Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/209

Rh was courted for the sake of his charming conversation and inexhaustible stock of anecdote. He is said to have written and burned his autobiography ; but it does not appear that the loss of this memorial is to be regretted. He died in London in 1823.

1em  COMBERMERE,, (1773-1865), was the second son of Sir Robert Salusbury Cotton of Combermere Abbey, Cheshire, and was born, 1 4th November 1773, at one of the family estates in Denbighshire. As a boy he was distinguished for his vivacity, courage, and fondness of field sports. He was educated at Westminster School, and when only sixteen, obtained through his father a second lieutenancy in the 23d Regiment, or Royal Welsh Fusiliers. A few years afterwards (1793) he became by purchase captain of the 6th Dragoon Guards, accompanying them during the disastrous expedition to Flanders against the French. Subsequently, and while yet in his twentieth year, he joined the 25th Light Dragoons as lieutenant- colonel, and, while in attendance with his regiment on George III. at Weymouth, lie became a great favourite of the king s. In 1796 he went with his regiment to India, and in 1799, under Lord Harris and along with Colonel Wellesley, he distinguished himself in the war with Tippoo Saib, and at the storming of Seringapatam. In 1 808, being now major-general, he was sent to the seat of war in Portugal, where he shortly rose to the position of com- mander-in-chief of cavalry under Wellington, and it was here that he most displayed that personal courage, swiftness of action, and judgment which won for him his fame as a cavalry officer. His share in the battle of Salamanca (July 22, 1812) was especially marked, and received the personal thanks of Wellington. The day after, he was accidentally wounded in the left arm by a shot from one of the Portu guese allies. On the conclusion of peace in 1814, General Cotton was raised to the peerage under the style of Baron Combermere. He was not present at Waterloo, the com mand which he expected, and bitterly regretted not receiving, having been given to Lord Uxbridge. In 1817 he was appointed governor of Barbadoes and commander of the West Indian forces. His active military life was concluded in India (1826), where he besieged and took Bhartpur a fort which twenty-two years previously had defied the genius of Lake, and was deemed impregnable. For this service he was created Viscount Combermere. A long period of peace and honour still remained to him at home. In 1834 he was sworn a privy councillor, and in 1852 he succeeded his old chief as constable of the Tower and lord lieutenant of the Tower Hamlets. In 1855 he received a marshal s baton, and was made G.C.B. He discharged his duties to the last, and died at Clifton in his ninety- second year. An equestrian statue in bronze, the work of Baron Marochetti, has been raised in his honour by the inhabitants of Chester. In private life Lord Combermere was most exemplary, and the means by which he attained health and longevity (as detailed in the memoir by Vis countess Combermere and Captain Knollys, 2 vols., 1866,) afford an interesting illustration of what can be done by the exercise of a strict control over appetite and by a regular regimen:—

1em 1em  COMBINATIONS among workmen for the purpose of raising their wages, or otherwise altering the terms of their service, were for a long time expressly prohibited by statute. While the state attempted to interfere in the regulation of wages, any combination to defeat the statutory rate would naturally be looked upon with disfavour ; and we need hardly be surprised to find that in 1425 a statute was actually passed, making it felony for masons to con federate together to raise their wages above the amount fixed for them by the law. The spirit of such legisla tion survived to times in which economical principles might be supposed to have been better understood. The Act of 39 and 40 Geo. III. c. 106 (repealing an Act of the previous session on the same subject) made illegal all contracts for obtaining advance of wages or for altering the hours of work, except contracts made between masters and men ; and every workman entering into any such contract was liable to be committed to the common jail for three months on conviction before two justices of the peace. The same punishment was reserved for workmen entering into any combination for the same purpose. For the more effectual suppression of combinations among workmen, it was enacted that persons attending any meeting for the furtherance of such contracts and combinations, or persuading or intimi dating persons into attending such meetings, or collecting subscriptions for such purposes, should also be liable to be sent to jail for three months by two justices. A law so severe and so one-sided had its natural effect in promoting secret combinations and provoking acts of violence. In 1825, after an inquiry by a committee of the House of Commons, the 6 Geo. IV. c. 129 (repealing an Act on the same subject in the previous session) was passed, whereby a vast number of recited statutes relating to masters and workmen, and generally all enactments relative to combinations of workmen, were repealed. Com binations among workmen were thus relieved from the oppressive statutes specially directed against them The 