COBB. these are the Opera House, the Newberry Li- brary, and the Cliurcli of the Atonement. In 1893 he was one of the National Board of Archi- tects for the World's Columbian Exposition buildings, and afterwards was retained as special architect by the United States Government. COBB, Howell ( 1815-68) . An American poli- tician. He was born in Jeil'erson County, Geor- gia, graduated at Franklin College in 1834, and was admitted to the bar in 183(5. From 1837 to 1S40 he was Solicitor-General of his State, and from 1843 to 18.51 was a member of Congress. In 1849. after a long and bitter contest, he was elected Sjieaker of the House. He was one of the leaders of the Southern Party in Congress, and favored the extension of slavery into the terri- tory acquired from Mexico. He was chosen Gov- ernor of Georgia in 18.51, and was again sent to Congress in 18.55. He was Secretary of the Treasury in Buchanan's Cabinet, but resigned in 1860 to join the South in the approaching war. He was the president of the congress that drafted and adopted the Confederate Con- stitution, but antagonism to .Jefferson Davis compelled his retirement from the Secession Ad- ministration. He was appointed major-general in the Southern Army, but did not take part in nny considerable military operations. After the declaration of peace he bitterly opposed the re- construction policy of the Federal Government. COBB, Syi.vaxus (1799-1806). An American minister of the Universalis! Church, bom at Norway, Maine. He edited Tlic Christian Free- man for twenty years and published The New Tcstnntcnf, with E.vplanatory Sotes (1864); A Coinpend of Dimniti/, and Discussions. He was prominent in anti-slavery and temperance move- ments. His name is more widely known through the writings of his son Sylvanus (1823-87), a prolific and very popular writer of tales and sketches of adventure, who published also the ilemoir accompanying his iaXhev'sAutohiography (Boston, 1807). COBB, Thom.s Reed Root (1823-62). An American lawyer and author. He was born at Cherry Hill, Ga., graduated in 1841 at the Uni- versity of Georgia, and from 1849 to 1857 was a reporter of the State Supreme Court. During a part of the Civil War he served in the Confeder- ate Congress, where for a time lie was chairman of the Committee on Military' AtTairs. He after- wards became a general in the Confederate Army and fell at Fredericksburg. He published Digest of the Laivs of Georgia (1851); Inquiry into the Law of Negro Slnrery in the United States (1858) ; and Historical Sketch of Slavery, from the Earliest Pei^iods (1859). COBBE, kob. Fra?:ces Power (1822-1904). An English philanthropist and author. She was born in Dublin in 1822. and was the great-grand- daughter of Cliarles Cobbe. Archbishop of Dub- lin. Though brought up in an atmosphere of evangelical piety and sent to a fashionable boarding-school, wliicJi proved to be torture to her vigorous, independent spirit, yet her early study of theological, ethical, and religious sub- jects finally brought her to the acceptance of the doctrines of theism. In 1857. after a year of travel in Italy, she joined !Mary Carpenter at Bristol in conducting schools and reformatories for girls. She contributed articles to Macmil- lan's and other magazines and weeklies, and, be- 87 COBBETT. ginning in 180", was for seven years an editorial writer for the Echo, a London daily. Later she wrote for the Standard. During this period her special subjects were the suffrage and property rights for women, and vivi.section. She was long one of the foremost opponents of vivisection in England, and. when the columns of the news- papers were clo.sed to her for the discussion of this subject, she established a monthly periodical for that purpose. Her piU^lished worlds make a long list. They are all characterized by a re- markably fluent and forcible style. Among tbem are Intuiiive Morals (1855); Broken Nights (1864); Darwinism in Morals (1872); Hopes of the Human Race (1874) ; t)uties of Women (1880) ; The Scientific Spirit of the Age (1888) ; The Modern Rack: Papers on Vivi.section (1889); and a charming Autobiography (2 vols., London, 1894). COB'BETT, William (1762-1835). An Eng- lish political writer. He was born March 9, 1762, at Farnham, Surrey, where his father, a peasant farmer, trained him in habits of industry and self-dependence. He took a dislike to rural occu- pations, and at sixteen years of age went to Lon- don, where he was employed as a copying clerk; but, this becoming distasteful, he enlisted in the Fifty-fourth Regiment of infantry, which shortly afterwards went to Nova Scotia. He remained in the regiment eight years, and by good con- duct, activity, and intelligence became sergeant- major. During this period he devoted his leisure to self-education. On his return to England in 1791 he obtained his discharge through the kind offices of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, married, and later went to France, where he learned the lan- guage. In the following year he went to Amer- ica, and, failing in an attempt to obtain a Govern- ment position, supported himself for a time at Wilmington, Del., teaching English to French emigrants, Talleyrand being one of his pupils. He settled in Philadelphia and became a political writer. Lender the signature of 'Peter Porcupine' he was as keen a Tory as in later life he was a Radical, and, being stung by disparaging criti- cism of his mother country, he lashed American democracy and Frencli republicanism with coarse, bitter, and personal scorn. Twice prosecuted for libel, he left America in June. 1800, and returned to England, where, in January, 1802. he started his famous Weekly Political Register, which continued uninterruptedly until his death. At first Tory, the Register gradually changed its politics and became the determined opponent of the Government and the uncompromising cham- pion of Radicalism. Having previously been found guilty twice of libel on certain members of the Government, he was in 1810 fined £1000 and sentenced to two years' imprisonment in Newgate for liis severe comments in the Register upon the flogging of five militiamen by Hessian mercenaries. In sore financial straits, and again in danger of imprisonment for free speech. Cobbett returned to America in 1817, and for two years farmed on Long Island, transmitting , his articles for the Register with unfailing regu- larity. On his return to England in 1820, his strange whim of transporting the bones and relics of Thomas Paine, whom he bad formerly reviled and now fulsomely eulogized, met with contempt and ridicule. He established a seed farm at Kensington, and for some years engaged in agri- culture. In 1829-30 he traversed England and
