COLBERT COLDEN. 



309 



the tolls ; established insurance offices ; made uni- 

 form laws for the regulation of commerce ; laboured 

 to render the pursuit of it honourable, and invited 

 the nobility to engage in it. In 1664, two commercial 

 companies were instituted to trade with the East and 

 West Indies, to which the king advanced considerable 

 sums. The colonies in Canada, Martinique, and par- 

 ticularly in St Domingo, received new life from their 

 union with the crown, and began to flourish. New 

 colonies were established in Cayenne and Madagascar. 

 For the purpose of maintaining these distant posses- 

 sions, a considerable naval force was required. Col- 

 bert created this also. When he entered the mini- 

 stry of the marine, the navy consisted of a few old 

 vessels, which Mazarin had permitted to rot in the 

 harbours. Colbert at first purchased vessels in 

 foreign countries, but soon had them built in France. 

 The ports of Brest, Toulon, and Rochefort were re- 

 paired ; those of Dunkirk and Havre were fortified. 

 Naval schools were established, and order was intro- 

 duced into all branches of the marine. In 1672, 

 France had 60 vessels of the line, and 40 frigates : in 

 1681, victorious by land and sea, she had 198 men- 

 of-war, and 166,000 seamen. By the advice of Col- 

 bert, Louis XIV. caused the civil and criminal legis- 

 lation to be improved, and the arts and sciences en- 

 couraged. Under the protection and in the house of 

 the minister (1663), the academy of inscriptions was 

 founded. Three years afterwards, he founded the 

 academy of sciences, and in 1671, the academy of 

 architecture. The academy of painting received a 

 new organization. The French academy in Rome 

 was established. He enlarged the royal library, and 

 the garden of plants, and ouilt an observatory, in 

 which he employed Huygens and Cassini. He began 

 the mensurations of the meridian in France, and sent 

 men of science to Cayenne. Paris was indebted to 

 him for numerous embellishments, and many learned 

 men in Europe received his patronage. But, not- 

 withstanding all this, many objections have been made 

 to this great minister. The most important is, that 

 he promoted manufactures at the expense of agricul- 

 ture, and left the peasantry without resources. 

 With more justice, he is charged with having intro- 

 duced an excess of minute and vexatious regulations 

 into all branches of the administration. But Colbert 

 must be judged with regard to the circumstances un- 

 der which he acted. He did all that was possible ; 

 not everything he wished. He had not such an in- 

 fluence on the undertakings, resolutions, and inclina- 

 tions of his prince as was enjoyed by Sully. Sully 

 gave the law to his master ; Colbert received it from 

 nis. The former might be called the minister of the 

 nation; the latter, only of the king. Henry IV. 

 Louis XIV. had both great aims ; but the one for 

 France, the other for himself; and this difference 

 produced the most important results in their admini- 

 stration. Sully, ever independent and sure of appro- 

 Ifition, enriched the state by a wise economy, which 

 was promoted by Henry, who considered the people 

 as his family : Colbert, always dependent and thwart- 

 ed in his plans, maintained the state, notwithstanding 

 the prodigality of the king, and rendered it flourish- 

 ing, notwitlistanding the burdens of numerous armies 

 and expensive wars. He was forced to have recourse 

 to measures which he desired to see abolished for- 

 ever ; and he predicted to the president, who recom- 

 mended a loan, " You open a wound which our 

 grandchildren will not see healed." As soon as 

 peace permitted him to breathe more freely, he re- 

 turned to his own principles, and corrected the conse- 

 quences of measures which he had adopted against his 

 own will so rapidly, that the end of his administration 

 was the most splendid epoch of the reign of Louis 

 XIV. Colbert was ambitious, but honest; and, 



living in a continual struggle with intrigue and 

 jealousy, enjoyed no tranquillity. He died in 1683, 

 at the age of sixty-four years, exhausted by incessant 

 labour, worn out with anxiety and grief, remedying, 

 with difficulty, the present embarrassments, and look- 

 ing with apprehension to the future. The people of 

 Paris, embittered by new taxes on provisions, disturb- 

 ed his funeral, and threatened violence to his remains ; 

 but the misfortunes which soon afterwards afflicted the 

 state, opened the eyes of his enemies, and obliged 

 them to respect the memory of him whom they had 

 unjustly persecuted. 



COLCHESTER; a town in Essex, situated on 

 the river Colne ; 51 miles N. E. from London. It is 

 situated on the north side of an eminence on the 

 Colne, eight or nine miles from the sea. Vessels of 

 100 tons can come up to it. It contains an ancient 

 castle, and has been encircled by walls, now much 

 decayed. It is a place of considerable trade and 

 manufacture. The principal manufacture consists of 

 woollen cloth, particularly baize. Oysters form a 

 considerable article of trade. It is an ancient town, 

 supposed to be the Colonia of the Romans and the na- 

 tive place of the empress Helena, mother of Con- 

 stantine. In 1648, this city sustained a memorable 

 siege against the forces of the parliament, and did 

 not surrender till after it had experienced the hor- 

 rors of famine. Population in 1831, 16,167. 



COLCHICUM. The colchicum autumnale, or 

 meadow saffron, is a bulbous-rooted plant, which 

 grows in various parts of Europe, and which, of late 

 years, has become quite noted as a remedy for that 

 bane of a luxurious life the gout. It is a very 

 powerful remedy, and should never be used without 

 the attendance and advice of a well-educated medical 

 practitioner, as its effects might otherwise be highly 

 injurious. It is now believed to be identical with the 

 base of the eau medicinale, which has been, for so 

 long a period a celebrated empirical remedy for the 

 gout. It is used in various forms, either the powder- 

 ed root, or vinegar or wine, in which it has been 

 steeped, or, which is considered the best, wine in 

 which the fresh seeds have leen steeped. It is also 

 used with benefit in many cases of rheumatic aflec- 

 tions, which often so much resemble the gout. 



COLCHIS; a fertile country on the Black sea, 

 now Mingrelia and Guriel, on the Rione (Phasis of the 

 ancients). The expedition of the Argonauts first 

 made the Greeks acquainted with this country, the 

 original population of which, according to tradition, 

 was derived from Egypt. The people were celebrat- 

 ed for frugality and industry. Strabo and others tell 

 us that the inhabitants used to place fleeces in the 

 streams, in order to intercept the particles of gold 

 brought down from the mountains by the water. See 

 Argonauts. 



COLCOTHAR (also called crocus martis, and 

 rouge d' Angleterre) is an impure brownish-red oxide 

 of iron, which remains after the distillation of the 

 acid from the sulphate of iron. It forms a durable 

 colour, but is most used by artists, in polishing glass 

 and metals. 



COLD. See Catarrh. 



COLDEN, CADWALLADEB, a Scottish physician 

 and botanist, was the son of the reverend Alexander 

 Colden, of Dunse, and born Feb. 17, 1688. After 

 studying at the university of Edinburgh, he devoted 

 himself to medicine and mathematics, in which he 

 made great proficiency. In 1708, he emigrated to 

 Pennsylvania, and practised physic for some years 

 when he returned to England, and there acquired 

 considerable reputation by a paper on animal secre- 

 tions. From London he went to Scotland, and re- 

 paired again to America, in 1716. He settled a se- 

 cond tune in Pennsylvania, but, in 1718, removed to 



