, a free public library and St Mary’s orphan asylum (Roman Catholic). Corning is one of the principal markets in New York state for tobacco, which is extensively produced in the surrounding country. The principal industry is the making of cut and flint glass, and, of the several extensive plants devoted to this industry, that of the Corning Glass Works is one of the largest in the world. The city also has railway car shops and foundries, and among its manufactures are pressed brick, tile and terra-cotta, papier-mâché and lumber. The total value of the factory products in 1905 was $3,083,515, 35.7% more than in 1900. There were settlers on the site of Corning as early as 1789, but it was not until 1848 that it was incorporated as a village under its present name, given in honour of Erastus Corning, the railway builder. Corning was chartered as a city in 1890.

See C. H. M’Master, History of the Settlement of Steuben County (Bath, N.Y., 1853).

CORN LAWS. In England, legislation on corn was early applied both to home and foreign trade in this essential produce. Roads were so bad, and the chain of home trade so feeble, that there was often scarcity of grain in one part, and plenty in another part of the same kingdom. Export by sea or river to some foreign market was in many cases more easy than the carriage of corn from one market to another within the country. The frequency of local dearths, and the diversity and fluctuation of prices, were thus extreme. It was out of this general situation that the first corn laws arose, and they appear to have been wholly directed towards lowering the price of corn. Exportation was prohibited, and home merchandise in grain was in no repute or toleration. As long as the rent of land, including the extensive domains of the crown, was paid in kind, the sovereign, the barons and other landholders had little interest in the price of corn different from that of other classes of people, the only demand for corn being for consumption and not for resale or export. But as rents of land came to be paid in money, the interest of the farmer to be distinguished by a remove from that of the landowner, the difference between town and country to be developed, and the business of society to be more complex, the ruling powers of the state were likely to be actuated by other views; and hence the force which corn legislation afterward assumed in favour of what was deemed the agricultural interest. But during four centuries after the Conquest the corn law of England simply was that export of corn was prohibited, save in years of extreme plenty under forms of state licence, and that producers carried their surplus grain into the nearest market town, and sold it there for what it would bring among those who wanted it to consume; and the same rule prevailed in the principal countries of the continent of Europe. This policy, though, as one may argue from its long continuance, probably not felt to be acutely oppressive, was of no avail in removing the evils against which it was directed. On the contrary it prolonged and aggravated them. The prohibition of export discouraged agricultural improvement, and in so much diminished the security and liberality even of domestic supply; while the intolerance of any home dealing or merchandise in corn prevented the growth of a commercial and financial interest strong enough to improve the means of transport by which the plenty of one part of the same country could have come to the aid of the scarcity in another.

Apart from this general feudal germ of legislation on corn, the history of the British corn laws may be said to have begun with the statute in the reign of Henry VI. (1436), by which exportation was permitted without state licence, English corn laws, 1436-1603. when the price of wheat or other corn fell below certain prices. The reason given in the preamble of the statute was that the previous state of the law had compelled farmers to sell their corn at low prices, which was no doubt true, but which also showed the important turn of the tide that had set in. J. R. M‘Culloch, in an elaborate article in the Commercial Dictionary, says that the fluctuation of the prices of corn in that age was so great, and beyond all present conception, that “it is not easy to determine whether the exportation price of 6s. 8d. for wheat” [12s. 10d. in present money per quarter] “was above or below the medium price.” But while the medium price of the kingdom must be held to be unascertainable in a remote time, when the medium price in any principal market town of England did not agree with that of another for any year or series of years, one may readily perceive that the cultivators of the wheat lands in the south-eastern counties of England, for example, who could frequently have sold their produce in that age to Dutch merchants to better advantage than in their own market towns, or even in London, but were prohibited to export abroad, and yet had no means of distributing their supplies at home so as to realize the highest medium price in England, must have felt aggrieved, and that their barons and knights of the shire would have a common interest in making a strong effort to rectify the injustice in parliament. This object appears to have been in some measure accomplished by this statute, and twenty-seven years afterwards (1463) a decided step was taken towards securing to agriculturists a monopoly of the home market by a statute prohibitory of importation from abroad. Foreign import was to be permitted only at and above the point of prices where the export of domestic produce was prohibited. The landed interest had now adopted the idea of sustaining and equalizing the value of corn, and promoting their own industry and gains, which for four centuries, under various modifications of plan, and great changes of social and political condition, were to maintain a firm place in the legislation and policy of England. But there were many reasons why this idea, when carried into practice, should not have the results anticipated from it.

The import of grain from abroad, even in times of dearth and high prices at home, could not be considerable as long as the policy of neighbouring countries was to prohibit export; nor could the export of native corn, even with the Dutch and other European ports open to such supplies, be effective save in limited maritime districts, as long as the internal corn trade was suppressed, not only by want of roads, but by legal interdict. The regulation of liberty of export and import by rates of price, moreover, had the same practical objection as the various sliding-scales, bounties, and other legislative expedients down to 1846, viz. that they failed, probably more in that age than in later times, to create a permanent market, and aimed only at a casual trade. When foreign supplies were needed, they were often not to be found; and when there was an excess of corn in the country a profitable outlet was both difficult and uncertain. It would appear, indeed, that during the Wars of the Roses the statutes of Henry VI. and Edward IV. had become obsolete; for a law regulating export prices in identical terms of the law of 1436 was re-enacted in the reign of Philip and Mary (1554). In the preceding reign of Edward VI., as well as in the succeeding long reign of Elizabeth, there were unceasing complaints of the decay of tillage, the dearth of corn, and the privations of the labouring classes; and these complaints were met by the same kind of measures—by statutes encouraging tillage, forbidding the enlargement of farms, imposing severer restrictions on storing and buying and selling of grain, and by renewed attempts to regulate export and import according to prices. In 1562 the price at which export might take place was raised to 10s. per quarter for wheat, and 6s. 8d. for barley and malt. This only lasted a few years, and in 1570 the export of wheat and barley was permitted from particular districts on payment of a duty of 1s. 8d. per quarter, although still liable to prohibition by the government or local authority, while it was entirely prohibited under the old regulations from other districts. Only at the close of Elizabeth’s reign (1603) did a spark of new light appear in a further statute, which removed the futile provisions in favour of tillage and against enlargement of pastoral farms, and rested the whole policy for promoting an equable supply of corn, while encouraging agriculture, on an allowed export of wheat and other grain at a duty of 2s. and 1s. 4d. when the price of wheat was not more than 20s., and of barley and malt 12s. per quarter. The import of corn appears to have been much lost sight of from the period of the statute of 1463. The internal state of England, as well as the policy of other countries of Europe, was unfavourable to any regular import of grain, though many parts of the kingdom were often suffering from dearth of corn. It is obvious that this legislation, carried over more than a century and a half, failed of its purpose, and that it neither promoted agriculture nor increased the supply of bread. So great a variance and conflict between the intention of statutes and the actual course of affairs might be deemed inexplicable, but for an explanation which a close economic study of the circumstances of the times affords.

Besides the general reasons of the failure already indicated, there were three special causes in active operation, which, though not seen at the period, have become distinct enough since. (1) A comparatively free export of wool had been permitted in England from time immemorial. It was subject neither to conditions of price nor to duties in the times under consideration, was easier of transport and much less liable to damage than corn, and, under the extending manufactures of France and the Low Countries, was sure of a foreign as well as a domestic market. Here was one description of rural produce on which there was the least embargo, and on which some reliance could be placed that it would in all circumstances bring a fair value; while corn, the prime rural produce, was subject as a commodity of merchandise to every difficulty, internally and externally, which meddling legislation and popular prejudice could impose. The numerous statutes enjoining tillage and discouraging pastoral farms—or in other words requiring that agriculturists should turn from what was profitable to what was unprofitable—had consequently no substantial effect, save in the many individual instances in which the effect may have been injurious. (2) The value of the standard money of the kingdom had been undergoing great depreciation from two opposite quarters at once. The pound sterling of England was reduced in weight of pure metal from £1 : 18 : 9 in 1436, the date of the first of the corn statutes, to 4s. 7¾d. in 1551, as far as can be estimated in present money, and to £1 : 0 : 6¾ under the restoration of the coinage in the following year. At the same time the greater abundance of silver, which now began to be experienced in Europe from the discovery of the South American mines, was steadily reducing the intrinsic value of the metal. Hence a general rise of prices remarked by Hume and other historians; and hence also it followed that a price of corn fixed for export or import at one period became always at another period more or less restrictive of export than had been designed. (3) The wages of labour would have followed the advance in the prices of commodities had wages been left free, but they were kept down by statute to the three or four pence per day at which they stood when the pound sterling contained one-fourth more silver, and silver itself was much more valuable. This was a refinement of cruelty. The feudal system was breaking up; a wage-earning population was rapidly increasing both in the farms and in the towns; but the spirit of feudalism remained, and the iron collar of serfdom was riveted round the necks of the labourers by these statutes many generations after they had become nominally freemen.1 The result was chronic privation and discontent among the common people, by which all the conditions of agriculture and trade in corn were further straitened and barbarized; and an age, in some high respects among the most brilliant in the annals of England, was marked by an enormous increase of pauperism, and by the introduction of the merciful but wasteful remedy of the Poor Laws.

The corn legislation of Elizabeth remained without change during the reign of James, the civil wars and the Commonwealth. But on the restoration of Charles II. in 1660, the question was resumed, and an act was passed of a more prohibitory character. 1660-1773. Export and import of corn, while nominally permitted, were alike subjected to heavy duties—the need of the exchequer being the paramount consideration, while the agriculturists were no doubt pleased with the complete command secured to them in the home market. This act was followed by such high prices of corn, and so little advantage to the revenue, that parliament in 1663 reduced the duties on import to 9% ad valorem, while at the same time raising the price at which export ceased to 48s., and reducing the duty on export from 20s. to 5s. 4d. per quarter. In a few years this was found to be too much free-trade for the agricultural liking, and in 1670 prohibitory duties were re-imposed on import when the home price was under 53s. 4d., and a duty of 8s. between that price and 80s., with the usual make-weight in favour of home supply, that export should be prohibited when the price was 53s. 4d. and upwards. But complaints of the decline of agriculture continued to be as rife under this act as under the others, till on the accession of William and Mary, the landed interest, taking advantage of the Revolution as they had taken advantage of the Restoration to promote their own interests, took the new and surprising step of enacting a bounty on the export of grain. This evil continued to affect the corn laws of the kingdom, varied, on one occasion at least, with the further complication of bounties on import, until the 19th century. The duties on export being abolished, while the heavy duties on import were maintained, this is probably the most one-sided form which the British corn laws ever assumed, but it was attended with none of the advantages anticipated. The prices of corn fell, instead of rising. There had occurred at the period of the Revolution a depreciation of the money of the realm, analogous in one respect to that which marked the first era of the corn statutes (1436-1551), and forming one of the greatest difficulties which the government of William had to encounter. The coin of the realm was greatly debased, and as rapidly as the mint sent out money of standard weight and purity, it was melted down, and disappeared from the circulation. The influx of silver from South America to Europe had spent its action on prices before the middle of the century; the precious metals had again hardened in value; and for forty years before the Revolution the price of corn had been steadily falling in money price. The liberty of exporting wool had also now been cut down before the English manufactures were able to take up the home supply, and agriculturists were consequently forced to extend their tillage. When the current coin of the kingdom became wholly debased by clipping and other knaveries, there ensued both irregularity and inflation of nominal prices, and the producers and consumers of corn found themselves equally ill at ease. The farmers complained that the home-market for their produce was unremunerative and unsatisfactory; the masses of the people complained with no less reason that the money wages of labour could not purchase them the usual necessaries of life. Macaulay, in his History of England, says of this period, with little exaggeration, that “the price of the necessaries of life, of shoes, of ale, of oatmeal, rose fast. The labourer found that the bit of metal which, when he received it, was called a shilling, would hardly, when he purchased a pot of beer or a loaf of rye bread, go as far as sixpence.” The state of agriculture could not be prosperous under these conditions. But when the government of William surmounted this difficulty of the coinage, as they did surmount it, under the guidance of Sir Isaac Newton, with remarkable statesmanship, it necessarily followed that prices, so far from rising, declined, because, for one reason, they were now denominated in a solid metallic value. The rise of prices of corn attending the first years of the export bounty was consequently of very brief duration. The average price of wheat in the Winchester market, which in the ten years 1600-1699 was £2: 10s., fell in the ten years 1716-1725 to £1 : 5 : 4, and in the ten years 1746-1755 to £1 : 1 : 2¾. The system of corn law established in the reign of William and Mary was probably the most perfect to be conceived for advancing the agricultural interest of any country. Every stroke of the legislature seemed complete to this end. Yet it wholly failed of its purpose. The price of wheat again rose in 1750-1760 and 1760-1770 to £1 : 19 : 3¼ and £2 : 11 : 3¾, but many causes had meanwhile been at work, as invariably happens in such economic developments, the operation of which no statutes could embrace, either to control or to prevent. Between the reign of William and Mary and that of George III., the question of bounty on export of grain had, in the general progress of the country, fallen into the background, while that of the heavy embargoes on import had come to the front. Therefore it is that Burke’s Act of 1773, as a deliberate attempt to bring the corn laws into some degree of reason and order, is worthy of special mention. This statute permitted the import of foreign wheat at a nominal duty of 6d. when the home price was 48s. per quarter, and it stopped both the liberty to export and the bounty on export together when the home price was 44s. per quarter. The one blemish of this statute was the stopping export and cutting off bounty on export at the same point of price.

Few questions have been more discussed or more differently interpreted than the elaborate system of corn laws dating from the reign of William and Mary. So careful an observer as Malthus was of opinion that the bounty on export had enlarged the area of subsistence. That it had large operation is sufficiently attested by the fact that, in the years from 1740 to 1751, bounties were paid out of the exchequer to the amount of £1,515,000, and in 1749 alone they amounted to £324,000. But the trade thus forced was of no permanence, and the British exports of corn, which reached a maximum of 1,667,778 quarters in 1749-1750, had fallen to 600,000 quarters in 1760 and continued to decrease.

Burke’s Act lasted long enough to introduce a regular import of foreign grain, varying with the abundance or scarcity of the home harvest, yet establishing in the end a systematic preponderance of imports over exports. The period, 1791-1846. moreover, was marked by great agricultural improvements, by extensive reclamation of waste lands, and by an increased home produce of wheat, in the twenty years from 1773 to 1793, of nearly 2,000,000 quarters. Nor had the course of prices been unsatisfactory. The average price of British wheat in the twenty years was £2 : 6 : 3, and in only three years of the twenty was the price a fraction under £2. But the ideas in favour of greater freedom of trade, of which the act of 1773 was an indication, and of which another memorable example was given in Pitt’s commercial treaty with France, were overwhelmed in the extraordinary excitement caused by the French Revolution, and all the old corn law policy was destined to have a sudden revival. The landowners and farmers complained that an import of foreign grain at a nominal duty of 6d., when the price of wheat was only 48s., deprived them of the ascending scale of prices when it seemed due; and on this instigation an act was passed in 1791, whereby the price at which importation could proceed at the nominal duty of 6d. was raised to 54s., with a duty of 2s. 6d. from 54s. to 50s., and at 50s. and under 50s. a prohibitory duty of 24s. 3d. The bounty on export was maintained by this act, but exportation was allowed without bounty till the price reached 46s.; and the permission accorded by the statute of 1773 to import foreign corn at any price, to be reexported duty free, was modified by a warehouse duty of 2s. 6d. in addition to the duties on import payable at the time of sale, when the corn, instead of being re-exported, happened to be sold for home consumption. The legislative vigilance in this statute to prevent foreign bread from reaching the home consumer is remarkable. There were deficient home harvests for some years after 1791, particularly in 1795 and 1797, and parliament was forced to the new expedient of granting high bounties on importation. At this period the country was involved in a great war; all the customary commercial relations were violently disturbed; freight, insurance and other charges on import and export were multiplied fivefold; heavier and heavier taxes were imposed; and the capital resources of the kingdom were poured with a prodigality without precedent into the war channels. The consequence was that the price of corn, as of all other commodities, rose greatly: and the Bank of England having stopped paying in specie in 1797, this raised nominal prices still more under the liberal use of bank paper in loans and discounts, and the difference that began to be established in the actual value of Bank of England notes and their legal par in bullion.

The average price of British wheat rose to £5 : 19 : 6 in 1801. So unusual a value must have led to a large extension of the area under wheat, and to much corn-growing on land that after great outlay was ill prepared for it. In the following years there were agricultural complaints; and in 1804, though in 1803 the average price of wheat had been as high as £2 : 18 : 10, an act was passed, so much more severe than any previous statute, that its object would appear to have been to keep the price of corn somewhere approaching the high range of 1801. A prohibitory duty of 24s. 3d. was imposed on the import of foreign wheat when the home price was 63s. or less; and the price at which the bounty was paid on export was lowered to 40s., while the price at which export might proceed without bounty was raised to 54s. Judging from the prices that ruled during the remaining period of the French wars, this statute would appear to have been effective for its end, though, under all the varied action of the times on a rise of prices, it would be difficult to assign its proper place in the general effect. The average price of wheat rose to £4 : 9 : 9 in 1805, and the bank paper price in 1812 was as high even as £6 : 6 : 6. The bullion prices from 1809 to 1813 ranged from 86s. 6d. to 100s. 3d. But it was foreseen that when the wars ended a serious reaction would ensue, and that the rents of land, and the general condition of agriculture, under the warlike, protective and monetary stimulation they had received, would be imperilled. In the brief peace of 1814 the average bullion price of British wheat fell to 55s. 8d. All the means of select committees of inquiry on agricultural distress, and new modifications of the corn laws, were again brought into requisition. The first idea broached in parliament was to raise the duties on foreign imports, as well as the prices at which they were to be leviable, and to abolish the bounty on export, while permitting freedom of export whatever the home price might be. The latter part of the scheme was passed into law in the session of 1814; but the irritation of the manufacturing districts against the new scale of import duties was too great to be resisted. In the subsequent session an act was passed, after much opposition, fixing 80s. (14s. more than during the wars) as the price at which import of wheat was to become free of duty.

This act of 1815 was intended to keep the price of wheat in the British markets at about 80s. per quarter; but the era of war and great expenditure of money raised by public loans had ended, the ports of the continent were again open to some measure of trade and to the equalizing effect of trade upon prices, the Bank of England and other banks of issue had to begin the uphill course of a resumption of specie payments, the nation had to begin to feel the whole naked weight of the war debt, and the idea of the protectors of a high price of corn was proved by the event to be an utter hallucination. The corn statutes of the next twenty years, though occupying an enormous amount of time and attention in the Houses of Parliament, may be briefly treated, for they are simply a record of the impotence of legislation to maintain the price of a commodity at a high point when all the natural economic causes in operation are opposed to it. In 1822 a statute was passed reducing the limit of prices at which importation could proceed to 70s. for wheat, 35s. for barley, 25s. for oats; but behind the apparent relaxation was a new scale of import duties, by which foreign grain was subjected to heavy three-month duties up to a price of 85s.,—17s. when wheat was 70s., 12s. when between 70s. and 80s., and 10s. when 85s., showing the grasping spirit of the would-be monopolizers of the home supply of corn, and their reluctance to believe in a lower range of value for corn as for all other commodities. This act never operated, for the reason that, with the exception in some few instances of barley, prices never were so high as its projectors had contemplated. The corn trade had passed rapidly beyond reach of the statutes by which it was to be so painfully controlled; and as there were occasional seasons of scarcity, particularly in oats, the king in council was authorized for several years to override the statutes, and do whatever the public interests might require.

In 1827 Canning introduced a new system of duties, under which there would have been a fixed duty of 1s. per quarter when the price of wheat was at or above 70s., and an increased duty of 2s. for every shilling the price fell below 69s.; but though Canning’s resolutions were adopted by a large majority in the House of Commons, his death and the consequent change of ministers involved the failure of his scheme of corn duties. In the following year Charles Grant introduced another scale of import duties on corn, by which the duty was to be 23s. when the price was 64s., 16s. 8d. when the price was 69s., and only 1s. when the price was 73s. or above 73s. per quarter; and this became law the same year. This sliding scale was more objectionable, as a basis of foreign corn trade, than that of Canning, though not following so closely shilling by shilling the variation of prices, because of the abrupt leaps it made in the amount of duties leviable. For example, a merchant who ordered a shipment of foreign wheat when the home price was 70s. and rising to 73s., instead of having a duty of 1s. to pay, should on a backward drop of the home price to 69s. have 16s. 8d. of duty to pay. The result was to introduce wide and incalculable elements of speculation into all transactions in foreign corn. The prices during most part of this period were under the range at which import was practically prohibited. The average price of British wheat was 96s. 11d. in 1817, but from that point there was in succeeding years a rapid and progressive decline, varied only by the results of the domestic harvests, till in 1835 the average price of wheat was 39s. 4d., of barley 29s. 11d. and oats 22s. The import of foreign grain in these years consisted principally of a speculative trade, under a privilege of warehousing accorded in the statute of 1773, and extended in subsequent acts, by which the grain might be sold for home consumption on payment of the duties, or re-exported free, as suited the interest of the holders.

The act of 1822 admitted corn of the British possessions in North America under a favoured scale of duties, and in 1825 a temporary act was passed, allowing the import of wheat from these provinces at a fixed duty of 5s. per quarter, irrespective of the home price, which, if maintained, would have given some stability to the trade with Canada. The idea of a fixed duty on all foreign grain, however, appears to have grown in favour from about this period. It was included in the programme of import duty reforms of the Whig government in 1841, and fell with its propounders in the general election of that year. Sir Robert Peel, on succeeding to office, and commencing his remarkable career as a free-trade statesman, introduced and carried in 1842 a new sliding scale of duties somewhat better adjusted to the current values. But public opinion by this time was changing, and the prime minister, convinced, as he confessed, by the arguments of Cobden and the Anti-Corn-Law League, and stimulated into action by the failure of the potato crop in Ireland, put an effectual end to the history of the corn laws by the famous act of 1846. It was provided under this measure that the maximum duty on foreign wheat was to be immediately reduced to 10s. per quarter when the price was under 48s., to 5s. on barley when the price was under 26s., and to 4s. on oats when the price was under 18s., with lower duties as prices rose above these figures; but the conclusive part of the enactment was that in three years—on the 1st of February 1849—these duties were to cease, and all foreign corn to be admitted at a duty of 1s. per quarter, and all foreign meal and flour at a duty of 4½d. per cwt.—the same nominal imposts which were conceded to grain and flour of British possessions abroad from the date of the act. In 1869 even these nominal duties were abolished by Robert Lowe in a Customs Duties Act. In 1902 a registration duty of 3d. per cwt. was imposed on imported corn, and 5d. per cwt. on imported flour, in the expectation that such a duty would broaden the basis of taxation. The duty was, however, repealed the following year. But a low duty on imported foreign corn was made an essential part of the tariff reform scheme advocated by Mr. J. Chamberlain (q.v.) from 1903 onwards.

Foreign Corn Laws.—Freedom of export of corn from customs duties has become the general rule of nearly all foreign countries. It is somewhat curious that Spain saw the advantage to her wheat-producing Spain. provinces of freedom of export of wheat as early as 1820, and three years afterwards extended this freedom to all “fruits of the soil” in Spain. The import duty on wheat, as on other grain, has varied from time to time. The tariff of 1882 fixed the duty at 2s. 3¼d. per cwt.; a law of February 1895 raised the duty to 4s. 3¼d. per cwt., at which rate it remained till 1898, when it was reduced to 2s. 5¼d., though in this same year, that of the war with the United States, it was for some three months suspended, owing to distress in the country. In 1899 it was raised to 3s. 3d., and by a law of March 1904 fixed at 6.00 pesetas per 100 kilos (2s. 5¼d. per cwt.) as long as the average price of wheat in the markets of Castile does not fall below 27.00 pesetas per 100 kilos (11s. per cwt.). The duty on rye, oats, barley and maize is 1s. 9½d. per cwt. The duty on flour varied from 3s. 4½d. per cwt. in 1882 to 7s. 0½d. in 1895; by the law of March 1904 it was fixed at 4s. 0¾d. per cwt. The duty on rice is 2s. 1¾d. per cwt. in the husk and 4s. 3¾d. not in the husk. Portugal. In Portugal the import duty on wheat was fixed by a law of May 1888 at 20 reis per kilo (4s. 7d. per cwt.). By a law of July 1889, as amended by laws of August 1891 and July 1899, importation is prohibited except in the event of the home-grown crop being insufficient, and even then permission is confined to millers. The duty, in the event of permission to import being accorded, is to be charged on a sliding scale intended to keep the cost of wheat to the millers, including the duty, at 60 reis (3¼d.) per kilo (2.2 ℔s.). Maize is subject to a duty of 4s. 1½d. per cwt., and rye, oats and barley to one of 3s. 8d. per cwt. By laws of July 1889 and August 1891 the importation of flour was prohibited except in the event of a strike of the mill-hands, and the duty was fixed at 6s. 2d. per cwt. Export and import of France. grain in France were prohibited down to the period of the repeal of the British corn laws, save when prices were below certain limits in the one case and above certain other limits in the other. But export of grain and flour from France has long been free of duty. On the other hand, import duties have varied considerably. By a law of 1881, the duty on wheat was fixed at 3d. per cwt.; this duty was raised in 1885 to 1s. 2¾d. per cwt. and again in 1887 to 2s. 0½d. By a law of 1894 the duty was fixed at 2s. 10¼d. per cwt. In 1898, owing to the sudden rise in the price of corn occasioned by the war between Spain and the United States, the duty was temporarily (the 4th of May to the 30th of June) suspended. By a law of 1873 free importation of rye, barley, maize and oats was permitted, but by a law of 1885 a duty was fixed at 7¼d. per cwt., and this was subsequently (1887) increased to 1s. 2¾d. In 1881 the duty on imported flour was as low as 5¾d. per cwt., but this was increased successively by laws of 1885, 1887, 1891 and 1892, and in 1894 was fixed at 4s. 5¾d. per cwt. at the rate of extraction of 70% and over; 5s. 5¾d. at 70 to 60%; and 6s. 6d. at 60% and under. In Belgium both the Belgium. export and import of wheat, rye, barley and maize are free of duty; so also were oats and flour. Since 1895, however, there has been a duty of 1s. 2½d. on oats, and of 9¾d. on flour. The policy of the Netherlands was, owing to the advantages Netherlands. possessed by its ports, long favourable to the import and export of grain. But for some years prior to 1845 there was a moderate sliding scale of import duties, and this gave place, on the ravages of the potato disease, to a low fixed duty; since 1877, however, the importation of cereals and Italy. flour has been free. In Italy there are no duties on the export of grain. The import duties show a progressive increase. In 1878 the import duty on wheat was 6¾d. per cwt.; this was increased to 1s. 2¾d. in 1888, and in 1894 to 3s. 0½d. As in Spain and France, there was a temporary reduction and suspension during 1898, on the Spanish-American war. The duty on rye, barley, oats and maize was fixed by the tariff of 1878 at 5½d. per cwt. By a decree of 1894 the duty on rye was raised to 1s. 10d.; that on barley, by a decree of 1896, to 1s. 7½d.; that on oats, by a decree of 1888, to 1s. 7½d.; and that on maize, by a decree of 1896, to 3s. 0½d. The duty on flour, fixed at 1s. 1½d., by the tariff of 1878, was raised to 2s. 5¼d. in 1888, to 3s. 6½d. in 1888, and to 5s. in 1894. In Germany, the duty on wheat and rye, as fixed by the tariff of 1879, was 6d. per cwt. In 1885 this Germany. was raised to 1s. 6¼d., and in 1888 to 2s. 6½d. By treaty in 1892 this was decreased to 1s. 9¼d. On oats the duty in 1879 was 6d. per cwt., increased to 9¼d. in 1885, and again, in 1888, to 2s. 0½d., but reduced to 1s. 5d. in 1892. On barley the duty in 1879 was 3d., in 1885 9¼d., in 1888 1s. 1¾d., and in 1892 1s. 0¼d. On maize, 3d. in 1879, 6d. in 1885, 1s. 0¼d. in 1888, and 9¾d. in 1892. On flour, 1s. 0¼d. in 1879, 3s. 9¾d. in 1885, 5s. 4d. in 1888, and 3s. 8½d. in 1892. The new German tariff of 1906 which formed the basis for the new German commercial treaties with Russia, Italy, Austria-Hungary, &c., and which was passed when the influence of the agrarian party was predominant, increased still more the import duties on cereals. Under this tariff there are two rates of duties: (1). Those of the new “general” tariff as applied to imports from all countries entitled to most favoured-nation treatment. (2). “Conventional” tariff rates, conceded to other states as the result of treaties. Under this tariff the “general” and “conventional” duties, respectively, on wheat are 3s. 9½d. and 2s. 9d.; on oats Austria-Hungary. and rye, 3s. 6½d. and 2s. 6¼d.; on “common baker’s produce,” 8s. 3d. and 5s. 2d. In Austria-Hungary the import duty on wheat and rye is, under the tariff of 1887, 1s. 6¼d. per cwt.; on barley and oats, 9¼d.; on maize, 6d., and on flour, 3s. 9¾d.

The great countries, famous for a production of raw materials much beyond their own means of consumption, are favourable, of course, to the utmost freedom of export. The empire United States. of China itself was never unwilling to sell to foreigners tea for which there was no domestic use. The United States promotes transit and export of grain, internally and externally, with all the intelligence and resources of a civilized people. Although the import duty on “breadstuffs” imposed by the United States tariff is very high, and is, possibly, a useful protection against the importation of “baker’s products,” yet it is to a certain extent unnecessary for a country which must dispose of its surplus by exportation. The same remark applies Russia. to Russia, whose exportation and importation are alike free, though there is an import duty on wheat flour of 2s. 11½d. per cwt. In the British colonies probably the only example of an export duty is that on rice in British India; India. it amounts to 3 annas per maund (4d. per cwt.). The import of grain into India is free. In Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and all mainly agricultural countries, there is no export duty. In each of these countries, however, there is an Australia, New Zealand, Canada. import duty; in the cases of Australia and New Zealand, designed, to a certain extent, as a precaution against possible rivalry on the part of the other. The Australian import duty is 1s. 6d. per cental (100 ℔ av.), and the New Zealand 9d. per cental. The Canadian import duties on grain are important only in the light of being a species of retaliation against similar duties imposed by the United States with the design of restricting inter-frontier exchange. The Canadian import duty is, on barley, 30% ad valorem; on buckwheat, rye and oats, 4.93d. per bushel, and on wheat, South Africa. 5.92d. per bushel. The South African production of cereal is still insufficient to meet the demand for home consumption, and there is a considerable grain importation. The import duty, which undoubtedly acts as an encouragement to home agriculture, is 1s. per cental. (See also Grain Trade.)

(R. So.; T. A. I.)

CORN-SALAD, or Lamb’s Lettuce, Valerianella olitoria (natural order Valerianaceae), a weedy annual, native of southern Europe, but naturalized in cornfields in central Europe, and not infrequent in Britain. In France it is used in salads during winter and spring as a substitute for lettuces, but it is less esteemed in England. The plant is raised from seed sown on a bed or border of light rich earth, and should be weeded and watered, as occasion requires, till winter, when it should be protected with long litter during severe frost. The largest plants should be drawn for use in succession. Sowing may be made every two or three weeks from the beginning of August till October, and again in March, if required in the latter part of the spring. The sorts principally grown are the Round-leaved and the Italian; the last is a distinct species, Valerianella eriocarpa.

CORNU, MARIE ALFRED (1841-1902), French physicist, was born at Orleans on the 6th of March 1841, and after being educated at the École Polytechnique and the École des Mines, became in 1867 professor of experimental physics in the former institution, where he remained throughout his life. Although he made various excursions into other branches of physical science, undertaking, for example, with J. B. A. Bailie about 1870 a repetition of Cavendish’s experiment for determining the mean density of the earth, his original work was mainly concerned with optics and spectroscopy. In particular he carried out a classical redetermination of the velocity of light by A. H. L. Fizeau’s method, introducing various improvements in the apparatus, which added greatly to the accuracy of the results. This achievement won for him, in 1878, the prix Lacaze and membership of the Academy of Sciences in France, and the Rumford medal of the Royal Society in England. In 1899, at the jubilee commemoration of Sir George Stokes, he was Rede lecturer at Cambridge, his subject being the undulatory theory of light and its influence on modern physics; and on that occasion the honorary degree of D.Sc. was conferred on him by the university. He died at Paris on the 11th of April 1902.

CORNU COPIAE, later Cornucopia (“horn of plenty”), a horn; generally twisted, filled with fruit and flowers, or an ornament representing it. It was used as a symbol of prosperity and abundance, and hence in works of art it is placed in the hands of Plutus, Fortuna and similar divinities (for the mythological account see Amaltheia). The symbol probably originated in the practice of using the horns of oxen and goats as drinking-cups; hence the rhyton (drinking-horn) is often confounded with the cornu copiae. For its representation in works of art, in which it is very common, especially in those belonging to the Roman period, see article in Daremberg and Saglio’s Dictionnaire des Antiquités.

CORNUS, an ancient town of Sardinia, of Phoenician origin, on the west coast, 18 m. from Tharros, and the same from Bosa. At the time of the Second Punic War it is spoken of as the principal city of the district, and its capture by the Romans was the last act in the suppression of the rebellion of 215 B.C., it having served as a place of refuge for the fugitives after the defeat of the combined forces of the rebels and the Carthaginians. The site of the ancient acropolis, covered with débris, may still be made out. Here were found three inscriptions in 1831, with dedications by the ordo, or town council, of Cornus to various patrons, from one of which it seems that it was a colony, though when it became so is unknown (Th. Mommsen, Corp. Inscr. Lat. X. 7915 sqq.). Unimportant remains of an aqueduct and (perhaps) of a church exist. Excavations in the necropolis of the Roman period are recorded by F. Nissardi, Notizie degli Scavi, 1887, p. 47. Phoenician rock-cut tombs may also be seen.

CORNUTUS, LUCIUS ANNAEUS, Stoic philosopher, flourished in the reign of Nero. He was a native of Leptis in Libya, but resided for the most part in Rome. He is best known as the teacher and friend of Persius, whose satires he revised for publication after the poet’s death, but handed them over to Caesius Bassus to edit, at the special request of the latter. He was banished by Nero (in 66 or 68) for having indirectly disparaged the emperor’s projected history of the Romans in heroic verse (Dio Cassius lxii. 29), after which time nothing more is heard of him. He was the author of various rhetorical works in both Greek and Latin (῾Ρητορικαὶ Τέχναι, De figuris sententiarum). Another rhetorician, also named Cornutus, who flourished A.D. 200-250 (or in the second half of the 2nd century) was the author of a treatise Τέχνη τοῦ πολιτικοῦ λόγου (ed. J. Graeven, 1890). A philosophical treatise, Theologiae Graecae compendium (of which the Greek title is uncertain; perhaps, Έλληνικὴ θεολογία, or Περὶ τῆς τῶν θεῶν φύσεως, though the latter may be the title of an abridgment of the former) is still extant. It is a manual of “popular mythology as expounded in the etymological and symbolical interpretations of the Stoics” (Sandys), and although marred by many absurd etymologies, abounds in beautiful thoughts (ed. C. Lang, 1881). Simplicius and Porphyry refer to his commentary on the Categories of Aristotle, whose philosophy he is said to have defended against an opponent Athenodorus in a treatise Άντιγραφὴπρὸς Άθηνόδωρον. His Aristotelian studies were probably his most important work. A commentary on Virgil (frequently quoted by Servius) and Scholia to Persius are also attributed to him; the latter, however, are of much later date, and are assigned by Jahn to the Carolingian period. Excerpts from his treatise De enuntiatione vel orthographia are preserved in Cassiodorus. The so-called Disticha Cornuti (ed. Liebl, Straubing, 1888) belong to the late middle ages.

See G. Martini, De L. Annaeo Cornuto (1825); O. Jahn, Prolegomena to his edition of Persius; H. von Arnim in Pauly-Wissowa’s Realencyclopädie, i. pt. ii. (1894); M. Schanz, Geschichte der römischen Litteratur, i. 2 (1901), p. 285; W. Christ, Geschichte der griechischen Litteratur (1898), pp. 702, 755; Teuffel-Schwabe, Hist. of Roman Literature (Eng. trans.), § 299, 2.

CORNWALL, the capital of the united counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry, Ontario, Canada, 67 m. S.W. of Montreal, on the left bank of the St Lawrence river. Pop. (1901) 6704. It is an important station on the Grand Trunk and the Ottawa & New York railways, and is a port of call for all steamers between Montreal and Lake Ontario ports. The surplus from the Cornwall canal furnishes excellent water privileges for its factories, which include cotton and woollen mills and grist and saw mills. The town has long been celebrated for its lacrosse club. On the opposite bank of the river is St Régis, inhabited chiefly by Indians of the Iroquois tribe.

CORNWALL, the south-westernmost county of England, bounded N. and N.W. by the Atlantic Ocean, E. by Devonshire, and S. and S.W. by the English Channel. The area is 1356.6 sq. m. The most southerly extension is Lizard Point, and the most westerly point of the mainland Land’s End, but the county also includes the Scilly Isles (q.v.), lying 25 m. W. by S. of Land’s End. No county in England has a stronger individuality than Cornwall, whether in economic or social conditions, in history, nomenclature, tradition, or even in the physical characteristics of the land. Such individuality is hardly to be compassed within political boundaries, and in some respects it is shared by the neighbouring county of Devon, yet the traveller hardly feels its influence before passing west of the Tamar.

Physically, Cornwall is a great promontory with a direct length of 75 m. from N.N.E. to S.S.W., and an extreme breadth, at the junction with Devonshire, of 45 m. The river Tamar here forms the greater part of the boundary, and its valley divides the high moors of Devonshire and the succession of similar broad-topped hills which form the backbone of the Cornish promontory. The scenery is full of contrast. To the west of Launceston the principal mass of high land rises to 1375 ft. in Brown Willy, the highest point in the county. This district is broken and picturesque, with rough tors or hills and boulders. A remarkable pile of rocks called the Cheese-wring, somewhat resembling an inverted pyramid in form, is seen on the moor north of Liskeard. This district is for the most part a region of furze and heather; but after passing Bodmin, the true Cornish moorland asserts itself, bare, desolate and impracticable, broken and dug into hillocks, which are sometimes due to early mining works, sometimes to more modern search for metals. The seventy miles from Launceston to Mount’s Bay have been called not untruly “the dreariest strip of earth traversed by any English high road.” There is hardly more cultivation on the higher ground west of Mount’s Bay, or in the Meneage or “rocky country,” the old Cornish name for the promontory which ends in the Lizard. Long combes and valleys, however, descend from this upper moorland towards the coast on both sides. These are in general well wooded, and, in the luxuriance of their vegetation, strongly characteristic. The small rivers traversing them in several cases enter fine estuaries, which ramify deeply into the land. Such are, on the south coast, the great estuary of the Tamar, and other streams, on which the port of Plymouth is situated (but only the western shore is Cornish), the Looe and Fowey rivers, Falmouth Harbour, the most important of the purely Cornish inlets and accessible for the largest vessels, and the Helford river. On the north are the estuaries of the Camel and the Hayle, debouching into Padstow Bay and St Ives Bay respectively. The Fowey and Camel valleys almost completely break the continuation of the central high ground, and the uplands west of Mount’s Bay are similarly parted from the main mass by the low tract between Hayle and Marazion. Except at the mouth of a stream or estuary the coast is almost wholly rock-bound, and the cliff scenery is unsurpassed in England. Three different types are found. On the north coast, from Tintagel Head and Boscastle northward to Hartland Point in Devonshire, the dark slate cliffs, with their narrow and distorted strata, are remarkably rugged of outline, owing to the ease with which the waves fret the loosely-bound rock. On the south, in the beautiful little bays in the neighbourhood of the Lizard Point, the serpentine rock is noted for its exquisite colouring. Between Treryn and Land’s End, at the south-west, a majestic barrier of granite is presented to the sea. The beautiful Scilly Isles continue the line of the granite, and the intervening sea is said to have submerged a tract of land named Lyonesse, containing, according to tradition, 140 parish churches, and intimately connected with the Arthurian romances.

Geology.—One of the most striking features of Cornwall is the presence of the four great masses of granite which rise up and form as many elevated areas out of a lower-lying region occupied by rocks almost entirely slaty in character, generally known as “Killas.” The granite is not the oldest of the Cornish rocks; these are found in the Lizard peninsula and are represented by serpentine, gabbro and metamorphic schists. With the exception of a small tract about Veryan and Gorran, of Ordovician age, all the sedimentary rocks, as far as a line joining Boscastle and South Petherwin, were formerly classed as Devonian; to the north of the line are the Culm measures—slates, grits and limestones—of Carboniferous age. The extensive spread of Killas is not, however, entirely Devonian, as it is shown on most maps. In the northern portion, Lower, Middle and Upper Devonian can be distinguished; the lower beds at Polperro, Looe and Watergate, the higher beds along the line indicated above. Farther south it has been shown that an older set of Palaeozoic rocks constitutes at least a part of the Killas; the Veryan series, with Caradoc fossils, is succeeded in descending order by the Portscatho series, the Falmouth series and the Mylor series; the lowest Devonian beds represented here by the Menaccan series, rest unconformably upon these Ordovician beds. Upper Silurian fossils have been found near Veryan. All these rocks have been subjected to severe thrusting from the south, consequently they are much contorted and folded. After this thrusting and folding had taken place, intrusions of diabase, &c., penetrated the sedimentary Strata in numerous places, but it was not until post-Carboniferous times that the granite masses were intruded. The principal granite masses are those of St Just and Land’s End, Penryn, St Austell and Bodmin Moor. To the granite Cornwall owes much of its prosperity; it has altered the Killas for some distance around each mass, and the veins of tin and copper ore, though richest in the Killas, are evidently genetically related to the granite. The principal metalliferous districts, Camborne, Redruth, St Just, &c., all lie near the granite margins. The china clay and china stone industry is dependent on the fact that the granite was itself altered in patches during the later phases of eruptive activity by the agency of boric and fluoric vapours which kaolinized the felspar of the granite. Later eruptions produced dykes of quartz-porphyry and other varieties, all locally called “elvans,” which penetrate both the granite and the Killas. Small patches of Pliocene strata are found at St Erth and St Agnes Beacon. Blown sand is an important feature at St Pirran, Lelant, Gwythian and elsewhere, and raised beaches are frequent round the coast. A characteristic Cornish deposit is the “Head,” an old consolidated scree or talus. Many rare minerals have been obtained from the mines and much tin ore has been taken from the river gravels. The river gravel at Carnon has yielded native gold.

Climate.—The climate of Cornwall is peculiar. Snow seldom lies for more than a few days, and the winters are less severe than in any other part of England, the average temperature for January being 34° F. at Bude and 43.7° at Falmouth. The sea-winds, except in a few sheltered places, prevent timber trees from attaining to any great size, but the air is mild, and the lower vegetation, especially in the Penzance district, is almost southern in its luxuriance. Geraniums, fuchsias, myrtles, hydrangeas and camellias grow to a considerable size, and flourish through the winter at Penzance and round Falmouth; and in the Scilly Isles a great variety of exotics may be seen flourishing in the open air. Stone fruit, and even apples and pears, do not attain the same full flavour as in the neighbouring county, owing to the want of dry heat. The pinaster, the Pinus austriaca, Pinus insignis and other firs succeed well in the western part of the county. All native plants display a perfection of beauty hardly to be seen elsewhere, and the furze, including the double-blossomed variety, and the heaths, among which Erica vagans and ciliaris are characteristic, cover the moorland and the cliff summits with a blaze of the richest colour. On the whole the climate is healthy, though the prevalent westerly and south-westerly winds, bringing with them great bodies of cloud from the Atlantic, render it damp; the mean annual rainfall, though only 32.85 in. at Bude, reaches 44.41 at Falmouth, and 50.57 at Bodmin.

Agriculture.—About seven-tenths of the total area is under cultivation, but oats form the only important grain-crop. Turnips, swedes and mangolds make up the bulk of the green crops. The number of cattle (chiefly of the Devonshire breed) is large, and many sheep are kept; nearly 60,000 acres of hill pasture being recorded. As regards agricultural produce, however, Cornwall is chiefly famous for the market-gardening carried on in the neighbourhood of Penzance, where the climate is specially suitable for the growth of early potatoes, broccoli and asparagus. These are despatched in large quantities to the London market; the Scilly Isles sharing in the industry. Fruit and flowers are also grown for the market. In the valleys the soil is frequently rich and deep; there are good arable and pasture farms, and the natural oak-wood of these coombes has been preserved and increased by plantation.

Mining.—The wealth of Cornwall, however, lies not so much in the soil, as underground and in the surrounding seas. Hence the favourite Cornish toast, “fish, tin and copper.” The tin of Cornwall has been known and worked from a period anterior to certain history. There is no direct proof that the Phoenician traders came to Cornwall for tin; though it has been sought to identify the Cassiterides (q.v.) or Tin Islands with the county or the Scilly Isles. By ancient charters the “tinners” were exempt from all jurisdiction (save in cases affecting land, life and limb) other than that of the Stannary Courts, and peculiar laws were enacted in the Stannary parliaments (see Stannaries). For many centuries a tax on the tin, after smelting, was paid to the earls and dukes of Cornwall. The smelted blocks were carried to certain towns to be coined, that is, stamped with the duchy seal before they could be sold. By an act of 1838 the dues payable on the coinage of tin were abolished, and a compensation was awarded to the duchy instead of them. The Cornish miners are an intelligent and independent body, and the assistance of a Cornishman has been found necessary to the successful development of mining in many parts of the world, while many miners have emigrated from Cornwall to more remunerative fields abroad. The industry has suffered from periods of depression, as before the accession of Queen Elizabeth, who introduced miners from Germany to resuscitate it; and in modern times the shallow workings, from which tin could be easily “streamed,” have become practically exhausted. The deeper workings to which the miners must needs have recourse naturally render production more costly, and the competition of foreign mines has been detrimental. The result is that the industry is comparatively less prosperous than formerly, and employs far fewer of the inhabitants. However, in the district of Camborne, Carn Brea, Illogan and Redruth, and near St Just in the extreme west, the mines are still active, while there are others of less importance elsewhere, as near Callington in the south-east. And when, as in 1906, circumstances affecting the production of foreign mines cause a rise in the price of tin, the Cornish mines enjoy a period of greater prosperity; the result being the recent reopening of many of the mines which had been closed for twenty years. The largest tin-mine is that of Dolcoath near Camborne. Copper is extracted at St Just and at Carn Brea; but the output has decreased much further than that of tin. As it lies deeper in the earth, and consequently could not be “streamed” for, it was almost unnoticed in the county until the end of the 15th century, and little attention was paid to it until the last years of the 17th. No mine seems to have been worked exclusively for copper before the year 1770; and up to that time the casual produce had been bought by Bristol merchants, to their great gain, at rates from £2 : 10s. to £4 per ton. In 1718 John Coster gave a great impulse to the trade by draining some of the deeper mines, and instructing the men in an improved method of dressing the ore. The trade thereafter progressively increased, and in 1851 the mines of Devon and Cornwall together were estimated to furnish one-third of the copper raised throughout Europe, including the British Isles. Antimony ores and manganese are found, and some lead occurs, being worked without great result. Iron in lodes, as brown haematite, has been worked near Lostwithiel and elsewhere. In the St Austell district the place of tin and copper mining has been taken by that of the raising and preparation of china clay. Granite is largely quarried in various districts, as at Luxulian (between St Austell and Lostwithiel), and in the neighbourhood of Penryn. This is the material of London and Waterloo Bridges, the Chatham docks, and many other great works. It is for the most part coarse-grained, though differing greatly in different places in this respect. Fine slate is quarried and largely exported, as from the Delabole quarries near Tintagel. These slates were in great repute in the 16th century and earlier. Serpentine is quarried in the Lizard district, and is worked there into small ornamental objects for sale to visitors; it is in favour as a decorative stone. Pitchblende also occurs, and is mined for the extraction of radium.

Fisheries.—The fisheries of Cornwall and Devon are the most important on the south-west coasts. The pilchard is in great measure confined to Cornwall, living habitually in deep water not far west of the Scilly Isles, and visiting the coast in great shoals,—one of which is described as having extended from Mevagissey to the Land’s End, a distance, including the windings of the coast, of nearly 100 m. In summer and autumn pilchards are caught by drift nets; later in the year they are taken off the northern coast by seine nets. Forty thousand hogsheads, or 120 million fish, have been taken in the course of a single season, requiring 20,000 tons of salt to cure them. Twelve millions have been taken in a single day; and the sight of this great army of fish passing the Land’s End, and pursued by hordes of dog-fish, hake, and cod, besides vast flocks of sea-birds, is most striking. The principal fishing stations are on Mount’s Bay and at St Ives, but boats are employed all along the coast. When brought to shore the pilchards are carried to the cellars to be cured. They are then packed in hogsheads, each containing about 2400 fish. These casks are largely exported to Naples and other Italian ports—whence the fisherman’s toast, “Long life to the pope, and death to thousands.” Besides pilchards, mackerel and herring are taken in great numbers, and conger eels of great size; mullet and John Dory may be mentioned. There is also a trade in “sardines,” young pilchards taking the place of the real Mediterranean fish.

Communications.—The principal ports are Falmouth and Penzance, but that of Hayle is of some importance, and there are large engineering works here. It lies on the estuary of the Hayle river, which opens into St Ives Bay, the township of Phillack adjoining on the north-east. A brisk coasting trade is maintained at many small ports along the coast. Communications are provided chiefly by the Great Western railway, the main line of which passes through the county and terminates at Penzance. Fowey, Penryn and Falmouth, and Helston on the south, and Bodmin and Wadebridge, Newquay and St Ives, are served by branch lines. A light railway runs from Liskeard to Looe. The north-eastern parts of the county (Launceston, Bude, Wadebridge) are served by the London & South-Western railway. Coaches are run in several districts during the summer, and in some parts, as in the neighbourhood of Penzance, and between Helston and the Lizard, the Great Western company provides a motor-car service to places beyond the reach of the railway. Many of the small seaside towns have become favourite holiday resorts, such as Bude, Newquay and St Ives, and the south-coast ports.

Population and Administration.—The area of the ancient county is 868,220 acres, with a population in 1891 of 322,571, and in 1901 of 322,334. In 1861 the population was 369,390, and had shown an increase up to that census. The area of the administrative county is 886,384 acres. The county contains 9 hundreds. The municipal boroughs are Bodmin (pop. 5353), the county town; Falmouth (11,789), Helston (3088), Launceston (4053), Liskeard (4010), Lostwithiel (1331), Penryn (3190), Penzance (13,136), St Ives (6699), Saltash (3357), Truro (11,562), an episcopal city. The other urban districts are Callington (1714), Camborne (14,726), Hayle (1084), Looe (2548), Ludgvan (2274), Madron (3486), Newquay (3115), Padstow (1566), Paul (6332), Phillack (3881), Redruth (10,451), St Austell (3340), St Just (5646), Stratton and Bude (2308), Torpoint (4200), Wadebridge (2186). Small market and other towns, beyond those in the above lists, are numerous. Such are Calstock in the east, St Germans in the south-east near Saltash, St Blazey near St Austell, Camelford, St Columb Major, and Perranzabuloe in the north, with the mining towns of Gwennap and Illogan in the Redruth district and Wendron near Helston, all inland towns; while on the south coast may be mentioned Fowey and Mevagissey, on either side of St Austell Bay, and Marazion on Mount’s Bay, close by St Michael’s Mount. Cornwall is in the western circuit, and assizes are held at Bodmin. It has one court of quarter sessions, and is divided into 17 petty sessional divisions. The boroughs of Bodmin, Falmouth, Helston, Launceston, Liskeard, Penryn, Penzance, St Ives and Truro have separate commissions of the peace, and Penzance has a separate court of quarter sessions. The Scilly Isles are administered by a separate council, and form one of the petty sessional divisions. There are 239 civil parishes, of which 5 are in the Scilly Isles. Cornwall is in the diocese of Truro, and there are 227 ecclesiastical parishes or districts wholly or in part within the county. The parliamentary divisions are the North-Eastern or Launceston, South-Eastern or Bodmin, Mid or St Austell, Truro, North-Western or Camborne, and Western or St Ives, each returning one member; while the parliamentary borough of Penryn and Falmouth returns one member.

Language.—The old Cornish language survives in a few words still in use in the fishing and mining communities, as well as in the names of persons and places, but the last persons who spoke it died towards the end of the 18th century. It belonged to the Cymric division of Celtic, in which Welsh and Armorican are also included. The most important relics of the language known to exist are three dramas or miracle plays, edited and translated by Edwin Norris, Oxford, 1859. A sketch of Cornish grammar is added, and a Cornish vocabulary from a MS. of the 13th century (Cotton MSS. Vespasian A. 14, p. 7a). (See Celt: Language and Literature.) It may be mentioned that the great numbers of saints whose names survive in the topography of the county are largely accounted for by the fact that here, as in Wales, it was the practice to canonize the founder of a church. The natives have many traits in common with the Welsh, such as their love of oratory and their strong tribal attachment to the county.

History.—Cornwall was the last portion of British territory in the south to submit to the Saxon invader. Viewed from its eastern boundary it doubtless appeared less attractive than the rich, well-wooded lands of Wessex, while it unquestionably afforded greater obstacles in the way of conquest. In 815 Ecgbert directed his efforts towards the subjugation of the West-Welsh of Cornwall, and after eight years’ fighting compelled the whole of Dyvnaint to acknowledge his supremacy. Assisted by the Danes the Cornish revolted but were again defeated, probably in 836, at the battle of Hengestesdun, Hingston Down in Stoke-Climsland. Ninety years later Aethelstan banished the West-Welsh from Exeter and made the Tamar the boundary of their territory. The thoroughness of the Saxon conquest is evident from the fact that in the days of the Confessor nearly the whole of the land in Cornwall was held by men bearing English names. As the result of the Norman conquest less than one-twelfth of the land (exclusive of that held by the Church) remained in English hands. Six-sevenths of the manors were assigned to Robert, count of Mortain, and became the foundation of the territorial possessions and revenues of the earldom which was held until 1337, usually by special grant, by the sons or near relatives of the kings of England. On the death of John of Eltham the last earl, in 1337, Edward the Black Prince was created duke of Cornwall. By the terms of the statute under which the dukedom was created the succession was restricted to the eldest son of the king, but in 1613, on the death of Prince Henry, an extended interpretation, given by the king’s advisers, enabled his brother Charles (afterwards Charles I.) to succeed as son of the king and next heir to the realm of England.

Traces of jurisdictional differentiation anterior to Domesday survive in the names of at least five of the hundreds, although these names do not appear in the Survey itself. The hundreds into which the county was divided at the time of the Inquisitio Geldi were as follows:—Straton, which embraced the present hundreds of Stratton, Lesnewth and Trigg; Fawiton, approximately conterminous with West; Panton, now included in Pydasr, Tibeste, Wineton, Conarditon and Rileston, very nearly identical with Powder, Kerrier, Penwith and East. The shire court was held at Launceston except from about 1260 to 1386, when it was held at Lostwithiel. In 1716 the summer assize was transferred to Bodmin. Since 1836 both assizes have been held at Bodmin. The jurisdiction of the hundred courts became early attached to various manors, and their bailiwicks and bedellaries descended with the real estate of their owners. There is much obscurity concerning the early ecclesiastical organization. It is certain, however, that Cornwall had its own bishops from the middle of the 9th century until the year 1018, when the see was removed to Crediton. During the interval the see had been placed sometimes at Bodmin and sometimes at St Germans. In 1049 the see of the united dioceses of Devon and Cornwall was fixed at Exeter. Cornwall was formed into an archdeaconry soon after, and, as such, continued until 1876, when it was reconstituted a diocese with its see at Truro. The parishes of St Giles-on-the-Heath, North Petherwin and Wellington, wholly in Devon, and Boyton, partly in Devon and partly in Cornwall, which were portions of the ancient archdeaconry, and also the parishes of Broadwoodwidger and Virginstowe, both in Devon, which had been added to it in 1875, thus came to be included in the Truro diocese. The present archdeaconries of Bodmin embracing the eastern, and of Cornwall embracing the western portion of the newly constituted diocese were formed, by order in council, in 1878. Aethelstan’s enactment had doubtless roughly determined the civil boundary of the Celtic-speaking county. In 1386 disputes having arisen, a commission was appointed to determine the Cornish border between North Tamerton and Hornacot.

For the first four centuries after the Norman conquest the part played by Cornwall in England’s political history was comparatively unimportant. In her final attempt in 1471 to restore the fortunes of the house of Lancaster, Queen Margaret received the active support of the Cornish, who, under Sir Hugh Courtenay and Sir John Arundell, accompanied her to the fatal field of Tewkesbury, and in 1473 John de Vere, earl of Oxford, held St Michael’s Mount in her behalf until the following February, when he surrendered to John Fortescue. A rising of considerable magnitude in 1497 at the instigation of Thomas Flamank, occasioned by the levy of a tax for the Scottish war, was only repelled after the arrival of the insurgents at Blackheath in Kent. Perkin Warbeck, who landed at Whitsand Bay in the parish of Sennen, obtained general support in the same year. The imposition of the Book of Common Prayer and the abrogation of various religious ceremonies led to a rebellion in 1549 under Sir Humphry Arundell of Lanherne, the rebels, who knew little English, demanding the restoration of the Latin service, but a fatal delay under the walls of Exeter led to their early defeat and the execution of their leaders. During the Civil War of the 17th century Cornwall won much glory in the royal cause. In 1643 Sir Ralph Hopton, who commanded the king’s Cornish troops, defeated General Ruthen on Bradoc Down, while General Chudleigh, another parliamentary general, was repulsed near Launceston, and the earl of Stamford at Stratton. The whole county was thereby secured to the king. Led by Sir Beville Grenville of Stow the Cornish troops now marched into Somersetshire, where in the indecisive battle of Lansdowne they greatly distinguished themselves, but lost their brave leader. In July 1644 the earl of Essex marched into Cornwall and was followed soon afterwards by the king’s troops in pursuit. Numerous engagements were fought, in which the latter were uniformly successful. The troops of Essex were surrounded and their leader escaped in a boat from Fowey to Plymouth. In 1646, owing to dissensions amongst the king’s officers, and in particular to the refusal of Sir Richard Grenville to serve under Lord Hopton, and to the defection of Colonel Edgcumbe, the royal cause declined and became desperate. On the 16th of August 1646 articles of capitulation were signed by the defenders of Pendennis Castle.

Two members for the county were summoned by Edward I. to the parliament of 1295, and two continued to be the number of county members until 1832. Six boroughs—Launceston, Liskeard, Lostwithiel, Bodmin, Truro and Helston—were granted the like privilege by the same sovereign. To strengthen and augment the power of the crown as against the House of Commons, between 1547 and 1584, fifteen additional towns and villages received the franchise, with the result that, between the latter date and 1821, Cornwall sent no less than forty-four members to parliament. In 1821 Grampound lost both its members, and by the Reform Act in 1832 fourteen other Cornish boroughs shared the same fate. Cornwall was, in fact, notorious for the number of its rotten boroughs. In the vicinity of Liskeard “within an area, which since 1885 ... is represented by only one member, there were until 1832 nine parliamentary boroughs returning eighteen members. In this area, on the eve of the Reform Act, there was a population of only 14,224” (Porrit, Unreformed House of Commons, vol. i. p. 92). Bossiney, a village near Camelford, Camelford itself, Lostwithiel, East Looe, West Looe, Fowey and several others were disfranchised in 1832, but even until the act of 1885 Bodmin, Helston, Launceston, Liskeard and St Ives were separately represented, whereas Penzance was not. Until this act was passed Truro, and Penryn with Falmouth, returned two members each.

Antiquities.—No part of England is so rich as Cornwall in prehistoric antiquities. These chiefly abound in the district between Penzance and the Land’s End, but they occur in all the wilder parts of the county. They may be classed as follows. (1) Cromlechs. These in the west of Cornwall are called “quoits,” with reference to their broad and flat covering stones. The largest and most important are those known as Lanyon, Mulfra, Chûn and Zennor quoits, all in the Land’s End district. Of these Chûn is the only one which has not been thrown down. Zennor is said to be the largest in Europe, while Lanyon, when perfect, was of sufficient height for a man on horseback to ride under. Of those in the eastern part of Cornwall, Trevethy near Liskeard and Pawton in the parish of St Breock are the finest. (2) Rude uninscribed monoliths are common to all parts of Cornwall. Those at Boleigh or Boleit, in the parish of St Buryan, S.W. of Penzance, called the Pipers, are the most important. (3) Circles, none of which is of great dimensions. The principal are the Hurlers, near Liskeard; the Boskednan, Boscawen-ûn, and Tregeseal circles; and that called the Dawns-ûn, or Merry Maidens, at Boleigh. All of these, except the Hurlers, are in the Land’s End district. Other circles that may be mentioned are the Trippet Stones, in the parish of Blisland, near Bodmin, and one at Duloe, near Liskeard. (4) Long alignments or avenues of stones, resembling those on Dartmoor, but not so perfect, are to be found on the moors near Rough Tor and Brown Willy. A very remarkable monument of this kind exists in the neighbourhood of St Columb Major, called the Nine Maidens. It consists of nine rude pillars placed in a line, but now imperfect, while near them is a single stone known as the Old Man. (5) Hut dwellings. Of these there are at least two kinds, those in the eastern part of the county resembling the beehive structures and enclosures of Dartmoor, and those in the west comprising “hut-clusters,” having a central court, and a surrounding wall sometimes of considerable height and thickness. The beehive masonry is also found in connexion with these, as are also (6) Caves, or subterraneous structures, resembling those of Scotland and Ireland. (7) Cliff castles are a characteristic feature of the Cornish coast, especially in the west, such as Treryn, Mên, Kenedjack, Bosigran and others. These are all fortified on the landward side. At Treryn Castle is the Logan Stone, a mass of granite so balanced as to rock upon its support. (8) Hill castles, or camps, are very numerous. Castelan-Dinas, near St Columb, is the best example of the earthwork camp, and Chûn Castle, near Penzance, of the stone.

Early Christian remains in Cornwall include crosses, which occur all over the country and are of various dates from the 6th century onward; inscribed sepulchral stones, generally of the 7th and 8th centuries; and oratories. These last have their parallels in Ireland, which is natural, since from that country and Wales Cornwall was christianized. The buildings (also called baptisteries) are very small and rude, a simple parallelogram in form, always placed near a spring. The best example is St Piran’s near Perranzabuloe, which long lay buried in sand dunes. St Piran was one of the missionaries sent from Ireland by St Patrick in the 5th century, and became the patron saint of the tin-miners.

The individuality of Cornwall is reflected in its ecclesiastical architecture. The churches are generally massive, plain structures of granite, built as it were to resist the storms which sweep up from the sea, low in the body, but with high unadorned towers. Within, a common feature is the absence of a chancel arch. In a few cases, of which Gwennap church is an illustration, where the body of the church lies low in a valley, there is a detached campanile at a higher level. The prevalent style is Perpendicular, much rebuilding having taken place in this period, but there are fine examples of the earlier styles. The west front and part of the towers of the church of St Germanus of Auxerre at St Germans form the best survival of Norman work in the county; there are good Norman doorways at Manaccan and Kilkhampton churches, and the church of Morwenstow, near the coast north of Bude, is a remarkable illustration of the same style. This church has the further interest of having had as its rector the Cornish poet Robert Stephen Hawker (1803-1875). The Early English style is not commonly seen, but the small church of St Anthony in Roseland, near the east shore of Falmouth harbour (with an ornate Norman door), and portions of the churches of Camelford and Manaccan, are instances of this period. Decorated work is similarly scanty, but the churches of Sheviock, in the south-east, and St Columb Major have much that is good, and that of St Bartholomew, Lostwithiel, has a beautiful and rich lantern and spire in this style surmounting an Early English tower, while the body of the church is also largely Decorated. Perpendicular churches are so numerous that it is only needful to mention those possessing some peculiar characteristic. Thus, the high ornamentation of Launceston and St Austell churches is unusual in Cornwall, as is the rich and graceful tower of Probus church. St Neot’s church, near Liskeard, has magnificent stained glass of the 15th and 16th centuries.

The ruined castles of Launceston, Trematon near Saltash, Restormel near Lostwithiel, and Tintagel, date, at least in part, from Norman times. St Michael’s Mount was at once a fortress and an ecclesiastical foundation. Pendennis Castle, Falmouth, is of the time of Henry VIII. The mansions of Cornwall are generally remarkable rather for their position than for architectural interest, but Trelawne, partly of the 15th century, near Looe, and Place House, a Tudor building, at Fowey, may be noted.

Authorities.—See Richard Carew, Survey of Cornwall (London, 1602); W. Borlase, Antiquities of Cornwall (Oxford, 1754 and 1769); D. Gilbert, Parochial History of Cornwall (London, 1837-1838), incorporating collections of W. Hals and Tonkin; J. T. Blight, Ancient Crosses in the East of Cornwall (London, 1858), and Churches of West Cornwall (London, 1865); G. C. Boase and W. P. Courtney, Bibliotheca Cornubiensis, a catalogue of the writings, both MS. and printed, of Cornishmen, and of works relating to Cornwall (Truro and London, 1864-1881); R. Hunt, Popular Romances and Drolls of the West of England (London, 1865); W. Bottrell, Traditions and Hearthside Stories of West Cornwall (Penzance, 1870-1873); J. H. Collins, Handbook to the Mineralogy of Cornwall and Devon (Truro, 1871); W. C. Borlase, Naenia Cornubiae (1872); Early Christianity in Cornwall (London, 1893); J. Bannister, Glossary of Cornish Names (London, 1878); W. P. Courtney, Parliamentary Representation of Cornwall to 1832 (London, 1889); G. C. Boase, Collectanea Cornubiensia (Truro, 1890); J. R. Allen, Old Cornish Crosses (Truro, 1896); A. H. Norway, Highways and Byways in Cornwall (1904); Lewis Hind, Days in Cornwall (1907); Victoria County History, Cornwall.

CORNWALLIS, CHARLES CORNWALLIS, 1st Marquess (1738-1805), eldest son of Charles, 1st earl of Cornwallis (1700-1762), was born on the 31st of December 1738. Having been educated at Eton and Clare College, Cambridge, he entered the army. For some time he was member of parliament for Eye; in 1761 he served a campaign in Germany, and was gazetted to a lieutenant-colonelcy in the 12th Foot. In 1762 he succeeded to the earldom and estates of his father; in 1765 he was made aide-de-camp to the king and gentleman of the bedchamber; in 1766 he obtained a colonelcy in the 33rd Foot; and in 1770 he was appointed governor of the Tower. In public life he was distinguished by independence of character and inflexible integrity; he voted without regard to party, and opposed the ministerial action against Wilkes and in the case of the American colonies. But when the American War of Independence broke out, he accompanied his regiment across the Atlantic, and served not without success as major-general. In 1780 he was appointed to command the British forces in South Carolina, and in the same year he routed Gates at Camden. In 1781 he defeated Greene at Guilford Court House, and made a destructive raid into Virginia; but he was besieged at Yorktown by French and American armies and a French fleet, and was forced to capitulate on the 19th of October 1781. With him fell the English cause in the United States. He not only escaped censure, however, but in 1786 received a vacant Garter, and was appointed governor-general of India and commander-in-chief in Bengal. As an administrator he projected many reforms, but he was interrupted in his work by the quarrel with Tippoo Sahib. In 1791 he assumed in person the conduct of the war and captured Bangalore; and in 1792 he laid siege to Seringapatam, and concluded a treaty with Tippoo Sahib, which stripped the latter of half his realm, and placed his two sons as hostages in the hands of the English. For the permanent settlement of the land revenue under his administration, see Bengal. He returned to England in 1793, received a marquessate and a seat in the privy council, and was made master-general of the ordnance with a place in the Cabinet. In June 1798 he was appointed to the viceroyalty of Ireland, and the zeal with which he strove to pacify the country gained him the respect and good-will of both Roman Catholics and Orangemen. On the 17th of July a general amnesty was proclaimed, and a few weeks afterwards the French army under Humbert was surrounded and forced to surrender. In 1801 Cornwallis was replaced by Lord Hardwicke, and soon after he was appointed plenipotentiary to negotiate the treaty of Amiens (1802). In 1805 he was again sent to India as governor-general, to replace Lord Wellesley, whose policy was too advanced for the directors of the East India Company. He was in ill-health when he arrived at Calcutta, and while hastening up the country to assume command of the troops, he died at Ghazipur, in the district of Benares, on the 5th of October 1805. He was succeeded as 2nd marquess by his only son, Charles (1774-1823). On his death the marquessate became extinct, but the title of Earl Cornwallis passed to his uncle, James (1743-1824), who was bishop of Lichfield from 1781 until his death. His son and successor, James, the 5th earl, whose son predeceased him in 1835, died in May 1852, when the Cornwallis titles became extinct.

See W. S. Seton-Karr, The Marquess Cornwallis, “Rulers of India” Series (1890).

CORNWALLIS, SIR WILLIAM (1744-1819), British admiral, was the brother of the 1st Marquess Cornwallis, governor-general of India. He was born on the 20th of February 1744, and entered the navy in 1755. His promotion was naturally rapid, and in 1766 he had reached post-rank. Until 1779 he held various commands doing the regular work of the navy in convoy. In that year he commanded the “Lion” (64) in the fleet of Admiral Byron. The “Lion” was very roughly handled in the battle off Grenada on the 6th of July 1779, and had to make her way alone to Jamaica. In March 1780 he fought an action in company with two other vessels against a much superior French force off Monti Cristi, and had another encounter with them near Bermuda in June. The force he engaged was the fleet carrying the troops of Rochambeau to North America, and was too strong for his squadron of two small liners, two fifty-gun ships and a frigate. After taking part in the second relief of Gibraltar, he returned to North America, and served with Hood in the actions at the Basse Terre of St Kitts, and with Rodney in the battle of Dominica on the 12th of April 1782. Some very rough verses which he wrote on the action have been printed in Leyland’s “Brest-Papers,” published for the Navy Record Society, which show that he thought very ill of Rodney’s conduct of the battle. In 1788 he went to the East Indies as commodore, where he remained till 1794. He had some share in the war with Tippoo Sahib, and helped to reduce Pondicherry. His promotion to rear-admiral dates from the 1st of February 1793, and on the 4th of July 1794 he became vice-admiral.

In the Revolutionary War his services were in the Channel. The most signal of them was performed on the 16th of June 1795, when he carried out what was always spoken of with respect as “the retreat of Cornwallis.” He was cruising near Brest with four sail of the line and two frigates, when he was sighted by a French fleet of twelve sail of the line, and many large frigates commanded by Villarat Joyeuse. The odds being very great he was compelled to make off. But two of his ships were heavy sailers and fell behind. He was consequently overtaken, and attacked on both sides. The rearmost ship, the “Mars” (74), suffered severely in her rigging and was in danger of being surrounded by the French. Cornwallis turned to support her, and the enemy, impressed by a conviction that he must be relying on help within easy reach, gave up the pursuit. The action affords a remarkable proof of the moral superiority which the victory of the 1st of June, and the known efficiency of the crews, had given to the British navy. The reputation of Cornwallis was immensely raised, and the praise given him was no doubt the greater because he was personally very popular with officers and men. In 1796 he incurred a court-martial in consequence of a misunderstanding and apparently some temper on both sides, on the charge of refusing to obey an order from the Admiralty. He was practically acquitted. The substance of the case was that he demurred on the ground of health at being called upon to go to the West Indies, in a small frigate, and without “comfort.” He became full admiral in 1799, and held the Channel command for a short interval in 1801 and from 1803 to 1806, but saw no further service. He was made a G.C.B. in 1815, and died on the 5th of July 1819. His various nicknames among the sailors, “Billy go tight,” given on account of his rubicund complexion, “Billy Blue,” “Coachee,” and “Mr Whip,” seem to show that he was regarded with more of affection than reverence.

See also Ralfe, Nav. Biog. i. 387; Naval Chronicle, vii. 1; Charnock, Biogr. Nav. vi. 523.

CORO, a small city and the capital of the state of Falcón, Venezuela, 7 m. W. of La Vela de Coro (its port on the Caribbean coast), with which it is connected by rail, and 199 m. W.N.W. of Carácas. Pop. (1904, estimate) 9500. Coro stands on a sandy plain between the Caribbean and the Gulf of Venezuela, and near the isthmus connecting the peninsula of Paraguaná with the mainland. Its elevation above sea-level is only 105 ft., and its climate is hot but not unhealthy. The city is badly built, its streets are unpaved, and it has no public buildings of note except two old churches. Its water-supply is derived from springs some distance away. Coro is the commercial centre for an extensive district on the E. side of Lake Maracaibo and the Gulf of Venezuela, which exports large quantities of goat-skins, an excellent quality of tobacco, and some coffee, cacao, castor beans, timber and dyewoods. It was founded in 1527 by Juan de Ampués, who gave to it the name of Santa Ana de Coriana (afterwards corrupted to Santa Ana de Coro) in honour of the day and of the tribe of Indians inhabiting this locality. It was also called Venezuela (little Venice) because of an Indian village on the gulf coast built on piles over the shallow water; this name was afterwards bestowed upon the province of which Coro was the capital. Coro was also made the chief factory of the Welsers, the German banking house to which Charles V. mortgaged this part of his colonial possessions, and it was the starting-point for many exploring and colonizing expeditions into the interior. It was made a bishopric in 1536, and for a time Coro was one of the three most important towns on the northern coast. The seat of government was removed to Carácas in 1578 and the bishopric five years later. Coro is celebrated in Venezuelan history as the scene of Miranda’s first attempt to free his country from Spanish rule. It suffered greatly in the war which followed.

COROMANDEL COAST, a name formerly applied officially to the eastern seaboard of India approximately between Cape Calimere, in 10° 17′ N., 79° 56′ E., and the mouths of the Kistna river. The shore, which is low, is without a single good natural harbour, and is at all times beaten by a heavy sea. Communication with ships can be effected only by catamarans and flat-bottomed surf-boats. The north-east monsoon, which lasts from October till April, is exceedingly violent for three months after its commencement. From April till October hot southerly winds blow by day; at night the heat is tempered by sea-breezes. The principal places frequented by shipping are Pulicat, Madras, Sadras, Pondicherry, Cuddalore, Tranquebar, Nagore, and Negapatam. The name Coromandel is said to be derived from Cholamandal, the mandal or region of the ancient dynasty of the Chola. Its official use has lapsed.