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COU'HKSTKK 



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for ii thorough ic,ir;_'aiii-aiioii of the entire 

 aiiiiiiiii-ti.-uiiiii. He took measure* to impro\e 

 ;ui irultuif. Commerce was extended, roads and 

 In including tliat of Languedoc were made. 

 In c\er\ way In- sought to apply tlie protective 

 in iln-ii in MI-IK- to promote the industries of 

 Fiance. He organised anew the colonies in 

 Canada, Martinique, and St I>omingo, and founded 

 others at Cayenne and Madagascar. He found 

 I'Yance with a few old rotten ships, and in a few 

 \e:irs had provided her with one of the strongest 

 fleets in the world, with well-equipped arsenals 

 ami a splendid lody of seamen. Colbert im- 

 proved the civil code, introduced a marine code 

 of laws, and drew up the so-called Code Noir for 

 tin- colonies. 



While attending to material interests, he did not 

 neglect the arts and sciences ; all men of learning 

 ana genius found in Colbert a generous patron. 

 The Academies of Inscriptions, Science, and Archi- 

 tecture were founded by him. In short, Colbert 

 was the patron of industry, commerce, art, science, 

 And literature the founder of a new epoch in 

 France. His aim was to raise the strength of 

 France by developing every side of the national life. 

 In this he entirely succeeded during the early part 

 of the reign of Louis XIV., but his work was not 

 destined to last ; the wars of Louis and the ex- 

 travagance of his court undid all that had been 

 accomplished by Colbert. The rigorous order and 

 precise rules which he established might be bene- 

 ficial in such hands as his own, but when abused 

 by a selfish or incompetent despotism, could only 

 ha\e. the most mischievous results. Colbert died 

 in 1683, bitterly disappointed at seeing the failure 

 of his plans for the regeneration of t ranee. The 

 people were so enraged with the oppressive taxes, 

 for which they blamed him, that his corpse had 

 to be removed from his house by night in order to 

 avoid their fury. Colbert had indeed carried out 

 many measures that were arbitrary and oppres- 

 sive. He had served a despotic king, who posed 

 as the representative of all that was fair in the 

 government, and left the disagreeable tasks of 

 administration to his ministers. See his Lettres, 

 Instructions et Memoires ( 8 vols. 1862-82 ) ; Lives by 

 Clement ( 2 vols. 1874 ), Neymarck ( 1877 ), and Gour- 

 dault (6th ed. Tours, 1885); and the Comte de 

 Cosnac's Mazarin et Colbert ( 1892 ). 



Colburn, ZERAH, a mathematical prodigy, 

 born in Vermont, U.S., in 1804, displayed such 

 remarkable powers of calculation that in 1810 his 

 father left Vermont to exhibit him. At this period 

 lie answered correctly such questions as ' How 

 many hours in 1811 years?' in twenty seconds ; and 

 a few years later much more complicated problems 

 were solved with equal rapidity. He was shown 

 in Great Britain, and for some time in Paris ; 

 from 1816 to 1819 he studied at Westminster 

 School at the expense of the Earl of Bristol. His 

 father died in 1824, and he returned to America; 

 here he was a Methodist preacher for nine years, 

 and from 1835 professor of Languages in Norwich 

 ('Diversity, Vermont, where he died 2d March 

 1840. His remarkable faculty disappeared as he 

 grew to manhood. 



Colchester, an ancient municipal and parlia- 

 mentary borough in the NE. of Essex, on the 

 right bank of the Colne, 51 miles NE. of London, 

 and 12 miles from the sea. It is built on the 

 ridge and sides of a promontory, with a port on the 

 river at a suburb called the Hythe, which has a 

 quay for vessels of 150 tons. It is a town of special 

 historical and antiquarian interest. Before the 

 Roman conquest of the island it was the British 

 4 Royal Town' of Cunobelin (the Cymbeline of 

 Shakespeare); and when the Emperor Claudius 

 IQfi 



had conquered the south-eastern part of the 

 inland, he founded a column here the first Roman 

 town in Britain. There are still many remains 

 of that town. The walls are the most perfect 

 Roman walls in England, limm-n-'* quantities of 

 pavements, coins, pottery, and other remain* of 

 domestic use and ponOBM adornment have lieen 

 found here. A large cemetery along the principal 

 road out of the town has been carefully explored, 

 and a valuable collection of sepulchral remains 

 found, many of which are in the town museum. 

 The tower of Holy Trinity Church has all the 

 characteristics of Saxori architecture. The castle 

 is the largest Norman keep in England. In the 

 Norman west front of St Botolph'n Priory the 

 Roman bricks are a striking feature ; and all the 

 old churches have an intermixture of Roman brick 

 in their walls. The Domesday Survey is very full, 

 and gives a complete census of the people. Two 

 taxations of the beginning of the 13th century give 

 not only a complete census of the inhabitants, but 

 also an inventory of their domestic furniture and 

 stock-in-trade, and present a complete view of an 

 English borough of the period. The Protestant 

 refugees from the Low Countries at the end of the 

 16th century introduced the bay and say (baize and 

 serge) trade, which became an important manufac- 

 ture, and spread into the neighbouring towns and 

 villages. Colchester was one of the eight 'Dutch 

 Congregations ' incorporated by royal license. The 

 wars with Spain in the reign of Queen Anne closed 

 the markets for these goods, and the trade died out. 

 The only important historical event of later times 

 was the siege of Colchester, one of the last events 

 of the Civil War between Charles I. and the parlia- 

 ment. The royalists of Essex and Kent under 

 Goring took possession of the town, and were be- 

 sieged by Fairfax and the parliamentary army from 

 the middle of June 1648 till the middle of August, 

 when the town, starved out, surrendered, ana the 

 execution of Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George 

 Lisle, by sentence of court-martial, created a great 

 sensation. 



The chief cause of the prosperity of the town 

 throughout its history has been tliat it was the 

 principal town and natural market of an extensive 

 and fertile corn-growing district, inclosed on three 

 sides by the rivers and the sea. It was during the 

 great continental wars of the beginning of this 

 century, and has again in later times become, a 

 large military dep6t ; and the number of troops 

 quartered here, with their officers and their families, 

 have contributed to its prosperity. The fishery of 

 the Colne and its creeks has for centuries been 

 famous for the quality of its oysters, and has been 

 a valuable portion of the property of the corpora- 

 tion, to which it has belonged from, or even before, 

 the Norman Conquest. Though always the most 

 important town in Essex, it lias never been the 

 county town, owing probably to its being too far 

 down in the Essex peninsula. Pop. ( 1851 ) 19.44.S ; 

 ( 1881 ) 28,395 ; ( 1891 ) 34,559. See the Rev. E. 

 Cutts's Colchester ( ' Historic Towns' series, 1888), 

 and Benham's Colchester Worthies ( 1892). 



Colchester, CHARLES ABBOT, LORD, Speaker 

 of the House of Commons, was born at Abingdon, 

 Berkshire, 14th October 1757. He was educated 

 at Westminster School ( 1763-75) and Christ Church 

 College, Oxford, and in 1779 entered the Middle 

 Temple. In 1792 his practice was bringing him 

 1500 per annum ; and two years later he received 

 the post, worth 2700, of clerk of the rules in the 

 Court of King's Bench. Returned to parliament 

 as a strong Tory in 1795, he effected in his tir>t 

 session an improvement in the legislation regarding 

 temporary and expiring laws ; and it is due to his 

 exertions that municipal bodies receive a copy of all 

 new acts as soon as they are printed. The country 



