yields the musical note corresponding to that number of aerial pulsations per second. We must again advert (A. 97-2) to the use of the term vibration. The complete vibration in our use of the word is made while the disturbance travels from M to N. Thus some writers say 16 vibrations per second give the lowest musical sound, where we say it is 32. But their vibration is double of ours. By supposing the whole string put in vibration, or any simultaneous disturbances communicated to it, the effect may similarly be shown to be, that at the end of the time during which disturbance would be propagated along the whole string the effects are all reversed, but are of the same magnitude; while in a second of such time they are all restored. We thus easily arrive at what is called the fundamental sound of a string. With regard to the harmonics (A. 96-2) of a string [HARMONICS], they are not so easily shown to be necessary. We shall, however, first show that such effects are always possible; that is to say, that if a string begin to vibrate so that its two halves, or its three thirds, &c. are disturbed together, such an effect will be produced. Suppose, for instance, the initial state of the string to be PMN Q, where PM, MN, and NQ are the thirds. During the time in which the direct disturbance of PM would be communicated to M N, that of M N would be communicated to NQ, the direct disturbance in NQ would be made retrograde, and so on. Hence though the whole string may vibrate, each of the parts has a vibration by itself in one third of the time. If we were to destroy the vibration of the whole string by compounding with the preceding such a disturbance as would always destroy the velocities at M and N, there would then be three strings, each vibrating in one-third of the time of the whole string. The ear can appreciate such contemporaneous sets of vibrations, and accordingly in this case perceives both the fundamental note of the string and the twelfth above it. If a large and miscellaneous set of disturbances be communicated at once, those only will exhibit cycles of effects, which make the halves, the thirds, &c. vibrate together, and we can say little more without entering into mathematics. But in a string it may always be observed that we seldom hear the octave of the fundamental note, and generally the twelfth and seventeenth. No reason can be given for this which is perfectly unobjectionable we do not know whether it is the aptitude of the ear to distinguish these, or of the string to take the corresponding divisions, which is the cause of the phenomenon. The time of vibration of a string, that is, of complete reversal of all the initial effects, is 2gc, where is the length, and c is as before. It is therefore directly as the length and inversely as the square root of the tension; results which are amply confirmed by experiment. In all that has preceded we have supposed the string perfectly elastic, and without friction. Neither of these suppositions is true, but since the velocity of propagation of every disturbance is independent of its extent, the gradual diminution of the latter will not affect the phenomenon on which the musical qualities of the string depend. (A. 97-2.) The method of observing the curves in which each point of a string vibrates, recommended by Dr. Young, was to use a string round which small wire is coiled, like the larger string of a violoncello, and to observe with a microscope the reflection of a candle or other bright spot on one of the coils. Sir J. Herschel suggests that a thin slit should be made in a window-shutter, and that the string should be placed with the point to be examined cutting the vertical plane of light. This point would therefore appear bright while the rest is dark. In either case the rapidity of the vibrations would make the curve described by the bright point permanent. A single string fitted up for experiments is called a MONOCHORD. CORD (in music). [CHORD.]' CORDAY D'ARMANS, MARIE ANNE CHARLOTTE, commonly called CHARLOTTE CORDAY, who numbered among her ancestors the great tragedian Corneille (Lepau, Chefs d'Euvre de Corneille), and was of noble family, was born at St. Saturnin, near Secz, in Normandy, in 1768. The republican principles of the early revolutionists struck deep root in her enthusiastic mind; and her zeal for their establishment was heightened after the rise of the Jacobins, and the overthrow and proscription of the Girondists, May 31, 1793, by the presence and conversation of those chiefs of the latter party who fled into Normandy, in hope to rouse the people in their favour. Resolved to advance the cause which she had at heart by some extraordinary action, Charlotte Corday travelled to Paris, where, having gained admission to the galleries of the Convention, she was still more incensed by the threats and invectives which she heard showered upon her own friends. I have Being thus confirmed in the determination to assassinate one of the principals of the dominant faction, whether to deter them by terror, as an act of revenge, or as an example of what she regarded public justice, she chose Marat, one of the most violent and bloody of the Jacobins, to be her victim. After two unsuccessful attempts, she obtained admission to the chamber in which he was confined by illness, July 15, under pretence of communicating important news from Caen; and being confirmed in her purpose by his declaration that in a few days the Girondists who had fled thither should be guillotined in Paris, she suddenly stabbed him to the heart: he gave one cry and expired. Being immediately arrested and carried before the tribunal revolutionnaire, she avowed and justified the act. killed one man, she exclaimed, raising her voice to the utmost, to save a hundred thousand; a villain, to rescue innocents; a wild beast, to give peace to my country. I was a republican before the revolution, and I have never been wanting in energy.' (Mignet, vol. ii., p. 5.) withstanding her confession, the court, with an affectation of impartiality which in this case could be ventured on, assigned her a defender, and went through all the formalities of trial. The speech of her advocate is rather remarkable. He neither denied nor extenuated the act; and acknowledged it to have been long premeditated. She avows everything, and seeks no means of justification; this, citizen-judges, is her whole defence:-this imperturbable calmness, this total self-abandonment these sublime feelings, which, even in the very presence of death, show no sign of remorse, are not natural. It is for you, citizenjudges, to fix the moral weight of this consideration in the scales of justice.' Not Charlotte Corday returned thanks to the pleader. You have seized, she said, the true view of the question: this was the only method of defence which could have become me.' She heard her sentence with perfect calmness, which she maintained to the last moment of life. Her personal charms were of a high order; and her beauty and animation of countenance, even during her passage to execution, added greatly to the interest inspired by her courage and loftiness of demeanour. She was guillotined July 17, 1793. (Biog. Univ.; Montgaillard, Hist. de France, &c., vol. iv., p. 55-59.) CORDELIERS, so named from wearing a knotted cord for a girdle, were the strictest branch of the Franciscan or Grey Friars. Chaucer mentions them in the Romant of the Rose,' 1. 7461, but they were not much known by this appellation in England. The name Cordeliers is said to have been first given to certain Franciscans (at that time but recently established) who accompanied the army under St. Louis to the Holy Land. They served in a Flemish corps, the commander of which considered it his duty to report to the king not only their bravery, but their zeal in re-animating the soldiers of his division, who had been on the point of giving way. The king inquired the designation of the pious men, but the officer had lost his recollection of it; he could only say that they were those 'qui sont liés de corde.' From this they received the new appellation of Cordeliers. St. Louis, upon his return to France, gave great encouragement to these Franciscans, and founded a convent for them in Paris. There were ultimately, according to Moreri, no fewer than 284 male and 123 female convents of Cordeliers in that country. (Moreri, Dict. Historique, chiefly from Hermant, Histoire des Ordres Religieux.) CORDIA CEÆ, a small natural order of Monopetalous exogens, with a shrubby or arborescent habit, a gyrate inflorescence, and a drupaceous fruit. The leaves are alternate, usually covered with asperities, and destitute of stipules. The calyx is inferior and five-toothed; the corolla regular, with five stamens proceeding from the tube, and alternate with the segments. There is a pendulous ovule in each cell, and the style is twice-forked. The cotyledons are crumpled or folded in plaits lengthwise. The affinity of the order is almost equal between Boraginaceae and Convolvulaceæ, but preponderates in favour of the former. The only economical plants contained in it are the Sebesten plums, the produce of Cordia Myxa and Sebestena, the rind of which is succulent and mucilaginous. All the species are tropical. CORDON, a military term to denote a line of posts and sentries placed around a district or town to prevent any communication between it and the rest of the country. It is chiefly resorted to in cases of any contagious disease having broken out in a place, when it is called a cordon sanitaire; and in order to be effectual, each sentry ought to be able to see his two next comrades right and left. This can be done more easily in the day-time by taking advantage of commanding positions or open grounds; but at night the sentries must necessarily be more numerous and nearer each other. Cordon in French means also the insignia of an order of knighthood, answering to the English word riband when taken in a similar sense: cordon bleu,' blue riband,' &c. CORDONNIERS, originally cordouanniers, cordwainers in English, a word derived from cordoban, the soft tanned leather used for the upper part of shoes, which was first brought from Cordova in Spain, where it was manufactured by the Moors. A society existed at Paris in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, under the name of Frères Cordonniers, consisting of the shoemakers of that city, who formed a company, having their magistrates and other officers, and a common treasury, from which the indigent of their own trade were supported. The society was placed under the protection of St. Crispin, who had been himself one of the same trade. from China Proper. It extends, from south to north, from 34° to 40° N. lat., or about 420 miles; but the countries north of the peninsula, as far as 43°, are also subject to the sovereign of Corea, so that the whole country from south to north may be 630 miles. Its width, lying between 124° and 134° E. lat., varies from 100 to 200 miles. Its area may be about 90,000 square miles, or somewhat more than Great Britain. Corea appears to be a very mountainous country. On its northern boundary is the Chang-pe-shan, a high mountainrange, partly covered with snow, which separates the Coreans from their northern neighbours, the Manchoo. From this chain another branches off in a south-south-east direction, which traverses the whole of the peninsula as far as the strait of Corea. Its highest part is near the shores of the sea of Japan, towards which it descends with great rapidity; and in this part the level or cultivable tracts are of small extent. The numerous offsets to the west, which are less elevated and steep, contain between them large and well-cultivated valleys. The largest rivers occur in the northern part of the country, where the Thumen-Kiang, rising in the centre of the Chang-pe-shan, runs north-east, and towards its mouth east. It falls into the sea of Japan. Its banks, though fertile, are uninhabited, in conformity to the order of the Chinese emperor; the object of this policy being to have a well-settled boundary between Corea and the Manchoo. The Yalukiang rises nearly in the same place, and runs first west, then south. It falls into the Hoang-Hai, according to the Chinese geographers, with twelve mouths. It is said to be navigable for junks 35 miles (100 lees), and for barges about 180 miles (520 lees). The rivers which traverse the valleys of the peninsula have a short course. The coasts of Corea are high and bold, except in the CO'RDOVA, or more properly CO'RDOBA (Corduba, innermost recesses of the numerous bays and harbours. Colonia Patricia, and simply Patricia), was the birth-There are few islands along the eastern shores, except in place of the two Senecas and Lucan. Cicero in his oration Broughton's Bay (39° 30′ N. lat.), where they are numerous. for Archias speaks rather disparagingly of the Cordubese In the strait of Corea they are also very numerous, and still poets of his day. Under the Spanish caliphs it became more so between the island of Quelpaerts and the southern the first seat of learning and the terror and admiration of coast. Between 34° and 35° N. lat. and 125° and 126° E. Europe, from 755 to 1234, when Ferdinand III. of Castile long., Captain Maxwell found the sea literally dotted with took it. It then contained 300,000 inhabitants. Soon after, islands and rocks, which he called the Corean Archipelago, in 1238, he repelled its masters, the Moors, as far as Gra- and the most south-western group Amherst Isles. Farther nada, and prepared their total overthrow, which Ferdinand north (38° N. lat.) is another group, called James Hall's and Isabella accomplished in 1492. Of all the Asiatic gran- Archipelago. These islands are rocky and high, but genedeur of that empire there is only left its first mosque, which rally inhabited. They are rarely more than three or four is unique in its kind, but has been partly defaced by its miles in length. The largest, the island of Quelpaerts, south transformation into a Christian cathedral, more particu- of the peninsula, is about sixty miles in circuit, and in the larly since 1528, when some of its 1000 columns were de- centre a peak rises upwards of 6000 feet above the sea. stroyed to erect a chapel in the centre. Cordova was also the centre of an extensive trade, and noted for the preparation of the goat skins called cordoban, a word corrupted into our cordwain, whence shoemakers derived in England their old name of cordwainers, and in France that of cordouanniers, and at last cordonniers. Although Cordova has sunk into decay under the Christians, it has not ceased to produce literary men, among whom are Juan de Mena, Fernan Perez de Oliva, Ambrosio Morales, Góngora, &c. The great captain, although called Gonzalo de Cordoba, was a native of Montilla. Cordova at present contains only 45,000 inhabitants within its vast Roman and Moorish inclosure. The plaza mayor, or great square, is remarkable for its size, regularity, and neat piazzas. The bishop's palace is a massive build ing. That of the Moorish kings is now turned into stables for stallions of the renowned Cordovese breed. The town is situated on the north bank of the navigable river Guadalquivir, at the commencement of the finest plain of Andalusia, and on a gentle declivity which descends from the Sierra Morena, and shuts out the north and east winds. The climate of Cordova is delightful and healthy, and the soil extremely fertile. It is 75 miles north-east of Seville, 120 north-east of Cadiz, and 180 south-south-west of Madrid. It is in 37° 52′ N. lat., 4° 45′ W. long. (Ponz, Viaje de España; Laborde, View of Spain, vol. ii., p. 29; Gibbon's Rome; Talbot's Travels; Fisher's Travels, &c.) COREA, is a large peninsula on the eastern coast of Asia, whose sovereign is tributary to the emperors of China and Japan, but otherwise independent. The peninsula is surrounded on the east by the sea of Jo, on the south by the straits of Corea-which diFrom the Japanese island of Kiou-siou-and on the e Hoang-Hai, or Yellow Sea, which separates it' Corea is a very cold country. For four months the northern rivers are covered with ice, and barley only is cultivated along their banks. Even the river near King-ki-tao freezes so hard that carriages pass over the ice. In summer the heat appears not to be great. On the eastern coasts fogs are frequent; and La Perouse thinks he may compare them in density with those along the coasts of Labrador. Rice is extensively cultivated on the peninsula, as well as cotton and silk, which are employed in the manufactures of the country, and exported in the manufactured state. Hemp is also cultivated, and in the northern district ginseng is gathered. Tobacco is raised all over the country. Horses and cattle are plentiful on the mountain-pastures The former, which are small, are exported to China. In the northern districts the sable and other animals give fur. The royal tiger, which is a native of the country, is covered with a longer and closer hair than in Bengal. On the eastern coast whales are numerous. It seems that Corea is rich in minerals. Gold, silver, iron, salt, and coals, are noticed in the Chinese geography. The inhabitants, who are of the Mongol race, resemble the Chinese and Japanese, but they are taller and stouter. Among them are some whose appearance seems to indicate a different origin. They speak a language different from the Chinese and Manchoo, though it contains many Chinese words. They have alsó a different mode of writing it, though the Chinese characters are in general use among the upper classes. In manner and civilization they much resemble the Chinese, and are likewise Buddhists. Education is highly valued, especially among the upper classes. They seem to have a rich literature of their own, but their language is very imperfectly known in Europe. The valleys seem to be well peopled; but we are so little acquainted with the interior, that hitherto nobody has ventured to give an estimate of the population. King-ki-tao, the capital, which is a few miles north of a considerable river Han-kiang, appears to be a large place, and is said to possess a considerable library, of which one of the brothers of the king is chief librarian. The name of this town is properly Kin-phu, near Hanhang, or Hanyang. The mouth of the river Tsing-kiang (between 34° and 35°), on the western coast, is said to have a very spacious harbour. Fushan, according to the Chinese geography, called by Broughton Chosan or Thosan, is a bay at the south-eastern extremity of the peninsula, opposite the Japanese island of Tsu-sima, at the innermost recess of which the town of King-tsheou is built, which carries on an active trade with Japan, and is the only place to which the Japanese are permitted to come. In industry the Coreans do not appear to be much inferior to the Chinese and Japanese. They mainly excel in the manufacture of cotton cloth and cotton paper, both of which are brought in great quanties to Peking. Other manufactured articles which are exported are silk goods, plain and embroidered, and mats. They have attained considerable skill in working iron, as swords are sent, with other articles, to the emperor of China as tribute. No country is less accessible to Europeans than Corea. They are not permitted to remain even a few days on any part of the coast. It is not well known what is the reason of this policy, but it seems that the mutual jealousy of the neighbouring Chinese and Japanese holds the king in great subjection. The commerce of the country is accordingly limited to China and Japan; and even with these countries is restricted in a very strange way. No maritime intercourse is allowed between China and Corea, but all commerce is carried on by means of the narrow road which leads along the sea to the town of Fang-hoan, in Leao-tong. But as it traverses the wide district which by order of the Chinese emperor must remain uninhabited, it has become the haunt of numberless ferocious animals, and hence the passage is much dreaded by travellers. Commerce therefore is principally carried on in winter, when the shallow Hoang Hai is covered with ice along its shores, which are more favourable to the transport of goods than the bad mountainroads. Besides the above-mentioned manufactured goods, gold, silver, iron, rice, fruits, oil, and some other articles, are brought by this road to Peking. We do not know what the Coreans take in return to their country. The commercial intercourse between Corea and Japan is limited to that between the island of Tsu-sima and the bay of Chosan, and is carried on by Japanese merchants, who have their warehouses at each place. They import sapan-wood, pepper, alum, and the skins of deel, buffalos, and goats, with the manufactured articles of Japan, and those brought by the Dutch from Europe; they take in return the manufactures of Corea, and a few other articles, especially ginseng. We know nothing of the political condition of the coun*try, except what is communicated by Klaproth from the Japanese geographer Rinsifee; according to whom there are sixty-four commanders of 10,000 men, which would give an army of 640,000 men, and 213 war-vessels. Ritter thinks that these and many other statements of the geographer are taken from the court-almanac of King-ki-tao, and that little reliance can be placed on them. (Broughton; Maxwell, in Ellis's Journal of Lord Amherst's Embassy; Mac Leod; Basil Hall; Hamel van Gorcum; Klaproth, in San Kohf Tsou; and Ritter's Asien.) CORELLI, ARCA'NGELO, on whom his countrymen bestowed the cognomen of 'Il Divino,' was born at Fusignano, in the Bolognese territory, in 1653. Adami says that his instructor in counterpoint was Simonelli; and it appears pretty certain that his master for the violin, the instrument of his early adoption, and which he never abandoned, was Giambattista Bassani of Bologna. It is stated by the Rev. Mr. Mainwaring, in his Life of Handel, that Corelli went in 1672 to Paris, but that through the jealousy of Lully he was soon obliged to quit that city. On this fact Dr. Burney attempts to throw discredit, but there is no reason to doubt its correctness. In 1680 Corelli visited Germany, where he received extraordinary honours, not only from the public, but from sovereign princes, among whom the elector of Bavaria distinguished himself by the hospitable manner in which he treated the great musical genius. He returned to Rome at the expiration of about two years, and published his first set of 'Twelve Sonatas for two Violins and a Base,' in 1683. A second series appeared in 1685, entitled 'Balletti da Camera.' These were succeeded in 1690 No. 468, by a third set; and the fourth was published in 1694. His admirable sonatas for violin and base, or harpsichord, in which all violinists are early initiated, were printed, with a dedication to the electress of Brandenburg, in 1700. When James II. sent, in 1686, the earl of Castlemaine as ambassador to the pope, Christina of Sweden, then at Rome, celebrated the event by having an opera written, composed, and performed, in the holy city. The band employed on this occasion consisted of 150 stringed instruments, a prodigious and unprecedented force for those days, and Corelli was chosen as leader, which duty he performed in so satisfactory a manner, that the Italian opera in Rome was placed under his direction chiefly, and in 1700 had arrived at a degree of excellence which it had never before attained in the capital of Italy. He now gained the friendship of the well-known patron of art, the Cardinal Ottoboni, at one of whose Accademie he met Handel, then travelling in Italy. As a mark of attention to the great German composer, the cardinal had the serenata, Il Trionfo del Tempo e della Verità (afterwards altered into The Triumph of Time and Truth) performed, the overture to which being in a style quite new to Corelli, he led it in a manner that displeased the irascible composer, who rudely snatched the violin from the hands of the gentle Italian. Corelli no farther resented this indignity than by calmly observing, Mio caro Sassone, questa musica è nelle stile Francese, di ch' io non intendo. (My dear Saxon, this music is in the French style, which I do not understand.) Some satire was half concealed in this remark, for Handel at that time certainly imitated Lully's overtures, and the inuendo, which was a lenient punish ment for conduct so violent, could not have been misunderstood by him. Corelli, however, though an exquisite performer in regard to expression and taste, had devoted more of his attention to those high qualities which ought to be considered paramount to all others, than to what is commonly understood by the term execution; he consequently was sometimes embarrassed by having music placed before him which at first sight he could not easily master, and was abashed on finding that musicians infinitely inferior to himself could play it without preparation or hesitation. It was at Naples that he met with some mortifications of the kind alluded to, which prompted him to quit abruptly, and somewhat chagrined, that city, to which he had been very warmly invited, and where it was intended that he should be received with every mark of distinction. Corelli's greatest work, his Concerti Grossi, or Twelve Concertos, were written many years before they appeared in print. They were engraved in score at Amsterdam, and published in December, 1712, six weeks only before their author breathed his last, an event which took place on the 18th of January, 1713. He was buried in the church of Santa Maria della Rotunda (the antient Pantheon), where a monument, with a marble bust, is erected to his memory, near that of the greatest of painters, Raffaelle. On the pedestal is a Latin inscription by the cardinal Ottoboni, which records in simple and elegant terms the merits of the composer and the friendship of the writer. Like many other original geniuses, Corelli was too sensitive to be happy. Occurrences which he should have suffered to pass unnoticed made a deep impression on him, even to the injury of his health. The success of Valentini, whose concertos and performance, though infinitely inferior to Corelli's, became fashionable at Rome, so much affected the great composer-who, having acquired much wealth, ought to have treated fashion with the disdain it generally deserves-that it is supposed to have aggravated the malady which caused his death. Corelli's best works are imperishable. Rousseau has said, that he who without tears can listen to Pergolesi's Stabat Mater may feel assured that he has no genius for music. We will also risk an assertion-that those who can without admiration hear the eighth concerto of Corelli, as performed at the Antient Concert, though they may be able to boast great powers of execution as instrumentalists or vocalists, can have no perception of the higher beauties of composition-can possess no soul for pare harmony. CORFE CASTLE. [DORSETSHIRE.] CORFU, the island of, the antient Corcyra, lies off the coast of Epirus, from which it is separated by a channel of very irregular width, being fourteen miles in some places, eight miles opposite the town of Corfu, and only two at its north outlet near Butrinto. The length of the island, which describes a slight curve from Cape St. Catharine, Cassiope Promontorium, in 39° 51′ N. lat., to Cape Bianco, which comprises the north-eastern part of the island; in 39o 21', is about 38 miles. Its breadth is very unequal; the little town of the same name lies at the foot of in the north part, which is much the widest, it extends Mount San Salvador, the highest in the island, having nearly 20 miles, from 19° 36' to 19° 57' E. long. Further a convent on the summit. On the sea-coast, near south, the island becomes very narrow, being only six miles the site of the old town of Cassiope, rises a village still between the Bay of Yliapades to the west, and the harbour called Cassopo. 4°, Agrafus occupies the north-western of Gouin to the east. It widens again in the latitude of the part, with the little town of the same name, and several town of Corfu, where it is about eleven miles; it then con- hamlets. Twelve miles north-west of this part of the coast tracts to the south of it, to three or four miles in breadth, is the island of Fano, which lies about 50 miles from the terminating in a high narrow cape. (Map of the N. part nearest point of the coast of Otranto in Italy. The island of Greece, published by the Soc. for the Diffusion of Úsef. is six miles round, barren, and inhabited by a few fisherKnow.) The surface of the island is of 227 square miles, men. 5°, Spagus, which lies south of the preceding, is the and is generally mountainous, especially in the north part. most fertile and populous in the island; it has two good The highest point, according to F. Beaujour, is about 1900 natural harbonrs, San Nicolo and Affiona. On Cape S. feet above the sea. The mountains are rocky and naked, Angelos is a monastery, which stands on the ruins of an but the valleys are fertile, and watered by many streamlets, old castle built in the thirteenth century by Michael duke which, however, are mostly dry in summer. The most of Corfu. 6, Strongili, south of the canton of Corfu, has considerable streams are the Missongi and the Potamo. two small market-towns and several villages. 7°, Milichia, The island produces oil, wine, vegetables, fruit, flax, and the southernmost canton, is fertile, and contains about some corn and pulse. Unlike most of the other islands, 10,000 inhabitants. (Neigebaur, Ionische Inseln.) Corfu produces no currants. There are but few timber-trees The Phæacians, the oldest known inhabitants of the on the island. The cattle consists of horses, mules, sheep, island, are mentioned by Homer as a numerous, thriving, and pigs. The game consists of wild fowls, snipes, quails, and seafaring people; and he paints in pleasing colours their pigeons, &e. Oil forms the principal article of exportation, hospitable and primitive manners. (Odyssey, vi. vii.) Acand the making of it employs about 1000 presses. The cording to some (Strabo, Casaub. 269), it was called Scheria, wine, which is mostly of a rough taste, is used at Corfu and was inhabited by the Liburni, when a Corinthian colony and in the other islands. Salt is got in considerable quan- settled on the island, about the time when another colony tity in the salt-marshes, which communicate with the sea. under Archias founded Syracuse. The Corinthians built The island is divided into seven cantons: 1°, Corfu, with the town of Corcyra, which became also the name of the the town of that name, which is the capital of the island, as island. This colony rose to be the most powerful naval state well as of the Ionian Islands. The town consists of three of Greece, next to Athens. The Corcyræans having quarparts, the citadel, the town properly so called, and the relled with the Corinthians on the subject of Epidamnus suburbs. The citadel, which is at the extremity of a cape, | [COLONY], a war followed between the two states, which and divided from the town by wet ditches and an esplanade, was a prelude to the great Peloponnesian war. Corcyra forms a little town with several private houses and churches, had at first the advantage, and defeated the Corinthian fleet and the palace of the lord high commissioner, besides the off Actium; but the Corinthians being joined by other states arsenal and barracks. Two strong castles built upon steep of the Peloponnesus, the Corcyræans had recourse to Athens, rocks command the whole. The town, properly so called, is which made a defensive alliance with them. The Coreysurrounded by walls and ramparts, and strengthened by ræan flect of 110 triremes, besides ten Athenian auxiliary several forts, called Fort Tenedos, Fort Abraham, Fort St. ships, engaged with the Corinthian fleet at the south enSalvador, and the New Fort. Three gates open on the sea- trance of the channel, near the coast of Thesprotia. The shore and one on the land-side. The houses are mostly fight ended in favour of the Corinthians, but the appeartwo stories high, with terraces at the top. The streets are ance of a fresh Athenian squadron of twenty triremes intolerably well paved, and are lined with arcades. The duced them to return home. (Thucyd. i. 50-1.) After this, cathedral and five other churches belong to the Greek Corcyra was distracted by civil commotions between the Latin church; there are also many churches and chapels aristocratic and democratic factions, the former being faof the Greek communion, among which that of S. Spiridion vourable to the Peloponnesian or Spartan alliance, and the is the principal. Corfu is the residence of the arch- latter to the Athenian. Atrocities were committed by bishop of the Greek Latin church, of the senate, the high both, which ended in a general massacre of the aristocratic court of appeal for all the islands, as well as the civil, party, connived at by the Athenian commander. (Thucyd. criminal, and commercial courts for Corfu. The university, iv. 47-8.) This tragedy occurred B.C. 425. The island rewhich was first opened by Lord Guilford as chancellor in mained in the Athenian alliance till the end of the war. 1824, has four faculties, theology, law, medicine, and philosophy, and fourteen professors. The lectures are given in modern Greek. There are also a secondary school or gymnasium, an ecclesiastical seminary, and several primary schools, all supported by the government, at the annual expense of 34831. sterling; and a society for the improvement of agriculture and industry. There is an account of the system of instruction followed in the secondary schools of the Ionian Islands in Journal of Education, No. L. The harbour of Corfu, which is one of the best in the Levant, and has a depth of about 80 feet, is formed by the island of Vido, the rocks called Condilonisi, the Lazzeretto island, and the New Fort. There being a great scarcity of spring water in Corfu, cistern water is commonly used, and in summer the water for drinking is brought on asses from the river Potamo, about a mile and a half from the town. The suburbs, called Castrati, S. Rocco, and Mandrachio, are considerable. The whole population of the town and suburbs is 15,800, 4000 of whom are Jews. (Neigebaur.) From the suburb of Castrati a walk of about a mile and a half in a southern direction leads to the small bay of Palæopolis, where Chrysopolis, the town of the Phæacians, is said to have stood. The shores of this bay are planted with myrtle, laurel, pomegranate, and orange trees, and are the favourite resort of the citizens. They are called the gardens of Alcinous. (Marmora, Istoria di Corfu, with plates of many fine coins of antient Corcyra.) The other districts of the island are: 2°, Liapades, with the town of the same name, 2500 inhabitants; and Chorachana, with 2000; besides several villages. 3, Peretia, It The Illyrian pirates took Corcyra, as well as several towns on the coast of Epirus, about 220 B.C.; but the Romans under Caius Fulvius came with a fleet, defeated the Illyrians, and retook Corcyra, which from that time seems to have remained under the patronage of Rome. (Polybius ii. 1.) About 210 B.C., we find the consul Valerius Lævinus stationed at Corcyra with his fleet, giving assistance to the Etolians in their wars against the Acarnanians. (Livy xxvi. 24.) Corcyra under the Romans was an important station for their fleet, and also a resting-place for those who went and came from Greece by way of Brundisium. continued to belong to the eastern empire until the eleventh century of our æra, when Robert Ĝuiscard, the Norman conqueror of Apulia, took the island. When the Latius took Constantinople, and established fiefs in the provinces, Corfu had its dukes, who were styled Despots of Epirus and Corfu. It fell afterwards under the Angevins of Naples, but the people revolted and called in the Venetians in 1386. Corfu remained under Venice till the end of the eighteenth century, notwithstanding repeated attacks of the Ottomans, the most remarkable of which was in 1714, when they besieged Corfu with 30,000 men, and made several assaults, but were repulsed by General Schulemburg, who commanded the garrison. The island was administered by Provveditori sent from Venice; but the internal or muricipal administration was in the hands of the native nobles. The judicial system appears to have been bad, and murders were very frequent. When Bonaparte overthrew the Venetian senate, under pretence of establishing a popular government, the democrats who came into office at Venice sent commissioners to Corfu with orders to deliver the forts to their allies the French, who sent troops on board the Venetian men of war, and took possession of the island without opposition. In 1799 a united Russian and Turkish force wrested Corfu from the French, and in the following year the republic of the seven united Ionian islands was constituted under the protection of Russia and the Porte. By the peace of Tilsit Russia gave up the seven islands to the French, who sent garrisons from the coast of Naples. The English however took all the islands except Corfu, which was given up by France by the peace of Paris in 1814. The seven islands were then restored to their independence, and formed into a state under the protection of the king of Great Britain, represented by a lord high commissioner, who resides at Corfu. The present constitution of the seven islands was proclaimed in January, 1818, under the sanction of Great Britain. The parliament or legislative assembly consists of forty members, eleven of whom have their seats de jure, consisting of the six members of the last senate, of the four regents of the larger islands going out of office, and one of the regents of the three smaller islands taken by turns. The other twenty-nine members are elected by the electoral bodies of the different islands, seven for each of the islands of Corfu, Cephalonia, and Zante, four for Santa Maura, and one for each of the other three islands, Cerigo, Ithaca, and Paxo. They are elected for five years, which is the term of duration for each parliament, unless it be dissolved before that period by the lord high commissioner. The members, as well as the electors, are all of the class of nobles, which is numerous, including almost all the landed proprietors. The qualifications requisite in order to be inscribed among the nobles are specified in the constitutional charter given by the Emperor Alexander in 1803, in conformity with the old usages of the country, by which the inhabitants were classed into three orders, nobles, burghers, and peasants. The burghers may become nobles on certain conditions. The peasants are free in their persons, but have no elective rights, and they are generally very poor. The senate, which consists of a president and five members, all from the class of the nobles, forms the executive. The president, who has the title of highness, is appointed by the king of Great Britain: the other five members are chosen by the parliament, subject to the approbation of the lord high commissioner. The senators are elected for five years; the president is appointed for two years and a half: the senate appoints to all administrative offices and situations. The lord high commissioner convokes the parliament once a year, and opens the session by a speech. He also prorogues or dissolves it. Bills are brought before the House, either from the senate, or from the lord high commissioner through the senate, or lastly, by any member of parliament. After passing the House of Parliament, the bills must be approved by the senate, and lastly must receive the sanction of the lord high commissioner. In every island there is a regent, or chief civil and political officer, appointed by the senate, and likewise a resident appointed by the lord high commissioner. There is also in each island a municipal council, named by the order of nobles; the regent is the ex-officio president of the council. In every island there are also civil, criminal, and commercial courts, the judges of which are appointed by the senate. A high court of appeal for all the islands, called the Supreme Court of Justice, sits at Corfu, and is composed of four judges, two appointed by the senate and two by the lord high commissioner, who may choose them indiscriminately among Ionian natives or British residents. The lord high commissioner commands the armed force, which consists of a British establishment of about 3000 men, and four regiments of native militia. The eastern Greek church is considered as the established religion of the state; but the Roman or GrecoLatin church enjoys equal protection. The archbishop and bishops of the established church are consecrated by the patriarch of Constantinople. (Constitution of the Ionian Islands, in Dufay's Recueil de Constitutions, &c.) According to the printed official returns of 1833, the whole population of the seven islands was 107,379 males, and 90,588 female natives, besides 11,179 strangers. That of the island of Corfu was 32,909 male and 27,098 female natives, besides 9040 strangers. Of this population about 15,000 were employed in agriculture, 1621 in manufactures, and 1443 in commerce. There were on the island 4005 acres sown with wheat, about 16,500 acres sown with Indian corn, barley, oats, and other grain, 75,700 acres planted with olive trees, 13,900 with vines, about 1000 with pulse, 848 with flax, and 7422 in pasture, besides 33,272 acres uncultivated. There were on the island 4194 horses, 2341 horned cattle, 18,585 sheep, and 16,743 goats. The value of the exports for that year was 129,000l. sterling, and the imports were 83,000l. The shipping inwards was 254,000 tons, and the outwards 255,000, about one-half of it consisting of Ionian vessels. (Tables of the Revenue, Population, &c., of the United Kingdom and its Colonies, Supplement to Part IV.) CORIA'NDRUM SATIVUM or COMMON CORIANDER, is an annual umbelliferous plant, inhabiting the southern parts of Europe, and yielding a globular dry fruit, with slight carminative stomachic properties, and a powerful smell something like that of bugs. The leaves that grow next the root are nearly entire or gashed, and wedgeshaped; the stem-leaves have a bipinnatifid structure, and their segments are deeply divided; while the uppermost leaves are parted in many very narrow linear spreading segments. The flowers are pale pink, with no general involucre, but with partial ones, each of which consists of eight sharp linear leaflets. The fruit is globular, and will separate into two hemispheres, each of which has five very imperfect wavy primary ridges and four secondary straight elevated ones. There are no vittæ on the outside of the hemispheres, but two occur in their commissure. |