COLLINS, WILLIAM, R.A., a distinguished English painter, born in London; he made his reputation by his treatment of coast and cottage scenes, and though he tried his skill in other subjects, it was in the subjects he started with that he achieved his greatest triumphs; among his best-known works are “The Blackberry Gatherers,” “As Happy as a King,” “The Fisherman’s Daughter,” and “The Bird-Catchers” (1788-1847).

COLLINSON, PETER, an English horticulturist, to whom we are indebted for the introduction into the country of many ornamental shrubs (1694-1768).

COLLOT D’HERBOIS, JEAN MARIE, a violent French Revolutionary, originally a tragic actor, once hissed off the Lyons stage, “tearing a passion to rags”; had his revenge by a wholesale butchery there; marched 209 men across the Rhone to be shot; by-and-by was banished beyond seas to Cayenne, and soon died there (1750-1790).

COLLYER, JOSEPH, an eminent stipple engraver, born in London (1768-1827).

COLMAN, GEORGE, an English dramatist, born at Florence; bred for and called to the bar; author of a comedy entitled “The Jealous Wife,” also of “The Clandestine Marriage”; became manager of Drury Lane, then of the Haymarket (1733-1794).

COLMAN, GEORGE, son of the preceding, and his successor in the Haymarket; author of “The Iron Chest,” “John Bull,” “The Heir at Law,” &c. (1762-1836).

COLMAR (30), the chief town of Upper Alsace, on the Lauch, on a plain near the Vosges, 42 m.  SW. of Strasburg; passed into the hands of the French by treaty of Ryswick in 1697, was ceded to Germany in 1871.

COLOCETRONIS, a Greek patriot, born in Messina, distinguished himself in the War of Independence, which he chiefly contributed to carry through to a successful issue (1770-1843).

COLOGNE (282), in German KOeLN, capital of Rhenish Prussia, and a fortress of first rank, on the left bank of the Rhine, 175 m.  SE. of Rotterdam; is a busy commercial city, and is engaged in eau-de-Cologne, sugar, tobacco, and other manufactures.  It has some fine old buildings, and a picture gallery; but its glory is its great cathedral, founded in the 9th century, burnt in 1248, since which time the rebuilding was carried on at intervals, and only completed in 1880; it is one of the masterpieces of Gothic architecture.

COLOGNE, THE THREE KINGS OF, the three Magi who paid homage to the infant Christ, and whose bones were consigned to the archbishop in 1164; they were called Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthazar.

COLOMBIA (4,000), a federal republic of nine States, occupying the isthmus of Panama and the NW. corner of S. America, between Venezuela and Ecuador.  The country, nearly three times the size of France, though it has only a ninth of the population, comprises in the W. three chains of the Andes and the plateaus between them, in the E. plains well watered by tributaries of the Orinoco.  The upper valleys of the Magdalena and Cauca are the centres of population, where the