CONEY ISLAND 



CoNFKSSKiN 



407 



Cone-shell. 



<>t tin- colour inn! marking i disclosed. During 

 lite tin- inner layer of the Bhell ami the internal 

 inn of the second hint whorl undergo more 

 .11 less iilisorption. The principal genus, Conus, 

 includes >ome ~><K) living species, ranging from the 

 Slediterranean to the Cape, 

 but especially at home in 

 the eautern equatorial seas. 

 They creep in relatively 

 shallow water among the 

 rocks and coral reefs, and 

 prey upon other molluscs. 

 Among the numerous 

 species, some are rare, and 

 have been favourite objects 

 of collectors' mania. Many 

 pounds have been paid for 

 single specimens, and Conus 

 gloria-maris is said to be 

 ' worth ten times its weight 

 in gold.' C. cedo nitlli is in 

 its finer varieties a much prized treasure, and C. 

 tinnnirnlis is .-mother favourite, though much com- 

 moner form. Numerous fossil species are known 

 from the chalk onwards. Some of the animals are 

 eaten, and the shells often form ornaments, or 

 are worn down into rings and the like. The augur- 

 shell (Terebra), the latticed shell (Cancellaria), the 

 tower-shell (Pleurotoma) are nearly allied genera, 

 often regarded as types of separate families. 



Coney Island* barely separated from the 

 south-west angle of Long Island, at the entrance to 

 New York harbour, is a narrow strip of sand, 5 

 miles long, by A mile broad, with a fine beach. It 

 is a crowded place of summer resort, and is con- 

 nected with New York and Brooklyn in summer by 

 a number of railways and steamboat lines. On the 

 edge of the dunes stand a long row of enormous 

 wooden hotels, and farther inland is the Brooklyn 

 seaside home for invalid poor children. Other 

 structures are a tubular iron pier (1000 feet), a 

 look-out tower (300 feet), and a great number of 

 bathing pavilions, some nearly as large as the 

 hotels. In winter the place is nearly deserted. 



Coilfarreation, a peculiar mode of marriage 

 in use among the Romans, which consisted in the 

 employment of certain words in the presence of ten 

 witnesses, and in the performance of a religious 

 ceremony in which jianis farreus ( ' bread made of 

 spelt ' ) was partaken. Various priestly offices, such 

 as that of the Flamen Dialis, were open only to 

 those who were born of parents thus married. 



Confederate States, the name adopted by 

 the confederacy formed by the eleven southern and 

 slaveholding states which seceded from the Ameri- 

 can Union in 1860-61, and established a govern- 

 ment which lasted till the close of the great civil 

 war in 1865. See UNITED STATES. The Confed- 

 erate States were South Carolina, Alabama, 

 Florida, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, 

 Virginia (without West Virginia), Arkansas, 

 Tennessee, and North Carolina. 



Confederation, IMPERIAL. See COLONY 

 and CAN AH \. 



Confederation of the Rhine. During the 

 war of 1805, so disastrous for Austria, several 

 < German princes, too weak to remain neutral, were 

 forced to ally themselves with France. The first 

 to do so were the Electors of Bavaria and \Vurteni- 

 berg, who, in recompense of their services, were 

 elevated to the dignity of kings by the peace of 

 Presburg, 26th December 1805. Finally, at Paris, 

 on the 12th July 1806, 16 German princes formally 

 .signed an act of confederation, dissolving their 

 connection with the Germanic empire, and allying 

 themselves with France, under the protectorate 

 of Napoleon. The more important of these 16 



princes were the kings of Bavaria and Wurtem- 

 MTg, the arch-chancellor, the Elector of Baden, 

 tin- new Duke of Cleves and Berg (JoaHiim 

 Murat ), and the Landgraf of Hesse-DaniiHtudt ; 

 later, other princes followed their example, 

 including the king of Saxony, the new king 

 <>f Westphalia, and the Elector of Wilr/burg. 

 In 1811 the unpatriotic confederation comprised 

 4 kingdoms, 5 grand-duchies, II duchies, and 16 

 principalities; covering ;in Jirea of 125,000 sq. in., 

 with a population of 14,<H)8,877, and an army of 

 119,180 men. The utter ruin which overtook the 

 French army in the Russian campaign acted like 

 a solvent on the confederation, and the year 1813 

 saw it vanish like mist in the sudden outburst of 

 German patriotism. See GERMANY. 



Conference, a meeting of the representatives 

 of a number of states for political or diplomatic 

 purposes. It is usually distinguished from a Con- 

 gress (q.v.) as having only the power to discuss 

 and prepare arrangements; while a congress has 

 tin- power of deciding and concluding. But it i 

 difficult to draw a precise line between the two ; 

 thus the Congo Conference at Berlin in 1884 was 

 practically a congress. Conference is also the name 

 of the supreme synod of the Methodists (q.v.). 



Conferva, a genus of lower fresh-water Algze, 

 forming slimy masses or tufts in ponds and stagnant 

 pools, easily recognised by their unbranched fila- 

 ments, each consisting of a simple row of cells, 

 which are destitute of spiral bands or other distinct 

 differentiation of the contained protoplasm. The 

 filaments do not conjugate, and multiplication 

 appears to take place by rejuvenescence of swarm 

 spores only. See ALG^E, and Cooke's Handbook of 

 British Algce. 



Confession, in Roman Catholic theology, means 

 a declaration of sins to a priest in order to obtain 

 absolution. The word, however, has borne very 

 different meanings at different times, and the 

 changes in sense mark important stages in the 

 development of discipline and doctrine. St James 

 (v. 16) speaks of that spontaneous confession 

 which Christians make ' one to another ' out of 

 humility and brotherly love ; and, much in the 

 Scime spirit, Origen (Horn, in Ps. xxxvii. ) recom- 

 mends the sinner to seek out a physician ' learned 

 and merciful,' to whom he may disclose his wounds, 

 and from whom he may get advice. In all this 

 there is no question of strict obligation on the one 

 hand, or of priestly power upon the other. Still, 

 even before Origen's time, the word had acquired 

 a new signification. From the close of the 2u cen- 

 tury at latest the church marked out for special 

 reprobation those sins which were called ' mortal ' 

 viz. murder, idolatry, and adultery. The guilty 

 person was required to make public confession, he 

 was subjected to penitential exercises, and was either 

 excluded during life from the communion of the 

 church, or reauniitted, after long discipline, by 

 the bishop, who imposed his hands upon him. The 

 list of 'mortal offences' was extended during the 

 5th and the following centuries to all crimes which 

 the Roman law punished with death, exile, or 

 grave corporal penalty, and Leo I. (440-461 A.D.), 

 in a famous letter to the Bishoos of Apulia ( Ep. 

 168), substituted private confession to the priest 

 for public confession to the congregation. But the 

 essential points of difference between ancient and 

 modern or sacramental confession remained. In 

 the former, the church only required confession to 

 man of certain enormous offences, and left the 

 mass of sins which are now called mortal to the 

 judgment of God ; and she exercised the power of 

 ' binding and loosing ' by excluding sinners from, 

 and readmitting them to, her communion. Such 

 power is really inherent in every society, though 



