Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/1155

COL Painting, the Academy of Architecture—all these were institutions of Colbert's. He also left no less an enduring impression in other essentials to the stability and power of France. Previous to his government France had no marine. Colbert taught her how to compete even with England; he created engineers, ministers, captains, and—most indispensable perhaps of all—sailors. The arsenals of Brest, Toulon, and Rochefort, were planned by him, and constructed at his command. Cherbourg—a barren shore of Normandy—grew into a safe harbour. The possessions of France abroad were conciliated and extended; her commerce with India flourished apace; and her flag came to be known in new seas. Quite as much as Richelieu or Mazarin, Colbert was a founder of the French nationality; and his name will last as long as that of his master—the king who first formulized, L'Etat, c'est moi.—J. P. N.  COLBURN,, an American writer upon mathematical subjects, and the theory of education, graduated at Harvard college in 1820, and died at Lowell, Massachusetts, September 15, 1833, aged forty. Not long after leaving college he published "First Lessons in Arithmetic" on the inductive system, or after the method of Pestalozzi—a little book, containing hardly a sentence of disquisition, which has revolutionized the whole theory and practice of elementary mathematical instruction in the United States. Its great success induced the author to carry out the plan by publishing a larger work on arithmetic; one on algebra; and he was meditating one on geometry when he was interrupted by disease and death.—F. B.  COLBURN,, whose performances as an "arithmetical prodigy," excited much interest in the United States and Europe over forty years ago, was born of poor parents at Cabot in the state of Vermont, September 1, 1804, and died in 1840.—F. B.  COLBY,, Major-general, an able and accomplished officer of engineers, and superintendent of the ordnance survey, was born in 1784. In 1801, when he was only seventeen years of age, he obtained a commission as second lieutenant of engineers. In the following year he was appointed one of the assistants in the ordnance survey, at the special request of Captain Mudge, the superintendent, who had noticed his diligence and zeal in his studies. Though he lost his left hand, and suffered other severe injuries in 1803 by the bursting of a pistol, Lieutenant Colby soon became conspicuous for his unwearied assiduity in the discharge of his duties, surveying during summer at various important points, and passing the winter months in town preparing the results for publication. In 1813 the survey was extended to Scotland, and Captain Colby spent the next three years in superintending operations at the principal stations in North Britain. On the death of Captain Mudge in 1820, Captain Colby was appointed his successor, and was also elected a fellow of the Royal Society. In 1824 he undertook the survey of Ireland, and in the course of his operations invented a "compensation bar," which has been found of great service in making exact measurements. In 1838 he resumed the survey of Scotland, which had been most improperly suspended, and from this date up to 1846 he continued to superintend the work with his characteristic activity and skill. He resigned his office, in accordance with the rules of the service, on attaining the rank of major-general, and died in 1852.—(Knight's English Cyclop.)—J. T.  COLCHESTER,. See.  COLDEN,, an eminent American historian, botanist, and physicist, son of the Rev. Alexander Colden of Dunse in Scotland, where he was born, February 17, 1688; died in 1775. After completing the course of study at the university of Edinburgh, he applied himself to medicine and mathematics for three years, and then emigrated to America in 1708, and practised physic with great success in Philadelphia till 1715. Then he visited London, where he became acquainted with Halley the astronomer, and read a paper on animal secretions before the Royal Society, by whom it was very favourably received. He returned to America; and in 1718 established his residence in New York, where he left his profession and engaged in the public service, filling in succession many important offices, particularly that of lieutenant-governor of the colony under Burnet. He was the author of "A History of the Five Indian Nations," published in 1727; reprinted at London in 1747, and in a third edition in 1755; he also published "The Cause of Gravitation," which was reprinted, with additions, in 1751, and was then entitled "The Principles of Action in Matter." Among his correspondents were the principal learned and scientific men of his day, such as Linnæus, Gronovius, the earl of Macclesfield, Dr. Franklin, and Peter Collinson. Though he abandoned practice early in life, he never lost his interest in the science of medicine, his publications upon which were numerous and valuable. His essay "On the Virtues of the Great Water Dock" led to a correspondence with Linnæus, who printed in the Acta Upsala, an account of several hundred American plants furnished by Colden. He communicated to Dr. Franklin the first hint of the art of stereotyping, which was only carried into practice in Germany long after his death.—F. B.  * COLDING,, a civil engineer, born in the neighbourhood of Copenhagen, 13th of July, 1813. Like many of our greatest English civil engineers, he rose from the working class, and after having passed splendid examinations, was appointed by government in 1845, inspector of high roads, and, two years later, of water-works. In 1850 he was sent by his government to England and Scotland, for the purpose of studying our systems of gas, water, and city drainage. In 1856 he was elected member of the Scientific Society, and in 1858 was appointed engineer of his native city. He has had the direction of the new gas and water works of Copenhagen, as also of those of Götheborg and other cities, and the great tunnel between Copenhagen and Christian's harbour has been made according to his plans. He is a man of profound scientific knowledge, and has paid considerable attention to the subject of heat as produced by friction. Some of his works are published independently; others find their place in the publications of the Scientific Society.—(Nordisk Conv. Lex.)—M. H.  COLE,, one of the heroes of the peninsular war, was born in 1772, and died in 1842. For his conduct throughout the campaigns of 1812-14 he received the thanks of both houses of parliament, and was made governor of the Cape of Good Hope.—J. S., G. <section end="1155H" /> <section begin="1155I" />* COLE,, C.B., one of the originators of the plan for establishing an exhibition of national industry in London, which eventually issued in the Great Exhibition of 1851. Much of the success of that experiment was due to the ability and unwearied assiduity of Mr. Cole. At the close of the Exhibition he was rewarded with the honour of companion of the bath, and the donation of a handsome sum of money. He was soon afterwards appointed to an important office in the department of practical art under the board of trade. He was the English commissioner in the Paris Exhibition in 1855. Mr. Cole is the author of some pleasant guide-books for tourists, published under the name of "Felix Summerly," and of a popular work for the young on "Light, Shade, and Colour."—J. T. <section end="1155I" /> <section begin="1155J" />COLE,, an English antiquarian writer, was born in 1714, and died in 1782. He was educated first at Eton, and then at Cambridge, where he took his degree. He was the college friend of Walpole, Mason, and Gray, and he and Walpole visited France together in 1765. He became rector of Hornsey in 1749. Browne Willis the antiquary gave him the rectory of Bletchley in Buckinghamshire in 1753, and he was afterwards presented to the vicarage of Burnham, near Eton. He devoted himself with great ardour to the study of the antiquities of Buckinghamshire. His life was passed in studious drudgery, and though he wrote little in his own name, he contributed an immense number of notes to the works of other writers. He bequeathed his immense manuscript collections, extending to fifty folio volumes, to the British Museum, with an order that they should not he opened for twenty years. They contain much that is valuable, with much that is gossiping, trifling, and scandalous. His great object was to compose an "Athenæ Cantabrigienses," as a companion to the work of Anthony Wood.—(See D'Israeli's Calamities of Authors, pp. 90-93.)—J. T. <section end="1155J" /> <section begin="1155K" />COLE,, an English botanist and divine, was born in 1626 at Adderbury in the county of Oxford, and died in 1662. He acted as secretary to Dr. Duppa, bishop of Winchester. He wrote on "The Art of Simpling, being an Introduction to the Knowledge and Gathering of Plants." The work was published in London in 1657. He also wrote a work entitled "Adam in Eden, or Nature's Paradise; the History of Plants, Fruits, Herbs, and Flowers."—J. H. B. <section end="1155K" /> <section begin="1155Zcontin" />COLEBROOKE,, F.R.S., a great oriental scholar, was the third son of Sir George Colebrooke, Bart., and was born in 1765. At an early age he displayed an extraordinary aptitude both for mathematical and classical studies, and <section end="1155Zcontin" />