Part 195

"The origin of the Cossack tribes is lost in the obscurity of ages; and many celebrated historians are still divided in opinion as to whence the term Cossack, or rather Kosaque, is properly to be derived. This word, indeed, is susceptible of so many etymological explanations, as scarcely to offer for anyone of them decided grounds of preference. Everything, however, would seem to favour the belief that the word Cossack, or Kosaque, was in much earlier use in the vicinity of the Caucasus than in the Ukraine. … Sherer, in his 'Annals of Russia Minor,' (La Petite Russie,) traces back the origin of the Cossacks to the ninth century; but he does not support his assertion by any facts clothed with the dignity of historical truth. It appears certain, however, that the vast pasture lands between the Don and the Dnieper, the country lying on the south of Kïow, and traversed by the Dnieper up to the Black Sea, was the principal birthplace of the Cossacks. When, in 1242, Batukhan came with 500,000 men to take possession of the empire which fell to his share of the vast inheritance left by Tchingis Khan [see MONGOLS: A. D. 1229-1294], he extirpated many nations and displaced many others. One portion of the Komans flying from the horrors of this terrific storm, and arriving on the borders of the Caspian Sea, on the banks of the Iaïk, (now Ouralsek,) turned to the left, and took refuge between the embouchures of that river, where they dwelt in small numbers, apart from their brethren, in a less fertile climate. These were, incontestably, the progenitors of the Cossacks of the Iaïk, who are, historically, scarcely important enough for notice. … At the approach of this formidable invasion towards the Don, that portion of the Komans located on the left bank took refuge in the marshes, and in the numerous islands formed by that river near its embouchure. Here they found a secure retreat; and from thence, having, from their new position, acquired maritime habits and seafaring experience, they not only, themselves, resorted to piracy as a means of existence, but likewise enlisted in a formidable confederacy, for purposes of rapine and pillage, all the roving and discontented tribes in their surrounding neighbourhood. These latter were very numerous. The Tartars, ever but indifferent seamen, had not the courage to join them in these piratical expeditions. This division of the Komans is indubitably the parent stock of the modern Cossacks of the Don, by far the most numerous of the Cossack tribes: by amalgamation; however, with whole hosts of Tartar and Calmuck hordes, lawless, desperate, and nomadic as themselves, they lost, in some degree, the primitive and deeply marked distinctive character of their race. The Komans of the Dnieper offered no more energetic resistance to the invading hordes of Batukhan than had been shown by their brethren of the Don: they dispersed in various directions, and from this people, flying at the advance of the ferocious Tartars, descended a variety of hordes, who occasionally figure in history as distinct and independent nations. … [They] ultimately found a permanent resting-place in the wild islets of the Dnieper, below the cataracts, where dwelt already a small number of their ancient compatriots, who had escaped the general destruction of their nation. This spot became the cradle of the Cossacks of the Ukraine, or of the tribes known in after times as the Polish Cossacks. When Guedynum, Grand Duke of Lithuania, after having defeated twelve Russian princes on the banks of the Piërna, conquered Kïow with its dependencies in 1320, the wandering tribes scattered over the steppes of the Ukraine owned his allegiance. After the victories of Olgierd, of Vitold, and of Ladislas Iagellon, over the Tartars and the Russians, large bodies of Scythian militia, known subsequently by the comprehensive denomination of Cossacks, or Kosaques, served under these conquerors: and after the union of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with Poland, in 1386, they continued under the dominion of the grand dukes of Lithuania, forming, apparently, an intermediate tribe or caste, superior to the peasantry and inferior to the nobles. At a later period, when the Ukraine was annexed to the Polish crown, they passed under the protection of the kings of Poland. … Although there may, doubtless, exist several species or castes of Cossacks, and to whom Russia in order to impose on Europe, is pleased to give as many different names, yet there never have been, nor will there ever be, properly speaking, more than two principal tribes of the Cossack nation, namely the Cossacks of the Don, or Don-Cossacks, and the Cossacks of the Black Sea, known in ancient times as the Polish Cossacks, or Zaporowscy Kozacy. … The Cossacks [of the Don] … have rendered signal service to Russia, which, ever since the year 1549, has taken them under her protection, without, however, the existence of any official act, treaty, or stipulation, confirming their submission to that power. … The Don-Cossacks enjoy a certain kind of liberty and independence; they have a hetman, attaman, or chief, nominated by the Emperor of Russia; and to this chief they yield an obedience more or less willing and implicit; in general, they are commanded only by Cossack officers, who take equal rank in the Russian army. They have a separate war administration of their own; although they are compelled to furnish a stated number of recruits who serve in a manner for life, inasmuch as they are rarely discharged before attaining sixty years of age: on the whole, their condition is happier than that of the rest of the Russian population. They belong to the Greek-Russian church. The existence of this small republic of the Don, in the very heart of the most despotic and most extensive empire in the world, appears to constitute a problem, the solution of which is not as yet definitely known, and the ultimate solution of which yet remains to be ascertained."

_H. Krasinski, The Cossacks of the Ukraine, chapter 1._

The Cossacks of the Ukraine transferred their allegiance from the King of Poland to the Czar of Russia in 1654, after a revolt led by their hetman, Bogdan Khmelnitski, in which they were assisted by the neighboring Tartars, and which was accompanied by terrible scenes of slaughter and destruction.

See POLAND: A. D. 1648-1654.

COSSÆANS, The.

See KOSSÆANS.

COSTA RICA: A. D. 1502. Discovery by Columbus.

See AMERICA: A. D. 1498-1505.

COSTA RICA: A. D. 1813-1871. Independence of Spain. Brief annexation to Mexico. The failures of federation, the wars and revolutions of Central America.

See CENTRAL AMERICA: A. D. 1821-1871.

COSTA RICA: A. D. 1850. The Clayton Bulwer Treaty and the projected Nicaragua Canal.

See NICARAGUA: A. D. 1850.

COSTA RICA: End----------

COSTANOAN FAMILY, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: COSTANOAN FAMILY.

COSTER, Laurent, and the invention of printing.

See PRINTING: A. D. 1430-1456.

COTARII.

See SLAVERY, MEDIÆVAL AND MODERN: ENGLAND.

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COTHON OF CARTHAGE, The.

"There were two land-locked docks or harbours, opening the one into the other, and both, it would seem, the work of human hands. … The outer harbour was rectangular, about 1,400 feet long and 1,100 broad, and was appropriated to merchant vessels; the inner was circular like a drinking cup, whence it was called the Cothon, and was reserved for ships of war. It could not be approached except through the merchant harbour, and the entrance to this last was only 70 feet wide, and could be closed at any time by chains. The war harbour was entirely surrounded by quays, containing separate docks for 220 ships. In front of each dock were two Ionic pillars of marble, so that the whole must have presented the appearance of a splendid circular colonnade. Right in the centre of the harbour was an island, the headquarters of the admiral."

_R. B. Smith, Carthage and the Carthaginians, chapter 20._

COTSETI.

See SLAVERY, MEDIÆVAL AND MODERN: ENGLAND.

COTTON, Reverend John and the colony of Massachusetts Bay.

See MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1631-1636.

COTTON FAMINE, The.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1861-1865.

COTTON-GIN: Eli Whitney's invention and its effects.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1818-1821.

COTTON MANUFACTURE: The great inventions in spinning and weaving.

"Cotton had been used in the extreme East and in the extreme West from the earliest periods of which we have any record. The Spaniards, on their discovery of America, found the Mexicans clothed in cotton. … But though the use of cotton had been known from the earliest ages, both in India and America, no cotton goods were imported into Europe; and in the ancient world both rich and poor were clothed in silk, linen, and wool. The industrious Moors introduced cotton into Spain. Many centuries afterwards cotton was imported into Italy, Saxony and the Low Countries. Isolated from the rest of Europe, with little wealth, little industry, and no roads; rent by civil commotions; the English were the last people in Europe to introduce the manufacture of cotton goods into their own homes. Towards the close of the 16th century, indeed, cotton goods were occasionally mentioned in the Statute Book, and the manufacture of the cottons of Manchester was regulated by Acts passed in the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., and Elizabeth. But there seem to be good reasons for concluding that Manchester cottons, in the time of the Tudors, were woollen goods, and did not consist of cotton at all. More than a century elapsed before any considerable trade in cotton attracted the attention of the legislature. The woollen manufacturers complained that people were dressing their children in printed cottons; and Parliament was actually persuaded to prohibit the introduction of Indian printed calicoes. Even an Act of Parliament, however, was unable to extinguish the growing taste for Indian cottons. … The taste for cotton led to the introduction of calico-printing in London; Parliament in order to encourage the new trade, was induced to sanction the importation of plain cotton cloths from India under a duty. The demand, which was thus created for calicoes, probably promoted their manufacture at home. … Up to the middle of the last century cotton goods were really never made at all. The so-called cotton manufactures were a combination of wool or linen and cotton. No Englishman had been able to produce a cotton thread strong enough for the warp; … The superior skill of the Indian manufacturers enabled them to use cotton for a warp; while clumsy workmanship made the use of cotton as a warp unattainable at home. In the middle of the 18th century, then, a piece of cotton cloth in the true sense of the term, had never been made in England. The so-called cotton goods were all made in the cottages of the weavers. The yarn was carded by hand; it was spun by hand; it was worked into cloth by a hand loom. … The operation of weaving was, however, much more rapid than that of spinning. The weaver consumed more weft than his own family could supply him with; and the weavers generally experienced the greatest difficulty in obtaining sufficient yarn. About the middle of the 18th century the ingenuity of two persons, a father and a son, made this difference more apparent. The shuttle had originally been thrown by the hand from one end of the loom to the other. John Kay, a native of Bury, by his invention of the fly-shuttle [patented in 1733], saved the weaver from this labour. … Robert Kay, John Kay's son, added the drop-box, by means of which the weaver was able 'to use any one of three shuttles, each containing a different coloured weft, without the trouble of taking them from and replacing them in the lathe.' By means of these inventions the productive power of each weaver was doubled. … Carding and roving were both slowly performed. … The trade was in this humble and primitive state when a series of extraordinary and unparalleled inventions revolutionised the conditions on which cotton had been hitherto prepared. A little more than a century ago John Hargreaves, a poor weaver in the neighbourhood of Blackburn, was returning home from a long walk, in which he had been purchasing a further supply of yarn for his loom. As he entered his cottage, his wife Jenny accidentally upset the spindle which she was using. Hargreaves noticed that the spindles which were now thrown into an upright position, continued to revolve, and that the thread was still spinning in his wife's hand. The idea immediately occurred to him that it would be possible to connect a considerable number of upright spindles with one wheel, and thus multiply the productive power of each spinster. … Hargreaves succeeded in keeping his admirable invention secret for a time; but the powers of his machine soon became known. His ignorant neighbours hastily concluded that a machine, which enabled one spinster to do the work of eight, would throw multitudes of persons out of employment. A mob broke into his house and destroyed his machine. Hargreaves himself had to retire to Nottingham, where, with the friendly assistance of another person, he was able to take out a patent [1770] for the spinning-jenny, as the machine, in compliment to his industrious wife, was called. The invention of the spinning-jenny gave a new impulse to the cotton manufacture. But the … yarn spun by the jenny, like that which had previously been spun by hand, was neither fine enough nor hard enough to be employed as warp, and linen or woollen threads had consequently to be used for this purpose. {621} In the very year, however, in which Hargreaves moved from Blackburn to Nottingham, Richard Arkwright [who began life as a barber's assistant] took out a patent [1769] for his still more celebrated machine. … 'After many years intense and painful application,' he invented his memorable machine for spinning by rollers; and laid the foundations of the gigantic industry which has done more than any other trade to concentrate in this country the wealth of the world. … He passed the thread over two pairs of rollers, one of which was made to revolve much more rapidly than the other. The thread, after passing the pair revolving slowly, was drawn into the requisite tenuity by the rollers revolving at a higher rapidity. By this simple but memorable invention Arkwright succeeded in producing thread capable of employment as warp. From the circumstance that the mill at which his machinery was first erected was driven by water power, the machine received the somewhat inappropriate name of the water frame; the thread spun by it was usually called the water twist. Invention of the spinning-jenny and the water frame would have been useless if the old system of hand-carding had not been superseded by a more efficient and more rapid process. Just as Arkwright applied rotatory motion to spinning, so Lewis Paul introduced revolving cylinders for carding cotton. … This extraordinary series of inventions placed an almost unlimited supply of yarn at the disposal of the weaver. But the machinery, which had thus been introduced, was still incapable of providing yarn fit for the finer qualities of cotton cloth. … This defect, however, was removed by the ingenuity of Samuel Crompton, a young weaver residing near Bolton. Crompton succeeded in combining in one machine the various excellences 'of Arkwright's water frame and Hargreaves' jenny.' Like the former, his machine, which from its nature is happily called the mule, 'has a system of rollers to reduce the roving; and like the latter it has spindles without bobbins to give the twist. … The effects of Crompton's great invention may be stated epigrammatically. … The natives of India could spin a pound of cotton into a thread 119 miles long.' The English succeed in spinning the same thread to a length of 160 miles. Yarn of the finest quality was at once at the disposal of the weaver. … The ingenuity of Hargreaves, Arkwright and Crompton had been exercised to provide the weaver with yarn. … The spinster had beaten the weaver. … Edmund Cartwright, a clergyman residing in Kent, happened to be staying at Matlock in the summer of 1784, and to be thrown into the company of some Manchester gentlemen. The conversation turned on Arkwright's machinery, and 'one of the company observed that, as soon as Arkwright's patent expired, so many mills would be erected and so much cotton spun that hands would never be found to weave it.' Cartwright replied 'that Arkwright must then set his wits to work to invent a weaving mill.' … Within three years he had himself proved that the invention was practicable by producing the power-loom. Subsequent inventors improved the idea which Cartwright had originated, and within fifty years from the date of his memorable visit to Matlock there were not less than 100,000 power-looms at work in Great Britain alone. … Other inventions, less generally remembered, were hardly less wonderful or less beneficial than these. … Scheele, the Swedish philosopher, discovered in 1774 the bleaching properties of chlorine, or oxymuriatic acid. Berthollet, the French chemist, conceived the idea of applying the acid to bleaching cloth. … In the same year in which Watt and Henry were introducing the new acid to the bleacher, Bell, a Scotchman, was laying the foundations of a trade in printed calicoes. 'The old method of printing was by blocks of sycamore.' … This clumsy process was superseded by cylinder printing. … Such are the leading inventions, which made Great Britain in less than a century the wealthiest country in the world."

_S. Walpole, History of England from 1815, volume 1, chapter 1._

ALSO IN: R. W. C. Taylor, Introduction to a History of the Factory System, chapter 10.

E. Baines, History of the Cotton Manufacture in Great Britain.

A. Ure, The Cotton Manufacture of Great Britain.

COULMIERS, Battle of (1870).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1870-1871.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, The Mormons at.

See MORMONISM: A. D. 1846-1848.

COUNCIL FOR NEW ENGLAND.

See NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1620-1623; 1621-1631; and 1635.

COUNCIL OF BLOOD, The.

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1567.

COUNCIL OF FIVE HUNDRED, The Athenian.

See ATHENS: B. C. 510-507.

The French.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1795 (JUNE-SEPTEMBER).

COUNCIL OF TEN, The.

See VENICE: A. D. 1032-1319.

COUNCIL OF THE ANCIENTS, The.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1795 (JUNE-SEPTEMBER).

COUNCIL, THE PRIVY.

See PRIVY COUNCIL.

COUNCILS OF THE CHURCH, General or Ecumenical.

There are seven councils admitted by both the Greek and Latin churches as œcumenical (or ecumenical)—that is general, or universal. The Roman Catholics recognize thirteen more, making twenty in all—as follows:

1. The synod of apostles in Jerusalem. 2. The first Council of Nice, A. D. 325 (see NICÆA, THE FIRST COUNCIL). 3. The first Council of Constantinople, A. D. 381. 4. The first Council of Ephesus, A. D. 431. 5. The Council of Chalcedon, A. D. 451. 6. The second Council of Constantinople, A. D. 553. 7. The third Council of Constantinople, A. D. 681. 8. The second Council of Nice, A. D. 787. 9. The fourth Council of Constantinople, A. D. 869. 10. The first Lateran Council, A. D. 1123. 11. The second Lateran Council, A. D. 1139. 12. The third Lateran Council, A. D. 1179. 13. The fourth Lateran Council, A. D. 1215. 14. The first œcumenical synod of Lyon, A. D. 1245. 15. The second œcumenical synod of Lyon, A. D. 1274. 16. The Synod of Vienne in Gaul, A. D. 1311. 17. The Council of Constance, A. D. 1414 (see PAPACY: A. D. 1414-1418). 18. The Council of Basel, A. D. 1431 (see PAPACY: A. D. 1431-1448). 19. The Council of Trent, A. D. 1545 (see PAPACY: A. D. 1537-1563). 20. The Council of the Vatican, A. D. 1869 (see PAPACY: A. D. 1869-1870).

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COUNT AND DUKE, Roman. Origin of the titles.

"The defence of the Roman empire was at length committed [under Constantine and his successors] to eight masters-general of the cavalry and infantry. Under their orders thirty-five military commanders were stationed in the provinces—three in Britain, six in Gaul, one in Spain, one in Italy, five on the Upper and four on the Lower Danube, in Asia eight, three in Egypt, and four in Africa. The titles of Counts and Dukes, by which they were properly distinguished, have obtained in modern languages so very different a sense that the use of them may occasion some surprise. But it should be recollected that the second of those appellations is only a corruption of the Latin word which was indiscriminately applied to any military chief. All these provincial generals were therefore dukes; but no more than ten among them were dignified with the rank of counts or companions, a title of honour, or rather of favour, which had been recently invented in the court of Constantine. A gold belt was the ensign which distinguished the office of the counts and dukes."

_E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 17. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25717_

"The Duke and the Count of modern Europe—what are they but the Generals and Companions (Duces and Comites) of a Roman province? Why or when they changed places, the Duke climbing up into such unquestioned pre-eminence over his former superior the Count, I know not, nor yet by what process it was discovered that the latter was the precise equivalent of the Scandinavian Jarl."

_T. Hodgkin, Italy and Her Invaders, book 1, chapter 3._

COUNT OF THE DOMESTICS.

In the organization of the Imperial Household, during the later period of the Roman empire, the officers called Counts of the Domestics "commanded the various divisions of the household troops, known by the names of Domestici and Protectores, and thus together replaced the Prætorian Prefect of the earlier days of the Empire. … Theoretically, their duties would not greatly differ from those of a Colonel in the Guards."

_T. Hodgkin, Italy and Her Invaders, book 1, chapter 3._

COUNT OF THE SACRED LARGESSES.

In the later Roman empire, "the Count who had charge of the Sacred (i. e. Imperial) Bounty, should have been by his title simply the Grand Almoner of the Empire. … In practice, however, the minister who took charge of the Imperial Largesses had to find ways and means for every other form of Imperial expenditure. … The Count of the Sacred Largesses was therefore in fact the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the Empire."

_T. Hodgkin, Italy and Her Invaders, book 1, chapter 3._

COUNT OF THE SAXON SHORE.

See SAXON SHORE.

COUNT PALATINE.

See PALATINE, COUNTS.

COUNTER-REFORMATION, The.

See PAPACY: A. D. 1534-1540; 1537-1563; 1555-1603.

COUNTRY PARTY, The.

See ENGLAND; A. D. 1672-1673.

COUP D' ETAT OF LOUIS NAPOLEON, The.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1851; and 1851-1852.

COUREURS DE BOIS.