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COLBERG &1 COLBY COLBERG, or KOLBERG, a seaport and watering-place of Prussia, in the province of Pomerania, on the Persante, near its mouth in the Baltic, 170 miles N. N. E. of Berlin. The principal church dates from 1316. In 1102 Duke Boles- laus of Poland vainly besieged Colberg, which endured long sieges in the Thirty Years' War, in the Seven Years' War, and again in 1807, when it was most gallantly defended against the French. Colberg has manufactures of woolens, agricultural machines, and spirits; and salmon and lamprey fisheries. Pop. about 25,000. COLBERT, JEAN BAPTISTE (kol- bar'), Marquis de Seignelay, a French statesman; born in Rheims in 1619. He served his apprenticeship in a woolen- draper's shop, and afterward went to Paris, where his talents introduced him to Mazarin, who soon employed him in most important affairs of state. On his death-bed, Mazarin warmly recom- mended Colbert to Louis XIV., who, in 1661, appointed him controller-general of finances. Colbert's administration be- came a blessing to France. Order was restored in the finances, the revenue in- creased. He organized anew the colo- nies in Canada, Martinique, and St. Do- mingo, and founded others at Cayenne and Madagascar. Made minister of ma- rine in 1669, he found France with a few old rotten ships; three years later, she had a fleet of 60 ships of the line and 40 frigates. Colbert improved the civil code, introduced a marine code of laws, as well as the so-called Code Noir for the colonies. He did not neglect the arts and sciences. The Academies of Inscrip- tions, Science, and Architecture were founded by him. In short, Colbert was the patron of industry, commerce, art, science, and literature — the founder of a new epoch in France. He died in 1683. His son, also named Jean Baptiste, born in 1651, succeeded his father as minister of marine, and minister of the king's household. By his capacity and energy, he raised the French navy to its highest power, and in 1684 he led in person the maritime expedition against Genoa. He died in 1690. COLBURN, ZERAH, an American mathematical prodigy; born in Cabot, Vt., Sept. 1, 1804; displayed such re- markable powers of calculation that in 1810 his father left Vermont to exhibit him. At this period he answered cor- rectly such questions as "How many hours in 1811 years?" in 20 seconds. He was shown in Great Britain, and for some time in Paris; from 1816 to 1819 he studied at Westminster School at the expense of the Earl of Bristol. Hia father died in 1824, and he returned to the United States, where he served as a Methodist preacher for nine years, and from 1835 was Professor of Languages in Norwich University, Vt., where he died March 2, 1840. His remarkable faculty disappeared as he grrew to man- hood. COLBY, BAINBRIDGE, an Amer- ican public ofiicial. Bom at St. Louis in 1869, he graduated from Williams College in 1890. After having completed a law course at Columbia University he took up the practice of law in New York City. He was instrumental in bringfing about reforms in the affairs of the Equi- BAINBRIDGE COLBY table Life Assurance Co. In politics he was actively associated with Roosevelt in the founding of the Progressive party in 1912, but in 1916 supported Wilson for the presidency. President Wilson ap- pointed him a member of the United States Shipping Board, and later made