The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 135

COLLINS, WILLIAM, a gifted and ill-fated English poet, born at Chichester; settled in London; fell into dissipated habits and straitened circ.u.mstances; had 2000 left him by an uncle, but both health and spirits were broken, and he died in mental imbecility; his "Odes" have not been surpa.s.sed, among which the most celebrated are the "Odes to the Pa.s.sions," to "Simplicity," and to "Evening" (1720-1756).

COLLINS, WILLIAM, R.A., a distinguished English painter, born in London; he made his reputation by his treatment of coast and cottage scenes, and though he tried his skill in other subjects, it was in the subjects he started with that he achieved his greatest triumphs; among his best-known works are "The Blackberry Gatherers," "As Happy as a King," "The Fisherman's Daughter," and "The Bird-Catchers" (1788-1847).

COLLINSON, PETER, an English horticulturist, to whom we are indebted for the introduction into the country of many ornamental shrubs (1694-1768).

COLLOT D'HERBOIS, JEAN MARIE, a violent French Revolutionary, originally a tragic actor, once hissed off the Lyons stage, "tearing a pa.s.sion to rags"; had his revenge by a wholesale butchery there; marched 209 men across the Rhone to be shot; by-and-by was banished beyond seas to Cayenne, and soon died there (1750-1790).

COLLYER, JOSEPH, an eminent stipple engraver, born in London (1768-1827).

COLMAN, GEORGE, an English dramatist, born at Florence; bred for and called to the bar; author of a comedy ent.i.tled "The Jealous Wife," also of "The Clandestine Marriage"; became manager of Drury Lane, then of the Haymarket (1733-1794).

COLMAN, GEORGE, son of the preceding, and his successor in the Haymarket; author of "The Iron Chest," "John Bull," "The Heir at Law,"

&c. (1762-1836).

COLMAR (30), the chief town of Upper Alsace, on the Lauch, on a plain near the Vosges, 42 m. SW. of Strasburg; pa.s.sed into the hands of the French by treaty of Ryswick in 1697, was ceded to Germany in 1871.

COLOCETRONIS, a Greek patriot, born in Messina, distinguished himself in the War of Independence, which he chiefly contributed to carry through to a successful issue (1770-1843).

COLOGNE (282), in German KoLN, capital of Rhenish Prussia, and a fortress of first rank, on the left bank of the Rhine, 175 m. SE. of Rotterdam; is a busy commercial city, and is engaged in eau-de-Cologne, sugar, tobacco, and other manufactures. It has some fine old buildings, and a picture gallery; but its glory is its great cathedral, founded in the 9th century, burnt in 1248, since which time the rebuilding was carried on at intervals, and only completed in 1880; it is one of the masterpieces of Gothic architecture.

COLOGNE, THE THREE KINGS OF, the three Magi who paid homage to the infant Christ, and whose bones were consigned to the archbishop in 1164; they were called Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthazar.

COLOMBIA (4,000), a federal republic of nine States, occupying the isthmus of Panama and the NW. corner of S. America, between Venezuela and Ecuador. The country, nearly three times the size of France, though it has only a ninth of the population, comprises in the W. three chains of the Andes and the plateaus between them, in the E. plains well watered by tributaries of the Orinoco. The upper valleys of the Magdalena and Cauca are the centres of population, where the climate is delightful, and grain grows. Every climate is found in Colombia, from the tropical heats of the plains to the Arctic cold of the mountains. Natural productions are as various: the exports include valuable timbers and dye-woods, cinchona bark, coffee, cacao, cotton, and silver ore. Most of the trade is with Britain and the United States. Manufactures are inconsiderable. The mineral wealth is very great, but little wrought. The Panama Railway, from Colon to Panama, connects the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, and is a most important highway of commerce. The people are descendants of Spaniards and Indians; education is meagre, but compulsory; the State Church is Roman Catholic. The capital is Bogota. Panama and Cartagena the chief ports.

COLOMBO (126), the capital of Ceylon, and the chief port on the W.

coast; it is surrounded on three sides by the sea, and on the other by a lake and moat; is supplied with water and gas; has many fine buildings; has a very mixed population, and has belonged to Britain since 1796; communicates with Kandy by railway.

COLON, a town at the Atlantic terminus of the Panama Railway. See ASPINWALL.

COLONNA, an ill.u.s.trious Italian family, to which belonged popes, cardinals, and generals.

COLONNA, VICTORIA, a poetess, married to a member of the above family, who consoled herself for his early death by cultivating her poetic gift; one of her most devoted friends was Michael Angelo (1490-1547).

COLONNE, EDOUARD, musical conductor, born at Bordeaux, conductor of what are known as "Colonne Concerts"; _b_. 1838.

COLONUS, a demos of Attica, a mile NW. of Athens, the birthplace of Sophocles.

COLOPHON, an Ionian city in Asia Minor, N. of Ephesus, is supposed to give name to the device at the end of books, the cavalry of the place being famous for giving the finishing stroke to a battle.

COLORA'DO (412), an inland State of the American Union, traversed by the Rocky Mountains, and watered by the upper reaches of the S. Platte and Arkansas Rivers, is twice as large as England. The mountains are the highest in the States (13,000 to 14,000 ft.), are traversed by lofty pa.s.ses through which the railways run, have rich s.p.a.cious valleys or parks among them, and have great deposits of gold, silver, lead, and iron. There are also extensive coal-beds; hence the leading industries are mining and iron working. The eastern portion is a level, treeless plain, adapted for grazing. Agriculture, carried on with irrigation, suffers from insect plagues like the Colorado potato beetle. The climate is dry and clear, and attracts invalids. Acquired partly from France in 1804, and the rest from Mexico in 1848; the territory was organised in 1861, and admitted to the Union in 1876. The capital is Denver (107).

There is a small Spanish-speaking population in the S.

COLOSSae, a city in the S. of Phrygia, in Asia Minor, and the site of one of the earliest Christian churches.

COLOSSIANS, THE EPISTLE TO THE, by St. Paul, directed mainly against two errors of that early date, that the fleshly nature of man is no adequate vehicle for the reception and revelation of the divine nature, and that for redemption recourse must be had to direct mortification of the flesh.

COLOSSUS, any gigantic statue, specially one of Apollo in bronze, 120 ft. high, astride over the mouth of the harbour at Rhodes, reckoned one of the seven wonders of the world, erected in 280 B.C., destroyed by an earthquake 56 years after, and sold to a Jew centuries later for old metal; besides this are celebrated the statue of Memnon at Thebes, the Colossi of Athene in the Parthenon at Athens, and of Zeus at Olympia and at Tarentum, as well as others of modern date; for instance, Germania, 112 ft. high, in the Niederwald, and Liberty enlightening the World, 160 ft. high, in New York harbour.

COLOT, the name of a family of French surgeons in the 16th and 17th century, distinguished for their skill in operating in the case of stone.

COLOUR-BLINDNESS, inability, still unaccounted for, to distinguish between colours, and especially between red and green, more common among men than women; a serious disqualification for several occupations, such as those connected with the study of signals.

COLOUR-SERGEANT, a sergeant whose duty is to guard the colours and those who carry them.

COLQUHOUN, JOHN, a noted sportsman and writer on sport in Scotland, born in Edinburgh (1805-1885).

COLSTON, EDWARD, an English philanthropist, founded and endowed a school in Bristol for the education of 100 boys, as well as almshouses elsewhere (1636-1721).

COLT, SAMUEL, the inventor of the revolver, born in Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.; having difficulty in raising money to carry out his invention it proved a commercial failure, but being adopted by the Government in the Mexican war it proved a success, since which time it has been everywhere in use (1814-1862).

COLUMBA, ST., the apostle of Christianity to the Scots, born in Donegal; coming to Scotland about 563, in his forty-second year, founded a monastery in Iona, and made it the centre of his evangelistic operations, in which work he was occupied incessantly till 596, when his health began to fail, and he breathed his last kneeling before the altar, June 9, 597.

COLUMBAN, ST., an Irish missionary, who, with twelve companions, settled in Gaul in 585; founded two monasteries, but was banished for the offence of rebuking the king; went to Italy, founded a monastery at Bobbio, where he died 616.

COLUMBIA, a district of 70 sq. m. in the State of Maryland, U.S., in which Washington, the capital of the Union, stands.

COLUMBIA, BRITISH (100), the most westerly province in Canada, lies between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific, the United States and Alaska, and is four times the size of Great Britain. It is a mountainous country, rugged and picturesque, containing the highest peaks on the continent, Mount Hooker, 15,700 ft., and Mount Brown, 16,000 ft, with a richly indented coast-line, off which lie Queen Charlotte Islands and Vancouver. The chief river is the Frazer, which flows from the Lake region southwards through the centre and then westward to the Gulf of Georgia; the upper waters of the Columbia flow southward through the E.