{{ti|1em|CORAM, Thomas (1(568-1751), an English philanthropist, began life as a seaman, and rose to the position of merchant captain. He settled at Taunton, Massachu setts, for several years engaging there in farming and boat building, and in 1703 returned to England. His acquaint ance with the destitute East End of London, and the miserable condition of the children there, inspired him with the idea of providing a refuge for such of them as had no legal protector ; and after seventeen years of unwearied exertion, he obtained in 1739 a royal charter authorizing the establishment of his hospital for foundling infants. It was opened in Hatton Garden, on 17th October 1740, with twenty inmates. For fifteen years it was supported by voluntary contributions ; but in 1756 it was endowed with a Parliamentary grant of 10,000 for the support of all that might be sent to it. Children were brought, how ever, in such numbers, and so few (not one-third, it is said) survived infancy, that the grant was stopped, and the charity, which had been removed to Guildford Street, was from that time only administered under careful restrictions. Coram s later years were spent in watching over the interests of the hospital ; he was also one of the pro moters of the settlement of Georgia and Nova Scotia ; and his name is honourably connected with various other charities. In carrying out his philanthropic schemes he spent nearly all his private means; and an annuity of 170 was raised for him by public subscription.
CORAY, Adamantius (1748-1833), a Greek scholar, was the son of a merchant of Smyrna. His grandfather, Professor Rhysius, had left a library to whoever of his grandsons should distinguish himself most at school in the study of ancient Greek. Adamantius won the prize, and a strong interest in literature was thence awakened in him. For a time, however, he devoted himself to commerce, carrying on the management of his father s business affairs in Amsterdam. But in 1779 his father s warehouse in Smyrna was destroyed by fire ; and Coray was left free to follow his tastes. Two or three years after he removed to Montpellier, where he remained for six years, studying medicine, and supporting himself by translating German and English medical works into French. In 1788 he settled in Paris, where he died forty-five years later, at the age of eighty-five.
Coray s chief works are his editions of Greek authors contained in his Bibliotheque hcllenique and his ira.ptpyd ; and his editions of the Characters of Theophrastus, of the De Acre, Aquis, et Locis of Hippocrates, and of the ^Ethiopica of Heliodorus, elaborately annotated. See &i6s ASa/j-avriov Koparj (Paris, 1833) ; and Airdv- SKTU.O. fTTKTToA.ojj ASapavTiou Koparj (Athens, 1839).
CORBEIL, a town of France at the head of an arrondissement in the department of Seine-et-Oise, is situated at the confluence of the Essonne with the Seine, about 18 miles S.S.E. of Paris. A bridge across the larger river unites the ma n part of the town with a suburb on the other side, and a continuous line of houses leads to the village of Essonnes. The church of St Spire was rebuilt in the 15th century ; St Jean-en-1 Isle belonged to the Templars, and dates from the 13th; and the corn-market was erected in 1 780 by Vie). The industrial establishments in the town and neighbourhood include more than forty flour-mills, and several print-works, cotton-factories, and paper-mills.
From the 10th to the 12th century Corbeil was the chief town of a powerful countship ; and it continued for a long time to be an important military post in connection with the commissariat of Pans. Of the numerous sieges to which it has been exposed, the most important are those by the duke of Burgundy in 1418, by the Huguenots in 1562, and by Alexander Farnese in 1590. The population of Corbeil proper in 1872 was 6016, and that of Essonnes, 551.
CORCYRA. See Corfu.
in 1768, at St Saturnin near Seez in Normandy, was descended from a noble family, and numbered among her ancestors the dramatist Corneille. She was educated in a convent, and then sent to live with an aunt at Caen. Here she saw hardly any one but her relative, and passed her lonely hours in reading the works of the philosophes, especially Voltaire and the Abbe Raynal. Another of her favourite authors was Plutarch, from whose pages she doubtless imbibed the idea of classic heroism and civic virtue which prompted the act that has made her name famous. On the outbreak of the Revolution she began to study current politics, chiefly through the medium of the papers issued by the party afterwards known as tho Girondins. On the downfall of this party, on May 31, 1793, many of the leaders took refuge in Normandy, and proposed to make Caen the headquarters of an army of volunteers, at tho head of whom Wimpfenn, the com mandant of Cherbourg, was to have marched upon Paris. Charlotte attended their meetings, and heard them speak ; but we have no reason to believe that she saw any of them privately, till the day when she went to ask for introduc tions to frisnds of theirs in Paris. She saw that their efforts in Normandy were doomed to fail. She had heard of Marat as a tyrant and the chief agent in their overthrow, and she had conceived the idea of going alone to Paris ana assassinating him, doubtless thinking that this would break up the party of the Terrorists and be the signal of a counter-revolution. Apparently she had thought of going to Paris in April, before the fall of the Girondins, for she had then procured a passport which she used in July. J t contained the usual description of the bearer, and ran thus: " Laissez passer la citoyenne Marie, <frc., Corday, agee de 24 ans, taille de 5 pieds 1 pouce, cheveux et sourcils chatains, yeux gris, front eleve, uez long, bouche moyenne, menton rond fourchu, visage ovale." Arrived in Paris she first attended to some business for a friend at Caen, and then she wrote to Marat : " Citizen, I have just arrived from Caen. Your love for your native place doubtless makes you desirous of learning the events which have occurred in that part of the republic. I shall call at your residence in about an hour; have the goodness to receive me, and to give me a brief interview. I will put you in a condition to render great service to France " On calling she was refused admittance, and wrote again, promising to reveal important secrets, and appealing to Marat s sympathy on the ground that she herself was persecuted by the enemies of the republic. She was again refused an audience, and it was only when she called a third time (July 15) that Marat, hearing her voice in the ante chamber, consented to see her. He lay in a bathing tub, wrapped in towels, for he was suffering from a horrible disease which had almost reduced him to a state of putre faction. Our only source of information as to what followed is Charlotte s own confession. She spoke to Marat of what was passing at Caen, and his only comment on her narrative was that all the men she had mentioned should be guillotined in a few days. As he s[ oke she drew from her bosom a dinner knife (which she had bought the day before for two francs) and plunged it into his left side. It pierced the lung and the aorta. He cried out, " A moi, ma chere amief" and expired. Two women rushed in, and pre vented Charlotte from escaping. A crowd collected round the house, and it was with difficulty that she was escorted to the prison of the Abbaye. On being brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal she gloried in her act, and when the indictment against her was read, and the president asked her what she had to say in reply, her answer was, " Nothing, except that I have succeeded." Her advocate,
Chaveau Lagarde, put forward the plea of insanity, but of
