Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 03.djvu/171

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CONVOLVULUS 135 COOK tical provinces of Canterbury and York has its Convocation consisting of two houses, the upper composed of Bishops presided over by the Archbishop, and the lower being made up of the deans of Cathedrals, archdeacons, and proctors elected from the Cathedral chapters, with two additional proctors elected by clergy at large in the province of Canterbury and by the archdeacons in the province of York. The life of the Convocation is coincident with that of Parliament. CONVOLVULUS, a genus of plants, the typical one of the order Convolvula- cese and the tribe Convolvulese. The flowers are small and of a pale rose color. It is common in fields and hedges, especially when the soil is light. C. Soldayiella, the Sea-side Convolvulus or Bindweed, has reniform fleshy lines, and large rose-colored flowers. It has been sometimes placed in the genus Calys- tegia. C. dissectus abounds in prussic acid, and is one of the plants used in the preparation of the liquor called noyau. CONVOY, a fleet of merchantmen under the protection of a ship or ships of war, or the ship or ships appointed to conduct and defend them from attack and capture by an enemy. In military language it is used for escort. Convoys were largely employed by the Allies in moving troop ships in the World War (1914-1918), as they supplied the best protection against submarine attacks. The transport of United States troops to Europe in 1917-1918 was under con- voy, and not a ship was lost. CONWAY, MONCURE DANIEL, an American author; born in Stafford county, Va., March 17, 1832. He was graduated at Dickinson College in 1849 and at the Harvard Divinity School in 1854, affiliating first with the Methodists and later with the Unitarians. From 1863 to 1884 he was minister at South Place Chapel, in London. He has writ- ten lives of Thomas Paine, Edmund Randolph, Hawthorne, and Thomas Car- lisle, and also "Emerson at Home and Abroad," "Demonology and Devil Lore," etc. He died Nov. 16, 1907. CONWAY, SIR WILLIAM MARTIN, an English explorer; born in Rochester in 1865. He was educated at Cambridge and was made Professor of Art at Uni- versity College, Liverpool, soon after his graduation. In 1889 he explored Egypt; in 1892 the Himalayas; in 1894 the Alps; in 1898 the western slope of the Andes; and in 1900 the eastern slope of the Andes. He has published "Early Flem- ish Artists," "The Alps from End to End," "Climbing and Exploration in the Bolivian Andes," etc. He also wrote "Great Masters" (1904); "No Man's Land" (1906) ; "The Crowd, in Peace and War" (1915). CONWELL, RUSSELL HERMAN, a Baptist clergyman and educator. He was born at Worthington, Mass., in 1843 and graduated from the Yale Law School in 1860. From 1862 to 1865 he served in the Union armies in the Civil War, after which he practiced law at Minneapolis. From 1869 to 1871 he was the foreign correspondent of the New York "Tribune" and the Boston "Trav- eler." Returning from abroad he prac- ticed law in Boston until 1879. In that year he was ordained a Baptist minister and two years later was called to Grace Church, Philadelphia. Dr. Conwell founded and became president of Temple University, Philadelphia, and was the author of a number of books on relig- ious and moral subjects. COOCH-BEHAR, or KUCH-BEHAR, a native state in India, in political rela- tion with the government of Bengal. It forms a level plain of triangular shape, intersected by numerous rivers, and is entirely surrounded by British territory. The greater portion of the soil is fertile and well-cultivated. Area, 1307 square miles; pop. 593,000. The chief town, Cooch-Behar, contains handsome public buildings and a splendid new palace of the Maharajah. COOK, FRANCIS AUGUSTUS, an American naval officer, born in 1843. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1863 and served dur- ing the Civil War. He rose through the various grades, becoming captain in 1896. During the Spanish-American War he commanded the cruiser "Brooklyn." At the Battle of Santiago Bay, the "Brooklyn," in his command, destroyed the Spanish vessel "Cristobal Colon." Until his retirement in 1903 he served on the Naval Examining and Retiring Board. He died in 1916. COOK, JAMES, a British navigator; born in Yorkshire, in 1728, of parents not above the rank cf peasantry. He was at first apprenticed to a shop- keeper, but became a sailor. In 1755 he entered the royal navy, and four years later as sailing-master of the "Mercury" surveyed the St. Lawrence river and the coast of Newfoundland. Some observa- tions on a solar eclipse, communicated to the Royal Society, brought him into notice, and he was appointed commander of a scientific expedition to the Pacific. During this expedition he successively visited Tahiti, New Zealand, and dis- covered New South Wales. In 1772 Captain Cook, now raised to the rank of