COLBY, THOMAS. 



COLBY, THOMAS. 



Sll 



II. 



_ of legislation which framed the various 

 _ of cml and criminal proem*, of commerce, of the wood* 

 sad for****, and of marine, published in 1670 and the following yean, 

 and which with all their imperfection* constituted the first code of 

 law* for France, and from which the various legislative commisaions 

 appointed by Napoleon drew most of their material*. It wa* the first 

 MparaUoo of UM various branches of legislation, which had till then 

 ded together in the ordonnanoe* issued upon the spur of 

 He also had a aerie* of law* compiled concerning the 

 and their nuuters in the colonies, which wa* called ' le Code 



A minister strict, orderly to minuteness, and averse to prodigality, 

 could not well *ympalhi*e with Louis XIV. Colbert was ambitious, 

 and strongly attached to hi* plans, which ho conceived to be for the 

 prosperity and (lory of France. In order to captivate the king by 

 wean* of 'one of his favourite tastes, that of building, which in some 

 mttfun coincided with hi* own views, he purchased the office of 

 superintendent of the public buildings in 1664. The gardens of the 

 Tuileria*. UM H6tel des-Invalide, the facade of the Louvre, the 

 triumphal arche* of St. Denis and St. Martin, the Boulevards, and 

 aume of the quay* along the Seine, were erected under him. He nUo 

 began the structure of Versailles ; but the king's passion for building, 

 thu* stimulated, went far beyond Colbert's intentions, and vast 

 treasure* were sunk in a gorgeous and useless work. Colbert insti- 

 tuted the Academy of Sciences, and those of Inscriptions and of 

 Arcliit. ire. He reformed the Academy of Painting, and established 

 the school at Rome for French artists. He transferred the Academie- 

 f'rancai*e to the Louvre, and became one of its members. His temper 

 was abwlnte, like that of his sovereign ; he deprived Mezerai of bis 

 pension because he had written on the legality of taxation, and be 

 laboured to lower the influence of the parliament of Paris. His 

 manner* were cold and repulsive ; a poet of the time called him " a 

 man of marble." Slow in conceiving his plans, and cautious in deciding 

 upon their execution, he courted and listened to advice ; but, when 

 once resolved upon, his will knew no obstacles either of delicacy, 

 Hading, or commiseration. A clear judgment, an iron will, and an 

 indefatigable labour, supported him through his twenty-two years of 

 administration. At last, seeing his rival Louvois enjoying the ascend- 

 ancy over the king's mind ; Louis preparing himself for new wars, and 

 maintaining the war-taxes which ought to have been repealed at the 

 peace; grieved also at the incipient persecution of the Protestants, 

 whose commercial and manufacturing industry Colbert fully appre- 

 ciated, among whom he bad chosen some of his best subalterns in the 

 administration, and of whose services he was deprived by an edict 

 which excluded the Protestants from financial appointments, Colbert 

 felt all the pangs of disappointment for bis ill-appreciated services. 

 Kxhausted with labour he fell ill, and shortly after died, on the 6th 

 of September, 1683, at sixty-four years of age. The people, enraged 

 at the taxes, threatened to tear his body to pieces. He was buried in 

 the iiizbt, attended by a military escort 



Colbert's first son was made Marquis of Scignelay, and another 

 became Archbishop of Kbeims. His brother held also high offices, 

 and wa* made Marquis de Croissy. Colbert built himself a splendid 

 mansion at Sceanx, and he left a fortune of ten millions of livres, the 

 fruit* of bis rigid economy and of the liberality of Louis. 



ice mr Jean Baptute Colbert in the (Eurra de Lemontty, vol. v., 

 /Wfw Jiuf t>Vn(tra, Paria, 1 829 ; see also Mtmoira de Cliarlct PerrauU, 

 Colbert's secretary ; and Par1icnlaril/i mr let ifinittra de Financet, 

 par Montyon. The several Via and Eloyes of Colbert are not worthy 

 of much credit) 



COLBY, THOMAS, Major-General in the army, and one of the 

 Director* of the Ordnance Survey, wo* born at Rochester 1st of Sep- 

 tember 1784. When his father, Captain Colby, of the Royal Marines, 

 ailed with the fleet under Lord Howe, he was sent to Dr. Crockell's 

 school at Northfleet, and from thence he entered the Royal Military 

 Academy at Woolwich. He obtained his first commission as second 

 lieutenant of engineers in 1801, being then but seventeen years of age. 



that in January 

 hen 

 the 



assistant* in that great work. Entering at once* on his duties ho 

 justified the expectations formed of him, by the intelligence and con- 

 scientioos activity which he brought to the work of surveying. He 

 wa* on a tour of inspection in Cornwall, in 1803, when he lost bis left 

 hand by the bunting of an old pistol, and suffered at the same time 

 neb fracture of the skull from a fragment of the barrel, that he felt 

 UM eflecte of the accident for the rest of hi* life whenever he attempted 

 aay long-continued menUl exertion. Though tho loss of his hand 

 wa* a hindrance to the active discharge of hi* duties, Colonel Mudge 

 wa* so well satisfied of hi* merits, that he kept the young lieutenant 

 permanently attached to the survey. 



In 1803 Lieutenant Colby wa* observing at Dunnose, one of the 

 prominent point* of UM survey; in 1804 at Beaumaris; and in 1806 

 with UM lenith sector at Uurleigh Moor and Delamerc Forest The 

 winter month* he pawed in the 'Drawing Room' at the Tower, 

 oonipnOut and preparing the result* for publication, and superin- 

 tending UM construction and engraving of the ordnance map* on a 

 scale of one inch to the mile. So thoroughly wa* he identified with 



lieutenant 01 engineer* in loui, wing tnen out seventeen years ot ag< 

 His diligence and succor* in scientific study were such that in Januar 

 of the following year, at the special request of Captain Mudge, the 

 superintendent of the ordnance survey, he wa* appointed one of th 



that great national work, that the history of one become* in great 

 measure the history of the other. In 1807 Colby was promoted to 

 the rank of captain. The third volume of ' An Account of the Trigo- 

 nometrical Survey of England' wa* published in 1811, and his name 

 appearing jointly with that of Colonel Mudge on the title-page, shewed 

 how highly hi* services had bran appreciated by his chief. In 1813 

 it was determined to extend the meridian line into Scotland, a task 

 which called out in an especial manner the energies for which Captain 

 Colby was remarkable. Within the next three years he visited and 

 observed at the principal stations beyond the Tweed, besides attending 

 to hi* official business at the Tower. The persevering labour and 

 activity required for a season of observation on the hills would appear 

 incredible to one unacquainted with the nature of the work. Beside* 

 the mental exercise of keeping all the subordinates to their duty, so 

 as to produce harmony in the result*, there was much personal fatigue 

 to be endured in long walks over the country, together with Btorins 

 and wearisome delays on the mountain tops. But with Captain 

 Colby duty was paramount, and he cared not for privation, so that 

 the work was perfect. Major Dawson in his account of ' A Season on 

 the Hills ' gives a striking picture of the toils and hardships expe- 

 rienced : "It was no uncommon occurrence," he remarks, "for the 

 camp to be enveloped in clouds for several week* together, without 

 affording even a glimpse of the son or of the cle.ir sky dnrin ; 

 the whole period. And then in a moment the clouds would break 

 away or subside into the valleys, leaving the tips of the mountain* 

 clear and bright above an ocean of mist, and the atmosphere calm and 

 steady, so as to admit of the observations for which the party had 

 waited days and weeks to be taken in a few hours." At times the 

 tents would be blown down by storms or the camps would be 

 whitened by a fall of hail or snow in July : or the captain taking two 

 or three of the junior officers and a few men with him would start 

 on a ' station-hunt ; ' steering a course direct by compass for the 

 peaks that seemed most suitable, regardless of the nature of the 

 intervening country. In these exploration* they walked from thirty 

 to forty miles a day, wading streams, crossing bogs, scaling clii. 

 sliding down into rocky volleys, Captain Colby ever the foremost; 

 and when they came to a summit which his experience told him was 

 suitable for a station, he would help with his own hand in building 

 up the great pile of stones by which it was to be distinguish' 

 observed from distant points. Sometimes the resting-place at night 

 would be a miserable hovel where no other food was to be obtained 

 than the national porridge ; at others the weary explorers rested under 

 a ducal roof and on the west coast during the hot months they were 

 tormented and blistered by the bites of innumerable midges. In one 

 trip in 1819 the party walked 586 miles in twenty-two days. From 

 this brief summary, a notion may be formed of the severe labour of 

 the survey, apart from the scientific duty of observing with the 

 instruments, which on all favourable occasions was continued from 

 sunrise to sunset 



Captain Colby's activity and kindliness of disposition were not less 

 apparent in camp than on the station-hunts. He would assist in 

 erecting houses to " shelter the soldiers ; and occasionally join with 

 the men in a game of quoits, or in putting the stone or crowbar, and 

 was a worm promoter of their feast at the close of each trigonometrical 

 season." He was quite indifferent as to personal fame, but not so a* 

 to making known the merits of his officers, and he at times permitted 

 them to publish portions of the work in their own names rather as 

 principals than assistants. His command over his temper was perfect ; 

 but ho disliked to be disturbed by curious visitors when busy with 

 observations for which he had long waited tho opportunity. Once, 

 while encamped on Slieve Donard in Ireland, the summit of Sea Fell 

 in Cumberland became visible at the distance of 1 1 1 miles, mid after 

 many trials the instrument was brought to bear upon it. " Colby was 

 on the point of successfully finishing his observation, which would 

 have been a geodesical triumph, as including the longest side of a 

 triangle ever attempted, when an officer on entering the observatory 

 accidentally struck bis elbow, and threw the telescope off the object. 

 A momentary ejaculation of anger escaped his lips, but though ho 

 could not again succeed, and the object was therefore lost, he never 

 afterwards alluded to the subject." 



He was one of the party that accompanied Riot on his trip to 

 Shetland in 1817, when, in compliance with the wishes of the French 

 government, one of their savants was pcrmitt 'd to observe on the line 

 of tho English arc. A coolness however arose between Biot and Colby, 

 and while the latter, undeterred by fog or storm, made his observations 

 with tho sector on tho rock of Malta, the former carried on his pen- 

 dulum observations on the island of Uist ; and Colby afterwards assisted 

 in connecting the French with the English triaiigulation by the 

 observations across the straits of Dover. [Bior.] 



In 1820 Captain Colby wa elected a Fellow of the Royal Society ; 

 he took an active part in establishing tho Astronomical Society ; and 

 General Mudge having died, he was appointed his successor as super- 

 intendent of the Survey, and in the Board of Longitude. In 1821 he 

 was promoted to the rank of major, and in 1824 he undertook tho 

 survey of Ireland. In this work the visual mode of proceeding was 

 modified : the survey was made dependent on actual measurements 

 with the chain, with a trigonometrical point fixed for every 400 acres; 

 and the whole series of operations was go ably combined that one 



