the human soul, fires the heart with a noble ambition, and forms men into heroes. To the influence of the great Corneille, France owes some of her children's grandest actions. Had Corneille lived in my day, I would have made him a prince." Some of the poet's direct descendants, the posterity of his eldest son Pierre, are yet living. Napoleon I. caused two of them to be educated at the government expense; the eldest of these is now professor of history at the college of Rouen, and his researches of late years have done much towards elucidating the life of his illustrious ancestor. The best editions of Corneille's works are those of Joly, in 6 vols. 12mo, and of the Abbé Granet, both published at Paris in 1738, the former republished in 1747; Voltaire's edition in 12 vols. 8vo, at Geneva in 1764; "Chef d'Œuvres de Corneille," 5 vols. 8vo, at Paris in 1817; "Au Profit de Mlle. J. M. Corneille;" "Œuvres choises de Corneille L'heureux," Paris, 1822, 4 vols. 8vo; "Œuvres de P. Corneille, Lefevre," Paris, 1824, 12 vols. 8vo.—B. de B.
CORNEILLE, Thomas, a dramatic poet, brother of the great Corneille. His talents were likewise of a high order, and his reputation would have been brilliant had it not been lost in the splendour of his brother's. He was born at Rouen in 1625, and consequently twenty years younger than his brother Pierre. Thomas Corneille excelled in various walks of literature, but was chiefly celebrated for his theatrical compositions. Some of his tragedies obtained great success, and long kept their place on the stage, owing to the skill of his plot and his happy versification. His memory was so remarkable that he could recite any of his own plays from beginning to end. Like his illustrious brother, he was a man of great private worth—modest and candid, ready to acknowledge the merits even of his rivals, giving and receiving advice with cheerful goodwill, and preserving to the end of his long life the courteous and polite demeanour which had distinguished his youth. It was said of him that he never made an enemy. On the death of the great Corneille, Thomas succeeded him as member of the academy. Towards the close of his life, he became blind, but still continued his literary labours, which, it is to be feared, the narrowness of his circumstances rendered necessary. He died at Paris in 1709, aged eighty-four. Besides his dramatic works, of which a good edition was published by Joly, Paris, 1738, in 5 vols. 12mo, he translated the Metamorphoses and some other of Ovid's writings into French verse. He was one of the editors of the Mercure Galonte, and he also published a "Universal Dictionary of Geography and History," in 3 vols. folio, and "Observations on Vaugelas."—B. de B.
CORNELIA, daughter of Metellus Scipio, was married first to P. Crassus, and afterwards to Pompey, whom she accompanied to Egypt after the battle of Pharsalia. After her return to Rome, she received the ashes of her husband from Cæsar.
CORNELIA the Younger, daughter of P. Scipio Africanus the Elder, and the famous "mother of the Gracchi," was born about 189 b.c. She married in 169 Titus Sempronius Gracchus, and bore to him the tribunes Tiberius and Caius. She was distinguished by her virtue as much as by her accomplishments, and united the strict morals of the old Roman matron with the intellectual cultivation and elegant and refined manners which then began to characterize the Roman ladies. She possessed a thorough knowledge of Greek literature, and her letters, which were in existence at the time of Cicero, were quoted as models of epistolary writing. Cornelia was idolized by the citizens of Rome, who erected a statue to her, with the inscription, "Cornelia the Mother of the Gracchi."
CORNELIUS, Peter Von, an eminent German artist, was born at Dusseldorf on the 16th September, 1787. His father was inspector of the picture gallery of the city; he died in 1803, leaving a very humble provision for his family. Already a painter, Peter was encouraged by an affectionate mother to despise poverty for a time, and prosecute his studies. At the age of nineteen he was intrusted with the painting of the cupola of the old church of Neuss, near Dusseldorf. The figures were of colossal size, executed in chiaro-scuro, and the whole conception of the subject and its execution were very remarkable. In 1810, at Frankfort, he produced a series of illustrations of Goethe's Faust, which created no inconsiderable sensation. He now journeyed to Rome, meeting there his eminent fellow-labourer Frederic Overbeck, and, in conjunction with Schadow, Schrow, and Philip Veit, attracting the attention of artists to the gradual rise of a new school of German art. The revival of fresco painting is attributable very much to the influence of this remarkable band of artists. Two frescos executed by Cornelius for the villa of M. Bartoldy, the Prussian consul-general, created a passion for the new-old style of decoration. The Marquis Massini gave a commission for the adornment of his villa with a series of frescos from the Divina Commedia of Dante. The crown prince of Bavaria invited Cornelius to decorate the new glyptothek at Munich with frescos, and he was appointed director of the Academy at Dusseldorf. He left Rome in 1819. He reformed the academy, and illustrated the glyptothek with several colossal works. These, since their completion in 1830, have commanded the highest admiration from all quarters. Subsequently Cornelius was created director of the Munich Academy. In 1841, on the invitation of Frederic William IV., he proceeded to Berlin to paint certain frescos in the Campo Santo. He afterwards superintended the decoration of the Berlin museum, and made the design for the superb shield presented by the king of Prussia to his godson the prince of Wales at his baptism. The genius of Cornelius was of a high order. A nobility of sentiment, a subtlety of meaning, and a grandeur of conception pervade his whole works, and amply redeem certain negligences of detail which occasionally draw upon him the animadversions of those critics who prefer finish to intellect. He died on the 7th of March, 1867.—W. T.
CORNWALLIS, Charles Mann, second earl and first marquis of, was born 31st December, 1738, and educated at Eton and St. John's, Cambridge. He entered the army as an ensign in 1756, and served on the continent during the Seven Years' war as aid-de-camp to the marquis of Granby. On the death of his father in 1762, he succeeded to the earldom; he was made aid-de-camp to the king in 1765, colonel of the 33rd regiment in 1766, constable of the Tower in 1770, and major-general in 1778. On questions of American taxation he steadily opposed the court; but when war broke out between the mother country and the colonies, and his regiment was ordered abroad in 1776, he accompanied it without hesitation, conceiving that as a military man he had nothing to do with the policy of the service which he was commanded to perform. He served with great activity under generals Howe and Clinton, in the campaigns of 1776-79, in New York and the southern states, and in 1780 he gained a complete victory over General Gates. But in the following year he was besieged in York town by the French and American forces and the French fleet, and after an obstinate defence, was compelled to surrender, October 7, 1781. This untoward event proved a death-blow to the British interests in America; but Lord Cornwallis sustained no loss of military reputation by it, and on his return to England, was courted by both of the leading parties in parliament. In 1786 his lordship was appointed governor-general and commander-in-chief of Bengal. He introduced great reforms in the judicial system and the police, and in the collection of revenue. The principal event which occurred during his administration was the war with Tippoo Saib. The campaign of 1790 against Tippoo having proved indecisive, the governor-general resolved to take the field in person in 1791. The campaign was attended with entire success, the sultan was completely defeated in the famous night attack upon the lines of Seringapatam, and compelled to assent to a treaty which stripped him of one half of his dominions, besides a large sum of money (4th March, 1791.) As a reward of his "brilliant successes," Lord Cornwallis was raised to the rank of a marquis, and on his return to England in 1793, was appointed master-general of the ordnance. In 1798—the era of the rebellion—he was appointed lord-lieutenant of Ireland and commander-in-chief, and not only succeeded in suppressing the rebellion and capturing a French invading army, but checked the disgraceful outrages of the dominant faction in that unhappy country; and in spite of the violent clamour against his clemency, he steadfastly adhered to his moderate and merciful policy. He lent his powerful aid in passing the bill for the union of the two countries in 1800, and resigned the vice-royalty on Mr. Pitt's retiring from office in 1801. In the same year he was appointed plenipotentiary to France, and negotiated the peace of Amiens. In 1805 he was reappointed governor-general of India; and on arriving in Calcutta, though in bad health, he proceeded at once to the upper provinces, where his presence was necessary. But he was obliged to stop at Ghazapore in the province of Benares, where he died on the 5th of October. Lord Cornwallis was a statesman and a soldier of solid rather than showy qualities. He
