Page images
PDF
EPUB

Here is the sketch of Coleridge as he appeared to a contemporary:

Fair-haired and tall, slim but of stately mien,
Inheritor of a high poetic name,
Another, in the bright bloom of nineteen,

Fresh from the pleasant fields of Eton came :
Whate'er of beautiful or poet sung

Or statesman uttered, round his memory clung;
Before him shone resplendent heights of fame.
With friends around the board, no wit so fine
To wing the jest, the sparkling tale to tell ;
Yet ofttimes listening in St. Mary's shrine,

Profounder moods upon his spirit fell:

We heard him then, England has heard him since,
Uphold the fallen, make the guilty wince,

And the hushed Senate have confessed the spell. The other Balliol scholars celebrated in the same poem were Clough, Pritchard, Archbishop Temple of Canterbury, Riddell, Matthew Arnold, and Seymour. The last of these, a man of very great promise, died early at Laibach in Carniola. His sister was Coleridge's first wife; they were married when Coleridge was only five and twenty, and just about the same time he was called to the Bar. Coleridge used to say that the difference between his father and himself was that the former had started in life with a thousand pounds he had borrowed, while, with better fortune, he had started with a thousand pounds of his own. He was called to the Bar on 6th November 1846, and went the Western Circuit, rising steadily, through more than twenty years of hard work, till in July 1865 he was returned as member for Exeter in the Liberal interest. The impression which he made on the heads of his party was so favourable that they determined, early in the session of 1867, to put him forward as the protagonist of their attack on the Conservative Government. that move seemed to many of their staunchest adherents unwise, and it was frustrated by the active opposition of a section, including Hastings Russell (later ninth duke of Bedford), his brother Arthur, member for Tavistock, Alexander Mitchell of Stow, Kinglake, and Henry Seymour. They met to deliberate in the Tea-room of the House, and were afterwards sometimes confounded with the Tea-room party which was of subsequent formation and under the guidance of a different group. The protest was sufficient to prevent the contemplated attack being made, but the Liberals returned to power in good time with a large majority behind them in 1868. Coleridge was made, first, Solicitor-, and then Attorney-General.

But

As early as 1863 a small body of Oxford men in Parliament had opened fire against the legislation which kept their University bound by ecclesiastical swaddling clothes. They had made a good deal of progress in converting the House of Commons to their views before the General Election of 1865. That election having brought Coleridge into Parliament, he was hailed as a most valuable ally, whose great University distinction, brilliant success as an orator at the Bar, and hereditary connexion with the High Church party, entitled him to take the lead in a movement which, although gathering strength, was yet very far from having achieved complete success. The clericallyminded section of the Conservative party could not but listen to the son of Sir John Coleridge, the godson of Keble, and the representative of the man who had been the indirect cause of the Anglican revival of 1833,-for John Stuart Mill was right when he said that Coleridge and Bentham were, so far as England was concerned, the leaders of the two chief movements of their times: "it was they who taught the teachers, and who were the two great seminal minds."

Walking up one evening from the House of Commons to dine at the Athenæum with Henry Bruce (afterwards

Lord Aberdare) and another friend, Coleridge said: "There is a trial coming on which will be one of the most remarkable causes célèbres that has ever been heard of." This was the Tichborne case, of which so much was said ere many weeks had passed over, and which led to proceedings in the criminal courts rising almost to the dignity of a political event. These two trials were the most conspicuous features of Coleridge's later years at the Bar, and tasked his powers as an advocate to the uttermost, though he was assisted by the splendid abilities and industry of Charies (afterwards Lord) Bowen. In November 1873 Coleridge succeeded Sir W. Bovill as Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and was immediately afterwards raised to the Peerage as Baron Coleridge of Ottery St Mary. In 1880 he was made Lord Chief Justice of England on the death of Sir Alexander Cockburn.

In jury cases his quickness in apprehending facts and his lucidity in arranging them were very remarkable indeed. He was not one of the most learned of lawyers, but he was a great deal more learned than many people believed him to be, and as an ecclesiastical lawyer had perhaps few or no superiors. His fault a natural fault in one who had been so successful as an advocate-was that of being too apt to take one side. He allowed, also, certain political or class prepossessions to interfere somewhat with the even course of justice. A game-preserving landlord had not to thank the gods when his case, however buttressed by undoubted right, came before Coleridge. Towards the end of his life his health failed, and he became somewhat indolent. On the whole, he was not so strong a man in his judicial capacity as Campbell or Cockburn; but when all has been said that could reasonably be said in his disparagement, even Rhadamanthus would have to admit that his scholarship, his refinement, his power of oratory, and his character raised the tone of the Bench while he sat upon it, and that if it has been adorned by greater judicial abilities, it has hardly ever been adorned by a greater combination of varied merits. It is curious to observe that of all judges the man whom he put highest was one very unlike himself, the great Master of the Rolls, Sir William Grant. He died in harness. Early in the 'nineties his friends could see that he began to feel his age. He made, indeed, no secret of it; but he might have lasted a little longer if a summer cold had not precipitated the end. He died on 14th June 1894.

Coleridge's work, first as a barrister and then as a judge, prevented his publishing as much as he otherwise would have done, but his addresses and papers would, if collected, fill several volumes and do much honour to his memory. One of the best, and one most eminently characteristic of the man, was his Inaugural Address to the Philosophical Institution at Edinburgh in 1870. He was an exceptionally good letter-writer. Of travel he had very little experience. He had hardly entered Paris; once, quite near the end of his career, he spent a few days in Holland, and came back a willing slave to the genius of Rembrandt; but his longest absence from England was a visit to the United States, which had something of a business character. It is strange that a man so steeped in Greek and Roman poetry, so deeply interested in the past, present, and future of Christianity, never saw Rome, or Athens, or the Holy Land. The chief cause, no doubt, was the fatal custom of neglecting modern languages at English schools. He felt himself at a disadvantage when he passed beyond English-speaking lands, and cordially disliked the situation. No notice of Coleridge can omit to make mention of his extraordinary store of anecdotes, which were nearly always connected with Eton, Oxford, the Bar, or the Bench. His exquisite voice, considerable

[graphic]

power of mimicry, and perfect method of narration added greatly to the charm. He once told, at the table of Dr Jowett, Master of Balliol, anecdotes through the whole of dinner on Saturday evening, through the whole of breakfast, lunch, and dinner the next day, through the whole journey on Monday morning from Oxford to Paddington, without ever once repeating himself. He was frequently to be seen at the Athenæum, was a member both of Grillion's and The Club, as well as of the Literary Society, of which he was president, and whose meetings he very rarely missed. Bishop Copleston is said to have divided the human race into three classes,-men, women, and Coleridges. If he did so, he meant, no doubt, to imply that the men of the family whose chief example was the poet of "Christabel" had a certain feminine charm combined with a trace of feminine weakness. In John Duke Coleridge the charm was certainly present.

Coleridge's first wife died in 1878. She was an artist of real genius, and her portrait of Cardinal Newman was considered much better than the one by Millais. A short notice of her by Dean Church of St Paul's was published in the Guardian on 13th February 1878, and was reprinted in her husband's privately printed collection of poems. Coleridge remained for many years a widower, but married in 1886 Amy Augusta Jackson Lawford, daughter of Henry Baring Lawford, Esq., who survived him. He was succeeded in the peerage by his eldest son, Bernard John Seymour. (M. G. D.)

Colfax, Schuyler (1823-1885), vice-president❘ of the United States, was born in New York City on the 23rd of March 1823, and died in Mankato, Minn., 13th January 1885. After a meagre education he served as a clerk in Indiana, and then turned to journalism. From 1855 to 1869 he was a Republican representative in Congress from Indiana. In 1863 he was elected Speaker of the House, and served for three terms. In 1868 he was elected vice-president on the ticket with General Grant. Owing to his alleged connexion with the corrupt distribution of shares of stock in the Crédit Mobilier he was not renominated. In later years he was best known as a popular lecturer.

Colima, one of the smallest states of Mexico, bounded by the state of Jalisco on the N., N.E., and W., by that of Michoacan on the E., and by the Pacific on the S., with an area of 2273 square miles, including the islands of Revill Gigedo. The population in 1879 was 65,827, and in 1895 it was 55,752. The principal industries are agriculture, stock-raising, and the exploitation of the salt deposits; the products are coffee, cacao, tobacco, rice, cotton, indigo, sugar-cane, cereals, and leguminous plants. The state is divided into three partidos and seven municipalities. The capital, Colima, 570 miles from Mexico City, has a population of 18,977, and is situated in a beautiful and fertile valley, irrigated by the Colima river. The city has good public buildings, a cathedral, theatre, and a fine market-house. It has tramways and an electric light system. Amongst other towns are Manzanillo, Coquimatlan, Ixtahuacan, Almoloyan, Comala.

Colle di Val d'Elsa, a town and episcopal see of the province of Siena, Tuscany, Italy, 21 miles north-west from Siena, 13 by rail to Poggibonsi. It consists of two quarters, the upper old town, with a 13thcentury cathedral, and the lower new town, with busy ironworks, glass, pottery, paper, and brick factories. There is a technical school (1873). Here the Florentines defeated the Sienese in 1269. Population, about 6000.

College Point, formerly a village of Queens county, New York, U.S.A., but since January 1, 1898, a part of the borough of Queens, one of the five boroughs constituting the city of New York; on the east shore of Flushing Bay, an arm of Long Island Sound. Population (1880), 4192; (1890), 6127. (See NEW YORK CITY.)

Colley, Sir George Pomeroy (1835-1881), British general, third son of George Pomeroy Colley of Rathangan, Co. Kildare, Ireland, and grandson of the fourth Viscount Harberton, was born on the 1st of November 1835, and entered the 2nd Queen's Regiment from Sandhurst as ensign in 1852. From 1854 to 1860 he served in South Africa, and was employed in surveying and as a magistrate in charge of the Bashi river district in Kaffraria. Early in 1860 he went with his regiment to China to join the Anglo-French Expedition, and took part in the capture of the Taku Forts and the entry into Peking (medal and clasp), returning to South Africa to complete his work in Kaffraria (brevetmajority). In 1862 he entered the Staff College and passed out in one year with honours. After serving as brigade-major at Devonport for five years he went to the War Office in 1870 to assist in the preparation of Mr Cardwell's measures of army reform. He was appointed professor of military administration at the Staff College in in 1871. Early in 1873 he joined Sir Garnet Wolseley at the Gold Coast, where he took charge of the transport, and the success of the Ashanti Expedition was in no small degree due to his exertions (medal, brevet colonelcy, and C.B.). In 1875 he accompanied Wolseley to Natal (C.M.G.). On his return home he was appointed military secretary to Lord Lytton, Governor-General of India, and in 1877 private secretary (K.C.S.I.). In 1879 he joined Wolseley as Chief of the Staff and Brigadier-General in S.E. Africa, but, on the murder of Cavagnari at Kabul, returned to India. In 1880 he succeeded Wolseley in S.E. Africa as High Commissioner and General Commanding, and conducted the operations against the rebel Boers. He was defeated at Lang's Nek and at the Ingogo river, and killed at Majuba Hill on 27th February 1881. Colley contributed to periodical literature, and wrote the article "Army" in the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. He had a very high reputation not only for a theoretical knowledge of military affairs, but also as a practical soldier; and his disastrous failure against the Boers completely upset all the estimates that had been made of his abilities.

Collier, John Payne (1789-1883), English critic, was born in London, 11th January 1789. His father's connexion with the press obtained for him a position on the Morning Chronicle as leader writer, dramatic critic, and reporter, which continued till 1847; he was also called to the Bar. All the time he could spare, however, was given to the study of Shakespeare and the early English drama. After some minor publications he produced, in 1831, his History of English Dramatic Poetry and Annals of the Stage, a badly arranged but valuable work. It obtained for him the post of librarian to the duke of Devonshire, and access to the chief collections of early English literature throughout the kingdom. These opportunities were unhappily misused to effect a series of literary fabrications, which may be charitably, and perhaps not unjustly, attributed to literary monomania, but of which it is difficult to speak with patience, so completely did they for a long time bewilder the chronology of Shakespeare's writings, and such suspicion have they thrown upon MS. evidence in general. After New Facts, New Particulars, and Further Particulars respecting

Shakespeare had appeared and passed muster, Collier produced (1852) the famous Perkins Folio, claiming to possess numerous MS. emendations of Shakespeare by ، an old corrector." The authenticity of these was disputed in several quarters on internal evidence; and when in 1859 they were submitted to experts at the British Museum they were incontestably proved to be forgeries. The point whether Collier was deceiver or deceived was left undecided, but it must be feared that the falsifications of which he was unquestionably guilty among the MSS. at Dulwich College have left little doubt respecting it. Apart from these unhappy mystifications, which have thrown so much suspicion upon his antiquarian work that no statement of his can be accepted without verification, his literary career was useful and honourable. He published excellent editions of Shakespeare and Spenser, reprinted a great number of early English tracts of extreme rarity, and rendered good service to the numerous antiquarian societies with which he was connected. His Old Man's Diary is an interesting record, though even here the taint of fabrication is not absent. Unfortunately what he did amiss is more striking to the imagination than what he did aright, and he will be chiefly remembered by it. He was active with his pen almost to the end of his life; and died at Maidenhead, where he had long resided, on 17th September 1883. (R. G.)

Collingwood, a town and railway station of Simcoe county, Ontario, Canada, 71 miles north-north-west of Toronto, on Lake Huron. It is the eastern terminus of two lines of steamers plying to Lake Huron and Lake Superior ports. It contains a large stone dry-dock and shipyard, pork factory, and saw and planing mills, and has a large lumber, grain, and produce export trade, besides large shipbuilding plant and steel works. ports for the year 1899-1900 were valued at $2,657,413; imports at $277,770. Population (1881), 4435; (1900),

5587.

Ex

Collins, William Wilkie (1824-1889), English novelist, the elder son of William Collins, R.A., the wellknown landscape painter, was born in London, 8th January 1824. He was educated at a private school in Highbury, and when only a small boy of twelve was taken by his parents to Italy, where the family lived for three years. On their return to England Wilkie Collins was articled to a firm in the tea trade, but four years later he abandoned that business for the law. He found little pleasure in his new career, however; though what he learned in it was exceedingly valuable to him later. On his father's death in 1847 young Collins made his first essay in literature, publishing the Life of William Collins, in two volumes, in the following year. This gave him an incentive towards writing, and in 1850 he put forth his first work of fiction, Antonina, or the Fall of Rome, which was clearly inspired by his life in Italy. Basil appeared in 1852, and Hide and Seek in 1854. About this time he made the acquaintance of Charles Dickens, and began to contribute to Household Words, where After Dark (1856) and The Dead Secret (1857) ran serially. His great success was achieved in 1860 with the publication of The Woman in White, which was first printed in All the Year Round. From that time he enjoyed as much popularity as any novelist of his day, and was continually employed in writing, No Name (1862), Armadale (1866), and The Moonstone (1868) being among his most successful achievements. The last-named story, for many of the details of which Collins was indebted to the curious history of the Road murder, is certainly the best detective novel ever written in the English language. After The New Magdalen (1873) his ingenuity became gradually exhausted, and his later stories were little more

He died in Wimpole

than faint echoes of earlier successes. Street, London, 23rd September 1889. Collins's gift was of the melodramatic order, and while many of his stories made excellent plays, several of them were actually reconstructed from pieces designed originally for stage production. But if his colours were occasionally crude, and his methods violent, he was at least a master of situation and effect. His trick of telling a story through the mouths of different characters is sometimes irritatingly disconnected; but it had the merit of giving an air of actual evidence and reality to the elucidation of a mystery. He possessed in the highest degree the gift of absorbing interest; the turns and complexities of his plots are surprisingly ingenious, and many of his characters are not only real, but uncommon. Count Fosco in The Woman in White is perhaps his masterpiece; the character has been imitated again and again, but no imitation has ever attained to the subtlety and humour of the original. (A. WA.)

Colmar, a town of Germany, in the imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine, district of Upper Alsace, 40 miles south-south-west from Strasburg by the railway to Basel. The town still has numerous narrow and picturesque streets, with good houses of the 16th and 17th centuries. It is the seat of several textile industries, and manufactures sewing thread, starch, sugar, and machinery; there are also bleachfields, breweries, and cultivation of wine and fruit. Population (1885), 26,537; (1900), 36,824.

Colne, a municipal borough (1895) and market-town in the Clitheroe parliamentary division of Lancashire, England, 6 miles north-north-east of Burnley by rail. Area of borough, 5330 acres. Population (1901), 23,000.

Cologne, in German Köln (officially Cöln, since Rhine province, on the left bank of the Rhine, by rail 44 1900), a town and archiepiscopal see of Prussia, in the miles east by north from Aix-la-Chapelle, 24 south by east from Düsseldorf, and 57 north-north-west from Coblenz. It is a much improved town, and is no longer distinguished by its smells as it used to be. In 1881-85 the old fortifications were dismantled and the site (bought by the municipality from the War Office for £600,000) converted into a fine boulevard, the Ring Street, nearly 4 miles long. Beyond the Ring Street now extends a new continuous line of fortifications, covering an area of 1000 acres, thus doubling the area of the city of Cologne. Within the outer municipal boundary are further included (1888) the suburbs of Bayenthal, Lindenthal, Ehrenfeld, Nippes, Deutz (on the opposite side of the river), Sülz, Bickendorf, Niel, and Poll, protected by another widely extended circle of detached forts on both banks of the Rhine. Of the former city gates four have been retained, restored, and converted into museums: the Severin gate, on the south, contains the geological section of the natural history museum; the Hahnen (cocks) gate, on the west, is fitted as the historical and antiquarian museum of the city; and the Eigelstein gate, on the north, accommodates the zoological section of the natural history museum. Along this same promenade are the technical trades school, the Roman Catholic church of the Heart of Jesus (1900), a monumental fountain to the memory of the Emperor William I. (1897), and the industrial art museum (1899– 1900). The building of the cathedral was finally completed in 1880. It has since been supplied with fine bronze doors. The Great Bell (Kaiserglocke), cast in 1874, weighs 543 cwt., and is the largest and heaviest bell that is rung; it was put up in 1880. The view of the cathedral has been much improved by a clearance of the old houses in the Dom Platz, including the Archiepiscopal Palace. The new Platz is now flanked by fine buildings. Many new S. III. 18

[ocr errors]
[graphic]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

A handsome central railway station (high level) was built in 1889-94. The railway now follows the line of the ceinture of the new inner fortifications, and there are three city stations in addition to the central. Like all important German towns, Cologne has of recent years been beautified by fine monuments. The most conspicuous is the colossal equestrian statue (22 feet high) of Frederick William III. in the Heumarkt. There are also monuments to Moltke (1881), to Johann von Werth (1885), the cavalry leader of the Thirty Years' War, and to Bismarck (1879). Near the cathedral is an archiepiscopal museum of church antiquities. Cologne has, further, a large civic hospital, a conservatory of music, a commercial school (1900), a commercial high school (1901), a girls' commercial high school (1900), theological and teachers' seminaries, a girls' college (1900), and lunatic asylums. Commercially, Cologne is one of the chief centres on the Rhine, and has a very important trade in corn, wine, mineral ores, coals, drugs, dyes, manufactured wares, groceries, leather and hides, timber, porcelain, and many other commodities. A large new harbour, with spacious quays, has been constructed towards the south of the city. In 1898 a total of 3461 vessels of 1,323,800 tons entered and cleared the port. Industrially, too, Cologne is a place of very considerable importance. The manufacture of machinery, bricks, cottons and woollens, and indiarubber goods, and printing are carried on on a large scale, and there are factories for sugar, chocolate, and many others. The famous Eau de Cologne is produced in large quantities. Population (1885), 239,437; (1900), 370,685.

Colomb, Philip Howard (1831-1899), British vice-admiral, historian, critic, and inventor, the son of General T. Colomb, was born in Scotland, on the 29th of May 1831. He entered the Navy in 1846, and served first at sea off Portugal in 1847; afterwards he served, in 1848, in the Mediterranean, and from 1848-51 as midshipman of the Reynard in operations against piracy in Chinese waters; as midshipman and mate of the Serpent during the Burmese War of 1852-53; as mate of the Phoenix in the Arctic Expedition of 1854; as lieutenant of the Hastings in the Baltic during the Russian War, taking part in the attack on Sveaborg. He became what was known at that time as a "Gunner's Lieutenant" in 1857, and from 1859 to 1863 he served as flag-lieutenant to Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Pasley at Devonport. Between 1858 and 1868 he was employed in home waters on a variety of special services, chiefly connected with gunnery, signalling, and the tactical characteristics and capacities of steam warships. From 1868 to 1870 he commanded the Dryad, and was engaged in the suppression of the slave trade. In 1874, while captain of the Audacious, he served for three years as flag-captain to Vice-Admiral Ryder in China; and finally he was appointed, in 1880, to command the Thunderer in the Mediterranean. Next year he was appointed captain of the Steam Reserve at Portsmouth; and after serving three years in that capacity, he remained at Portsmouth as flag-captain to the Commander-in-Chief until 1886, when he was retired by superannuation before he had attained flag rank. Subsequently he became Rear-Admiral, and finally Vice-Admiral on the retired list.

Few men of his day had seen more active and more varied service than Colomb. But the real work for the Navy on which his title to fame and remembrance rests was done in another sphere. He was, in his day, essentially the thinker of the service. Many of his contemporaries were his equals, not a few were his superiors, in the practical gifts and aptitude of the naval officer. But perhaps no officer of his time has left a more indelible mark on

the thought and practice of the Navy. His mind was at once inquiring, aspiring, logical, reflective, and inventive. He was one of the first to perceive the vast and momentous changes which must ensue from the introduction of steam into the Navy. He foresaw that it must eventually carry all before it, that it would immensely increase the tactical mobility of ships, and would for that reason entail a complete revolution in the methods he found in use for the direction, conduct, and control of their movements-in other words, that it required a new system of signals and a new method of tactics. These he set himself to devise as far back as 1858. For the purposes of signalling Colomb adapted to naval use the methods employed by the electric telegraph. It is well known that for purposes of electric transmission the letters are represented by symbols composed of two elements variously combined, according to the Morse system. The idea of varying form is thus replaced by that of varying duration; and by suitable combinations of two intervals of different duration, one longer and one shorter, the whole alphabet and all numbers can be represented. If an electric current is continuous, its interruption for a longer or a shorter period can be made to represent the two intervals required, and the symbols thus transmitted to a distance can by suitable mechanism be recorded on paper in the form now universally known dots and dashes." Similarly, a beam of light can be made to transmit the same symbols to the eye by alternate periods, varying in duration, of occultation and display. Colomb invented a lantern for this purpose in 1861, but it was not adopted by the Navy until 1867. In some form or other it is now in use in every important navy in the world. In daytime a hand flagstaff, with flag attached, is made to transmit the required symbols by giving it a greater or less inclination from the perpendicular. fog, long and short blasts sounded on a fog-horn, steamwhistle, or steam-siren are employed for the same purpose. Before these methods were adapted by Colomb to naval use, the only signals employed were, in daytime, flags of different colours and shapes, and by night, lanterns variously disposed. In fog there was nothing, and at night the range of signalling was very restricted and its method very inefficient. Nowadays, thanks mainly to Colomb, and to others who have developed his methods on the same lines, it is almost as easy to manoeuvre a fleet at night, or even in a thick fog, as it is in broad and clear daylight.

[graphic]

as

In a

What he had done for signals Colomb next did for tactics. Having first determined by experiment-for which he was given special facilities by the Admiraltywhat are the manoeuvring powers of ships propelled by steam under varying conditions of speed and helm, he proceeded to devise a system of tactics based on these data. In the sequel he prepared a new evolutionary signal-book, which was adopted by the Royal Navy, and still remains in substance the foundation of the existing system of tactical evolutions at sea. The same series of experimental studies led him to conclusions concerning the chief causes of collisions at sea; and these conclusions, though stoutly combated in many quarters at the outset, have since been generally accepted, and were ultimately embodied in the International Code of Regulations now adopted by the leading maritime nations on the recommendation of a Conference held at Washington in 1889.

After his retirement Colomb devoted himself rather to the history of naval warfare, and to the large principles disclosed by its intelligent study, than to experimental inquiries having an immediate practical aim. As in his active career he had wrought organic changes in the ordering, direction, and control of fleets, so by his historic studies, pursued after his retirement, he helped greatly to effect, if he did not exclusively initiate, an equally moment

« EelmineJätka »