Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/314

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310 COOPER working classes. It includes also a school of design for females, now attended by 200 pupils, a free reading room and library, re- sorted to by about 1,500 readers, galleries of art, collections of models of inventions, and a polytechnic school. The evening schools are attended by 2,000 pupils, mostly young me- chanics, who study engineering, mining, metal- lurgy, analytic and synthetic chemistry, archi- tectural drawing, and practical building. There are also for women a school of teleg- raphy, which in four years has sent out 307 operators, a school of wood engraving, and a school of photography, all of which are free and are well attended. These schools employ upward of 30 instructors. The receipts of the institute in 1872, from rents and interest on endowment, were about $37,000 and the ex- penditures $56,000. Mr. Cooper is now (1873), at the age of 82, still vigorous in mind and body, and devotes himself to works of charity and public benefit. COOPER, Samuel, D. D., an American clergy- man, born in Boston, March 28, 1725, died Dec. 29, 1783. He graduated at Harvard col- lege in 1743, studied theology, and at the age of 20 succeeded his father in the Brattle street church, where he remained 37 years, gaining the reputation of one of the most accomplished orators and scholars of New England. He took an influential part among the patriots of the revolution, writing various pamphlets in opposition to the pretensions of Great Britain, and was the person to whom Dr. Franklin sent the letters of Hutchinson. He was one of the foremost in laying the foundation of the American academy of arts and sciences, and became its first vice president in 1780. COOPER, Thomas, an American scholar and politician, born in London, Oct. 22, 1759, died at Columbia, S. C., May 11, 1840. He was educated at Oxford, afterward studied medi- cine and law, and was admitted to the bar and travelled a circuit for a few years ; but being sent by the democratic clubs of England to the affiliated clubs in France, he took part with the Girondists, and was called to account for his course by Mr. Burke in the house of com- mons. He wrote a violent pamphlet in reply, the publication of which in cheap form for popular circulation was forbidden by the gov- ernment. While in France he had learned the secret of making chlorine from common salt, and now became a bleacher and calico printer in Manchester, but his business was unsuccessful. He then came to America, and established himself in Pennsylvania as a lawyer. He opposed the administration of John Adams, and for a violent attack on the president in a Pennsylvania newspaper in 1799 was tried for a libel under the sedition act, and sentenced to six months 1 imprisonment and a fine of $400. The democratic party coming into power, he was appointed land commissioner for Pennsyl- vania in 1806. Being appointed to the office of judge, he became obnoxious to members of his own party, and was removed in 1811 on a charge of arbitrary conduct. He then succes- sively occupied the chair of chemistry in Dick- inson college, in the university of Pennsylvania, and in Columbia college, S. C., of which last institution he became president in 1820, and in which he discharged also the duties of pro- fessor of chemistry and of political economy. On his retirement in 1834, the revision of the statutes of the state was confided to him, and completed just before his death, in 10 vols. 8vo. Dr. Cooper was eminent for the versa- tility of his talent and the extent of his knowl- edge. His principal works are : " Informa- tion concerning America" (London, 1794); "An English Version of the Institutes of Jus- tinian," contrasting the Roman and American jurisprudence (Philadelphia, 1812 ; 3d ed., 1852) ; " Tracts on Medical Jurisprudence " (Philadelphia, 1819); and "Lectures on the Elements of Political Economy " (Charleston, 1826). He was also a vigorous pamphleteer and an admirable talker. COOPER, Thomas, an English chartist, born in Leicester, March 20, 1805. A shoemaker by trade, he became a schoolmaster, afterward a newspaper reporter, and in 1841 a leader of the chartists in his native town. He was imprisoned from 1842 to 1844 for having lec- tured in the Potteries during the riots in August, 1842. While in Stafford jail he wrote " The Purgatory of Suicides " and " Wise Saws and Modern Instances" (1845). He afterward published " The Baron's Yule Feast " (1846), " Triumphs of Perseverance " and " Triumphs of Enterprise " (1847), " Al- derman Ralph" (1853), and "The Family Feud" (1854). He also edited the "Plain Speaker " and " Cooper's Journal," both penny weeklies. In 1855 he renounced the skeptical views which he had expounded in the latter publication, and has since lectured and preached in favor of Christianity. COOPER, Thomas Sidney, an English painter, born in Canterbury, Sept. 26, 1803. He early developed a talent for drawing, and was accus- tomed to sketch from nature without instruc- tion. At the age of 17 he became scene paint- er to the Canterbury theatre, and during the next seven years he supported himself by scene painting and teaching drawing. In 1827 he visited the continent and settled in Brussels, where he married, and for several years de- rived a comfortable support from teaching and the proceeds of his pencil drawings. He made the acquaintance of Verboeckhoven, the Bel- gian animal painter, whose example strongly influenced him in devoting himself thereafter to landscape and animal painting. In 1830 he returned to England, and devoted several years to careful study from nature. His first picture, exhibited in 1833, attracted so much attention that he was commissioned to execute the noted landscape painting which is now in the Vernon gallery. This was the foundation of his subse- quent success as an animal painter, in which