Chapter VI: Front Matter (6)

COUTHON, GEORGES (1755-1794), French revolutionist, was born at Orcet, a village in the district of Clermont in Auvergne. He studied law, and was admitted advocate at Clermont in 1785. At this period he was noted for his integrity, gentle-heartedness and charitable disposition. His health was feeble and both legs were paralysed. In 1787 he was a member of the provincial assembly of Auvergne. On the outbreak of the Revolution Couthon, who was now a member of the municipality of Clermont-Ferrand, published his _L'Aristocrate converti_, in which he revealed himself as a liberal and a champion of constitutional monarchy. He became very popular, was appointed president of the tribunal of the town of Clermont in 1791, and in September of the same year was elected deputy to the Legislative Assembly. His views had meanwhile been embittered by the attempted flight of Louis XVI., and he distinguished himself now by his hostility to the king. A visit to Flanders for the sake of his health brought him into close intercourse and sympathy with Dumouriez. In September 1792 Couthon was elected member of the National Convention, and at the trial of the king voted for the sentence of death without appeal. He hesitated for a time as to which party he should join, but finally decided for that of Robespierre, with whom he had many opinions in common, especially in matters of religion. He was the first to demand the arrest of the proscribed Girondists. On the 30th of May 1793 he became a member of the Committee of Public Safety, and in August was sent as one of the commissioners of the Convention attached to the army before Lyons. Impatient at the slow progress made by the besieging force, he decreed a _levee en masse_ in the department of Puy-de-Dome, collected an army of 60,000 men, and himself led them to Lyons. When the city was taken, on the 9th of October 1793, although the Convention ordered its destruction, Couthon did not carry out the decree, and showed moderation in the punishment of the rebels. The Republican atrocities began only after Couthon was replaced, on the 3rd of November 1793, by Collot d'Herbois. Couthon returned to Paris, and on the 21st of December was elected president of the Convention. He contributed to the prosecution of the Hebertists, and was responsible for the law of the 22nd Prairial, which in the case of trials before the Revolutionary Tribunal deprived the accused of the aid of counsel or of witnesses or their defence, on the pretext of shortening the proceedings. During the crisis preceding the 9th Thermidor, Couthon showed considerable courage, giving up a journey to Auvergne in order, as he wrote, that he might either die or triumph with Robespierre and liberty. Arrested with Robespierre and Saint-Just, his colleagues in the triumvirate of the Terror, and subjected to indescribable sufferings and insults, he was taken to the scaffold on the same cart with Robespierre on the 28th of July 1794 (10th Thermidor).

See Fr. Mege, _Correspondance de Couthon ... suivie de "l'Aristocrate
converti," comedie en deux actes de Couthon_ (Paris, 1872); and
_Nouveaux Documents sur Georges Couthon_ (Clermont-Ferrand, 1890);
also F. A. Aulard, _Les Orateurs de la Legislative et de la
Convention_ (Paris, 1885-1886), ii. 425-443.

COUTTS, THOMAS (1735-1822), English banker and founder of the banking house of Coutts & Co., was born on the 7th of September 1735. He was the fourth son of John Coutts (1699-1751), who carried on business in Edinburgh as a corn factor and negotiator of bills of exchange, and who in 1742 was elected lord provost of the city. The family was originally of Montrose, but one of its members had settled at Edinburgh about 1696. Soon after the death of John Coutts the business was divided into two branches, one carried on in Edinburgh, the other in London. The banking business in London was in the hands of James and Thomas Coutts, sons of John Coutts. From the death of his brother in 1778, Thomas, as surviving partner, became sole head of the firm; and under his direction the banking house rose to the highest distinction. His ambition was to establish his character as a man of business and to make a fortune; and he lived to succeed in this aim and long to enjoy his reputation and wealth. A gentleman in manners, hospitable and benevolent, he counted amongst his friends some of the literary men and the best actors of his day. Of the enormous wealth which came into his hands he made munificent use. His private life was not without its romantic elements. Soon after his settlement in London he married Elizabeth Starkey, a young woman of humble origin, who was in attendance on the daughter of his brother James. They lived happily together, and had three daughters--Susan, married in 1796 to the 3rd earl of Guilford; Frances, married in 1800 to John, 1st marquess of Bute; and Sophia, married in 1793 to Sir Francis Burdett. Mrs Coutts dying in 1815, her husband soon after married the popular actress, Harriet Mellon; and to her he left the whole of his immense fortune. He died in London on the 24th of February 1822. His widow married in 1827 the 9th duke of St Albans, and died ten years later, having bequeathed her property to Angela, youngest daughter of Sir Francis Burdett, who then assumed the additional name and arms of Coutts. In 1871 this lady was created Baroness Burdett-Coutts (q.v.).

See C. Rogers, _Genealogical Memoirs of the Families of Colt and
Coutts_ (1879); and R. Richardson, _Coutts & Co._ (1900).

COUTURE, THOMAS (1815-1879), French painter, was born at Senlis (Oise), and studied under Baron A. J. Gros and Paul Delaroche, winning a Prix de Rome in 1837. He began exhibiting historical and _genre_ pictures at the Salon in 1840, and obtained several medals. His masterpiece was his "Romans in the Decadence of the Empire" (1847), now in the Luxembourg; and his "Love of Money" (1844; at Toulouse), "Falconer" (1855), and "Damocles" (1872), are also good examples.

COUVADE (literally a "brooding," from Fr. _couver_, to hatch, Lat. _cubare_, to lie down), a custom so called in Bearn, prevalent among several peoples in different parts of the world, requiring that the father, at and sometimes before the birth of his child, shall retire to bed and fast or abstain from certain kinds of food, receiving the attentions generally shown to women at their confinements. The existence of the custom in ancient classical times is testified to by Apollonius Rhodius, Diodorus (who refers to its existence among the Corsicans), and Strabo (who noticed it among the Spanish Basques, by whom, as well as by the Gascons, it has been said to be still observed, though the most recent researches entirely discredit this). Travellers, from the time of Marco Polo, who relates its observance in Chinese Turkestan, have found the custom to prevail in China, India, Borneo, Siam, Africa and the Americas. Even in Europe it cannot be said to have entirely disappeared. In certain of the Baltic provinces of Russia the husband, on the lying-in of the wife, takes to his bed and groans in mock pain. One writer believes he found traces of it in the little island of Marken in the Zuyder Zee. Even in rural England, notably in East Anglia, a curiously obstinate belief survives (the prevalence of which in earlier times is proved by references to it in Elizabethan drama) that the pregnancy of the woman affects the man, and the young husband who complains of a toothache is assailed by pleasantries as to his wife's condition. In Guiana the custom is observed in its most typical form. The woman works to within a few hours of the birth, but some days before her delivery the father leaves his occupations and abstains from certain kinds of animal food lest the child should suffer. Thus the flesh of the agouti is forbidden, lest the child should be lean, and that of the capibara or water-cavy, for fear he should inherit through his father's gluttony that creature's projecting teeth. A few hours before delivery the woman goes alone, or with one or two women-friends, into the forest, where the baby is born. She returns as soon as she can stand, to her work, and the man then takes to his hammock and becomes the invalid. He must do no work, must touch no weapons, is forbidden all meat and food, except at first a fermented liquor and after the twelfth day a weak gruel of _cassava_ meal. He must not even smoke, or wash himself, but is waited on hand and foot by the women. So far is the comedy carried that he whines and groans as if in actual pain. Six weeks after the birth of the child he is taken in hand by his relatives, who lacerate his skin and rub him with a decoction of the pepper-plant. A banquet is then held from which the patient is excluded, for he must not leave his bed till several days later; and for six months he must eat the flesh of neither fish nor bird. Almost identical ceremonies have been noticed among the natives of California and New Mexico; while in Greenland and Kamchatka the husband may not work for some time before and after his wife's confinement. Among the Larkas of Bengal a period of isolation and uncleanness, synchronous with that compulsory on the woman, is imperative for the man, on the conclusion of which the child's parentage is publicly proclaimed.

No certain explanation can be offered for the custom. The most reasonable view is that adopted by E. B. Tylor, who traces in it the transition from the earlier matriarchal to the later patriarchal system of tribe-organization. Among primitive tribes, and probably in all ages, the former order of society, in which descent and inheritance are reckoned through the mother alone, as being the earliest form of family life, is and was very common, if not universal. The acknowledgment of a relationship between father and son is characteristic of the progress of society towards a true family life. It may well be that the Couvade arose in the father's desire to emphasize the bond of blood between himself and his child. It is a fact that in some countries the father has to purchase the child from its mother; and in the Roman ceremony of the husband raising the baby from the floor we may trace the savage idea that the male parent must formally proclaim his adoption of and responsibility for the offspring. Max Muller, in his _Chips from a German Workshop_, endeavoured to find an explanation in primitive "henpecking," asserting that the unfortunate husband was tyrannized over by "his female relatives and afterwards frightened into superstition,"--that, in fact, the whole fabric of ceremony is reared on nothing but masculine hysteria; but this theory can scarcely be taken seriously. The missionary, Joseph Francois Lafitau, suspected a psychological reason, assuming the custom to be a dim recollection of original sin, the isolation and fast types of repentance. The explanation of the American Indians is that if the father engaged in any hard or hazardous work, e.g. hunting, or was careless in his diet, the child would suffer and inherit the physical faults and peculiarities of the animals eaten. This belief that a person becomes possessed of the nature and form of the animal he eats is widespread, being as prevalent in the Old World as in the New, but it is insufficient to account for the minute ceremonial details of La Couvade as practised in many lands. It is far more likely that so universal a practice has no trivial beginnings, but is to be considered as a mile-stone marking a great transitional epoch in human progress.

AUTHORITIES.--E. B. Tylor's _Early History of Man_ (1865; 2nd ed. p.
301); F. Max Muller, _Chips from a German Workshop_ (1868-1875), ii.
281; Lord Avebury, _Origin of Civilisation_ (1900); Brett's _Indian
Tribes of Guiana_; Johann Baptist von Spix and Karl F. P. von Martius,
_Travels in Brazil_ (1823-1831), ii. 281; J. F. Lafitau, _Moeurs des
sauvages americains_ (1st ed., 1724); W. Z. Ripley, _Races of Europe_
(1900); A. H. Keane's _Ethnology_ (1896), p. 368 and footnote; A.
Giraud-Teulon, _Les Origines du mariage et de la famille_ (Paris,
1884).

COVE, a word mostly used in the sense of a small inlet or sheltered bay in a coast-line. In English dialect usage it is also applied to a cave or to a recess in a mountain-side. The word in O. Eng. is _cofa_, and cognate forms are found in the Ger. _Koben_, Norwegian _kove_, and in various forms in other Teutonic languages. It has no connexion with "alcove," recess in a room or building, which is derived through the Span. _alcoba_ from Arab. _al_, the, and _qubbah_, vault, arch, nor with "cup" or "coop," nor with "cave" (Lat. _cava_). The use of the word was first confined to a small chamber or cell or inner recess in a room or building. From this has come the particular application in architecture to any kind of concave moulding, the term being usually applied to the quadrantal curve rising from the cornice of a lofty room to the moulded borders of the horizontal ceiling. The term "coving" is given in half-timbered work to the curved soffit under a projecting window, or in the 18th century to that occasionally found carrying the gutter of a house. In the Musee Plantin at Antwerp the hearth of the fireplace of the upper floor is carved on coving, which forms part of the design of the chimney-piece in the room below. The slang use of "cove" for any male person, like a "fellow," "chap," &c., is found in the form "cofe" in T. Harman's _Caveat for Cursetors_ (1587) and other early quotations. This seems to be identical with the Scots word "cofe," a pedlar, hawker, which is formed from "coff," to sell, purchase, cognate with the Ger. _kaufen_, to buy, and the native English "cheap." The word "cove," therefore, is in ultimate origin the same as "chap," short for "chapman," a pedlar.

COVELLITE, a mineral species consisting of cupric sulphide, CuS, crystallizing in the hexagonal system. It is of less frequent occurrence in nature than copper-glance, the orthorhombic cuprous sulphide. Crystals are very rare, the mineral being usually found as compact and earthy masses or as a blue coating on other copper sulphides. Hardness 1-1/2-2; specific gravity 4.6. The dark indigo-blue colour is a characteristic feature, and the mineral was early known as indigo-copper (Ger. _Kupferindig_). The name covellite is taken from N. Covelli, who in 1839 observed crystals of cupric sulphide encrusting Vesuvian lava, the mineral having been formed here by the interaction of hydrogen sulphide and cupric chloride, both of which are volatile volcanic products. Covellite is, however, more commonly found in copper-bearing veins, where it has resulted by the alteration of other copper sulphides, namely chalcopyrite, copper-glance and erubescite. It is found in many copper mines; localities which may be specially mentioned are Sangerhausen in Prussian Saxony, Butte in Montana, and Chile; in the Medicine Bow Mountains of Wyoming a platiniferous covellite is mined, the platinum being present as sperrylite (platinum arsenide). (L. J. S.)

COVENANT (an O. Fr. form, later _convenant_, from _convenir_, to agree, Lat. _convenire_), a mutual agreement of two or more parties, or an undertaking made by one of the parties. In the Bible the Hebrew word [Hebrew: briia], _b[)e]r[=i]th_, is used widely for many kinds of agreements; it is then applied to a contract between two persons or to a treaty between two nations, such as the covenant made between Abimelech and Isaac, representing a treaty between the Israelites and the Philistines (Gen. xxvi. 26, seq.); more particularly to an engagement made between God and men, or such agreements as, by the observance of a religious rite, regarded God as a party to the engagement. Two suggestions have been made for the derivation of _b[)e]r[=i]th_: (1) tracing the word from a root "to cut," and the reference is to the primitive rite of cutting victims into parts, between which the parties to an agreement passed, cf. the Greek [Greek: horkia temnein], and the account (Gen. xv. 17) of the covenant between God and Abraham, where "a smoking furnace and burning lamp passed between the pieces" of the victims Abraham had sacrificed; (2) connecting it with an Assyrio-Babylonian _biritu_, fetter, alliance. _B[)e]r[=i]th_ was translated in the Septuagint by [Greek: diatheke], which in classical Greek had the meaning of "will"; hence the Vulgate, in the Psalms and the New Testament, translates the word by _testamentum_, but elsewhere in the Old Testament by _foedus_ or _pactum_; similarly Wycliffe's version gives "testament" and "covenant" respectively. The books of Scripture dealing with the old or Mosaic, and new or Christian dispensation are sometimes known as the Books of the Old and the New Covenant. The word appears in the system of theology developed by Johannes Cocceius (q.v.), and known as the "Covenant" or "Federal" Theology, based on the two Covenants of Works or Life made by God with Adam, on condition of obedience, and of grace or redemption, made with Christ. In Scottish ecclesiastical history, covenant appears in the two agreements signed by the members of the Scottish Church in defence of their religious and ecclesiastical systems (see COVENANTERS).

COVENANT, in law, is the English equivalent of the Lat. _conventio_, which, although not technical, was the most general word in Roman law for "agreement." It was frequently used along with _pactum_, also a general term, but applied especially to agreements to settle a question without carrying it before the courts of law.

The word "covenant" has been used in a variety of senses in English law.

1. In its strict sense, covenant means an agreement _under seal_, that something has or has not already been done, or shall or shall not be done hereafter (Shep. _Touchstone_, 160, 162). It is most commonly used with reference to sales or leases of land, but is sometimes applied to any promise or stipulation, whether under seal or not. The person who makes, and is bound to perform, the promise or stipulation is the covenantor: the person in whose favour it is made is the covenantee.

2. Covenants have been subdivided into numerous classes, only a few of which need to be described. It is unnecessary to do more than mention affirmative and negative covenants, joint or several, alternative or disjunctive covenants, dependent or independent covenants. As to collateral covenants, covenants "running with the land," and covenants in leases (including "usual," "proper" and "restrictive" covenants), see LANDLORD and TENANT. But there are other classes as to which something must be said.

A covenant is said to be _express_ when it is created by the express words of the parties to the deed declaratory of their intention. It is not indispensable that the word "covenant" should be used. Any word which clearly indicates the intention of the parties to covenant will suffice. An _implied_ covenant, or _covenant in law_, "depends for its existence on the intendment and construction of law. There are some words which of themselves do not import an express covenant, yet, being made use of in certain contracts, have a similar operation and are called covenants in law; and they are as effectually binding on the parties as if expressed in the most unequivocal terms" (Platt on _Covenants_, p. 40). Thus, the word "demise," used in a lease of deed, raises the implication of a covenant both for "quiet enjoyment" and for title to let; and it has been judicially suggested that a covenant for quiet enjoyment may be implied from any word or words of like import (_Budd-Scott_ v. _Daniell_, 1902, 2 K.B. p. 359). The Conveyancing Act 1881 provides (S 7) that in a conveyance for valuable consideration, other than a mortgage, there shall be implied, as against the person who conveys and is expressed to convey as "beneficial owner," certain _qualified_ covenants--i.e. covenants extending only to the acts or omissions of the vendor, persons through whom he derives title otherwise than by purchase for value, and persons claiming under them--for "right to convey," "quiet enjoyment," "freedom from incumbrances" and "further assurance." Of these statutory covenants for title the only one which requires explanation is the covenant for further assurance. It imports an agreement on the part of the covenantor to do such reasonable acts, in addition to those already performed, as may be necessary for the completion of the transfer made (or intended to be made) at the requirements of the covenantee (Platt on _Covenants_, p. 341). All these statutory implied covenants "run with the land" (see LANDLORD and TENANT). Where a mortgagor conveys, and is expressed to convey, as "beneficial owner," there are implied _absolute_ covenants--i.e. covenants amounting to a warranty against and for the acts and omissions of the whole world--that he has a right to convey, that the mortgagee shall have quiet enjoyment of the property after default, free from incumbrances and for further assurance. Special provisions as to implied covenants by the lessor in leases are made in England by S 7 (B) of the Conveyancing Act 1881 and in Ireland by the Land Act (Ireland) 1860, S 41. The distinction between _real_ and _personal_ covenants is that the former do, while the latter do not, run with the land. An _inherent_ covenant is another name for a _real_ covenant (Shep. _Touchstone_, 176; Platt, 60). When a covenant relates to an act already done, it is usually termed a covenant _executed_; where the performance is future, the covenant is termed _executory_. The _covenant for seisin_ was an assurance to the grantee that the grantor had the estate which he purported to convey. In England it is now included in the covenant for right to convey; but is still in separate use in several states in America. The _covenant to stand seised to uses_ was an assurance by means of which, under the Statute of Uses [1536] (see USES), a conveyance of an estate might be effected. When such a covenant is made, the legal estate in the land passes at once to the covenantee under the statute. The consideration for the covenant must be relationship by blood or marriage. It is still occasionally though very rarely employed. The _covenant not_ to _sue_ belongs to the law of contract and needs no explanation.

Most of the classes of covenants above mentioned are in use in the
United States. In New York, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, Wisconsin and
Wyoming the implication of covenants for title has been, with certain
exceptions, prohibited by statute. In Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware,
Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico,
Pennsylvania and Texas the words _grant_, _bargain_ and _sell_, in
conveyances in fee, unless specially restricted, amount to qualified
covenants that the grantor was seised in fee, free from incumbrances,
and for quiet enjoyment (4 Kent, _Commentaries_, S 473; Bouvier, _Law
Dictionary_, s.v. Covenant). In some of the states a _covenant of
non-claim_, or of _warranty_, an assurance by the grantor that neither
he nor his heirs, nor any other person shall claim any title in the
premises conveyed, is in general use.

3. An _action of covenant_ lay for breaking covenant. As to the history of this action see Pollock and Maitland, _History of English Law_, ii. 106; and Holmes, _The Common Law_, p. 272. There was also a _writ of covenant_. But this remedy had fallen into disuse before 1830 (see Platt on _Covenants_, p. 543), and was abolished by the Common Law Procedure Acts. Since the Judicature Acts, an action on a covenant follows the same course as, and is indistinguishable from, any ordinary action for breach of contract. The remedy is by damages, decree of specific performance or injunction to prevent the breach.

The term "covenant" is unknown to Scots law. But its place is filled
to some extent by the doctrine of "warrandice." Many of the British
colonies have legislated, as to the implication of covenants for
title, on the lines of the English Conveyancing Act 1881; e.g.
Tasmania, Conveyancing and Law of Property Act 1884 (47 Vict. No. 10).

As to covenants in restraint of trade see RESTRAINT.

AUTHORITIES.--In addition to the authorities cited in the text see:
_English Law_; Goodeve, _Law of Real Property_ (5th ed., London,
1906); C. Foa, _Landlord and Tenant_ (3rd ed., London, 1901);
Hamilton, _Law of Covenants_ (London); Fawcett, _Law of Landlord and
Tenant_ (3rd ed., London, 1905). _American Law: Rawle, Law of
Covenants for Title_ (Boston, 1887); _Encyclopaedia of American Law_
(3rd ed., 1890), vol. viii., tit. "Covenants." (A. W. R.)

COVENANTERS, the name given to a party which, originating in the Reformation movement, played an important part in the history of Scotland, and to a lesser extent in that of England, during the 17th century. The Covenanters were thus named because in a series of _bands_ or _covenants_ they bound themselves to maintain the Presbyterian doctrine and polity as the sole religion of their country. The first "godly band" is dated December 1557; but more important is the covenant of 1581, drawn up by John Craig in consequence of the strenuous efforts which the Roman Catholics were making to regain their hold upon Scotland, and called the King's Confession or National Covenant. Based upon the Confession of Faith of 1560, this document denounced the pope and the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church in no measured terms. It was adopted by the General Assembly, signed by King James VI. and his household, and enjoined on persons of all ranks and classes; and was again subscribed in 1590 and 1596. In 1637 Scotland was in a state of turmoil. Charles I. and Archbishop Laud had just met with a reverse in their efforts to impose the English liturgy upon the Scots; and fearing further measures on the part of the king, it occurred to Archibald Johnston, Lord Warriston, to revive the National Covenant of 1581. Additional matter intended to suit the document to the special circumstances of the time was added, and the covenant was adopted and signed by a large gathering in Greyfriars' churchyard, Edinburgh, on the 28th of February 1638, after which copies were sent throughout the country for additional signatures. The subscribers engaged by oath to maintain religion in the state in which it existed in 1580, and to reject all innovations introduced since that time, while professed expressions of loyalty to the king were added. The General Assembly of 1638 was composed of ardent Covenanters, and in 1640 the covenant was adopted by the parliament, and its subscription was required from all citizens. Before this date the Covenanters were usually referred to as _Supplicants_, but from about this time the former designation began to prevail.

A further development took place in 1643. The leaders of the English parliament, worsted in the Civil War, implored the aid of the Scots, which was promised on condition that the Scottish system of church government was adopted in England. After some haggling a document called the Solemn League and Covenant was drawn up. This was practically a treaty between England and Scotland for the preservation of the reformed religion in Scotland, the reformation of religion in England and Ireland "according to the word of God and the example of the best reformed churches," and the extirpation of popery and prelacy. It was subscribed by many in both kingdoms and also in Ireland, and was approved by the English parliament, and with some slight modifications by the Westminster Assembly of Divines. Charles I. refused to accept it when he surrendered himself to the Scots in 1646, but he made important concessions in this direction in the "Engagement" made with the Scots in December 1647. Charles II. before landing in Scotland in June 1650 declared by a solemn oath his approbation of both covenants, and this was renewed on the occasion of his coronation at Scone in the following January.

From 1638 to 1651 the Covenanters were the dominant party in Scotland, directing her policy both at home and abroad. Their power, however, which had been seriously weakened by Cromwell's victory at Dunbar in September 1651, was practically destroyed when Charles II. was restored nine years later. Firmly seated upon the throne Charles renounced the covenants, which in 1662 were declared unlawful oaths, and were to be abjured by all persons holding public offices. Episcopacy was restored, the court of high commission was revived, and ministers who refused to recognize the authority of the bishops were expelled from their livings. Gathering around them many of the Covenanters who clung tenaciously to their standards of faith, these ministers began to preach in the fields, and a period of persecution marked by savage hatred and great brutality began. Further oppressive measures were directed against the Covenanters, who took up arms about 1665, and the struggle soon assumed the proportions of a rebellion. The forces of the crown under John Graham of Claverhouse and others were sent against them, and although the insurgents gained isolated successes, in general they were worsted and were treated with great barbarity. They maintained, however, their cherished covenants with a zeal which persecution only intensified; in 1680 the more extreme members of the party signed a document known as the "Sanquhar Declaration," and were afterwards called Cameronians from the name of their leader, Richard Cameron (q.v.). They renounced their allegiance to King James and were greatly disappointed when their standards found no place in the religious settlement of 1689, continuing to hold the belief that the covenants should be made obligatory upon the entire nation. The Covenanters had a martyrology of their own, and the halo of romance has been cast around their exploits and their sufferings. Their story, however, especially during the time of their political predominance, is part of the general history of Scotland (q.v.).

The texts of the National Covenant and the Solemn League and Covenant
are printed in S. R. Gardiner's _Constitutional Documents of the
Puritan Revolution_ (Oxford, 1899). See also J. H. Burton, _History of
Scotland_ (Edinburgh, 1905); A. Lang, _History of Scotland_
(Edinburgh, 1900); S. R. Gardiner, _History of England_ (London,
1883-1884); G. Grub, _Ecclesiastical History of Scotland_ (Edinburgh,
1861); J. Macpherson, _History of the Church in Scotland_ (Paisley,
1901); and J. K. Hewison, _The Covenanters_ (1908).

COVENT GARDEN, formerly an open space north of the Strand, London, England, now occupied by the principal flower, fruit and vegetable market in the metropolis. This was originally the so-called "convent garden" belonging to the abbey of St Peter, Westminster. In the first half of the 17th century the site of the garden was laid out as a square by Inigo Jones, with a piazza on two sides; and as early as 1656 it was becoming a market place for the same commodities as are now sold in it. Covent Garden Theatre (1858) is the chief seat of grand opera in London. The site has carried a theatre since 1733, but earlier buildings were burnt in 1809 and 1856.

COVENTRY, SIR JOHN (d. 1682), son of John Coventry, the second son of Thomas, Lord Keeper Coventry, was returned to the Long Parliament in 1640 as member for Evesham. During the Civil War he served for the king, and at the Restoration was created a knight. In 1667, and in the following parliaments of 1678, 1679 and 1681, he was elected for Weymouth, and opposed the government. On the 21st of December 1670, owing to a jest made by Coventry in the House of Commons on the subject of the king's amours, Sir Thomas Sandys, an officer of the guards, with other accomplices, by the order of Monmouth, and (it was said) with the approval of the king himself, waylaid him as he was returning home to Suffolk Street and slit his nose to the bone. The outrage created an extraordinary sensation, and in consequence a measure known as the "Coventry Act" was passed, declaring assaults accompanied by personal mutilation a felony without benefit of clergy. Sir John died in 1682. Sir William Coventry, his uncle, speaks slightingly of him, ridicules his vanity and wishes him out of the House of Commons to be "out of harm's way."

COVENTRY, THOMAS COVENTRY, 1ST BARON (1578-1640), lord keeper of England, eldest son of Sir Thomas Coventry, judge of the common pleas (a descendant of John Coventry, lord mayor of London in the reign of Henry VI.), and of Margaret Jeffreys of Earls Croome, or Croome D'Abitot, in Worcestershire, was born in 1578. He entered Balliol College, Oxford, in 1592, and the Inner Temple in 1594, becoming bencher of the society in 1614, reader in 1616, and holding the office of treasurer from 1617 till 1621. His exceptional legal abilities were rewarded early with official promotion. On the 16th of November 1616 he was made recorder of London in spite of Bacon's opposition, who, although allowing him to be "a well trained and an honest man," objected that he was "bred by my Lord Coke and seasoned in his ways."[1] On the 14th of March 1617 he was appointed solicitor-general and was knighted; was returned for Droitwich to the parliament of 1621; and on the 11th of January in that year was made attorney-general. He took part in the proceedings against Bacon for corruption, and was manager for the Commons in the impeachment of Edward Floyd for insulting the elector and electress palatine.

On the 1st of November 1625 he was made lord keeper of the great seal; in this capacity he delivered the king's reprimand to the Commons on the 29th of March 1626, when he declared that "liberty of counsel" alone belonged to them and not "liberty of control." On the 10th of April 1628 he received the title of Baron Coventry of Aylesborough in Worcestershire. At the opening of parliament in 1628 he threatened that the king would use his prerogative if further thwarted in the matter of supplies. In the subsequent debates, however, while strongly supporting the king's prerogative against the claims of the parliament to executive power, he favoured a policy of moderation and compromise. He defended the right of the council to commit to prison without showing cause, and to issue "general" warrants; though he allowed it should only be employed in special circumstances, disapproved of the king's sudden dissolution of parliament, and agreed to the liberation on bail of the seven imprisoned members on condition of their giving security for their good behaviour. He showed less subservience than Bacon to Buckingham, and his resistance to the latter's pretensions to the office of lord high constable greatly incensed the duke. Buckingham taunted Coventry with having gained his place by his favour; to which the lord keeper replied, "Did I conceive I had my place by your favour, I would presently unmake myself by returning the seal to his Majesty."[2] After this defiance Buckingham's sudden death alone probably prevented Coventry's displacement. He passed sentence of death on Lord Audley in 1631, drafted and enforced the proclamation of the 20th of June 1632 ordering the country gentlemen to leave London, and in 1634 joined in Laud's attack on the earl of Portland for peculation. The same year, in an address to the judges, he supported the proposed levy of ship-money on the inland as well as the maritime counties on the plea of the necessity of effectually arming, "so that they might not be enforced to fight," "the wooden walls" being in his opinion "the best walls of this kingdom."[3] In the Star Chamber Coventry was one of Lilburne's judges in 1637, but he generally showed conspicuous moderation, inclining to leniency in the cases of Richard Chambers in 1629 for seditious speeches, and of Henry Sherfield in 1632 for breaking painted glass in a church. He prevented also the hanging of men for resistance to impressment, and pointed out its illegality, since the men were not subject to martial law. While contributing thirty horse to the Scottish expedition in 1638, and lending the king L10,000 in 1639, he gave no support to the forced loan levied upon the city in the latter year. He died on the 14th of January 1640.

Lord Coventry held the great seal for nearly fifteen years, and was enabled to collect a large fortune. He was an able judge, and he issued some important orders in chancery, probably alluded to by Wood, who ascribes to him a tract on "The Fees of all law Officers."[4] Whitelocke accuses him of mediocrity,[4] but his contemporaries in general have united in extolling his judicial ability, his quick despatch of business and his sound and sterling character. Clarendon in particular praises his statesmanship, and compares his capacity with Lord Strafford's, adding, however, that he seldom spoke in the council except on legal business and had little influence in political affairs; to the latter circumstance he owed his exceptional popularity. He describes him as having "in the plain way of speaking and delivery a strange power of making himself believed," as a man of "not only firm gravity but a severity and even some morosity," as "rather exceedingly liked than passionately loved."

Lord Coventry married (1) Sarah, daughter of Sir Edward Sebright of Besford in Worcestershire, by whom besides a daughter he had one son, Thomas, who succeeded him as 2nd baron, and (2) Elizabeth, daughter of John Aldersley of Spurstow, Cheshire, and widow of William Pitchford, by whom he had four sons, John, Francis, Henry and Sir William Coventry, the statesman.

Thomas Coventry, 5th baron (d. 1699), was created an earl in 1697 with a special limitation, on failure of his own male issue, to that of Walter, youngest brother of the lord keeper, from whom the present earl of Coventry is descended.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Spedding's _Bacon_. vi. 97.

[2] Hacket's _Life of Bishop Williams_, ii. 19.

[3] Rushworth (1680), part ii. vol. i. 294.

[4] _Ath. Oxon._ ii. 650.

[5] There is an adverse opinion also expressed in Pepys's _Diary_,
August 26, 1666, probably based on little real knowledge.

COVENTRY, SIR WILLIAM (c. 1628-1686), English statesman, son of the lord keeper, Thomas, Lord Coventry, by his second wife Elizabeth Aldersley, was born about 1628. He matriculated at Queen's College, Oxford, at the age of fourteen. Owing to the outbreak of the Civil War he was obliged to quit his studies, but according to Sir John Bramston "he had a good tutor who made him a scholar, and he travelled and got the French language in good perfection." "He was young whilst the war continued," wrote Clarendon, "yet he had put himself before the end of it into the army and had the command of a foot company and shortly after travelled into France." Here he remained till all hopes of obtaining foreign assistance and of raising a new army had to be laid aside, when he returned to England and kept aloof from the various royalist intrigues. When, however, a new prospect of a restoration appeared in 1660, Coventry hastened to Breda, was appointed secretary to James, duke of York, lord high admiral of England, and headed the royal procession when Charles entered London in triumph.

He was returned to the Restoration parliament of 1661 for Great Yarmouth, became commissioner for the navy in May 1662 and in 1663 was made D.C.L. at Oxford. His great talents were very soon recognized in parliament, and his influence as an official was considerable. His appointment was rather that of secretary to the admiralty than of personal assistant to the duke of York,[1] and was one of large gains. Wood states that he collected a fortune of L60,000. Accusations of corruption in his naval administration, and especially during the Dutch war, were brought against him, but there is nothing to show that he ever transgressed the limits sanctioned by usage and custom in obtaining his emoluments. Pepys in his diary invariably testifies to the excellence of his administration and to his zeal for reform and economy. His ability and energy, however, did little to avert the naval collapse, owing chiefly to financial mismanagement and to the ill-advised appointments to command. Coventry denied all responsibility for the Dutch War in 1665, which Clarendon sought to place upon his shoulders, and his repudiation is supported by Pepys; it was, moreover, contrary to his well-known political opinion. The war greatly increased his influence, and shortly after the victory off Lowestoft, on the 3rd of June 1665, he was knighted and made a privy councillor (26th of June) and was subsequently admitted to the committee on foreign affairs. In 1667 he was appointed to the board of treasury to effect financial reforms. "I perceive," writes Pepys on the 23rd of August 1667, "Sir William Coventry is the man and nothing done till he comes," and on his removal in 1669 the duke of Albemarle, no friendly or partial critic, declares that "nothing now would be well done." His appointment, however, came too late to ward off the naval disaster at Chatham the same year and the national bankruptcy in 1672.

Meanwhile Coventry's rising influence had been from the first the cause of increasing jealousy to the old chancellor Clarendon, who especially disliked and discouraged the younger generation. Coventry resented this repression and thought ill of the conduct of the administration. He became the chief mover in the successful attack made upon Clarendon, but refused to take any part in his impeachment. Two days after Clarendon's resignation (on the 31st of August), Coventry announced his intention of leaving the duke's service and of terminating his connexion with the navy.[2] As the principal agent in effecting Clarendon's fall he naturally acquired new power and influence, and the general opinion pointed to him as his successor as first minister of the crown. Personal merit, patriotism and conspicuous ability, however, were poor passports to place and power in Charles II.'s reign. Coventry retained merely his appointment at the treasury, and the brilliant but unscrupulous and incapable duke of Buckingham, a favourite of the king, succeeded to Lord Clarendon. The relations between the two men soon became unfriendly. Buckingham ridiculed Sir William's steady attention to business, and was annoyed at his opposition to Clarendon's impeachment. Coventry rapidly lost influence, was excluded from the cabinet council, and six months after Clarendon's fall complains he has scarcely a friend at court. Finally, in March 1669, Buckingham having written a play in which Sir William was ridiculed, the latter sent him a challenge. Notice of the challenge reached the authorities through the duke's second, and Sir William was imprisoned in the Tower on the 3rd of March and subsequently expelled from the privy council. He was superseded in the treasury on the 11th of March by Buckingham's favourite, Sir Thomas Osborne, afterwards earl of Danby and duke of Leeds, and was at last released from the Tower on the 21st in disgrace. The real cause of his dismissal was clearly the final adoption by Charles of the policy of subservience to France and desertion of Holland and Protestant interests. Six weeks before Coventry's fall, the conference between Charles, James, Arlington, Clifford and Arundel had taken place, which resulted a year and a half later in the disgraceful treaty of Dover. To such schemes Sir William, with his steady hostility to France and active devotion to Protestantism, was doubtless a formidable opponent. He now withdrew definitely from official life, still retaining, however, his ascendancy in the House of Commons, and leading the party which condemned and criticized the reactionary and fatal policy of the government, his credit and reputation being rather enhanced than diminished by his dismissal.[3]

In 1673 was published a pamphlet which went through five editions the same year, entitled _England's appeal from the Private Cabal at Whitehall to the Great Council of the Nation ... by a true Lover of his Country_, an anonymous work universally ascribed to Sir William, which forcibly reflects his opinions on the French entanglement. In the great matter of the Indulgence, while refusing to discuss the limits of prerogative and liberty, he argued that the dispensing power of the crown could not be valid during the session of parliament, and criticized the manner of the declaration while approving its ostensible object. He supported the Test Act, but maintained a statesmanlike moderation amidst the tide of indignation rising against the government, and refused to take part in the personal attacks upon ministers, drawing upon himself the same unpopularity as his nephew Halifax incurred later. In the same year he warmly denounced the alliance with France. During the summer of 1674 he was again received at court. In 1675 he supported the bill to exclude Roman Catholics from both Houses, and also the measure to close the House of Commons to placemen; and he showed great activity in his opposition to the French connexion, especially stigmatizing the encouragement given by the government to the levying of troops for the French service. In May 1677 he voted for the Dutch alliance. Like most of his contemporaries he accepted the story of the popish plot in 1678. Coventry several times refused the highest court appointments, and he was not included in Sir W. Temple's new-modelled council in April 1679. In the exclusion question he favoured at first a policy of limitations, and on his nephew Halifax, who on his retirement became the leader of the moderate party, he enjoined prudence and patience, and greatly regretted the violence of the opposition which eventually excited a reaction and ruined everything. He refused to stand for the new parliament, and retired to his country residence at Minster Lovell near Witney, in Oxfordshire. He died unmarried on the 23rd of June 1686, at Somerhill near Tunbridge Wells, where he had gone to take the waters, and was buried at Penshurst, where a monument was erected to his memory. In his will he ordered his funeral to be at small expense, and left L2000 to the French Protestant refugees in England, besides L3000 for the liberation of captives in Algiers. He had shortly before his death already paid for the liberation of sixty slaves. He was much beloved and respected in his family circle, his nephew, Henry Savile, alluding to him in affectionate terms as "our dearest uncle" and "incomparable friend."

Though Sir William Coventry never filled that place in the national administration to which his merit and exceptional ability clearly entitled him, his public life together with his correspondence are sufficient to distinguish him from amongst his contemporaries as a statesman of the first rank. Lord Halifax obviously derived from his honoured mentor those principles of government which, by means of his own brilliant intellectual gifts, originality and imaginative insight, gained further force and influence. Halifax owed to him his interest in the navy and his grasp of the necessity to a country of a powerful maritime force. He drew his antagonism to France, his religious tolerance, wide religious views but firm Protestantism doubtless from the same source. Sir William was the original "Trimmer." Writing to his nephew Viscount Weymouth, while denying the authorship of _The Character of a Trimmer_, he says:--"I have not been ashamed to own myself to be a trimmer ... one who would sit upright and not overturn the boat by swaying too much to either side." He shared the Trimmer's dislike of party, urging Halifax in the exclusion contest "not to be thrust by the opposition of his enemies into another party, but that he keep upon a national bottom which at length will prevail." His prudence is expressed in his "perpetual unwillingness to do things which I cannot undo." "A singular independence of spirit, a breadth of mind which refused to be contracted by party formulas, a sanity which was proof against the contagion of national delirium, were equally characteristic of uncle and nephew."[4] Sir William Coventry's conceptions of statesmanship, under the guiding hand of his nephew, largely inspired the future revolution settlement, and continued to be an essential condition of English political growth and progress.

Besides the tract already mentioned Coventry was the author of _A Letter to Dr Burnet giving an Account of Cardinal Pool's Secret Powers ..._ (1685). _The Character of a Trimmer_, often ascribed to him, is now known to have been written by Lord Halifax. "Notes concerning the Poor," and an essay "concerning the decay of rents and the remedy," are among the Malet Papers (_Hist. MSS. Comm._ Ser. 5th Rep. app. 320 (a)) and _Add. MSS._ Brit. Mus. (cal. 1882-1887); an "Essay concerning France" (4th Rep. app. 229 (b)) and a "Discourse on the Management of the Navy" (230b) are among the MSS. of the marquess of Bath, also a catalogue of his library (233(a)).

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--No adequate life of Sir William Coventry has been
written; the most satisfactory appreciation of his character and
abilities is to be found in the several passages relating to him in
the _Life of George Savile, Marquis of Halifax_, by Miss A. C.
Foxcroft (1898); see also _Hist. MSS. Comm._ 3 and 4 Rep. (Longleat
Collection), 5 Rep. (_Malet Collection_ and see Index) now in the
Brit. Mus. add. Cal. (1882-1887), Some of his papers being also at
Devonshire House; _MSS. of Marquis of Ormond_, iii. of _J. M.
Heathcote and Miscellaneous Collections_; Clarendon's _Life and
Continuation_ (Oxford, 1857); _Calendar of Clarendon Papers; Burnet's
Hist, of His Own Times_ (Oxford, 1823); _Hallam's Constitutional
Hist_. (1854), chap. xi.; John Evelyn's _Memoirs_; Pepys's _Diary_ and
_Pepysiana_ (ed. H. B. Wheatley, 1903); _Calendar of State Papers,
Domestic; Savile Correspondence_ (Camden Society, 1858, vol. lxxi.);
A. Grey's _Debates_; Sir John Bramston's _Autobiography_ (Camden Soc.,
1845); Wood's _Athenae Oxonienses_, iv. 190; _Saturday Review_ (Oct.
11, 1873). (P. C. Y.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _Pepysiana_, by H. B. Wheatley (1903), 154.

[2] Foxcroft, _Life of Sir G. Savile_, i. 54.

[3] _Savile Correspondence_ (Camden Soc.), 295.

[4] Foxcroft's _Life of Sir G. Savile_, i. 36.

COVENTRY, a municipal, county and parliamentary borough of Warwickshire, England; 94 m. N.W. from London by the London & North Western railway. Pop. (1901) 69,978. The Coventry canal communicates with the Trent and Mersey and Birmingham canals, and the midland system generally. Coventry stands on a gentle eminence, with higher ground lying to the west, and is watered by the Sherbourne and the Radford Brook, feeders of the Avon, which unite within the town. Of its ancient fortifications two gates and some portions of the wall are still extant, and several of the older streets are picturesque from the number of half-timbered houses projecting over the footways.

The most remarkable buildings are the churches; of these the oldest are St Michael's, one of the finest specimens of Perpendicular architecture in England, with a beautiful steeple rising to a height of 303 ft.; Holy Trinity church, a cruciform structure with a lofty steeple at the intersection; and St John's, or Bablake church, which is nearly a parallelogram on the ground plan, but cruciform in the clerestory with a central tower. Christ church dates only from 1832, but it is attached to the ancient spire of the Grey Friars' church. Of secular buildings the most interesting is St Mary's hall, erected by the united gilds in the early part of the 15th century. The principal chamber, situated above a fine crypt, is 76 ft. long, 30 ft. wide and 34 ft. high; its roof is of carved oak, and in the north end there is a large window of old stained glass, with a curious piece of tapestry beneath nearly as old as the building. In the treasury is preserved a valuable collection of ancient muniments. A statue of Sir Thomas White, lord mayor of London (1532-1533), founder of St John's College, Oxford, was erected in 1883. The cemetery, laid out by Sir Joseph Paxton, the architect and landscape gardener, and enlarged in 1887, is particularly beautiful. The educational institutions include a well-endowed free grammar school, founded in the reign of Elizabeth, in modern buildings (1885), a technical school, school of art, endowed charity schools, and a county reformatory for girls; and among the charitable foundations, which are numerous and valuable, Bond's hospital for old men and Ford's hospital for old women are remarkable as fine specimens of ancient timber work. Swanswell and Spenser Parks were opened in 1883, and a recreation ground in 1880.

Coventry was formerly noted for its woollens, and subsequently acquired such a reputation for its dyeing that the expression "as true as Coventry blue" became proverbial. Existing industries are the making of motor cars, cycles and their accessories, for which Coventry is one of the chief centres in Great Britain; sewing machines are also produced; and carpet-weaving and dyeing, art metal working and watch making are carried on. An ancient fair is held in Whit-week. A county of itself till 1843, the town became a county borough in 1888. The corporation consists of a mayor, 10 aldermen and 30 councillors. The parliamentary borough returns one member. In 1894 a suffragan bishopric of Coventry was established under the see of Worcester, but no longer exists. Area, 4149 acres.