For

COURTESY, or CURTESY, in Law, is the life interest which the surviving husband has in the real or heritable estate of the wife. It is remark able that, both in England and in Scotland, this customary right should be regarded as a national peculiarity that in England it should be called the C. of England, and in Scotland the C. of Scotlandwhereas it is well known to be peculiar to neither of them. Traces of it are to be found in a constitution of the Emperor Constantine (Code 6, 60, 1); and there can be no doubt that it had found a place, with all the peculiarities which now belong to it, in the coutume of Normandy, from whence there is every reason to think that it was transferred to England (Barnage, vol. ii. p. 60; Stephen's Com. vol. i. p. 264; Fraser's Domestic Relations, i. p. 635). The four circumstances which are requisite to make a tenancy by C. in England are-marriage, seizin of the wife, living issue, and the wife's death. The rule that the child must have been heard to cry, which at one time was followed in England, is still adhered to in Scotland. It is not necessary, how ever, in either country, that the child survive; it is enough that it was once in existence, although it should have died immediately after its birth. In both countries, the child must be the mother's heir, and it is consequently said that C. is due to the surviving husband rather as the father of an heir than as the widower of an heiress. By 19 and 20 Vict. c. 120, which enables tenants for life of settled estates (see SETTLED ESTATE) to make effectual leases for twenty-one years, subject to the exceptions and provisions in the act contained, a similar power is also conferred upon tenants by the C. of unsettled estates (Stephen, i. p. 267). As to the law of Scotland on the point, see Hunter on Landlord and Tenant, i. p. 119.

COURTESY TITLES. Titles of honour (q. v.) are imparted by the sovereign or other competent authority. Independently of these, there are C. T. assumed by or given to individuals, and which have no validity in law. The term C. T. is best known in connection with the titles given by popular consent to the sons and daughters of certain peers. English dukes, marquises, earls, and viscounts have several titles, accumulated by distinct patents in their progressive steps in the peerage. Thus, a duke may at the same time be a marquis, an earl, a baron, and a baronet; a marquis may be also an earl, &c.; and an earl is almost always a baron.

Lord-Lord Acheson.

Duke of Bedford being also Marquis of Tavistock, his eldest son takes the title of Marquis of Tavistock; and the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry being also Earl of Dalkeith, his eldest son takes the title of Earl of Dalkeith. When it happens that the inferior title is of the same name as the first, there is a somewhat different usage. example, the Earl of Gosford being also Viscount Gosford, his eldest son, to prevent confusion, takes only the family surname, Acheson, with the prefix The younger sons of dukes and marquises have the courtesy title of Lord prefixed to their Christian and surname: as, for example, Lord Frederick Charles Cavendish, a younger son of the Duke of Devonshire; or Lord Archibald Campbell, a younger son of the Duke of Argyll. The eldest son of an earl, when not a viscount, takes his father's second title of Lord: as, for example, the eldest son of the Earl of Wemyss is styled Lord Elcho. A proper understanding of these conventional customs will serve to clear up some of the perplexities into which foreigners are apt to become involved in thinking of our highly artificial social system. It is to be kept in mind, that titles by courtesy do not raise their bearers above the rank of commoners; and that, conse quently, they are eligible for election as representatives to the House of Commons. Very many of the peers, indeed, begin their political career as county or borough representatives under their C. T.; serving in this way a kind of apprenticeship as statesmen before they are advanced, by the decease of their fathers, to the House of Lords.

The daughters of dukes, marquises, and earls have the title Lady prefixed to their Christian and surname; and in the event of their marrying a person of inferior rank, they retain the title Lady with their Christian name, adding the surname of their husband. Yet, these are but courtesy titles. The only valid title they can claim in virtue of their birth, is the prefix Honourable, which is applicable alike to the sons and daughters of peers. The wives of baronets receive the courtesy title of Lady; their lawful designation being Dame. Ladies who have had a title by a first marriage, retain it as a matter of courtesy when they are married a second time, though the alliance be with a person without a title-a circumstance sometimes leading to a certain awkwardness in designation. In Scotland, the eldest son of a baron has the courtesy title of Master. For example, the eldest son of Lord Elibank is styled Master of Elibank.

The title Right Honourable is given in some few instances by courtesy to officials, as in the case of the Lord Advocate for Scotland. The judges of the Court of Session in Scotland, on first taking their seat on the bench, assume the courtesy title of Lord along with their own surname or a territorial title. But such titles are used only senatorially. In writing, the real name is subscribed. The titles of Mr or Master and Esquire (q. v.), are now given by courtesy to nearly all classes of persons. For an exact definition of titles by courtesy of members of the peerage, see the Handbook to the Desk, or any good Letter-writer.

COURT-FOOL. From very ancient times there existed a class of persons whose business it was to while away the time of the noble and wealthy, particularly at table, by all manner of jests and witty sayings. Alexander the Great, Dionysius of Syracuse, Augustus and his successors, maintained such jesters. It was, however, during the middle ages

founded in 1238 by Baldwin, Count of Flanders. Though a busy manufacturing place, C. is nevertheless very clean. Table damask and other linen are the principal articles of manufacture. There are extensive bleaching-grounds in the vicinity, and the neighbouring plains supply fine flax in large quantities to many European markets. Pop. (1880) 26,943. In 1302 the Flemings, citizens of Ghent and Bruges chiefly, won a splendid victory over the chivalry of France beneath the walls of C., more than 700 gilt spurs (worn only by French nobles) being afterwards gathered from the dead by the victors. The battle was hence named 'the Battle of the Spurs.' COURT-YARD. See FARM BUILDINGS.

COUSIN, VICTOR, the founder of systematic eclecticism in modern philosophy, was born in Paris, November 28, 1792. He studied with brilliant success at the Lycée Charlemagne. In 1812 he was appointed Greek tutor in the Ecole Normale, and in 1814, Examiner in Philosophy. In the following year he became assistant-professor to Royer-Collard at the Sorbonne, and threw himself heartily into that reaction against the sensualistic philosophy and literature of the 18th c., which was then the order of the day. Following the path of his senior, he became an exponent of the doctrines of the Scotch metaphysicians, but exhibited far more brilliancy, energy, and warmth of expression than the original authors of these doctrines. In 1817, C. visited Germany, where he was introduced to bolder and more speculative systems of philosophy than any he had yet known. He studied successively, or at the same time, Plato, Kant, Jacobi, Fichte, and Schelling. A second visit to Germany, in 1824-1825, had also important consequences. Suspected of carbonarism, he was arrested at Dresden by the police, and sent to Berlin, where he was detained for six months. He took advantage of his compulsory residence in the capital of Prussia to study the philosophy of Hegel, which exercised considerable influence on his susceptible intellect. On his return to France, he took a decided stand against the reactionary policy of Charles X.; and in 1827, when the comparatively liberal ministry of Martignac came into office, C., who had for some years been suspended from his professorial functions, was reinstated in his chair. Meanwhile, C. had appeared as an author. During 1820-1827, he published his editions of Proclus and Descartes, and part of his celebrated translation of Plato, which was finished in 1840, in 13 vols. The year 1828 witnessed the most splendid triumph in the career of C. as a philosophic teacher. It is said that to find an audience as numerous, and as passionately interested in the topics discussed, as gathered round C., it would be necessary to go back to the days of Abelard and other medieval teachers of philosophy. C. was still young, simple, and pure in his habits; his doctrines were for the most part new to his hearers, bold, and in harmony with the spirit of the time. The finest qualities of the national genius appeared in his lectures, a wonderful lucidity of exposition, an exquisite beauty of style such as no modern or ancient philosopher, excepting Plato, has equalled; a brilliancy of generalisation and criticism that enchanted every one; and a power of co-ordinating the facts of history and philosophy in such a manner as to make each illustrate the other, and reveal their most intricate relations. At this period, C. was one of the most influential leaders of opinion among the educated classes in Paris; and consequently, after the revolution of 1830, when his friend Guizot became prime-minister, C. was made a member of the Council of Public Instruction; in 1832, a peer of France; and later, Director of the

Ecole Normale. His efforts for the organisation of primary instruction are to be seen in those valuable reports which he drew up, from personal observation, on the state of public education in Germany and Holland. In 1840, he was elected a member of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, and in the same year became minister of Public Instruction in the cabinet of Thiers. The revolu tion of 1848 found in C. a friend rather than an enemy. He aided the government of Cavaignac, and published an anti-socialistic brochure, called Justice et Charité. After 1849, he disappeared from public life, and died in 1867.

It is more easy to state what philosophical doctrines have received exposition at the hands of C., than to determine precisely what are his own. At first a disciple of Royer-Collard and the Scotch school, he was attached to the psychological method of investigation; afterwards a keen student of the German school, he expounded the views of Schelling with such copious enthusiasm, that he might legiti mately enough have been considered a thorough Pantheist. Judging from such a book as Du Vrai, du Beau, et du Bien (1853), he seemed more disposed, latterly, to regard philosophy in its religious and aesthetic relations. See ECLECTICISM.

C.'s chief works (besides those already mentioned) are Fragments Philosophiques (1826), Cours de l'Histoire de la Philosophie (1827), Ouvrages inédites d'Abelard (1836), Cours d'Histoire de la Philosophie Moderne (1841), Cours d'Histoire de la Philosophie Morale au XVIII Siècle (1840—1841), Leçons de Philosophie sur Kant (1842), Des Pensées de Pascal (1842), Etudes sur les Femmes et la Société du XVII Siècle, &c. (1853). C. also contributed a great variety of papers to the literary and philosophic Reviews of France.

COUSINS, FIRST. See MARRIAGE.

COUTANCES, a town of France, in the department of La Manche, at the confluence of the Soulle and Bulsard. It is built on a conical hill, a few miles from the English Channel, and is a somewhat lugubrious place. Its cathedral, however, is one of the finest specimens of ecclesiastical architecture in the early pointed style in Normandy. One of the towers of the edifice is lighted up with a lantern, that serves as a beacon for ships navigating the channel. C. has manufactures of druggets, muslins, &c., and a trade in corn. Pop. 8500.

COUTHON, GEORGES, a fanatic of the French Revolution, was born in 1756 at Orsay, near Clermont, in Auvergne. At the outbreak of the Revolution, he was engaged as an advocate, and in 1790 was elected president of the Tribunal for the district of Clermont. In 1791, he was sent by his fellow-citizens to the National Convention, where he made himself conspicuous by his furious hatred of the court, the priesthood, and the monarchy. In spite of an infirmity which prevented him using his limbs, C. soon became very influential from the rabid violence of his sentiments. He voted for the death of the king without delay or appeal to the country, and (after a brief relapse into moderatism) became a devoted and bloodthirsty partisan of Robespierre. In July 1793, he was appointed a member of the Comité de Salut Public, and along with Châteauneuf-Randon and Maignet, was sent against the Lyonnese insurgents. After some opposition, the city was taken, when a multitude of the citizens were put to death. On his return to the Convention, he became quite maniacal, demanding the impeachment' of all the kings of the earth, and voting for Pitt being declared the enemy of the human race,' and the English nation a 'traitor to humanity.' The fall of Robespierre brought

down C. also. Accused by Fréron, he was thrown into prison, delivered by the mob with whom he was popular, recaptured by the soldiers of the Convention, and executed 28th July 1794, along with St Just and Robespierre.

COUTRAS, a town of France in the department of Gironde, situated on the left bank of the Dronne,

about 26 miles north-east of Bordeaux. C. has a

considerable trade in flour, and the district produces red wine; but the place is known principally on account of the bloody victory gained here (1587) by Henry of Navarre over the forces of the League. In this battle the Duc de Joyeuse, commander of the Leaguers, was slain, as well as many other great noblemen on the same side. Pop. 2500.

COVENANT, in English Law, an agreement by deed (q. v.). In the common law-courts, a special form of action is appropriated to the enforcement of a C. called an Action of Covenant. But in many cases it may also be enforced by the form called an Action of Debt. A C. may also be implied. 'Covenant running with the land,' is a C. affecting the land into whosesoever hands it comes.

COVENANT (Lat. convenire, to come together), a contract or agreement; a term much used by theologians, and in its ordinary signification, as well as in its theological use, nearly if not always exactly equivalent to the Hebrew berith of the Old Testament and the Greek diatheke of the New. Applied to relations established between God and men, the term C. must be understood with a certain modification of the meaning which it bears when employed concerning the relations of men to one another, when two independent parties enter into a C., which they have equal right to make or to refuse to make; and is sometimes employed as equivalent to dispensation, and the Jewish dispensation is called the Old C. (or testament, by another translation of diatheke), in contradistinction to the Christian, which is called the New. God, in his supremacy, is regarded as appointing certain conditions for his creatures, which they cannot but accept, yet their willing consent to these conditions gives to the relation established the nature of a Č.; and thus God is commonly said to have made two covenants with man: the first C., or C. of Works, with Adam, as the representative of the whole human race, promising life (with perfect happiness), upon condition of perfect obedience, whilst death was threatened as the penalty of transgression; the second C., or C. of Grace, being that on which depend the whole hope and salvation of man, since the first C. was broken, and in which life is freely offered to sinners, and they are simply required to believe in Jesus Christ that they may be saved. This C. God is regarded as having made with Christ, as the representative of his people, and with them in him. The older theologians often speak of the C. of Redemption between God and Christ, employing the term C. of Grace rather to designate the whole dealings of God with men in giving effect to the C. of Redemption; but the term C. of Grace has long been almost universally employed to include all that was comprehended under both terms. The Abrahamic C. is the C. of Grace as declared to Abraham, in its particular relation to him and his seed. God is represented in Scripture as sustaining a C. relation to his own people, to the Jews under the Old C., to believers in Christ under the New; and doctrinal theology consists not a little in tracing out the nature of this relation, and the consequences which flow from it. As the people of God collectively sustain a C. relation to him, so do believers individually; and it has not been an uncommon thing for pious persons to endeavour to reduce to writing their

123

sense of this C. obligation,' under the notion of a personal covenanting with God; and of binding themselves by a stronger obligation to what they believed to be good and their duty. It has also been common for men, from the earliest ages, to enter into covenants with one another with more or less of religious solemnity; and this has in particular been done among those who have suffered persecution, ters of religion, for which the authority of ceror have been engaged in contests concerning mattain passages of the Old Testament is strongly Instances occur in the history of the pleaded. Waldenses, and of some of the Reformed churches, Scotland. But the most memorable covenants in particularly in the history of the Reformation in Scottish ecclesiastical history belong to a period subsequent to the Reformation.

COVENANTS, THE, known in Scottish history and tradition, are chiefly two in number-the NATIONAL COVENANT, and the SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT. between these, we shall speak of them separately. As it is necessary to discriminate

NATIONAL COVENANT. This was a bond of union or agreement, drawn up at Edinburgh in 1638, by the leading Presbyterian ministers, and subscribed by vast numbers of persons of all ranks of life. It embodied the Confession of Faith of 1580 and 1581, subscribed by James VI. in his youth, and again recognised in 1590 and 1596; and was binding on all who signed it to spare nothing which might save their religion. The proximate cause of this extraordinary manifestation of feeling was the attempt of Charles I. to enforce Episcopacy and the use of the Service-book in Scotland. The subscribing of the National Covenant began on the 28th of February 1638, in the Greyfriars' church and churchyard, at Edinburgh. Numerous copies were also circulated through the country for signature-a circumstance which accounts for many copies being still extant. In the Library of the Faculty of Advocates at Edinburgh are preserved five parchment copies, with the original signatures of Rothes, Montrose, Loudon, and many others of the nobility, gentry, commissioners of counties and burghs, and ministers, though only one of these five copies is apparently connected with the first signing, and the other four, which are dated 1639, were subscribed after the ratification by the General Assembly. The General Assembly, which met at Glasgow, November 21, 1638, ratified the National Covenant and the Confession of Faith which it embraced, and deposed the whole of the hierarchy which had been established by Charles I. The National Covenant was subsequently ratified by the 5th act of the second parliament of Charles I., held at Edinburgh, June 11, 1640, and subscribed by Charles II. at Spey, June 23, 1650, and Scoon, January 1, 1651. The document will be found in the volume which comprehends the Westminster Confession of Faith, in use by the Church of Scotland. (For further information, see ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES, CREEDS AND CONFESSIONS, SCOTLAND, SCOTLAND (CHURCH OF), CHARLES I., and other articles in this work.) Those who subscribe the National Covenant, promise to continue in obedience of the doctrine and discipline of this kirk.' They also give assent to various acts of parliament in the reign of James VI., which, besides repudiating the jurisdiction of the pope, and all the ceremonial observances and errors of the Romish Church, ordain all sayers, wilful hearers, and concealers of the mass, the maintainers and resettors of the priests, Jesuits, trafficking Papists, to be punished without any exception or restriction.'

SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT.-This was a document of date four to five years later than the