CORNET-A-PISTONS CORN LAWS 367 amounting to more than $500,000, have been bestowed upon the university. All persons over 16 years of age, qualified to pass the pre- scribed examinations as to studies, may be ad- mitted, the purpose of the founder being to "found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study." In 1872 the university accepted the offer of $250,000 made by Henry W. Sage of Brooklyn, N. Y., for the establishment in connection with the university of an institution for the education of women, to be called the Sage college of Cornell university. CORNET-A-PISTONS, a musical wind instru- ment of metal, the mechanism of which enables it to give all the intervals of the chromatic scale as far as the low F sharp. It has a com- pass of about two octaves and two notes, though the extreme lew and high notes of its scale are of hazardous utterance. There are cornets in C, B flat, A, A flat, G, F, E natural, E flat, and D. Those in A flat, A natural, and B flat are the best and the most correct in intonation, having fewer doubtful or bad notes than the others. That in C, the highest of all, is some- what difficult to play. As to the relative pitch of this instrument with that of other brass in- struments of its kind, the first low sound of the cornet in C is an octave above that of the trum- pet in C, and two octaves above that of the horn in the same key. The cornet-a-pistons is not an instrument of much dignity of tone, in this respect falling below the trumpet ; nei- ther has it the nobility of the horn. When heard however in the orchestra, in combina- tion with other instruments of its class, es- pecially with the trombones, whose sonority reenforces its tone and takes away its trivial character, it produces excellent effects. It is useful also in rendering rapid diatonic or chro- matic passages which are impracticable for either the trombones or horns. A wind instru- ment named the cornet was formerly in use, but has given place to the hautboy. It consist- ed of a curved tube of brass, about three feet long, increasing in diameter from the mouth- piece to the lower end. CORNHERT, or Coornhert, Diederik, a Dutch author, born in Amsterdam in 1522, died in Gouda in October, 1590. He was for a while steward in the service of a nobleman, and af- terward learned the art of an engraver. In 1564 he was appointed secretary to the burgo- masters of Haarlem, and assisted in preparing the way for the establishment of the indepen- dence of Holland. He was the author of the manifesto published by William prince of Orange in 1566, and for this he was afterward thrown into prison at the Hague. When he gained his liberty he was compelled to retire to Cleves, where he earned a livelihood as an en- graver. He was recalled to Holland in 1572, and appointed secretary of state, but, having made himself obnoxious to the principal gener- als by his attempts to check the disorderly conduct of the army, was again exiled. He afterward returned, and though he offended 229 VOL. v. 24 many by his theological views, he finally died in peace in his native land. He wrote in de- fence of the conduct of the Dutch in rebelling against the king of Spain, asserting that in doing so they only obeyed the law of self- defence. He wrote a poem " On the Use and Abuse of Fortune," and is said to be the author of Wilhelmus van Nassouwen, a national song very popular in Holland. Just before his death he wrote an essay against putting heretics to death. His works were published at Amsterdam in 1630, in 3 vols. fol. CORNIANI, Giovanni Battista, count, an Ital- ian author, born at Orzi Nuovi in 1742, died in Brescia in 1813. He was president of the academy of Brescia, held high judicial offices in that city, and from 1807 in his native town, was one of the authors of the Italian civil code, and a delegate to the provincial congress at Milan. He wrote opera texts and tragedies ; but his principal work is / secoli della letteratura ita- liana dopo il suo risorgimento (9 vols., Brescia, 1804-J13 . 8 vols., Turin, 1854-'6). CORNING, a post village and township of Steuben co., N. Y., on the New York and Erie, the Corning and Blossburg, and the Buffalo, Corning, and New York railroads, and on the Chemung river, 13 m. N. W. of Elmira; pop. of the township in 1870, 6,502 ; of the village, 4,018. It is pleasantly situated at the foot of a hill, and has communication by bridges with Knoxville and Centreville, on the opposite bank of the river. It has an extensive trade in lum- ber and coal, large quantities of the former being annually sent from here down the Sus- quehanna. A navigable feeder of the Che- mung canal connects it through Seneca lake with the Erie canal. There are several facto- ries, and two weekly newspapers. CORN LAWS, laws regulating the trade in corn or breadstuffs. Such laws have existed in va- rious forms, and still exist, in many countries ; but the corn laws of England are most famous in our day, owing to the great agitation for their repeal, which was consummated Feb. 1, 1849. They were of ancient origin, and had in the times of Edward VI. and Elizabeth been designed to regulate the domestic trade as well as the foreign. In the reign of Edward VI. the " engrossing " of corn, or buying it in one market to sell in another, was made punishable by imprisonment and the pillory. By a statute of Elizabeth corn could be carried from one part of the kingdom to another by obtaining a license from the quarter sessions. In 1624 these laws regulating the internal trade were much modified ; and in 1663 engrossing of corn was declared legal when the price did not reach 48*. per quarter. Although this last law worked well in many respects, the im- policy of such trade restrictions finally came to be acknowledged, and in 1773 the last remnant of these statutes was abolished. Immediately after the Norman conquest the exportation was prohibited, and this principle was adhered to till 1436, when a law was enacted allowing it
