COKE, Thomas, the first bishop of the Meth- | in Virginia he heard of the death of Wesley, odist Episcopal church, born at Brecon, South and resolved on returning immediately to EngWales, Sept. 9, 1747, died at sea, May 2, 1814. land, where he was chosen secretary of the At the age of 16 he was sent to Oxford, and conference. The revolution in France openthe succeeding year entered as gentleman com- ing a field for Protestant missionaries, he set moner at Jesus college in that university. Af- out for that country; but as he could not obter graduating he returned to Brecon, of which tain a congregation in Paris, he returned to place he was elected mayor at the age of 25. England, and devoted his time to soliciting aid Meanwhile he pursued his studies, and in 1775 for missions, and to preparing with Mr. Moore, received the degree of D. C. L. Soon after- who, with himself and Dr. Whitehead, had been ward he entered the ministry of the established designated by Wesley as his biographers, a life church, and obtained a curacy at South Peth- of that distinguished man. The conference erton. His preaching was thought too evan- this year engaged him to make a commentary gelical, and he was finally excluded from the on the Scriptures, and he made preparation for pulpit. Sympathizing strongly with the Meth- entering upon that work, which he prosecuted odists, he sought an interview with Wesley, at intervals during another visit to the West which resulted in his joining the Wesleyan Indies and the United States, ending in 1793. society, and being appointed to London, where With a view of settling some difficulties which his zeal and talents soon brought him into had arisen in the West Indies, he visited Holnotice. He rendered valuable assistance to land; and on his return in 1794, he devoted Wesley in procuring what was called the deed himself to his commentary and to soliciting of declaration, which provided for the settle- subscriptions for his missions. In 1795 he proment of the Methodist chapels in the connec- jected a mission among the Foolahs in Africa, tion, and restricted the conference to 100 of and sent out a company of mechanics, but it the preachers, and their successors. So fully proved a failure. In 1796 he again embarked had he gained the confidence of Wesley, that for America, where he continued fulfilling his he was appointed president of the Irish con- duties as bishop till 1797, when he went to ference in 1782. The American revolution Scotland and thence to Ireland. After the seshaving resulted in dissolving not only the po- sion of the English conference he again turned litical but the ecclesiastical relation between his course to America, where he arrived plunEngland and the former colonies, Wesley in dered of everything but his books, the vessel 1784 ordained Coke as bishop of the Methodist having been taken by a privateer. Again in church in America. In the same year he reach- England in 1798, he devised a plan of domesed New York, and sought an interview with tic missions for Ireland, and also established a Francis Asbury, to whom he communicated mission in Wales. Before leaving once more the object of his mission. The authority of for America, he published parts of his comCoke was fully recognized, and he ordained mentary, comprising the Old Testament; the Asbury as bishop, and both were duly accred- remainder was not completed till 1807. The ited as the joint superintendents of the church years 1802-3 were mostly occupied in this in America. In company with Asbury he work, so that he did not make his ninth and travelled through the different conferences last visit to America till 1803. When his labors until June, 1785, when he returned to England, here were finished, he returned, and established and visited Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. a mission in Gibraltar. From this time till Subsequently he went again to America, and 1808 he was engaged in travelling in aid of the attended the conferences throughout the en- missionary cause. Meanwhile he had finished tire connection. Thenceforth he devoted him- his commentary, made preparations for a hisself to missionary work. The first mission tory of the West Indies and a history of the which he established was among the blacks in Bible, and had compiled a system of philosophy. the West Indies, in 1786, whence, after visit- Through his influence a mission was established ing the several islands, he went to South Caro- in 1811 at Sierra Leone, and several missionlina, travelled through the states, and embark- aries were sent out. In 1813 he opened a cored for England in 1787. Soon after the ses- respondence with the Rev. Claudius Buchanan sion of the English conference, he went with in regard to India, which resulted in a determiWesley to the Channel isles, and having spent nation on his part to establish a mission on the some time there returned to England. The island of Ceylon. At the conference this year conference having appointed three mission- five preachers volunteered to go with him; and aries for the West Indies, Coke accompanied such was his zeal that when the conference them in 1788; and having passed through the hesitated on account of the expense that would islands he sailed for the continent, and arrived be incurred, he furnished £6,000 from his own at Charleston in 1789. After visiting all the private fortune. The missionaries embarked conferences, and with Asbury making pro- Dec. 30, and after having been out four months, vision for the wants of the churches under Coke was found dead in his cabin, and was their care, he returned to England. Again in buried at sea. He was a voluminous writer. 1790 we find him among the West India isl- Besides numerous addresses and letters to the ands, whence he proceeded to the continent church, he published "Life of John Wesley,' and made the round of the conferences. While written in conjunction with Henry Moore

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(1792); "A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (6 vols. 4to, 1807); "History of the West Indies" (3 vols., 1808-'11); "History of the Bible," and "Defence of the Doctrine of Justification by Faith and the Witness of the Holy Spirit."

COKE, Thomas William, earl of Leicester of Holkham, an English agriculturist, born May 4, 1752, died June 30, 1842. He was regarded, after the death of the duke of Bedford, as the first agriculturist in the kingdom. His estate of Holkham, in Norfolk, the rental of which he raised in the period of some 60 years that it was in his possession from £2,000 to above £20,000, was the pride of the county. His annual sheep shearing, at which he entertained hundreds of guests for several days, was reckoned the greatest agricultural festival in the world. His methods of cultivation were based upon scientific principles. He introduced choice breeds of cattle and the rotation of crops, and recommended the extensive planting of turnips. He represented the county of Norfolk in parliament, with a brief interval, from 1776 to 1832. An intense hatred of toryism constituted almost the whole of his political system, but he spoke little except when agricultural measures were before the house. In 1837 he was created earl of Leicester of Holkham. Sixty years before he had been twice offered a peerage; but he refused to accept anything but the earldom of Leicester, which had been held by his maternal great-uncle, whose estates he inherited, but not his title, which had meantime been given to another person. As this earldom was still held by Marquis Townshend, the title was varied for Mr. Coke by the addition of the name of his own estate.

COLBERG, or Kolberg, a town of Pomerania, Prussia, in the circle and 24 m. W. of the city of Köslin, on the Persante, near its mouth in the Baltic; pop. in 1872, 13,130, exclusive of a garrison of about 1,600 men. It possesses a harbor called Münde, and contains a cathedral, an ancient ducal castle, now used for a charitable institution, several churches, hospitals, factories, salt works, distilleries, extensive salmon and lamprey fisheries, and considerable export trade. The town house and aqueduct are worthy of note. Colberg has a gymnasium and a house of correction, and is noted for its sea bathing. It is memorable for the sieges it stood in 1760 and again in 1761 against the Russians, to whom it capitulated in the latter year, and in 1806-27 against the French, when it was successfully defended by Gneisenau. In February, 1873, the government proposed to dismantle the fortress.

COLBERT, a N. W. county of Alabama, recently formed from a portion of Franklin county, bounded N. by the Tennessee river, and W. by Mississippi; pop. in 1870, 12,537, of whom 4,639 were colored. It is intersected by Big Bear creek and other affluents of the Tennessee. The Memphis and Charleston railroad passes through it. The chief productions in 1870 were 12,682 bushels of wheat, 291,402 of Indian corn, 14,347 of oats, and 3,986 bales of cotton. There were 1,190 horses, 799 mules and asses, 1,623 milch cows, 2,699 other cattle, 2,735 sheep, and 8,267 swine. Capital, Tuscumbia.

COLBERT. I. Jean Baptiste, marquis de Seignelay, a French statesman, born at Rheims, Aug. 29, 1619, died in Paris, Sept. 6, 1683. The son of a merchant, he obtained employCOLAPOOR, or Kolapoor. I. A rajahship of ment as a clerk in an Italian banking house at Bombay presidency, British India, bounded N. Paris, at the recommendation of Mazarin, who and N. E. by Sattara, E. and S. by Belgaum, soon after intrusted him with the management and W. by the Ghauts; area, 3,445 sq. m.; pop., of his private affairs. On his deathbed the including dependencies, about 500,000, mostly cardinal said to Louis XIV.: "Sire, I am inMahrattas and Ramooses. The latter are a debted to you for all that I possess; but I think predatory, warlike tribe, resembling the Bheels, I am requiting all your majesty's favors by givto whom, however, they are superior in intelli- ing you Colbert." At once admitted to the gence. The people of certain maritime towns king's confidence, he began by exposing the formerly subject to the rajah were much ad- maladministration of Fouquet, whom he sucdicted to piracy, and in 1765 the Bombay gov-ceeded in 1661 as comptroller general. Colernment undertook to check them by sending an expedition against Colapoor. The fort of Malwan was captured, but the evil was not entirely suppressed till 1812. The country was afterward repeatedly occupied by British troops. In 1842 the government was confided to an agent of the British, against whom a general rebellion was aroused in 1844. The rising was put down, and the control of the state was thenceforth exercised directly by the British in the name of the rajah. II. The capital of the rajahship, situated in a secluded valley, little visited by Europeans, 185 m. S. S. E. of Bombay, and 130 m. S. of Poonah. It is fortified, though with little strength. The first decided outbreak in the Bombay presidency, during the rebellion of 1857, occurred here.

bert's administration became a blessing to France. Order was restored in the finances, the revenue was increased, and the treasury was enabled to furnish the means for foreign wars as well as for internal improvements. The public debt was greatly reduced, and the manufacturing interest was revived. Several large manufactories were established at the expense of the government, the most celebrated of which was that of the Gobelins. Land taxes were lessened and more justly assessed; the excise upon salt was reduced; highways and roads were kept in repair, and new ones established; the Atlantic was united to the Mediterranean by the canal of Languedoc, and water communications were extended through nearly all parts of France. He was appointed

minister of the navy in 1669, and the French | where Warren as well as some of the other fleet, which then consisted of but 50 ships, children found employment in the factories. numbered in a few years 198 men-of-war. He early manifested a remarkable taste for Colbert also encouraged literature, science, mathematics, and having acquired the trade of and art. He founded the academies of in- a machinist, he entered Harvard college in scriptions and belles-lettres, of science, and of 1816. He graduated in 1820, and soon afterarchitecture, sculpture, and painting, and at ward opened a select school in Boston. In Rome reëstablished the French school of paint- the autumn of 1821 the first edition of his ing. He founded the observatory and the "First Lessons in Mental Arithmetic " was isjardin des plantes; increased the royal library sued. While in college the necessity of such a and the collection of coins and medals; be- work had been forced upon his mind, and its stowed pensions on eminent artists and schol- plan digested. He was accustomed to say that ars; and enriched Paris with the garden of "the pupils who were under his tuition made the Tuileries and the colonnade of the Louvre, his arithmetic for him;" that the questions and with many quays, bridges, boulevards, they asked, and the necessary answers and expublic buildings, triumphal arches, and monu-planations which he gave in reply, were emments. He opposed the wars and follies of bodied in that book. No other elementary Louis XIV., and succeeded for many years in work on arithmetic ever had such a sale. It restraining him within the limits of reasonable has been translated into most of the languages ambition. But about 1670 his favor was on of Europe, and into several of those of India. the wane, and the influence of Louvois, the min- After teaching nearly three years, he accepted ister of war, prevailed. Then commenced a the situation of superintendent of the Boston series of European wars that partly exhausted manufacturing company at Waltham, in April, the wealth and resources accumulated by Col- 1823; and in August, 1824, he was appointed subert. He continued however serving the gov-perintendent of the Merrimack manufacturing ernment, but the reckless course which was now pursued impaired his usefulness. He had been so long engaged in public affairs that he was loath to retire, but he suffered much from the ingratitude of the king. During his last moments he gave vent to his feelings by saying: "If I had done for God what I have for that man (Louis XIV.), I would have more than deserved salvation, and I do not know now what will become of me. Thus died one of the greatest ministers of France. He was hated by his colleagues, perhaps by the king, and certainly by the people, who held him responsible for taxes which had been established notwithstanding his remonstrances, and for vexations of which he was not the author. To protect his funeral against the attacks of the mob, it took place at night, attended by a military escort. A monument was erected by his family in the church of St. Eustace, and his statue was placed in 1844 in the Palais Bourbon. Posterity has placed Colbert among the most eminent statesmen; and although his commercial policy has been the object of severe animadversion, it cannot be denied that it was perhaps the best adapted to his time and country. An edition of the Lettres, instructions et mémoires de Colbert was published at Paris in 1872. II. Jean Baptiste, marquis de Seignelay, son of the preceding, born in Paris in 1651, died Nov. 3, 1690. He succeeded his father as minister of the navy, and raised the French navy to its highest power by his capacity and energy. In 1684 he led in person the maritime expedition against Genoa.

COLBURN, Warren, an American mathematician, born at Dedham, Mass., March 1, 1793, died at Lowell, Sept. 15, 1833. He was the eldest son of a large family. His parents were poor, and during his childhood made frequent removals to different manufacturing villages,

company at Lowell. Here he projected a system of lectures of an instructive character, presenting commerce and useful subjects in such a way as to gain attention. In the autumn of 1825 he commenced a course of lectures on the natural history of animals. This he followed in subsequent years with lectures on light, the eye, the seasons, electricity, hydraulics, astronomy, &c. His "Sequel" had been published just before he left Waltham. In 1828 he published his "Algebra." In May, 1827, he was elected a fellow of the American academy of arts and sciences. He was also for a number of years one of the examining committee on mathematics in Harvard college, and some time superintendent of schools at Lowell.

COLBURN, Zerah, an arithmetical prodigy, born at Cabot, Vt., Sept. 1, 1804, died March 2, 1840. In his 6th year he began to give evidence of those extraordinary powers of computation which afterward excited the wonder of the learned and curious in the United States and Europe. His father decided to exhibit them in public, and accordingly left Vermont with Zerah in the winter of 1810-'11. Passing through Hanover, N. H., Dr. Wheelock, then president of Dartmouth college, offered to take upon himself the whole care and expense of his education, but his father rejected the offer. At Boston the performances of the boy excited much attention. He was visited by the professors of Harvard college, and by eminent men in all professions, and the newspapers were filled with articles concerning his wonderful powers of computation. Questions in multiplication of four and five places of figures, reduction, rule of three, practice, involution, evolution, compound fractions, and the obtaining of factors even of large numbers, were answered with accuracy and with a rapidity to which the most experienced mathematicians could not at