COL 



Colbert, tion, however, was occupied by the grander project of 

 ',-' promoting the commercial importance of his country. 

 As a preparatory step to the completion of his magnifi- 

 cent designs, he increased the royal navy far beyond its 

 former strength ; and having thus secured protection 

 for future adventurers in trade, he determined, notwith- 

 standing all the misfortunes and failures of his predeces 

 sors, to revive the French East India Company. For 

 this purpose it was necessary, not only to acquire an ac- 

 curate and comprehensive knowledge of every thing re- 

 quisite to ensure the success of his project, but to give 

 a new impulse to the public mind, discouraged by so 

 many disappointments. Having procured, therefore, 

 the necessary information from those mercantile people 

 who were most conversant with East India affairs, he 

 employed the pens of the most able academicians to ex- 

 plain and recommend his views, and thus to engage the 

 hopes and energies of the nation in their promotion. 

 By these exertions he completely succeeded, and had 

 the honour of accomplishing an object which had baffled 

 the most strenuous efforts, and disappointed the most 

 sanguine hopes of some of the ablest politicians of France. 

 The establishment of the East India Company, was 

 followed by that of the West India and African Com- 

 panies, from which many important advantages accrued 

 to his country. While thus occupied in the extension 

 of. its commerce, he did not overlook its internal manu- 

 factures : and scarcely a year of his ministry passed with- 

 out the introduction of some new manufacture, or of 

 some improvement in those previously established, to 

 employ the industry of his countrymen, and to amelio- 

 rate their condition. Perhaps nothing contributed more 

 essentially to these important ends, than the grand canal 

 of Languedoc, by which he united the two seas that 

 bound the opposite coasts of France. This magnificent 

 undertaking, which was completed in fourteen years, 

 will entitle Colbert to the perpetual gratitude of the 

 French nation. By his zealous encouragement of litera- 

 ture and the arts, he has established as indisputable a claim 

 to the gratitude and admiration of the learned in every 

 country, and to the latest posterity. He established the 

 French academy of painting ; the institution of die 

 academy of science was owing in a great measure to his 

 patronage and his exertions ; and the academy of inscrip- 

 tions took its rise from an assembly of some literati in 

 his houte for the purpose of furnishing designs for the 

 king's medals. On the theological student he has con- 

 ferred an important favour, by the collection of those 

 manuscripts of the Greek Testament, which are known 

 by the name of Codices Colbertini, and are now in the 

 royal library of Paris. Five of these MSS. containing 

 the four gospels, of which two are referred to the lltn 

 century, were collated by Simon, and their readings no- 

 ted in the margin of Curcellzus's edition of the Greek 

 Testament. Mills, in his edition of the Greek Testa- 

 ment, has given a variety of readings from seven other 

 Colbert MSS ; made very superficially by Larroque, and 

 communicated by Alix. One of these, divided by Mill 

 into three separate MSS. contains the whole New Tes- 

 tament, except the book of Revelation, and was suppo- 

 sed, in Mill's time, to be 600 years old. Griesbach. in 

 his Symbols, defendi this MS. against the suspicion of 

 its having been altered from the Latin, assures us that 

 its readings harmonize with those of Origen, refers it to 

 the eleventh or twelfth century, and esteems it a MS. of 

 great value. Wetstein collated, in 1715, twelve other 

 Codices Colbertini, which are merely lectionaria of the 

 four gospels. 

 VOL. vi. PABT ir. 



729 COL 



Colbert, after a life of extensive usefulness, and after Colchester, 

 having filled many important situations in the state, died ^- Y""' 

 in September 1683, in the 6'5th year of his age, leaving 

 behind him few equals for uncorrupted integrity, grand 

 views, and extensive knowledge as a politician, with a 

 zeal and perseverance before which the most formidable 

 obstacles were compelled to yield. See Voltaire's Age 

 of Louis XI V. Histoire de France. Univ. Hist. Nou- 

 vel/e Diclionaire Hislorique. For an account of the 

 Codices Colbertini, the reader may consult, Bibliot/iccfi 

 Colbertina, Parisiis, 1728 ; Montfaucon's Bibliolheea- 

 rum, torn, ii.; the second volume of the Catalogue MSS. 

 BMiot/ieccB Regi<s; and Michaelis's Introduction to 

 the New Testament by Marsh, vol ii. iii. (k) 



COLCHESTER, a town of England, in the county 

 of Essex, is situated on the banks of the navigable river 

 Colne, on the top and northern side of a gentle eminence. 

 The river, which is crossed by three bridges, flows on 

 the north and east sides of the town. Although the 

 greatest care was taken to preserve the ancient walls 

 which surrounded the town, and consisted of stone and 

 Roman brick, yet they are now in a great measure 

 destroyed. When the walls were perfect, they enclosed 

 an area of 108 acres, and the town was entered by four 

 principal gates and three posterns. Several bastions, 

 and an old Roman fort, contributed to the strength of the 

 town, and deep ditches were cut where the defences were 

 weakest. The part of the town with the out walls is ex- 

 tremely irregular. The principal street, which stretches 

 due east and west, is adorned with several elegant houses 

 and shops, but is broken by the intervention of the old 

 market house and other small buildings. 



Upon an eminence, called the Bailey, in the centre of 

 the town, to the north of the high street, stand the ve- 

 nerable ruins of the castle, built by Edward, son of Al- 

 fred the Great. The outer walls of the keep, which are 

 remarkably thick and solid, are nearly perfect, and, like 

 the rest of the building, seem to be constructed of stone,' 

 flint, and brick. The principal public buildings in Col- 

 chester, are the Baize-hall, where the goodness of the 

 baize manufacture is tried by a corporation ; the Guild- 

 hall, called also the Moot-hall, built by Eudo ; the town 

 gaol; the work- house ; the theatre; the free gram- 

 mar school ; the barracks, for cavalry and infantry ; 

 the public churches ; the ruins of St John's Abbey, and 

 St Botolph'a Priory; and several charity-schools, and 

 almshouses. 



St John's Abbey, which was a very magnificent build- 

 ing, was founded in 1097 by Eudo Dapifer ; but very 

 little more than the entrance gateway, built with hewn 

 stone and flint, now remains. The construction of 

 the abbey church was singular, having a central tower 

 with circular angles terminated by small spires of a co- 

 nical form. The priory church, which contains some 

 interesting specimens of interlacing arches and brick or- 

 naments, was almost demolished during the civil wars. 

 The original length of the building within the walls was 

 108 feet, and its brradth, including the nave and aisles, 

 44 feet. St Mary Magdalen's hospital was founded for 

 persons afflicted with leprosy. It consists of a few old 

 buildings to the north of St Magdalen's church. Tin- 

 principal churches are St James's, founded about the 

 reign of Edward II. and consisting of a body, chancel 

 and side aisles, with a square tower at the west end ; 

 All Saints church, built before 1356, and having its 

 tower chiefly ot flint, with some (.tone work at the angles ; 

 St Nicholas's church, which is partly in ruins, the tower 

 having fallen in through the body and chancel some years 

 4z 



