Chapter 7

See Johnson,Life of Sir Edward Coke(1837); H. W. Woolrych,The Life of Sir Edward Coke(1826); Foss,Lives of the Judges; Campbell,Lives of the Chief Justices; alsoEnglish Law.

COKE, SIR JOHN(1563-1644), English politician, was born on the 5th of March 1563, and was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. After leaving the university he entered public life as a servant of William Cecil, Lord Burghley, afterwards becoming deputy-treasurer of the navy and then a commissioner of the navy, and being specially commended for his labours on behalf of naval administration. He became member of parliament for Warwick in 1621 and was knighted in 1624, afterwards representing the university of Cambridge. In the parliament of 1625 Coke acted as a secretary of state; in this and later parliaments he introduced the royal requests for money, and defended the foreign policy of Charles I. and Buckingham, and afterwards the actions of the king. His actual appointment as secretary dates from September 1625. Disliked by the leaders of the popular party, his speeches in the House of Commons did not improve the kingâ€™s position, but when Charles ruled without a parliament he found Cokeâ€™s industry very useful to him. The secretary retained his post until 1639, when a scapegoat was required to expiate the humiliating treaty of Berwick with the Scots, and the scapegoat was Coke. Dismissed from office, he retired to his estate at Melbourne in Derbyshire, and then resided in London, dying at Tottenham on the 8th of September 1644. Cokeâ€™s son, Sir John Coke, sided with the parliament in its struggle with the king, and it is possible that in later life Cokeâ€™s own sympathies were with this party, although in his earlier years he had been a defender of absolute monarchy. Coke, who greatly disliked the papacy, is described by Clarendon as â€œa man of very narrow education and a narrower mindâ€; and again he says, â€œhis cardinal perfection was industry and his most eminent infirmity covetousness.â€

COKE, THOMAS(1747-1814), English divine, the first Methodist bishop, was born at Brecon, where his father was a well-to-do apothecary. He was educated at Jesus College, Oxford, taking the degree of M.A. in 1770 and that of D.C.L. in 1775. From 1772 to 1776 he was curate at South Petherton in Somerset, whence his rector dismissed him for adopting the open-air and cottage services introduced by John Wesley, with whom he had become acquainted. After serving on the London Wesleyan circuit he was in 1782 appointed president of the conference in Ireland, a position which he frequently held, in the intervals of his many voyages to America. He first visited that country in 1784, going to Baltimore as â€œsuperintendentâ€ of the Methodist societies in the new world and, in 1787 the American conference changed his title to â€œbishop,â€ a nomenclature which he tried in vain to introduce into the English conference, of which he was president in 1797 and 1805. Failing this, he asked Lord Liverpool to make him a bishop in India, and he was voyaging to Ceylon when he died on the 3rd of May 1814. Coke had always been a missionary enthusiast, and was the pioneer of such enterprise in his connexion. He was an ardent opponent of slavery, and endeavoured also to heal the breach between the Methodist and Anglican communions. He published aHistory of the West Indies(3 vols., 1808-1811), several volumes of sermons, and, with Henry Moore, aLife of Wesley(1792).

COKE(a northern English word, possibly connected with â€œcolk,â€ core), the product obtained by strongly heating coal out of contact with the air until the volatile constituents are driven off; it consists essentially of carbon, the so-called â€œfixed carbon,â€ together with the incombustible matters or ash contained in the coal from which it is derived. In addition to these it almost invariably contains small quantities of hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, the whole, however, not exceeding 2 or 3%. It also contains water, the amount of which may vary considerably according to the method of manufacture. When produced rapidly and at a low heat, as in gas-making, it is of a dull black colour, and a loose spongy or pumice-like texture, and ignites with comparative ease, though less readily than bituminous coal, so that it may be burnt in open fire-places; but when a long-continued heat is used, as in the preparation of coke for iron and steel melting, the product is hard and dense, is often prismatic in structure, has a brilliant semi-metallic lustre and silvery-grey colour, is a conductor of heat and electricity, and can only be burnt in furnaces provided with a strong chimney draught or an artificial blast. The strength and cohesive properties are also intimately related to the nature and composition of the coals employed, which are said to be caking or non-caking according to the compact or fragmentary character of the coke produced.

Formerly coke was made from large coal piled in heaps with central chimneys like those of the charcoal burner, or in open rectangular clamps or kilns with air flues in the enclosing walls; but these methods are now practically obsolete, closed chambers or ovens being generally used. These vary considerably in construction, but may be classified into three principal types:â€”(1) direct heated ovens, (2) flue-heated ovens, (3) condensingovens. In the first class the heating is done by direct contact or by burning the gases given off in coking within the oven, while in the other two the heating is indirect, the gas being burned in cellular passages or flues provided in the walls dividing the coking chambers, and the heat transmitted through the sides of the latter which are comparatively thin. The arrangement is somewhat similar to that of a gas-works retort, whence the name of â€œretort ovensâ€ is sometimes applied to them. The difference between the second and third classes is founded on the treatment of the gases. In the former the gas is fired in the side flues immediately upon issuing from the oven, while in the latter the gases are first subjected to a systematic treatment in condensers, similar to those used in gas-works, to remove tar, ammonia and condensable hydrocarbons, the incondensable gases being returned to the oven and burned in the heating flues. These are generally known as â€œby-product ovens.â€

The simplest form of coke oven, and probably that still most largely used, is the so-called â€œbeehive oven.â€ This is circular in plan, from 7 to 12 ft. in diameter, with a cylindrical wall about 2Â½ ft. high and a nearly hemispherical roof with aBeehive oven.circular hole at the top. The floor, made of refractory bricks or slabs, is laid with a slight slope towards an arched opening in the ring wall, which is stopped with brickwork during the coking but opened for drawing the finished charge. The ovens are usually arranged in rows or banks of 20 to 30 or more, with their doors outwards, two rows being often placed with a longitudinal flue between them connected by uptakes with the individual ovens on either side. A railway along the top of the bank brings the coal from the screens or washery. The largest ovens take a charge of about 5 tons, which is introduced through the hole in the roof, the brickwork of the empty oven being still red hot from the preceding charge, and when levelled fills the cylindrical part nearly to the springing of the roof. The gas fires as it is given off and fills the dome with flame, and the burning is regulated by air admitted through holes in the upper part of the door stopping. The temperature being very high, a proportion of the volatile hydrocarbons is decomposed, and a film of graphitic carbon is deposited on the coke, giving it a semi-metallic lustre and silvery grey colour. When the gas is burned off, the upper part of the door is opened and the glowing charge cooled by jets of water thrown directly upon it from a hose, and it is subsequently drawn out through the open door. The charge breaks up into prisms or columns whose length corresponds to the depth of the charge, and as a rule is uniform in character and free from dull black patches or â€œblack ends.â€ The time of burning is either 48 or 72 hours, the turns being so arranged as to avoid the necessity of drawing the ovens on Sunday. The longer the heat is continued the denser the product becomes, but the yield also diminishes, as a portion of the finished coke necessarily burns to waste when the gas is exhausted. For this reason the yield on the coal charged is usually less than that obtained in retort ovens, although the quality may be better. Coals containing at most about 35% of volatile matter are best suited for the beehive oven. With less than 25% the gas is not sufficient to effect the coking completely, and when there is a higher percentage the coke is brittle and spongy and unsuited for blast furnace or foundry use. The spent flame from the ovens passes to a range of steam boilers before escaping by the chimney.The retort oven, which is now generally displacing the beehive form in new installations, is made in a great variety of forms, the differences being mainly in the arrangement of the heating flues, but all have the central feature, the cokingRetort oven.chamber, in common. This is a tubular chamber with vertical sides and cylindrical roof, about 30 ft. long, from 17 to 20 in. wide, and 6 or 7 ft. high, and closed at both ends by sliding doors which are raised by crab winches when the charge is to be drawn. The general arrangements of such an oven are shown in fig. 1, which represents one of the earliest and most popular forms, that of Evence CoppÃ©e of Brussels. The coking chambers A B connect by rectangular posts at the springing of the roof, where the gas given off from the top of the charge is fired by air introduced throughc c. The flames pass downwards through the parallel fluesf falong the bottom flue of one oven, and return in the opposite direction under the next to the chimney flue, a further part of the heat being intercepted by placing a range of steam boilers between the ovens and the chimney stack. The charging of the oven is done through the passages D D in the roof from small wagons on transverse lines of rails, the surface being raked level before the doors are closed and luted up. The time of coking is much less than in the beehive ovens and may be from 24 to 36 hours, according to the proportion of volatile matter present. When the gas is completely given off the doors are lifted and the charge is pushed out by the ramâ€”a cast-iron plate of the shape of the cross section of the oven, at the end of a long horizontal bar, which is driven by a rack and pinion movement and pushes the block of coke out of the oven on to the wharf or bank in front where it falls to pieces and is immediately quenched by jets of water from a hose pipe. When sufficiently cooled it is loaded into railway wagons or other conveyances for removal. The ram, together with its motor, and boiler when steam is used, is mounted upon a carriage running upon a line of rails of about 2 ft. gauge along the back of the range of ovens, so that it can be brought up to any one of them in succession.Fig. 1.â€”CoppÃ©eâ€™s Coke Oven.In some cases, instead of the small coal being charged through the roof of the oven and levelled by hand, it is formed into blocks by being stamped in a slightly moistened condition in a mould consisting of a bottom plate or peel on a racked rod like that of the ram, with movable sides and ends. This, when the ends are removed, is pushed forward into the oven, and the bottom plate is withdrawn by reversing the rack motion. The moulding box is mounted on a carriage like that of the ram, the two being sometimes carried on the same framing. The moulding is done at a fixed station in the centre of the range of ovens by a series of cast-iron stampers driven by an electric motor. This system is useful for coals low in volatile matter, which do not give a coherent coke under ordinary conditions.In the distilling or by-product ovens the gases, instead of being burned at the point of origin, pass by an uptake pipe in the roof about the centre of the oven into a water-sealed collecting trough or hydraulic main, whence they are drawn byCondensing ovens.exhausters through a series of air and water cooled condensers and scrubbers. In the first or atmospheric condensers the tar is removed, and in the second ammoniacal water, which is further enriched by a graduated system of scrubbing with weak ammoniacal liquor until it is sufficiently concentrated to be sent to the ammonia stills. The first treatment by scrubbing with creosote or heavy tar oil removes benzene, after which the permanent gaseous residue consisting chiefly of hydrogen and marsh gas is returned to the ovens as fuel.In the Otto-Hoffmann oven, one of the most generally used forms, vertical side flues like those of CoppÃ©e are adopted. The returned gas enters by a horizontal flue along the bottom of the coking chamber, divided into two parts by a mid-feather wall, and is fired by heated air from a Siemens regenerator on the substructure at one end, and the flame rising through one half of the side flues to a parallel collector at the top returns downwards through the flues of the other half and passes out to the chimney through a similar regenerator at the other end. The course of the gases is reversed at intervals of about an hour, as in the ordinary Siemens furnace, each end of the oven having its own gas supply. In the later modification known as the Otto-Hilgenstock, the regenerators are abandoned, but provision is made for more perfect distribution of the heat by a line of sixteen Bunsen burners in each wall; each of these serves two flues, the course of the flame being continuously upwards without reversal. In the newest Otto ovens the same system of burners is combined with regenerators. In the Bauer system, another vertical flue oven, each flue has its own burner, which is of a simplified construction.In the CarvÃ©s oven, the earliest of the by-product ovens, the heating flues are arranged horizontally in parallel series along the entire length of the side walls, the gas being introduced from both ends but at different levels. This system was further developed by H. Simon of Manchester, who added a continuous air â€œrecuperatorâ€ heated by the spent flame; this Simon-CarvÃ©s system has been extensively adopted in Great Britain. Another horizontal flue oven, the Semet-Solvay, is distinguished by the structure of the flues, which are independent of the dividing walls of the ovens, so that the latter can be made with thinner sides than those of the earlier systems, and are more readily repaired. In the horizontal ovens it is sometimes difficult to maintain the heat when the flues are continuous along the whole length of the wall, especially when the heating value of the gas is reduced by the removal of the heavy hydrocarbons. This difficulty is met by dividing the flues in the middle so as to shorten the length of travel of the flame, and working each end independently. The HÃ¼ssener and Koppers systems are two of the best-known examples of this modification.Coke from retort ovens is not so dense or brilliant as that madein beehive ovens, but the waste being less there is a decided saving, apart from the value of the condensed products. In one instance the coke was found to be about 5% less efficient in the blast furnace, while the yield on the coal charged was increased 10%. In the further treatment of the condensed products by distillation the tar gives burning oil and pitch, the benzene is separated from the creosote oil by steam-heated stills, and the ammoniacal liquor, after some lime has been added to decompose fixed ammonium compounds, is heated to vaporize the ammonia, which is condensed in lead or copper-lined tanks containing strong sulphuric acid to produce a crystalline powder of ammonium sulphate, which accumulates in the receiver and is fished out from time to time. The yield of by-products averages about 1% of ammonium sulphate, about 3Â½% of tar, and 0.6 to 0.9% of benzene, of the weight of the coal carbonized. After the ovens have been heated and steam supplied for the machinery of the condensing plant and the coke ovens, there is usually a surplus of gas, which may be used for lighting or driving gas-engines. For the latter purpose, however, it is necessary to remove the last traces of tar, which acts very prejudicially in fouling the valves when the gas is not completely purified. The gas given off during the earlier part of the coking process is richer in heavy hydrocarbons and of a higher illuminating value than that of the later period when the temperature is higher. This property is utilized in several large coking plants in America, where the gas from the first ten hoursâ€™ working is drawn off by a second hydraulic main and sent directly to town gas-works, where it passes through the ordinary purifying treatment, the gas from the second period being alone used for heating the ovens.

The retort oven, which is now generally displacing the beehive form in new installations, is made in a great variety of forms, the differences being mainly in the arrangement of the heating flues, but all have the central feature, the cokingRetort oven.chamber, in common. This is a tubular chamber with vertical sides and cylindrical roof, about 30 ft. long, from 17 to 20 in. wide, and 6 or 7 ft. high, and closed at both ends by sliding doors which are raised by crab winches when the charge is to be drawn. The general arrangements of such an oven are shown in fig. 1, which represents one of the earliest and most popular forms, that of Evence CoppÃ©e of Brussels. The coking chambers A B connect by rectangular posts at the springing of the roof, where the gas given off from the top of the charge is fired by air introduced throughc c. The flames pass downwards through the parallel fluesf falong the bottom flue of one oven, and return in the opposite direction under the next to the chimney flue, a further part of the heat being intercepted by placing a range of steam boilers between the ovens and the chimney stack. The charging of the oven is done through the passages D D in the roof from small wagons on transverse lines of rails, the surface being raked level before the doors are closed and luted up. The time of coking is much less than in the beehive ovens and may be from 24 to 36 hours, according to the proportion of volatile matter present. When the gas is completely given off the doors are lifted and the charge is pushed out by the ramâ€”a cast-iron plate of the shape of the cross section of the oven, at the end of a long horizontal bar, which is driven by a rack and pinion movement and pushes the block of coke out of the oven on to the wharf or bank in front where it falls to pieces and is immediately quenched by jets of water from a hose pipe. When sufficiently cooled it is loaded into railway wagons or other conveyances for removal. The ram, together with its motor, and boiler when steam is used, is mounted upon a carriage running upon a line of rails of about 2 ft. gauge along the back of the range of ovens, so that it can be brought up to any one of them in succession.

In some cases, instead of the small coal being charged through the roof of the oven and levelled by hand, it is formed into blocks by being stamped in a slightly moistened condition in a mould consisting of a bottom plate or peel on a racked rod like that of the ram, with movable sides and ends. This, when the ends are removed, is pushed forward into the oven, and the bottom plate is withdrawn by reversing the rack motion. The moulding box is mounted on a carriage like that of the ram, the two being sometimes carried on the same framing. The moulding is done at a fixed station in the centre of the range of ovens by a series of cast-iron stampers driven by an electric motor. This system is useful for coals low in volatile matter, which do not give a coherent coke under ordinary conditions.

In the distilling or by-product ovens the gases, instead of being burned at the point of origin, pass by an uptake pipe in the roof about the centre of the oven into a water-sealed collecting trough or hydraulic main, whence they are drawn byCondensing ovens.exhausters through a series of air and water cooled condensers and scrubbers. In the first or atmospheric condensers the tar is removed, and in the second ammoniacal water, which is further enriched by a graduated system of scrubbing with weak ammoniacal liquor until it is sufficiently concentrated to be sent to the ammonia stills. The first treatment by scrubbing with creosote or heavy tar oil removes benzene, after which the permanent gaseous residue consisting chiefly of hydrogen and marsh gas is returned to the ovens as fuel.

In the Otto-Hoffmann oven, one of the most generally used forms, vertical side flues like those of CoppÃ©e are adopted. The returned gas enters by a horizontal flue along the bottom of the coking chamber, divided into two parts by a mid-feather wall, and is fired by heated air from a Siemens regenerator on the substructure at one end, and the flame rising through one half of the side flues to a parallel collector at the top returns downwards through the flues of the other half and passes out to the chimney through a similar regenerator at the other end. The course of the gases is reversed at intervals of about an hour, as in the ordinary Siemens furnace, each end of the oven having its own gas supply. In the later modification known as the Otto-Hilgenstock, the regenerators are abandoned, but provision is made for more perfect distribution of the heat by a line of sixteen Bunsen burners in each wall; each of these serves two flues, the course of the flame being continuously upwards without reversal. In the newest Otto ovens the same system of burners is combined with regenerators. In the Bauer system, another vertical flue oven, each flue has its own burner, which is of a simplified construction.

In the CarvÃ©s oven, the earliest of the by-product ovens, the heating flues are arranged horizontally in parallel series along the entire length of the side walls, the gas being introduced from both ends but at different levels. This system was further developed by H. Simon of Manchester, who added a continuous air â€œrecuperatorâ€ heated by the spent flame; this Simon-CarvÃ©s system has been extensively adopted in Great Britain. Another horizontal flue oven, the Semet-Solvay, is distinguished by the structure of the flues, which are independent of the dividing walls of the ovens, so that the latter can be made with thinner sides than those of the earlier systems, and are more readily repaired. In the horizontal ovens it is sometimes difficult to maintain the heat when the flues are continuous along the whole length of the wall, especially when the heating value of the gas is reduced by the removal of the heavy hydrocarbons. This difficulty is met by dividing the flues in the middle so as to shorten the length of travel of the flame, and working each end independently. The HÃ¼ssener and Koppers systems are two of the best-known examples of this modification.

Coke from retort ovens is not so dense or brilliant as that madein beehive ovens, but the waste being less there is a decided saving, apart from the value of the condensed products. In one instance the coke was found to be about 5% less efficient in the blast furnace, while the yield on the coal charged was increased 10%. In the further treatment of the condensed products by distillation the tar gives burning oil and pitch, the benzene is separated from the creosote oil by steam-heated stills, and the ammoniacal liquor, after some lime has been added to decompose fixed ammonium compounds, is heated to vaporize the ammonia, which is condensed in lead or copper-lined tanks containing strong sulphuric acid to produce a crystalline powder of ammonium sulphate, which accumulates in the receiver and is fished out from time to time. The yield of by-products averages about 1% of ammonium sulphate, about 3Â½% of tar, and 0.6 to 0.9% of benzene, of the weight of the coal carbonized. After the ovens have been heated and steam supplied for the machinery of the condensing plant and the coke ovens, there is usually a surplus of gas, which may be used for lighting or driving gas-engines. For the latter purpose, however, it is necessary to remove the last traces of tar, which acts very prejudicially in fouling the valves when the gas is not completely purified. The gas given off during the earlier part of the coking process is richer in heavy hydrocarbons and of a higher illuminating value than that of the later period when the temperature is higher. This property is utilized in several large coking plants in America, where the gas from the first ten hoursâ€™ working is drawn off by a second hydraulic main and sent directly to town gas-works, where it passes through the ordinary purifying treatment, the gas from the second period being alone used for heating the ovens.

Coke is essentially a partially graphitized carbon, its density being about midway between that of coal and graphite, and it should therefore occupy less space than the original coal; but owing to the softening of the charge a spongy structure is set up by the escaping gases, which acts in the other direction, so that for equal bulk coke is somewhat lighter than coal. It is this combination of properties that gives it its chief value in iron smelting, the substance being sufficiently dense to resist oxidation by carbon dioxide in the higher regions of the furnace, while the vesicular structure gives an extended surface for the action of heated air and facilitates rapid consumption at the tuyeres. Compact coke, such as that formed on the inner sides of gas retorts (retort carbon), can only be burned with great difficulty in small furnaces of special construction, but it gives out a great amount of heat.

The most deleterious constituents of coke are ash, sulphur and volatile constituents including water. As the coke yield is only from two-thirds to three-quarters of that of the coal, the original proportion of ash is augmented by one-third or one-half in the product. For this reason it is now customary to crush and wash the coal carefully to remove intermingled patches of shale and dirt before coking, so that the ash may not if possible exceed 10% in the coke. About one-half of the sulphur in the coal is eliminated in coking, so that the percentage in the coke is about the same. It should not be much above 1%. According to the researches of F. Wuest (Journ. Iron and Steel Inst., 1906) the sulphur is retained in a complex carbon compound which is not destroyed until the coke is actually consumed.

The older methods of coking and the earlier forms of retort ovens are described in J. Percy,Metallurgy, Jordan,Album du cours de metallurgie; Phillips and Bauerman,Handbook of Metallurgy, and other text-books. A systematic series of articles on the newer forms will be found inThe Engineer, vol. 82, pp. 205-303 and vol. 83, pp. 207-231; see also DÃ¼rre,Die neuern KoksÃ¶fen(Leipzig, 1892); D. A. Louis, â€œVon Bauer and BrÃ¼nck Ovens,â€Journ. Iron and Steel Inst., 1904, ii. p. 293; C. L. Bell, â€œHÃ¼ssener Oven,â€id., 1904, i. p. 188; Hurez, â€œA Comparison of Different Systems of Vertical and Horizontal Flue Ovens,â€Bull. soc. industrie minÃ©rale, 1903, p. 777. A well-illustrated description of the Otto system in its American modification was issued by the United Gas & Coke Company of New York, in 1906.

(H. B.)

COL(Fr. for â€œneck,â€ Lat.collum), in physical geography, generally any marked depression upon a high and rugged water-parting over which passage is easy from one valley to another. Such is the Col de Balme between the Trient and Chamounix valleys, where the great inaccessible wall crowned with aiguilles running to the massif of Mt. Blanc is broken by a gentle downward curve with smooth upland slopes, over which a footpath gives easy passage. The col is usually formed by the head-waters of a stream eating backward and lowering the water-parting at the head of its valley. In early military operations, the march of an army was always over a col, which has at all times considerable commercial importance in relation to roads in high mountain regions.

COLBERT, JEAN BAPTISTE(1619-1683), French statesman, was born at Reims, where his father and grandfather were merchants. He claimed to be the descendant of a noble Scottish family, but the evidence for this is lacking. His youth is said to have been spent in a Jesuit college, in the office of a Parisian banker, and in that of a Parisian notary, Chapelain, the father of the poet. But the first fact on which we can rely with confidence is that, when not yet twenty, he obtained a post in the war-office, by means of the influence that he possessed through the marriage of one of his uncles to the sister of Michel Le Tellier, the secretary of state for war. During some years he was employed in the inspection of troops and other work of the kind, but at length his ability, his extraordinary energy and his untiring laboriousness induced Le Tellier to make him his private secretary. These qualities, combined, it must be confessed, with a readiness to seize every opportunity of advancement, soon brought Colbert both wealth and influence. In 1647 we find him receiving the confiscated goods of his uncle Pussort, in 1648 obtaining 40,000 crowns with his wife Marie Charron, in 1649 appointed councillor of state.

It was the period of the wars of the Fronde; and in 1651 the triumph of the CondÃ© family drove Cardinal Mazarin from Paris. Colbert, now aged thirty-two, was engaged to keep him acquainted with what should happen in the capital during his absence. At first Colbertâ€™s position was far from satisfactory; for the close wary Italian treated him merely as an ordinary agent. On one occasion, for example, he offered him 1000 crowns. The gift was refused somewhat indignantly; and by giving proof of the immense value of his services, Colbert gained all that he desired. His demands were not small; for, with an ambition mingled, as his letters show, with strong family affection, he aimed at placing all his relatives in positions of affluence and dignity; and many a rich benefice and important public office was appropriated by him to that purpose. For these favours, conferred upon him by his patron with no stinted hand, his thanks were expressed in a most remarkable manner; he published a letter defending the cardinal from the charge of ingratitude which was often brought against him, by enumerating the benefits that he and his family had received from him (April 1655). Colbert obtained, besides, the higher object of his ambition; the confidence of Mazarin, so far as it was granted to any one, became his, and he was entrusted with matters of the gravest importance. In 1659 he was giving directions as to the suppression of the revolt of the gentry which threatened in Normandy, Anjou and Poitou, with characteristic decision arresting those whom he suspected, and arranging every detail of their trial, the immediate and arbitrary destruction of their castles and woods, and the execution of their chief, Bonnesson. In the same year we have evidence that he was already planning his great attempt at financial reform. His earliest tentative was the drawing up of amÃ©moireto Mazarin, showing that of the taxes paid by the people not one-half reached the king. The paper also contained an attack upon the superintendent Nicholas Fouquet (q.v.), and being opened by the postmaster of Paris, who happened to be a spy of Fouquetâ€™s, it gave rise to a bitter quarrel, which, however, Mazarin repressed during his lifetime.

In 1661 the death of Mazarin allowed Colbert to take the first place in the administration, and he made sure of the kingâ€™s favour by revealing to him some of Mazarinâ€™s hidden wealth. It was some time before he assumed official dignities; but in January 1664 he obtained the post of superintendent of buildings; in 1665 he was made controller-general; in 1669 he became minister of the marine; and he was also appointed minister of commerce, the colonies and the kingâ€™s palace. In short, he soon acquired power in every department except that of war.

A great financial and fiscal reform at once claimed all his energies. Not only the nobility, but many others who had no legal claim to exemption, paid no taxes; the weight of the burden fell on the wretched country-folk. Colbert sternly and fearlessly set about his task. Supported by the young king, Louis XIV.,he aimed the first blow at the greatest of the extortionersâ€”the bold and powerful superintendent, Fouquet; whose fall, in addition, secured his own advancement.

The office of superintendent and many others dependent upon it being abolished the supreme control of the finances was vested in a royal council. The sovereign was its president; but Colbert, though for four years he only possessed the title of intendant, was its ruling spirit, great personal authority being conferred upon him by the king. The career on which Colbert now entered must not be judged without constant remembrance of the utter rottenness of the previous financial administration. His ruthlessness in this case, dangerous precedent as it was, was perhaps necessary; individual interests could not be respected. Guilty officials having been severely punished, the fraudulent creditors of the government remained to be dealt with. Colbertâ€™s method was simple. Some of the public loans were totally repudiated, and from others a percentage was cut off, which varied, at first according to his own decision, and afterwards according to that of the council which he established to examine all claims against the state.

Much more serious difficulties met his attempts to introduce equality in the pressure of the taxes on the various classes. To diminish the number of the privileged was impossible, but false claims to exemption were firmly resisted, and the unjust direct taxation was lightened by an increase of the indirect taxes, from which the privileged could not escape. The mode of collection was at the same time immensely improved.

Order and economy being thus introduced into the working of the government, the country, according to Colbertâ€™s vast yet detailed plan, was to be enriched by commerce. Manufactures were fostered in every way he could devise. New industries were established, inventors protected, workmen invited from foreign countries, French workmen absolutely prohibited to emigrate. To maintain the character of French goods in foreign markets, as well as to afford a guarantee to the home consumer, the quality and measure of each article were fixed by law, breach of the regulations being punished by public exposure of the delinquent and destruction of the goods, and, on the third offence, by the pillory. But whatever advantage resulted from this rule was more than compensated by the disadvantages it entailed. The production of qualities which would have suited many purposes of consumption was prohibited, and the odious supervision which became necessary involved great waste of time and a stereotyped regularity which resisted all improvements. And other parts of Colbertâ€™s schemes deserve still less equivocal condemnation. By his firm maintenance of the corporation system, each industry remained in the hands of certain privileged bourgeois; in this way, too, improvement was greatly discouraged; while to the lower classes opportunities of advancement were closed. With regard to international commerce Colbert was equally unfortunate in not being in advance of his age; the tariffs he published were protective to an extreme. The interests of internal commerce were, however, wisely consulted. Unable to abolish the duties on the passage of goods from province to province, he did what he could to induce the provinces to equalize them. The roads and canals were improved. The great canal of Languedoc was planned and constructed by Pierre Paul Riquet (1604-1680) under his patronage. To encourage trade with the Levant, Senegal, Guinea and other places, privileges were granted to companies; but, like the more important East India Company, all were unsuccessful. The chief cause of this failure, as well as of the failure of the colonies, on which he bestowed so much watchful care, was the narrowness and rigidity of the government regulations.

The greatest and most lasting of Colbertâ€™s achievements was the establishment of the French marine. The royal navy owed all to him, for the king thought only of military exploits. For its use, Colbert reconstructed the works and arsenal of Toulon, founded the port and arsenal of Rochefort, and the naval schools of Rochefort, Dieppe and Saint-Malo, and fortified, with some assistance from Vauban (who, however, belonged to the party of his rival Louvois), among other ports those of Calais, Dunkirk, Brest and Havre. To supply it with recruits he invented his famous system of classes, by which each seaman, according to the class in which he was placed, gave six monthsâ€™ service every three or four or five years. For three months after his term of service he was to receive half-pay; pensions were promised; and, in short, everything was done to make the navy popular. There was one department, however, that was supplied with men on a very different principle. Letters exist written by Colbert to the judges requiring them to sentence to the oar as many criminals as possible, including all those who had been condemned to death; and the convict once chained to the bench, the expiration of his sentence was seldom allowed to bring him release. Mendicants also, against whom no crime had been proved, contraband dealers, those who had been engaged in insurrections, and others immeasurably superior to the criminal class, nay, innocent menâ€”Turkish, Russian and negro slaves, and poor Iroquois Indians, whom the Canadians were ordered to entrapâ€”were pressed into that terrible service. By these means the benches of the galleys were filled, and Colbert took no thought of the long unrelieved agony borne by those who filled them.

Nor was the mercantile marine forgotten. Encouragement was given to the building of ships in France by allowing a premium on those built at home, and imposing a duty on those brought from abroad; and as French workmen were forbidden to emigrate, so French seamen were forbidden to serve foreigners on pain of death.

Even ecclesiastical affairs, though with these he had no official concern, did not altogether escape Colbertâ€™s attention. He took a subordinate part in the struggle between the king and Rome as to the royal rights over vacant bishoprics; and he seems to have sympathized with the proposal that was made to seize part of the wealth of the clergy. In his hatred of idleness, he ventured to suppress no less than seventeen fÃªtes, and he had a project for lessening the number of those devoted to clerical and monastic life, by fixing the age for taking the vows some years later than was then customary. With heresy he was at first unwilling to interfere, for he was aware of the commercial value of the Huguenots; but when the king resolved to make all France Roman Catholic, he followed him and urged his subordinates to do all that they could to promote conversions.

In art and literature Colbert took much interest. He possessed a remarkably fine private library, which he delighted to fill with valuable manuscripts from every part of Europe where France had placed a consul. He has the honour of having founded the Academy of Sciences (now called the Institut de France), the Observatory, which he employed Claude Perrault to build and brought G. D. Cassini (1625-1712) from Italy to superintend, the Academies of Inscriptions and Medals, of Architecture and of Music, the French Academy at Rome, and Academies at Arles, Soissons, NÃ®mes and many other towns, and he reorganized the Academy of Painting and Sculpture which Richelieu had established. He was a member of the French Academy; and one very characteristic rule, recorded to have been proposed by him with the intention of expediting the great Dictionary, in which he was much interested, was that no one should be accounted present at any meeting unless he arrived before the hour of commencement and remained till the hour for leaving. In 1673 he presided over the first exhibition of the works of living painters; and he enriched the Louvre with hundreds of pictures and statues. He gave many pensions to men of letters, among whom we find MoliÃ¨re, Corneille, Racine, Boileau, P. D. Huet (1630-1721) and Antoine Varillas (1626-1696), and even foreigners, as Huyghens, Vossius the geographer, Carlo Dati the Dellacruscan, and Heinsius the great Dutch scholar. There is evidence to show that by this munificence he hoped to draw out praises of his sovereign and himself; but this motive certainly is far from accounting for all the splendid, if in some cases specious, services that he rendered to literature, science and art.

Indeed to everything that concerned the interests of France Colbert devoted unsparing thought and toil. Besides all thathas been mentioned, he found time to do something for the better administration of justice (the codification of ordinances, the diminishing of the number of judges, the reduction of the expense and length of trials for the establishment of a superior system of police) and even for the improvement of the breed of horses and the increase of cattle. As superintendent of public buildings he enriched Paris with boulevards, quays and triumphal arches; he relaid the foundation-stone of the Louvre, and brought Bernin from Rome to be its architect; and he erected its splendid colonnade upon the plan of Claude Perrault, by whom Bernin had been replaced. He was not permitted, however, to complete the work, being compelled to yield to the kingâ€™s preference for residences outside Paris, and to devote himself to Marly and Versailles.

Amid all these public labours his private fortune was never neglected. While he was reforming the finances of the nation, and organizing its navy, he always found time to direct the management of his smallest farm. He died extremely rich, and left fine estates all over France. He had been created marquis de Seignelay, and for his eldest son he obtained the reversion of the office of minister of marine; his second son became archbishop of Rouen; and a third son, the marquis dâ€™Ormoy, became superintendent of buildings.

To carry out his reforms, Colbert needed peace; but the war department was in the hands of his great rival Louvois, whose influence gradually supplanted that of Colbert with the king. Louis decided on a policy of conquest. He was deaf also to all the appeals against the other forms of his boundless extravagance which Colbert, with all his deference towards his sovereign, bravely ventured to make.1Thus it came about that, only a few years after he had commenced to free the country from the weight of the loans and taxes which crushed her to the dust, Colbert was forced to heap upon her a new load of loans and taxes more heavy than the last. Henceforth his life was a hopeless struggle, and the financial and fiscal reform which, with the great exception of the establishment of the navy, was the most valuable service to France contemplated by him, came to nought.

Depressed by his failure, deeply wounded by the kingâ€™s favour for Louvois, and worn out by overwork, Colbertâ€™s strength gave way at a comparatively early age. In 1680 he was the constant victim of severe fevers, from which he recovered for a time through the use of quinine prescribed by an English physician. But in 1683, at the age of sixty-four, he was seized with a fatal illness, and on the 6th of September he expired. It was said that he died of a broken heart, and a conversation with the king is reported in which Louis disparagingly compared the buildings of Versailles, which Colbert was superintending, with the works constructed by Louvois in Flanders. He took to bed, it is true, immediately afterwards, refusing to receive all messages from the king; but his constitution was utterly broken before, and a post-mortem examination proved that he had been suffering from stone. His body was interred in the secrecy of night, for fear of outrage from the Parisians, by whom his name was cordially detested.

Colbert was a great statesman, who did much for France. Yet his insight into political science was not deeper than that of his age; nor did he possess any superiority in moral qualities. His rule was a very bad example of over-government. He did not believe in popular liberty;, the parlements and the states-general received no support from him. The technicalities of justice he never allowed to interfere with his plans; but he did not hesitate to shield his friends. He trafficked in public offices for the profit of Mazarin and in his own behalf. He caused the suffering of thousands in the galleys; he had no ear, it is said, for the cry of the suppliant. There was indeed a more human side to his character, as is shown in his letters, full of wise advice and affectionate care, to his children, his brothers, his cousins even. Yet to all outside he was â€œthe man of marble.â€ Madame de SÃ©vignÃ© called him â€œthe North.â€ To diplomacy he never pretended; persuasion and deceit were not the weapons he employed; all his work was carried out by the iron hand of authority. He was a great statesman in that he conceived a magnificent yet practicable scheme for making France first among nations, and in that he possessed a matchless faculty for work, neither shrinking from the vastest undertakings nor scorning the most trivial details.

NumerousviesandÃ©logesof Colbert have been published; but the most thorough student of his life and administration was Pierre ClÃ©ment, member of the Institute, who in 1846 published hisVie de Colbert, and in 1861 the first of the 9 vols. of theLettres, instructions, et mÃ©moires de Colbert. The historical introductions prefixed to each of these volumes have been published by Mme. ClÃ©ment under the title of theHistoire de Colbert et de son administration(3rd ed., 1892). The best short account of Colbert as a statesman is that in Lavisse,Histoire de France(1905), which gives a thorough study of the administration. Among Colbertâ€™s papers areMÃ©moires sur les affaires de finance de France(written about 1663), a fragment entitledParticularitÃ©s secrÃ¨tes de la vie du Roy, and other accounts of the earlier part of the reign of Louis XIV.

(J. T. S.)

COLBERT DE CROISSY, CHARLES,Marquis(1625-1696), French diplomatist, like his elder brother Jean Baptiste Colbert, began his career in the office of the minister of war Le Tellier. In 1656 he bought a counsellorship at the parlement of Metz, and in 1658 was appointed intendant of Alsace and president of the newly-created sovereign council of Alsace. In this position he had to re-organize the territory recently annexed to France. The steady support of his brother at court gained for him several diplomatic missionsâ€”to Germany and Italy (1659-1661). In 1662 he became marquis de Croissy andprÃ©sident Ã mortierof the parlement of Metz. After various intendancies, at Soissons (1665), at Amiens (1666), and at Paris (1667), he turned definitely to diplomacy. In 1668 he represented France at the conference of Aix-la-Chapelle; and in August of the same year was sent as ambassador to London, where he was to negotiate the definite treaty of alliance with Charles II. He arranged the interview at Dover between Charles and his sister Henrietta of Orleans, gained the kingâ€™s personal favour by finding a mistress for him, Louise de KÃ©roualle, maid of honour to Madame, and persuaded him to declare war against Holland. The negotiation of the treaty of Nijmwegen (1676-1678) still further increased his reputation as a diplomatist and Louis XIV. made him secretary of state for foreign affairs after the disgrace of Arnauld de Pomponne, brought about by his brother, 1679. He at once assumed the entire direction of French diplomacy. Foreign ambassadors were no longer received and diplomatic instructions were no longer given by other secretaries of state. It was he, not Louvois, who formed the idea of annexation during a time of peace, by means of the chambers of reunion. He had outlined this plan as early as 1658 with regard to Alsace. His policy at first was to retain the territory annexed by the chambers of reunion without declaring war, and for this purpose he signed treaties of alliance with the elector of Brandenburg (1681), and with Denmark (1683); but the troubles following upon the revocation of the edict of Nantes (1685) forced him to give up his scheme and to prepare for war with Germany (1688). The negotiations for peace had been begun again when he died, on the 28th of July 1696. His clerk, Bergeret, was his invaluable assistant.

Bibliography.â€”His papers, preserved in theArchives des affaires Ã©trangÃ¨resat Paris, have been partially published in theRecueil des instructions donnÃ©es aux ambassadeurs et ministres de France(since 1884). See especially the volumes:â€”Autriche(t. i.),SuÃ¨de(t. ii.),Rome(t. vi.),BaviÃ¨re(t. viii.),Savoie(t. xiv.),Prusse(t. xvi.). Other documents have been published in Mignetâ€™sNÃ©gociations relatives Ã la succession dâ€™Espagne, vol. iv., and in the collection ofLettres et nÃ©gociations ... pour la paix de NimÃ¨gue, 1676-1677 (La Haye, 1710). In addition to theMÃ©moiresof the time, see Spanheim,Relation de la cour de France en 1690, ed. E. Bourgeois (Paris and Lyons, 1900); Baschet,Histoire du depÃ´t des affaires Ã©trangÃ¨res; C. Rousset,Histoire de Louvois(4 vols., Paris, 1863); E. Bourgeois, â€œLouvois, et Colbert de Croissy,â€ in theRevue historique, vol. xxxiv. (1887); A. Waddington,Le Grand Ã‰lecteur et Louis XIV(Paris, 1905); G. Pagis,Le Grand Ã‰lecteur et Louis XIV(Paris, 1905).

COLBURN, HENRY(d. 1855), British publisher, obtained his earliest experience of bookselling in London at the establishment of W. Earle, Albemarle Street, and afterwards as an assistant at Morganâ€™s Library, Conduit Street, of which in 1816 he becameproprietor. He afterwards removed to New Burlington Street, where he established himself as a publisher, resigning the Conduit Street Library to Messrs Saunders & Otley. In 1814 he originated theNew Monthly Magazine, of which at various times Thomas Campbell, Bulwer Lytton, Theodore Hook and Harrison Ainsworth were editors. Colburn published in 1818Evelynâ€™s Diary, and in 1825 theDiary of Pepys, edited by Lord Braybrooke, paying Â£2200 for the copyright. He also issued Disraeliâ€™s first novel,Vivian Grey, and a large number of other works by Theodore Hook, G. P. R. James, Marryat and Bulwer Lytton. In 1829 Richard Bentley (q.v.) was taken into partnership; and in 1832 Colburn retired, but set up again soon afterwards independently in Great Marlborough Street; his business was taken over in 1841 by Messrs Hurst & Blackett. Henry Colburn died on the 16th of August 1855, leaving property to the value of Â£35,000.

COLBURN, ZERAH(1804-1840), American mathematical prodigy, was born at Cabot, Vermont, on the 1st of September 1804. At a very early age he developed remarkable powers of calculating with extreme rapidity, and in 1810 his father began to exhibit him. As a performing prodigy he visited Great Britain and France. From 1816 to 1819 he studied in Westminster school, London. After the death of his father in 1824 he returned to America, and from 1825 to 1834 he was a Methodist preacher. As he grew older his extraordinary calculating powers diminished. From 1835 until his death, on the 2nd of March 1840, he was professor of languages at the Norwich University in Vermont. He published aMemoirof his life in 1833.

His nephew, also namedZerah Colburn(1832-1870), was a well-known mechanical engineer; the editor successively of theRailroad Advocate, in New York,The Engineer, in London, andEngineering, in London; and the author of a work entitledThe Locomotive Engine(1851).

COLBY, THOMAS FREDERICK(1784-1852), British major-general and director of ordnance survey, was born at St Margaretâ€™s, Rochester, on the 1st of September 1784, a member of a South Wales family. Entering the Royal Engineers he began in 1802 a life-long connexion with the Ordnance Survey department. His most important work was the survey of Ireland. This he planned in 1824, and was engaged upon it until 1846. The last sheets of this survey were almost ready for issue in that year when he reached the rank of major-general, and according to the rules of the service had to vacate his survey appointment. He was the inventor of the compensation bar, an apparatus used in base-measurements. He died at New Brighton on the 9th of October 1852.

COLCHAGUA, a province of central Chile, bounded N. by Santiago and Oâ€™Higgins, E. by Argentina, S. by CuricÃ³, and W. by the Pacific. Its area is officially estimated at 3856 sq. m.; pop. (1895) 157,566. Extending across the great central valley of Chile, the province has a considerable area devoted to agriculture, but much attention is given to cattle and mining. Its principal river is the Rapel, sometimes considered as the southern limit of the Inca empire. Its greatest tributary is the Cachapoal, in the valley of which, among the Andean foothills, are the popular thermal mineral baths of Cauquenes, 2306 ft. above sea-level. The state central railway from Santiago to Puerto Montt crosses the province and has two branches within its borders, one from Rengo to Peumo, and one from San Fernando via Palmilla to Pichilemu on the coast. The principal towns are the capital, San Fernando, Rengo and Palmilla. San Fernando is one of the several towns founded in 1742 by the governor-general JosÃ© de Manso, and had a population of 7447 in 1895. Rengo is an active commercial town and had a population of 6463 in 1895.

COLCHESTER, CHARLES ABBOT,1st Baron(1757-1829), born at Abingdon, was the son of Dr John Abbot, rector of All Saints, Colchester, and, by his motherâ€™s second marriage, half-brother of the famous Jeremy Bentham. From Westminster school Charles Abbot passed to Christ Church, Oxford, at which he gained the chancellorâ€™s medal for Latin verse as well as the Vinerianscholarship.In 1795, after having practised twelve years as a barrister, and published a treatise proposing the incorporation of the judicial system of Wales with that of England, he was appointed to the office previously held by his brother of clerk of the rules in the kingâ€™s bench; and in June of the same year he was elected member of parliament for Helston, through the influence of the duke of Leeds. In 1796 Abbot commenced his career as a reformer in parliament by obtaining the appointment of two committeesâ€”the one to report on the arrangements which then existed as to temporary laws or laws about to expire, the other to devise methods for the better publication of new statutes. To the latter committee, and a second committee which he proposed some years later, it is owing that copies of new statutes were thenceforth sent to all magistrates and municipal bodies. To Abbotâ€™s efforts were also due the establishment of the Royal Record Commission, the reform of the system which had allowed the public money to lie for some time at long interest in the hands of the public accountants, by charging them with payment of interest, and, most important of all, the act for taking the first census, that of 1801. On the formation of the Addington ministry in March 1801 Abbot became chief secretary and privy seal for Ireland; and in the February of the following year he was chosen speaker of the House of Commonsâ€”a position which he held with universal satisfaction till 1817, when an attack of erysipelas compelled him to retire. In response to an address of the Commons, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Colchester, with a pension of Â£4000, of which Â£3000 was to be continued to his heir. He died on the 8th of May 1829. His speeches against the Roman Catholic claims were published in 1828.

He was succeeded by his eldest sonCharles(d. 1867), postmaster-general in 1858; and the latter by his sonReginald Charles Edward(b. 1842), as 3rd baron.

COLCHESTERa market town, river port and municipal and parliamentary borough of Essex, England; 52 m. N. E. by E. from London by the Great Eastern railway. Pop. (1901) 38,373. It lies on the river Colne, 12 m. from the open sea. Among numerous buildings of antiquarian interest the first is the ruined keep of the castle, a majestic specimen of Norman architecture, the largest of its kind in England, covering nearly twice the area of the White Tower in London. It was erected in the reign of William I. or William II., and is quadrangular, turreted at the angles. As in other ancient buildings in Colchester there are evidences of the use of material from the Roman town which occupied the site, but it is clearly of Norman construction. Here is the museum of the Essex Archaeological Society, with a remarkable collection of Roman antiquities, and a library belonging to the Round family, who own the castle. Among ecclesiastical buildings are remains of two monastic foundationsâ€”the priory of St Botolph, founded early in the 12th century for Augustinian canons, of which part of the fine Norman west front (in which Roman bricks occur), and of the nave arcades remain; and the restored gateway of the Benedictine monastery of St John, founded by Eudo, steward to William II. This is a beautiful specimen of Perpendicular work, embattled, flanked by spired turrets, and covered with panel work. The churches of Holy Trinity, St Martin and St Leonard at Hythe are of antiquarian interest; the first has an apparently pre-Norman tower and the last preserves some curious frescoes.

The principal modern buildings are the town hall, corn exchange, free library, the Eastern Countiesâ€™ asylum, Essex county hospital and barracks. The town has long been an important military centre with a large permanent camp. There are a free grammar school (founded 1539), a technical and university extension college, a literary institute and medical and other societies. Castle Park is a public ground surrounding the castle. Colchester is the centre of an agricultural district, and has extensive corn and cattle markets. Industries include founding, engineering, malting, flour-milling, rose-growing and the making of clothing and boots and shoes. The oyster fisheries at the mouth of the Colne, for which the town has been famous for centuries, belong to the corporation, and are held on a ninety-nine yearsâ€™ lease by the Colne Fishery Company, incorporatedunder an act of 1870. The harbour, with quayage at the suburb of Hythe, is controlled by the corporation. The parliamentary borough, which is co-extensive with the municipal, returns one member. The municipal corporation consists of a mayor, 8 aldermen and 24 councillors. Area 11,333 acres.

The Roman town,Colonia Victricensis Camalodunum(orCamulodunum), was of great importance. It was founded by Claudius, early in the period of the Roman conquest, as a municipality with discharged Roman soldiers as citizens, to assist the Roman dominion and spread its civilization. Under Queen Boadicea the natives burned the town and massacred the colonists; but Camalodunum soon rose to fresh prosperity and flourished throughout the Roman period. Its walls and some other remains, including the guardroom at the principal gate, can still be clearly traced, and many such relics as sculptures, inscriptions, pavements and pottery have been discovered. When the borough originated is not known, but Domesday Book mentions two hundred and seventy-six burgesses and landin commune burgensium, a phrase that may point to a nascent municipal corporation. The first charter given by Richard I. in 1189 granted the burghers leave to choose their bailiffs and a justice to hold the pleas of the crown within the borough, freedom from the obligation of duel, freedom of passage and pontage through England, free warren, fishery and custom as in the time of Henry I., and other privileges. Aninspeximusof this charter by Henry III. in 1252 granted the burgesses the return of certain writs. The charters were confirmed by various kings, and new grants obtained in 1447 and 1535. In 1635 Charles I. granted a fresh charter, which replaced the bailiffs by a mayor, and in 1653 Cromwell altered it to secure a permanent majority for his party on the corporation. But his action was undone in 1659, and in 1663 Charles II. granted a new charter. In 1684 the charters were surrendered, and a new one obtained reserving to the crown power to remove the mayor and alderman, and this one was further modified by James II. But the charter of 1663 was confirmed in 1693 and remained in force till 1741, when the liberties were allowed to lapse. In 1763 George III. made the borough a renewed grant of its liberties. Colchester returned two members to parliament from 1295 until 1885. Fairs were granted by Richard I. in 1189 to the hospital of St Mary Magdalene, and by Edward II. in 1319 to the town for the eve of and feast of St Denis and the six following daysâ€”a fair which is still held. In the 13th century Colchester was sufficiently important as a port to pay a fee-farm of Â£46, its ships plying to Winchelsea and France. Elizabeth and James I. encouraged Flemish settlers in the manufacture of baize (â€œbays and saysâ€), which attained great importance, so that a charter of Charles I. speaks of burgesses industriously exercising the manufacture of cloth. Both Camden and Fuller mention the trade in barrelled oysters and candied eringo-root. The most notable event in the history of the town was its siege by Fairfax in 1648, when the raw levies of the Royalists in the second civil war held his army at bay for nearly eleven weeks, only surrendering when starved out, and when Cromwellâ€™s victory in the north made further resistance useless. Colchester was made the see of a suffragan bishop by King Henry VIII., and two bishops were in succession appointed by him; no further appointments, however, were made until the see was re-established under Queen Victoria.

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