COBBOLD 



Men ( 1830 ), and forty or fifty more works. Cobbett 

 further the originator of Hansard's Dtbattt 

 (iHOti), and of Howell 1 * State Trials (1809). See 

 Lord Dalling's Historical Characters (5th ed. 1876), 

 and Edward Smith's Life of Cobbett (2 vols. 1878). 



Cobbold, THOMAS SPENCER, writer on parasitic 

 worms, was born at Ipswich in 1828, studied medi- 

 cine at Edinburgh, lectured in London on botany, 

 zoology, comparative anatomy, geology, and helinin- 

 tlmln^y, in connection with various hospitals and 

 colleges, and died 20th March 1886. He wrote Ento- 

 zoa (1864), Parasites ( 1879), Tapeworms (1866), and 

 numerous other works on kindred subjects. 



Cobden, RICHARD, a great English poli- 

 tician, 'the Apostle of Free Trade,' was born at 

 Heyshott, near Midhurst, Sussex, 3d June 1804. 

 His father, a thriftless yeoman, had to sell his 

 farm in 1814, and relations charged themselves 

 with the maintenance of the eleven children ; 

 Richard, the fourth, being sent to a 'Dotheboys' 

 school in Yorkshire. After five wretched years 

 there, in 1819 he was received into a wholesale 

 warehouse in London, belonging to his uncle, 

 where he soon showed great aptitude for business, 

 and as a commercial traveller he visited Scotland 

 and Ireland. In 1828 Cobden and two of his 

 friends entered into a partnership for selling cali- 

 coes by commission in London. They set up an 

 establishment for calico-printing in Lancashire in 

 1831, and in 1832 Cobden settled in Manchester, 

 the town with which his name is so closely asso- 

 ciated. He wrote a comedy which was rejected 

 by the manager of Covent Garden Theatre. In 

 1835 he visited the United States, and in 1836- 

 37 travelled in Turkey, Greece, and Egypt. The 

 result of his travels appeared in two pamphlets, 

 England, Ireland, and America (1835), and Hussia 

 {1836) ; the latter intended as an antidote against 

 the * Russophobia ' then prevalent. In these pam- 

 phlets he also ridiculed the workings of diplomacy, 

 and asserted England's mission to be the avoidance 

 of war and the extension of commerce. He con- 

 tested the borough of Stockport unsuccessfully on 

 free-trade principles in 1837. In 1838 he carried 

 in the Manchester Chamber of Commerce a motion 

 to petition parliament for the repeal of all duties 

 on corn. In the same year seven merchants of 

 Manchester formed the association which soon grew 

 into the Anti-Corn-law League. Of this League 

 Cobden was the most energetic and prominent 

 member. His lectures all over the country, and 

 his speeches in parliament (to which he was 

 returned in 1841 oy the constituency which had 

 rejected him in 1837), were characterised by clear, 

 quiet persuasiveness ; and to them was in great part 

 due, as Sir Robert Peel acknowledged, the aboli- 

 tion of the corn laws at so early a period as 1846. 



Cobden's zeal for free trade in corn had, however, 

 to such a degree withdrawn his attention from pri- 

 vate business, that he was now a ruined man, and 

 a, subscription of 80,000 was raised in recognition 

 of his great services ; and with this in 1847 he 

 re-purchased Dunford, the farmhouse in which he 

 was Ixirn. As his health, too, had suffered, he 

 re-visited the Continent, and during his absence 

 was elected both for Stockport and the West 

 Riding of Yorkshire. He chose the latter con- 

 stituency, which he continued to represent till 

 1857. He shared Mr Bright's unpopularity for 

 opposing the policy that led to the Crimean war ; 

 and on an appeal to the country by Lord 

 Palmerston to support him in his Chinese policy, 

 of which Cobden was a strenuous opponent, he 

 retired from the West Riding and contested Hud- 

 dersfield, where, however, he was defeated. Cob- 

 den spent his leisure in a second American tour. 

 During his absence he was elected for Rochdale. 



COBLENZ 



315 



Lord 1'almertiton, who WM t tins time forming hi* 

 miontry of 1859-65, with a jut appreciation of 

 Cobden s great services, offered him a neat in the 

 cabinet as. President of the Board of Trade ; but 

 Coliden, as the uncompromising opponent of Palm- 

 erston 's policy, felt bound to decline the honour. 

 After his election for Rochdale, the state of lib* 

 health did not permit him to take any part in par- 

 liamentary proceedings, but as Her Majesty's pleni- 

 potentiary, he (1859-60) arranged and concluded 

 the treaty of commerce with France. Cobden 

 spoke out strongly in favour of the North during 

 the American civil war, and in 1864 strenuously 

 opposed intervention in favour of Denmark. He 

 died in London, April 2, 1865, and was buried at 

 Lavington, Sussex. Few politicians have had such 

 an honourable record as Cobden. In all the rela- 

 tions of life he was amiable, single-minded, and 

 earnest. In parliament and on tne platform he 

 was a master in the art of clear, persuasive, and 

 convincing speech. He may be regarded as the 

 representative man of the Manchester school, and 

 therefore as the most prominent champion of free 

 trade, peace, non-intervention, and economy. 



His Speeches on Questions of Public Policy were edited 

 by John Bright and Thorold Rogers (1870). See the 

 articles CORN LAWS and FREE TRADE ; the publications 

 of the Cobden Club ; his Life by John Money ( 2 vols. 

 1881); Ash worth, Recollections of Cobden (1877); Sir 

 E. Watkin, Alderman Cobden (1891); A. J. Balfour's 

 Essays and Addresses ; Mrs Salis-Schwabe, Reminiscences 

 of Cobden (French, 1879; trans. 1895). 



Cobet, CAREL GABRIEL, Dutch Hellenist, born 

 at Paris in 1813, studied at Ley den, travelled in 

 Italy, and in 1846 settled in a chair at Leyden, where 

 he died 6th October 1889. He published De Arte 

 Interpretandi (1847) ; collections of Varice Lectiones 

 and Miscellanea; works on the comic poet Plato, 

 Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and Xenophon ; and 

 editions of Diogenes Laertius, Xenophon s Anabasis 

 and Hellenica, Lysias, and Cornelius Nepos (1881). 



Cobham, LORD. See OLDCASTLE. 



Cobi'ja, a seaport of the Chilian province of 

 Antofagasta (q.v.), on a shallow, open bay. See 

 ATACAMA. 



Coble. See BOAT. 



Coblenz, or KOBLENZ, a city of Rhenish 

 Prussia, 56 miles SSE. of Cologne by rail, is beau- 

 tifully situated at the junction of the Rhine and 

 the Moselle, the former of which is here crossed 

 by a bridge of boats, and the latter by a fine 

 stone bridge, built originally in 1344. Both rivers 

 are also spanned by railway bridges. Coblenz is 

 very strongly fortified with a wall and a series of 

 detached forts, including the almost impregnable 

 castle of Ehrenbreitstein (q.v.), on the opposite 

 side of the Rhine. In the old town, many of the 

 streets are irregular, narrow, and dirty ; but the 

 new town, which is situated nearer the Rhine, is 

 handsomely built, spacious, and clean. Among the 

 principal buildings are the church of St Castor, 

 the oldest Christian church in the Rhine district, 

 founded in 836, though dating in its present form 

 from the 12th century ; the Kaufhaus (1479); the 

 Protestant Florins kirche ( 12th century ) ; the 

 church of Our Lady ( 1250-1431 ) ; and the old Jesuit 

 College, now a gymnasium. The extensive palace 

 was built in 1778-86 by the last Elector of Treves, 

 and restored in 1845. The old archiepiscopal palace 

 is now a factory. The favourable position of 

 the place secures it an active commerce in wine, 

 corn, mineral waters, &c. It manufactures cham- 

 pagne (about 1,000,000 bottles annually, exported 

 chiefly to England), cigars, japanned goods, and 

 furniture. Pop. (1875) 29,290; (1890) 32,671. 

 Coblenz ( Fr. Coblence ) was known to the Romans 

 as Confiuentes. From 1018 till 1796 it belonged to 



