(If 



COLDR5, CADWAI.LADER. 



COLEBROOKR, HENRY THOMAS. 



SIR 



Abbot. 

 an.1 



> 



.hot, as speaker. distinguished himself by the a t tenttoo, eomotoesv, 

 [imoiinrr with wbichh*) performed all the routine dutie* of the 

 . aad the Boos*) and the public are indebted to him for some 

 important improvement* ia the conduct of the bnsineM of parliament 

 In particular be gmve a aew and much more useful form to the printed 

 votes of th. House; and it wa* upon his recommendation, and upon 

 aplu.ofhi**osartmg.thatthe Private BUI Office was established, 



ialSll. 



He OTntemi speaker till the 30th of May 1817, when a severe 

 attack of erywpela* compelled him to rrskn the chair. On this the 

 House immediately addressed the orown to bestow on him some mark 

 of favour ; and on th* 3rd of June he was elevated to the peerage, as 

 Baron Colchester. Parliament voted a penaion of 4000L a year to 

 hiuutlf, and of SOOO/. a year to his next successor in the title. The 

 next three yean be spent abroad, principally in France and Italy. 

 After be returned borne, it was only on rare occasions, as formerly in 

 the Commons, that be took any part in the debates of the upper 

 House of Parliament ; but it hu been stated that the Lords owe to 

 blm the daily publication and distribution of their proceedings, and 

 the establishment of a library on the same plan as that of the 

 Common*. Lord Colchester'* last act of a public character was hie 

 ending to the press, in November 1828, his collected (six) 'Speeches 

 upon the Roman Catholic Claims, delivered in the House of Commons 

 and ia the House of Peers; with Preliminary Observations,' on the 

 state of the question of Emancipation as it then stood. He just lived 

 to see or hear of the end of the controversy, and the defeat of his own 

 aide, by the |>aasing of the Relief Bill brought in by Mr. Secretary 

 PeeL He died at hit hou*e in Spring Gardens, of another attack of 

 erysipelas, on the 8th of May 1829. Lord Colchester married on the 

 9th of December 1796 Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Sir Philip Gibbes, 

 Bart, by whom he left two sons. 



(Bioyrap\ical Dictionary of the Society for the Difution of Uiefut 

 fnowiedgc.) 



COLDEN, CADWALLADER, lieutenant-governor of New York 

 before the revolution, was the author of numerous works on subjects 

 in medicine, natural philosophy, and botany. HU father was minister 

 of Uunse in Scotland, where he was born in 1688. He received bis 

 medical education at the University of Edinburgh, and in 1708 he 

 emigrated to Pennsylvania, where for several ydora he practised as a 

 physician. After visiting England, and having established a reputa- 

 tion by 'Remarks on Animal Secretions,' he returned to Pennsylvania, 

 ami settled finally, in 1718, in New York, where he was appointed 

 surveyor of the lauds of the colony and master in chancery, with a 

 eat in the king's council Hia principal works are 'A History of 

 the Five Indian Nations,' ' An Account of the Diseases then prevalent 

 in America,' 'An Essay on the Cause and Remedy of the Yellow 

 Fever, so fatal at New York in 1743,' ' A Treatise on Gravitation,' 

 subsequently enlarged and republUhed as ' Principles of Action in 

 Matter,' with a treatise annexed, on the ' Elements of Fluxions, or 

 Differential Calculus ; ' ' An Introduction to Medicine,' ' Remarks on 

 the Inaccuracy of the History of New York.' His favourite study was 

 botany. The 'Act* Upsalieusia' (for 1743-44, 'PlanUo Novssboracenses ') 

 contain hi* descriptions of several hundred American plants, of which 

 800 were new species. He left a long series of meteorological obser- 

 vations, with a daily register of the thermometer and barometer ; and 

 several valuable manuscripts on the vital movement, properties, of 

 light, intelligence of animal*, and on the phenomena attending the 

 mixture of metals. Among his correspondents were most of tbo 

 leading scientific an 1 learned characters of the age, as Franklin, 

 the Karl of Maodesfield, Gronovius, and especially Linnaeus, who 

 honoured him by naming a new specie* of plants Coldenia. He died 

 at hi* *eat on Long Island at the age of eighty-nine. 



COLE, HENRY. The elaborate Introduction to the Official Cata- 

 logue of the Great Exhibition of the Industry of all Nations, in 1851, 

 bears the signature of " Henry Cole." That introduction records the 

 gradual stops by which the subject of such an Exhibition was fami- 

 liarised to the public mind, and was at last thought worthy of royal 

 support In June 1845 a committee of members of the Society of 

 Art* was formed to carry out an Exhibition of National Industry. 

 How the instrumentality of this society, which had for many years 

 been powerless) and torpid, was brought to bear on no important an 

 object, ia not, of course, recorded in the introduction to the catalogue. 

 The society was mainly revived by the exertions of Mr. Cole. He had 

 always taken a deep interest in the diffusion of a knowlege of Art, in 

 cooniction with Industry ; and had induced some manufacturers of 

 porcelain and earthenware to make copix of work* of art, as statuettes, 

 and to produce useful articles, such as jugs and inkstands, of 

 superior design. These were the labours of Mr. Cole's occasional 

 leisure. Hi* business was in the Record Office ; and the vast collection 

 of record* hi the Carlton Ride owe* much of ite usefulness to his 

 jodMooa arrangement* for clawifying this great mass of national 

 document*. Undeterred by the difficulties that presented themselves 

 ia the undertaking of a national exhibition, the committee of the 

 Society of Art* establish* I an exhibition of manufacture* in 1847. In 

 1848 aad 1849 more favour was bestowed on their exertion*. Prince 

 Albert, who had become President of the Society, took the subject 

 under hi* personal superintendanoe ; and the Exhibition of 1861 was 

 fully determined on. It is unnecessary to trace the preliminary 



labours that were to be encountered before the great idea was accom- 

 plished. It was fortunate that it wa* carried out without government 

 aid ; and that the most successful enterprise of our time* was accom- 

 plished through the people, acting for themselves. To Mr. Cole much of 

 this success may be justly attributed. He wa* one of the Executive 

 Committee, and by his unwearied assidnity, established his position as a 

 moat valuable administrative officer. At the close of the Exhibition he 

 received the honour of Companion of the Bath, and was subsequently 

 appointed to an important office in that department of the Board of 

 Trade which hu the direction of the Schools of Design throughout 

 the country. The office which Mr. Cole now hold* in that department 

 is Inspector of Schools of Design. Mr. Cole waa the English commis- 

 sioner in the Universal Exhibition at Paris, in 1855. In this import- 

 ant position he displayed bis accustomed taste and industry ; and by a 

 salutary economy was enabled to accomplish all the purposes required 

 at an expense IMS by 1 0,0001. than the sum voted by Parliament. As 

 a writer, Mr. Cole is chiefly known by some agreeable Quide Books for 

 Tourists, published under the name of ' Felix Summerly.' In 1840 

 he wrote a popular little work for children on ' Light, Shade, and 

 Colour.' 



COLEBROOKE, HENRY THOMAS, an eminent Oriental scholar, 

 was the third son of Sir George Colebrooke, Bart, and was born in 

 1765. His mother was Mary, only daughter and heiress of Patrick 

 Gaynor, Esq. of Antigua. He was never at any public school, but was 

 educated at home by a private tutor. In his twelfth year he was sent 

 to France, and he remained in that country till he was sixteen. His 

 own inclination at this time was to enter the church ; but the position 

 of hia father, who was one of the directors of the East India Company, 

 naturally led to the selection of another career for him, and in 17^- 

 ho was appointed to a writership in India. For the first three years 

 after he went out he resided at Calcutta, and was attached to the 

 Board of Accounts ; he was then transferred to the revenue depart- 

 ment at Tirhoot. During his residence at this station, he acquired a 

 fondness for field sports, which he retained while he lived. In 1789 

 he was removed to Purneah ; and having been soon after appointed a 

 member of a commission deputed by the government to investigate 

 the resources of Bengal, he drew up, in conjunction with Mr. Lambert, 

 a merchant of Calcutta, and printed for private circulation, in 1794, a 

 very able tract, entitled ' Remarks on the Agriculture and Commerce 

 of Bengal, by a Civil Servant of the Company,' which, besides a mass 

 of new and valuable information, announced some propositions much 

 beyond the current ideas of the time ; among others, that of a free 

 trade between India and England. Colebrooke' s portion of this treatise 

 was reprinted and published in London, in 1806, under the title of 

 ' Remarks on the Husbandry and Internal Commerce of Bengal ; ' and 

 an account of it may be read in the ' Edinburgh Review,' No. 19 (for 

 April 1807), pp. 27-40. Some time before this Mr. Colebrooke had 

 begun to study the Sanscrit ; and, having now undertaken the trans- 

 lation of the collection or digest of Hindoo law formed under the 

 superintendance of Sir William Jones, be had finished his task before 

 the close of the year 1796 ; and the work was published, under the 

 title of ' A Digest of Hindu Law on Contracts and Successions, from 

 the Original Sanscrit,' in 3 vols. 8vo, at Calcutta, in 1797. Soon 

 after the foundation of the College of Fort William he was appointed 

 to the Professorship of the Sanscrit Language ; which he appears to 

 have held till he was removed to a judicial situation at Mirza|X>re. 

 He was subsequently promoted to be Chief Judge of the courts of 

 Sudder Dewanuee Adawlut and Nizamut Adawlut ; and he was for a 

 time President of the Board of Revenue, and a member of the Supreme 

 Council of Bengal He wss also for sonic years a Director of the 

 Asiatic Society of Bengal ; and many of the most valuable papers in 

 their transactions (The Asiatic Researches) were contributed by him ; 

 particularly, ' On the Duties of a Faithful Hindu Widow,' in voL iv. ; 

 ' Examination of Indian Classes,' in vol. v. ; three ' Essays on tlni 

 Religious Ceremonies of the Hindus, and of the Brahmans especially,' 

 in vols. v. and vii. ; 'On the Sanscrit and Pracrit Languages,' and 

 others, in vol. vii.; a highly curious discourse 'On the Veda*, or 

 Sacred Writings of the Hindus,' in vol. viii.; 'Observations on the 

 Sect of Jains,' ' On the Indian and Arabian Divisions of the Zodiac,' 

 ' On Ancient Monuments containing Sanscrit Inscription!*,' and others, 

 in vol. ix.; a very elaborate disquisition 'On San-crit ami Prncrit 

 Poetry ' (or rather prosody), in vol. x. ; and ' On the Notion of the 

 Hindu Astronomers concerning the Precession of the Equinoxes and 

 Motions of the Planets,' in vol. xii. To the 'Transactions of the 

 Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain,' after his return to his native 

 country, he contributed a ' Discourse,' read at the institution ut the 

 Society (15th March 1823), and other papers, in vol. i. ; and five 

 papers ' On the Philosophy of the Hindus,' in vols. i. and ii. ; and hu 

 was also an occasional writer in the 'Asiatic Journal.' He likewise 

 published at various times the following separate works : ' A Collec- 

 tion of Compositions in Sanscrit, for the use of the Students of the 

 College of Fort William, including the Hitopadesa, with Introductory 

 Remarks,' 4to, Calcutta, 1804; 'Grammar of the Sanscrit Language,' 

 folio, Calcutta, 1805 ; ' Amcra Cosha, or Dictionary of the Sanscrit 

 Language, by A mere Sinha, with an English Interpretation and Anno- 

 tations,' 4to, Calcutta, 1808; 'Two Treatises on the Hindu Law of 

 Inheritance, translated from the Sanscrit,' 4to, Calcutta, 1810 ; 

 ' Algebra, with Arithmetic and Mensuration, from the Sanscrit of 



