COBDEN. this being his second visit after a lapse of twenty-four years. On his return the post of President of the Board of Trade was ofl'ered him by Palmerston, with a place in the Cabinet. Against the urgent advice of liis friends. Cobden declined the oiler, refusing frankly to take sides with a man from whom lie dilTered toto cfcio on matters of foreign policy. At the suggestion of M. Chevalier, the eminent champion of free trade, Cobden went to France in 18.59 to attempt the negotiation of a commercial treaty between that country and England. He possessed the support of none of the Knglish ministers save Gladstone, but his reputation was such that in his unofficial capacity lie succeeded iu converting the French Emperor and his ministers to his views. In January, ISGO. Cobden was clothed with official authority and in the same month the treaty was concluded. He remained in Paris ucntil Kovemljer, accomplishing the tremendous labor necessary in the minute adjustment of a new tarifl' schedule. On returning to England, he declined the offer of a baronetcy and resumed his activity in Parliament. With John Bright he earnestly supported the cause of the North in the Civil War, and in Parliament severely criticised the course of the Government in permitting the equipment of Confederate cruis- ers for the purpose of preying on American commerce. His last speech in Parliament was delivered in July, 18G4. He contracted serious bronchial trouble as the result of exposure in traveling on a public mission to London, and died there July 2, 1865. His death was ac- knowledged as a national loss by men of such widely differing opinions as Palmerston, Disraeli, and .John Bright, and was received with sorrow in France and other countries of the Continent. Cobden's Speeches on Qucfitions of Public Policii were jniblished by his friends John Bright and Thorold Rogers in 1870. The best biograpliy is that by John Morley, Richard Cobdeu's Life (London, 1881). Consult also Garnier. Richard Cobden, les lif/ueurs ct la ligue (Paris, 1846) ; Bastiat, Cobden, et la ligue ou VagHaticm pour la liberty du commerce (Paris, 1848). COBDEN CLTJB. An association of leading free - traders instituted in London in 1866, in honor of Richard Cobden (q.v.), with the object of difl'using in all parts of the world those prin- ciples with which his name is connected. For this purpose it has published tracts, pamphlets, and books, for free circulation, especially in Great Britain, the United States, and the British colonics. COBEGO, kS-ba'gS, or KAGTJAN, ka'gwan. The native name of a singular group of East Indian flying insectiyores, constituting the family Galeopithecida" and genus Galeopithecus, having one species {GnleopitJiecns rolitans) and per- haps another. They are kno^vn in the Malayan region as cobegos, colugos. kaguans. kubongs. etc., and in many books as flying lemurs, this aberrant and puzzling group having at first I'Cen considered lemuroids. They are slender, long-I imbed, large-clawed, long-tailed, fox-headed animals, about 18 inches in length, clothed in exquisitely soft, short and protectively mot- tled fur, and provided with a folded extension of the skin which extends from the neck nearly to the tip of the tail and inchides the feet, which are fully webbed. This parachute thus equals that of the best furnished bats in ex- 90 COBLENZ. tent, but it is furry both above and below. The dentition, the pectoral position of the teats, to which the single young one (born so incomplete as to suggest marsupial afluiities) is attached, and the habit of clinging to a sup- port head domward, are other resemblances to the bats : in flight the cobego does not equal them, but it can sail longer distances, and come nearer to guiding its course, than do any otlicr 'flying' manuuals. It is wholly arboreal in its life, and active mainly in the evening and early morning, disliking the glare of day, and impeded by the darkness of midnight. It spends most of its time scrambling aliout the branches and seems to feed upon anything that comes in its way, but mostly upon leaves and fruit. In sleep it hangs head dowiiward, clinging with its hind feet, and by means of the prehensile free tips of its tail, when it is nearly invisible among the flickering lights of the leaves. Consult: Wallace, Malay Archipelago (London, 1869) ; Moseley, ?:'olcs bii a Xaturalist on the 'Challenger' (Lon- don, 1879). COBET, ko-bgf, C.KEL Gabkiel ( 1813-89) . A brilliant Dutch classical scholar. He was born in Paris and studied from 1831 to 1836 in Ley- den, where, after a scientific journey to Italy at Government cost in 1840-45, he became a pro- fessor in 1847. Cobet was one of the most saga- cious and acute of modern critics in the depart- ment of Greek philologv'. He published, besides other works of high merit: Oratio de Arte Inter- pretandi (his inaugural address) (1847); Variw Lectiones (18.54); Kovce Lectiones (1858); Mis- cellanea Critica (1876); Collectanea Critica (1878); works on Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and Xenophon; and editions of Diogenes Laer- tius, Xenophon's Anabasis and Hellenica, Lysias, and Cornelius Nepos. See Textual Criticism. COB'HAM, Lord. See Oldcastle, Sir John. CCBIA, or Crab-Eatek. See Sergeant-Fish. COBIJA, ko-be'na. A seaport in the Province of Antot'agasla, Chile, about 70 miles north of Antofagasta (Slap: Chile, D 8). It was formerly a considerable to^-n, but has lost its commerce and now contains a population of but 500. Cobija, once known as Puerto la JMar, was part of Bolivia and its only seaport until ceded to Chile in 1883. It suffered from an earthquake and tidal wave in 1877. COBLENZ, or KOBLENZ, kf/blgnts (corrupt- ed from the Latin name Confluentia, or Confluen- les, from confluere, to flow together, from con-, together -f ^we)-p, to flow). The capital of the Prussian Rhine Province, about 57 miles south- east of Cologne, beautifully situated at the junc- tion of the Rhine and the Moselle, both of which are crossed here by bridges (Map: Prussia, B 3). It consists of the old town, along the Moselle, and the new town, farther up the Rhine. In the old tovm many of the streets are irregular, nar- row, and dirty ; but in the new, they are gen- erally well built, moderately wide, and clean. Among the principal buildings are the Church of Saint Castor, founded early in the ninth cen- tuiT. containing the tomb of Archbishop Kuno of Falkenstein ; the so-called Kaufhaus, built in 1477 as a town-hall: the ancient Burg, erected by the Archbishop of Treves in 1276. recently restored by the town ; and the large Electoral Palace, now a royal palace, completed in 1786. On the extreme point of the city, at the junction
