subsequently collaborator at the Smithsonian Institution, and secretary and naturalist to the U. S. geological and geographical survey of the territories; was chairman of committee at the Psychical Science congress in 1893; and edited a number of works in biology and on comparative anatomy and zoology. His writings embrace a number of works on his specialty of ornithology, among which are a Key to North American Birds; Birds of the Northwest and of the Colorado Valley; New England Bird Life; Fur-Bearing Animals.
Coul′ter, John Merle, a great authority on American botany and head-professor of botany at the University of Chicago, was born at Ningpo, China, of American parentage, Nov. 20, 1851. After graduating at Hanover College, Indiana, he spent a year as botanist on the U. S. geological survey in the Rocky Mountains. He was afterward successively professor of natural sciences in his alma mater; professor of biology at Wabash College; president of the University of Indiana; and president (1893-96) of Lake Forest University. Since 1896 he has been attached to the University of Chicago, in charge of his special department. His published works include a Synopsis of the Flora of Colorado; a Manual of Rocky Mountain Botany; Handbook of Plant Dissection; Manual of the Botany of Western Texas; and an edition, as editor, of Gray's Manual of Botany.
Coun′cil Bluffs, a city of Pottawattomie County, Iowa, lies not far from the old meeting-point of the Indian tribes. Here the Mormons tarried from 1846 to 1849, while on their way to Utah. For many years it was the last village in civilized America, and here California emigrants and trappers got their outfits before entering the Indian country. It lies across the Missouri from Omaha, Neb. Six railroads, running west from Chicago, here meet the Union Pacific line, and others turn to the north and south. The city's industries include manufactures of paper, iron, carriages and agricultural machines. Population, 29,292,
Courthope (kōrt′ō̇p), William John, an English critic and man-of-letters, was born in Sussex, England, July 17, 1842, and educated at Harrow and Oxford. At the latter he won the chancellor's gold medal for verse, and also was Newdigate prizeman. He was one of the founders of the English National Review and a staff member of the Quarterly Review; subsequently he was appointed civil-service examiner in the government education department, and was made a Companion of the Bath. In 1893 he was elected professor of poetry in the University of Oxford. He has edited an elaborate edition of Pope's Works, with Life; a Life of Addison (in the English Men of Letters Series); a History of English Poetry; and a burlesque in allegory, entitled The Paradise of Birds.
Courtney, The Right Reverend Frederick, Bishop of Nova Scotia. Born at Plymouth, England, in 1837. Graduated from Kings College, London, 1863. Came to New York in 1876 as assistant at St. Thomas' Church. Was Rector of St. Paul's, Boston in 1882. Elected Bishop of Nova Scotia in 1888. Attended the Lambeth Conference in 1888. Holds honorary degrees from several universities. Much admired as priest, preacher and bishop.
Courts of Justice. Courts of justice in primitive times either were the people assembled or the king and his advisers. Their activity has always been of two kinds: either to punish or to arbitrate. Criminal cases are those in which the community punishes the offender; civil cases, those in which the community decides a dispute. In early days the court was all important; but when the community entrusted justice to a few specially selected men, it laid down laws by which they should be in part guided; and those selected men laid down further rules to guide their successors. So that now a court of justice is always subordinate to a system of law and precedents, which it may not alter, but which it must interpret to fit the case before it. In the early Roman republic the people's assembly, the comitia, tried all important cases. In the Roman empire there was established a regular system of courts, in which we may distinguish courts of original jurisdiction and courts of appeal. The former try cases at first hand. An appeal may be taken only from an inferior to a superior court. The Romans also established a distinction still preserved between common law and equity; the former being the laws and customs current in the community, and the latter principles of justice laid down by judges at various times and finally brought together in a system.
Our Teutonic ancestors preserved through the middle ages the right of being tried, not indeed by the whole people, but by some of them, usually six or more, of about the same rank as the accused. That is, they were his peers. This trial by jury Englishmen especially held precious, and we in America still regard it as necessary to securing justice. (See the Constitution, Article III, Section 2, and Amendments V, VI and VII). On the continent of Europe, except in the cities, the model generally followed was that of the courts of the church, in which the essential thing was a trained judge. Since the French Revolution, however, the jury-system has become common on the continent.
As our system of courts is largely derived from that of England, we may note
