Nilgiri Hills. Coimbatore may be described as a flat, open ntry, hemmed in by mountains on the north, west, and south, but opening eastwards on to the great plain of the Carnatic; the average height of the plain above sea-level is about 900 feet. The principal mountains are the Anamálí Hills, in the south of the district, rising at places to a height of between 8000 and 9000 feet. In the west, the Palghat and Vallagiri Hills form a connecting link between the Anamálí range and the Nilgiris, with the exception of remarkable gap known as the Palghát Pass. This gap, which completely intersects the Gháts, is about twenty miles wide. In the north is a range of primitive trap-hills known as the Cauveri (Kaverí) chain, extending eastwards from the Nilgiris, and rising in places to a height of 4000 feet. The principal rivers are the Cauveri, Bháwaní, Noyel, and Amrawati. Numerous canals are cut from the rivers for the purpose of affording artificial irrigation, which has proved of immense benefit to the country. Well and tank water is also largely used for irrigation purposes. The total area of Coimbatore is 7432 square miles, of which 3877 square miles or 2,488,000 acres were returned as under cultivation in 1874-75, viz., 2,089,000 acres under food grains or corn crops, 80,000 acres oilseeds, 61,000 acres green and garden crops, 5000 acres orchards, and 253,000 acres under special crops. Excellent cotton and tobacco of a superior quality are produced. Extensive teak forests exist in the neighbourhood. Coimbatore is subdivided into 10 táluks or sub-districts, and contains 1515 villages. The census report of 1872 returns the population of the district as follows:-Hindus, 1,715,081; Muhammadans, 36,026; Native Christians, 11,443; Europeans and Eurasians, 595; Buddhists, or Jains, 56; others, 73; total, 1,763,274. The principal town is Coimbatore, situated in 10° 59′ 41′′ lat. and 76° 59′ 46′′ long.; it forms a station on the line of railway between Beypur and Madras. Population in 1872-Hindus, 30,801; Muhammadans, 2599; Christians, 1892; Buddhists, 18; total, 35,310. The municipal revenue of the town amounted in 1874-75 to £3720, and the expenditure to £3367. Two other small towns-Karur and Erode-are also constituted municipalities. The total district revenue in 1874-75 amounted to £304,818, of which £253,536 was derived from land. Coimbatore district was acquired by the British in 1799 at the close of the war which ended with the death of Tippu. COIMBRA, a city of Portugal, capital of the province of Beira, on the north bank of the Mondego, 115 miles V.N.E. of Lisbon, in 40° 14′ N. lat. and 8° 24′ W. long. tas built for the most part on rising ground, and presents rom the other side of the river a picturesque and imposing Pearance; though in reality its houses have individually ut little pretension, and its streets are, almost without xception, narrow and mean. It derives its present mportance from being the seat of the only university in he kingdom,-an institution which was originally estabished at Lisbon in 1291, was transferred to Coimbra in 1306, was again removed to Lisbon, and was finally fixed at Coimbra in 1527. There are five faculties,-theology, law, medicine, mathematics, and philosophy, with fifty-two professors and twenty-one substitutes; and in 1874-5 the umber of students was 667, of whom 15 came from the Azores and 11 from Brazil. The library contains 80,000 olumes, and the museums and laboratories are on an xtensive scale. In connection with the medical faculty here are regular hospitals; the mathematical faculty naintains an observatory from which an excellent view can e obtained of the whole valley of the Mondego; and utside of the town there is a botanic garden (especially ich in the flora of Brazil), which also serves as a public romenade. Among the other educational establishments are a military college, a royal college of arts, and an

episcopal seminary. The city is the seat of a bishop, suffragan to the archbishop of Braga; and it possesses two cathedrals, eight parish churches, and several conventual buildings. The new cathedral is of little interest; but the old is a fine specimen of the Romanesque style. and retains portions of the mosque which it replaced. The principal churches are Santa Cruz, of the 16th century, and San Salvador, founded by Esterão Martinez in 1169. On the bank of the Mondego stand the ruins of the once splendid monastery of Santa Clara, established by Don Mor Dias in 1286; and on the other side of the river, crossed by a fine bridge of several arches, is the celebrated Quinta das lagrimas, or Villa of Tears, where Inez de Castro is believed to have been murdered. The town is supplied with water by means of an aqueduct of 20 arches. The trade is purely local, as the river is navigable only in flood, and the port of Figueira is 20 miles distant; but there are manufactures of pottery, linen, cloth, and articles of horn; and a three days' market is held yearly in front of the Clara monastery. The country to the south is the most fertile and salubrious in Portugal, and the neighbourhood is accordingly thickly studded with farm-houses and villas. The population of the city in 1864 was 18,147.

Coimbra is identified with the ancient Conembrica, the site of which, however, seems to have been a little to the south. The city was for a long time a Moorish stronghold, but in 1064 it was captured by Ferdinand the Great and the Cid. Previous to the 10th century it was the capital of the country, and no fewer than seven kings-Sancho I. and II., Alphonso I., II., and III., Pedro, and Ferdinand-were born within its walls. In 1755 it suffered considerably from the earthquake. In 1810 a division of the French army, under Massena, were made prisoners by the English in the neighbourhood. In 1834 Don Miguel made the city his headquar ters; and in 1846 it was the scene of a Miguelist insurrection.

COIN, a town of Spain, in the province of Malaga, and 20 miles west of the city of that name. It is well built, and has two large churches, an episcopal palace, and a town hall. Population, 8000.

COINAGE AND COINS. See BULLION, MINT, MONEY. and NUMISMATICS.

COIR, a rough, strong, fibrous substance obtained from the outer husk of the cocoa-nut. See COCOA-Nut Palm. ¬ COIRE (the German Chur, Italian Coira, and Quera of the Romance language spoken in the district), the capital of the Swiss canton of the Grisons or Graubünden, at the foot of the valley of the Plessur, a short distance above the confluence of that river with the Rhone, in 46° 50′ 54′′ N. lat. and 9° 31′ 26′′ E. long. It lies 1830 feet above the level of the sea, and is overshadowed by the Mittenberg and Pizokelberg. The streets are narrow, and the general appearance of the place bespeaks its antiquity. The upper part of the town, or Bishop's Quarter, was once surrounded with walls, and it is still distinguished from the lower portion as the almost exclusive residence of the Roman Catholic population. The cathedral church of St Lucius is its most remarkable building, ascribed in part to Bishop Tello of the 8th century, and deriving its name from a legendary British king, who is reputed to have suffered martyrdom in the town. Of antiquarian interest are the statues of the Four Evangelists, the ancient wood carvings, and several monuments by Holbein and Dürer. The episcopal palace on the other side of the court is believed to occupy the site of a Roman castle; and two ancient towers, probably dating from the 10th century, are popularly regarded as of Roman construction, the opinion being supported by deriving their names, Marsoel and Spinoel, from the Latin Mars in Oculis and Spina in Oculis. The episcopal school is now administered by the canton, and contains a rich collection of native literature. In the lower town are situated the great town-house, with a public library and three stained-glass windows of the 16th century;

the churches of St Martin and St Regula; the administrative buildings; and the hospital founded by Theodosius, a superior of the Capuchins. The prosperity of Coire is The prosperity of Coire is chiefly maintained by its transit trade between Germany and Italy; but it also engages in the manufacture of cotton, wool, leather, and pewter wares, has dye-works and breweries, and deals in cattle and grain. The population, which is mainly Protestant, numbered 7552 in 1870.

Coire is identified with Curia Rhetorum, a late Roman city, first mentioned about the 4th century. Its bishopric, which held sway over an extensive district, seems to have been founded in 470 by Asimo. In the 15th century the town made itself free from episcopal control, and in 1460 obtained from the emperor, Frederick IV., the rank of an imperial city; but before the beginning of the next century it split with the empire and joined the confederacy of the Grisons. In 1526 the Reformation was introduced; and a conspiracy for the restoration of the former ecclesiastical regime was

vigorously suppressed. In the 17th century the city was frequently the centre of the great struggle between the Cantons and the Austrian empire which raged with such fury and so many alternations of success. In 1802 the French general Massena occupied the town, and from that date the bishops have had no territorial possessions.

COJUTEPEC, a town of Central America, in the republic of San Salvador and the department of Cuscatlan, about 15 miles east of the capital. It has a population of about 15,000, and from 1854 to 1858 it served as the seat of government instead of San Salvador, which had been ruined by an earthquake. In 1872 it took part in a revolutionary outbreak against the existing Government, and the Indian population unsuccessfully attacked the garrison. The town gives its name to a neighbouring volcano, which rises to a height of 5700 feet, and also to the extensive lake, otherwise known as the Lake of Ilopango, which lies a few miles to the south and gives rise to the Rio Jiboa.

COKE, the carbonaceous residue produced when coal is subjected to a strong red heat, out of contact with the air, until the volatile constituents are driven off It consists essentially of carbon, the so-called fixed carbon, together with the incombustible matters or ash contained in the coal from which it is derived. In addition to these it almost invariably contains small quantities of hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, the whole, however, not exceeding 2 or 3 per cent. It also contains water, the amount of which may vary considerably according to the method of manufacture. When produced rapidly and at a low heat, as in gas-making, it is of a dull black colour, and a loose spongy or pumice-like texture, and ignites with comparative ease, though less readily than bituminous coal, so that it may be burnt in open fire-places; but when a long-continued heat is used, as in the preparation of coke for iron and steel melting, the product is hard and dense, is often prismatic in structure, has a brilliant semi-metallic lustre and silvery grey colour, is a good conductor of heat and electricity, and can only be burnt in furnaces provided with a strong chimney draught or an artificial blast. The strength and cohesive properties are also intimately related to the nature and composition of the coals employed, which are said to be caking or non-caking according to the compact or fragmentary character of the coke produced.

The simplest method of coking, that in open heaps or piles, is conducted in a very similar manner to charcoal burning. The coal is piled in a domed heap about 30 feet in diameter and 5 feet high, with a chimney of bricks arranged in open chequer work in the centre, around which the largest lumps of coal are placed so as to allow a free draught through the mass. The outside of the heap is covered with a coating of wet coke dust, except a ring about a foot high at the bottom. Fire is communicated by putting a few live coals near the top of the chimney, or from the interior by throwing them down the chimney,

and the combustion proceeds downwards and outwards by the draught through the uncovered portion at the bottom. Whenever the fire takes too strong a hold and burns out to the surface it is damped by plastering over the spot with wet coke dust and earth, this being a point requiring considerable skill on the part of the coke burner. When flame and smoke are no longer given off, which usually happens in from five to six days, the whole surface is smothered with coke dust, and the chimney is stopped for three or four days longer, when the heap is sufficiently cooled to allow of the coke being broken up and removed, or, as it is called, drawn. The cooling is usually expedited by throwing water upon the heap before drawing. The principle of coking in rectangular piles is generally similar to the fore going, but chimneys are not used. The dimensions generally adopted are a height of from 3 to 5 feet, and s

breadth of 12 feet at the base.

In coking by clamps or kilns a rectangular pile of coal is enclosed between upright walls, having a system of vertics. and horizontal passages traversing them at intervals, which serve as chimneys to conduct the combustion through the pile. This system has been used at different times in Sout Wales, Germany, and other places, but is now generally abandoned, as the draught holes have a tendency to consume the coal unnecessarily unless very carefully watched.

The largest proportion of the coke used for industrial purposes is made in close kilns or ovens. These vary very considerably in form and details of construction, but the same general principles are observed in all, the object being to effect the coking as much as possible by the consumptio of the volatile inflammable gases given off above the surfs of the coal, and to protect the latter from the direct access of currents of air. A further object is the utilization of the heat given off by the waste gases, which may be employe to heat the oven by circulating them in flues round the outside, and further by employing them for the accessory objects of raising steam, heating air, &c., in collieries a: iron-works.

In its oldest and simplest form, the coke oven consists of a reu chamber from 7 to 10 feet in diameter, with a low cylindrical wal and a domed roof rising about 20 inches in height above the flee A hole about 1 foot in diameter in the crown of the roof serve for charging, and the finished coke is drawn through a door in t wall, about 2 feet square. When cleared for a fresh cha the oven being red-hot, small coal is introduced through the in the roof, and spread uniformly over the floor, until it is fi up to the level of the springing of the roof, when the doors. is filled up with loose bricks which give a sufficient passage betwe them for the admission of air to ignite the gases given off by distillation of the heated coal. After a few hours these air-w must be closed by plastering up the brickwork, except the top lay which is left open for twenty-four hours. The heat developed the burning gases causes the coking to proceed downwards until t according to the quantity of coal. entire charge is converted, this taking from three to four d When the escape of fo from the hole in the roof ceases, all apertures are stopped wher air can enter to the incandescent mass, which being no longer tected by an atmosphere of combustible gases, would burn to was if brought in contact with the atmosphere. At this point, th fore, all holes in the oven and chimney are completely closed about twelve hours, when the door is opened, and the coke, wh forms a coherent mass, somewhat less in size than the orig: charge, and divided by a system of columnar joints, is removed lṛ iron drag, or cross-bar, inserted at the far end of the floor, and mov by a chain and windlass, a stream of water from a hose bet used to quench the glowing coke as it is brought out. I class of oven, which is now not much used, was adopted by most the railway companies, when coke was burnt exclusively in! motives, and is also common in the Durham coal-field. They generally known as beehive ovens, also as bakers' ovens. from six to ten, or twelve, or more ovens are placed side by sid one block of brickwork, which is supplied with a tall chimney, individual ovens being connected by pillars, with well-regul dampers. A railway is generally laid along the top of the range ovens, so that the charging can be effected directly from the col trucks. The yield of coke by this method may be from 55 to t per cent., according to the nature of the coal. With charges vi”

ng from 8 to 10 tons, the operation, including the period of cooling, lasts from four to seven days. The coke obtained is of the highest quality, being dense and well burned. In some cases the cooling of the coke is effected by watering it before drawing. There is a certain amount of sulphur removed by this method, as the steam generated being brought into contact with the sulphide of iron in the heated mass, formed from pyrites in the coal, produces sulphuretted hydrogen and magnetic oxide of iron. The amount of desulphurization by this method is, however, practically insignifieant, as the operation does not last a sufficient time to allow the mass of the fuel to be affected. The proportion of sulphur in finished coke, as compared with that of the original coal, may be roughly stated at about one-half. It has been sought to reduce the amount by decomposing the residual ferrous sulphide in various ways, as by the addition of salt, carbonate of soda, lime, &c., to the coal before coking but none of these methods is found to be practically useful,

In the South Wales coal-field the ordinary form of coke oven is nearly rectangular, being about 14 feet long, 5 feet wide at the back, and 6 feet at the front or drawing ends; the height to the crown of the cylindrical roof is 5 feet 6 inches, with usually two charging holes. Two charges are worked weekly, the first, of 4 tons, is finished in three days, while the second, of 5 tons, is allowed four days, so as to remain in the oven over Sunday. The yield in both cases is about the same.

The addition of heating flues exterior to the wall of the oven allows the time of coking to be very much shortened. Of the numerous contrivances proposed for this purpose, that of a Belgian engineer, Mr Coppée, has latterly come into favour in many places, as very well adapted for use with comparatively dry coal. The coking chamber is a long narrow retort of fire brick, measuring about 30 feet in length, 17 inches in width at the front, and about 2 inches more at the back, where the charge is pushed out, with vertical walls about 34 feet high, covered by a low arched roof. One of these walls is solid, but the other contains twenty-eight vertical descending flues (f) which communicate with the interior at the springing of the roof, and below with the large flue of the same width as the oven, and running along its entire length. As usually built, a series or battery includes about thirty ovens, which are arranged in pairs as in the figure, from which it will be seen that

he left hand oven (A) is heated by the joint current of gases on oth sides, while B is heated on one side by its own gas, and on he other by that of the next oven to the right The current Then passes along the bottom flue of A, and back through that f B, whence it escapes by a flue to the chimney, or may be led t-o a steam boiler if the waste heat is used, as is generally the case, for raising steam The working of the adjacent pair of ovens is so arranged that they are drawn alternately at exactly intermediate periods; thus supposing the time of coking to be forty eight hours, A is drawn twenty-four hours after the charging of B, while the latter is in full activity, and keeps up the heat of the empty oven during charging, while necessarily the burning hydrocarbon gases given off during the first heating of the coal tend to keep up the heat in the adjoining oven. At Ebbw Vale, in Monmouthshire, where the coking requires only twenty-four hours, the ovens are zumbered consecutively, the odd numbers being drawn and re-charged in the morning, and the even ones twelve hours later. The combastion of the gases is effected by air which is brought in through special channels (c) in the brickwork communicating with the gas ues at the top, and becomes heated in the passage. The object sought to be obtained is the combustion of the gases as much as Possible in the flues, and not in the oven itself. The oven is closed at both ends by cast-iron doors in two parts, which can be opened together or separately during the drawing and recharging. The charging is effected through three holes (DD) in the roof, the coal, in the form of slack, being contained in hopper-shaped trams, unning upon rails, which are run over the holes and emptied by

drawing a slide. The charge is about 3 tons, and the yield from 36 to 44 cwt., according to the nature of the coal operated upon. The finished coke forms a prismatic mass, 30 feet long, 3 feet high, and 16 inches broad; it is pushed out by a ram, shaped like the cross section of the oven, which is moved by steam power acting upon a long racked rod. This apparatus, together with the engine and boiler for moving it, is mounted on a carriage moving on a railway in front of the range of ovens, so that it can be brought up to any one of them as required. The mass of coke is pushed out on to a floor running along the back, where it is immediately broken, and quenched by heavily watering the fragments. The whole operation, including the drawing and recharging of the empty oven, is effected in about eight minutes. The yield of coke very closely approximates to that obtained by experiments in crucibles. A similar kind of oven with outside heating flues, that of the Brothers Appolt, has been in use for several years on the Continent, more particularly in France. It differs from Coppée's in the position of the coking chambers, which are vertical instead of horizontal, the coal being charged from the top, and the finished coke dropped into a truck placed below. Various schemes have been proposed at different times for the purpose of utilizing the condensible products, such as tar, ammoniacal water, &c., given off during the earlier stages of the process of coking, but they are not generally found to be applicable to the manufacture of metallur. gical coke, being only suited for gas-works, where the quality of the coke is only a secondary consideration.

The slack of dry or non-caking coal, or anthracite, which cannot be coked alone, may be converted into a useful coke by mixing it with a proportion of bituminous coal, or gas-pitch, or a mixture of both. At Swansea, a mixture of 60 to 70 per cent. of anthracite with from 30 to 35 per cent. of bituminous coal, and 5 or 6 of gas pitch, made by grinding the ingredients in one of Carr's disintegrator mills, is coked in the ordinary South Wales ovens, a thin layer of bituminous coal being placed above the charge before it is lighted, to prevent the pitch from burning to waste. The yield of coke is about 80 per cent. of the weight of the charge. It is exceedingly hard, and about 23 per cent. heavier than that made from bituminous coal, with a correspondingly higher calorific value.

Coke is used for all purposes where a smokeless fire is required, as, for instance, in drying malt or hops, or in raising steam in locomotives within the limits of towns, also for producing strong local heat, as in melting metals (gold, silver, brass, or steel) in crucibles in air furnaces. In blast furnaces its value depends upon the difficulty of combustion, so that the particles keep their form until they reach the proper place of combustion at the point of entry of the blast in the lower part of the furnace. The great economy of fuel that has been effected in the process of iron smelting in the Cleveland district by increasing the height of the furnaces, is in great part due to the strength of the coke used, which is made in the south part of the Durham coal-field, and has sufficient cohesive power to bear the pressure of a column of iron-making materials from 80 to 100 feet in height without crushing, a result which cannot be obtained with the coke of other districts. Finely ground coke is used mixed with clay for making crucibles for steel melting, and also for filling the hearths of blast-furnaces in many German smelting works.

Apart from its convenience for special purposes, coke is not an economical fuel, the useful heating effect being about the same as that of an equal weight of coal. This coke and the substitution of raw coal as fuel in locomotive circumstance has led to the nearly general abandonment of engines on railways.

For full accounts of the different systems of coke ovens and details of their construction, see Percy's Metallurgy, introductory volume on fuel, &c., 2d edition, London, 1875, and Jordan's Album du Cours de Metallurgie, Paris, (H. B.)

1874.

COKE, SIR EDWARD (1552-1633,, one of the most folk, on February 1, 1552. When only ten years old he erudite of English lawyers, was born at Mileham, in Norlost his father, who was a bencher of Lincoln's Inn. From the grammar-school of Norwich he passed to Trinity College, Cambridge; and after a course of three years,

in 1572 he entered the Inn to which his father had belonged. To the study of law he devoted himself from

the first with the intensest application; he slept only six hours, and from three in the morning till nme at night he read or took notes of the cases tried in Westminster Hall with as little interruption as possible. In 1578 he was called to the bar, and in the next year he was chosen reader at Lyon's Inn. His extensive and exact legal erudition, and the skill with which he argued the intricate cases of Lord Cromwell and Edward Shelley, soon brought him a practice never before equalled, and caused him to be universally recognized as the greatest lawyer of his day. In 1586 he was made recorder of Norwich, and in 1592 recorder of London, solicitor-general, and reader in the Inner Temple. In 1593 he was returned as member of parliament for his native county, and also chosen speaker of the House of Commons. In 1594 he was promoted to the office of attorney-general, despite the claims of Bacon, who was warmly supported by the earl of Essex. As crown lawyer his treatment of the accused was marked by more than the harshness and violence common in his time; and the fame of the victim has caused his behaviour in the trial of Raleigh to be lastingly remembered against him. While the prisoner defended himself with the calmest dignity and self-possession, Coke burst into the bitterest invective, brutally addressing the great courtier as if he had been a servant, in the phrase, long remembered for its insolence and its utter injustice,- "Thou hast an English face, but a Spanish heart!"

In 1582 Coke married the daughter of John Paston, a gentleman of Suffolk, receiving with her a fortune of £30,000; but in six months he was left a widower. Shortly after he sought the hand of Lady Elizabeth Hatton, daughter of Thomas, second Lord Burghley, and granddaughter of the great Cecil. Bacon was again his rival, and again unsuccessfully; the wealthy young widow became not, it is said, to his future comfort-Coke's second wife.

In 1606 Coke was made chief-justice of the Common Pleas, but in 1613 he was removed to the office of chiefjustice of the King's Bench, which gave him less opportunity of interfering with the court. The change, though it brought promotion in dignity, caused a diminution of income as well as of power; but Coke received some compensation in being appointed a member of the Privy Council. The independence of his conduct as a judge, though not unmixed with the baser elements of prejudice and vulgar love of authority, has partly earned forgiveness for the harshness which was so prominent in his sturdy character. Full of an extreme reverence for the common law which he knew so well, he defended it alike against the Court of Chancery, the ecclesiastical courts, and the royal prerogative. In a narrow spirit, and strongly influenced, no doubt, by his enmity to the chancellor, Egerton, he sought to prevent the interference of the Court of Chancery with even the unjust decisions of the other courts. In the case of an appeal from a sentence given in the King's Bench, he advised the victorious, but guilty, party to bring an action of præmunire against all those who had been concerned in the appeal, and his authority was stretched to the utmost to obtain the verdict he desired. On the other hand, Coke has the credit of having repeatedly braved the anger of the king. He freely gave his opinion that the royal proclamation cannot make that an offence which was not an offence before. An equally famous but less satisfactory instance occurred during the trial of Peacham, a divine in whose study a sermon had been found containing libellous accusations against the king and the Government. There was nothing to give colour to the charge of high treason with which he was charged, and the sermon had never been preached or published; yet Peacham was put to the

a

torture, and Bacon was ordered to confer with the judges individually concerning the matter. Coke declared such conference to be illegal, and refused to give an opinion, except in writing, and even then he seems to have said nothing decided. But the most remarkable case of all occurred in the next year (1616). A trial was held before Coke in which one of the counsel denied the validity of a grant made by the king to the bishop of Lichfield of benefice to be held in commendam. James, through Bacon, who was then attorney-general, commanded the chief-justice to delay judgment till he himself should discuss the question with the judges. At Coke's request Bacon sent a letter containing the same command to each of the judges, and Coke then obtained their signatures to a paper declaring that the attorney-general's instructions were illegal, and that they were bound to proceed with the case. His Majesty expressed his displeasure, and summoned them before him in the council-chamber, where he insisted on his supreme prerogative, which, he said, ought not to be discussed in ordinary argument. Upon this all the judges fell on their knees, seeking pardon for the form of their letter; but Coke ventured to declare his continued belicf in the loyalty of its substance, and when asked if he would in the future delay a case at the king's order, the only reply he would vouchsafe was that he would do what became him as a judge. Soon after he was dismissed from all his offices on the following charges, the concealment, as attorney-general, of a bond belonging to the king, a charge which could not be proved, illegal interference with the Court of Chancery, and disrespect to the king in the case of commendams. He was also ordered by the council to revise his book of reports, which was said to contain many extravagant opinions (June 1616).

Coke did not suffer these losses with patience. He offered his daughter Frances, then little more than a child, in marriage to Sir John Villiers, brother of the favourite Buckingham. Her mother, supported at first by her husband's great rival and her own former suitor, Bacon, objected to the match, and placed her in concealment. But Coke discovered her hiding-place; and she was forced to wed the man whom she declared that of all others she abhorred. The result was the desertion of the husband and the fall of the wife. It is said, however, that after his daughter's public penance in the Savoy Church, Coke had heart enough to receive her back to the home which he ha forced her to leave. Almost all that he gained by his heartless diplomacy was a seat in the council and in the Star-Chamber.

In 1620 a new and more honourable career opened for him. He was elected member of parliament for Liskeard: and henceforth he was one of the most prominent of the constitutional party. It was he who proposed a remot strance against the growth of Popery and the marriage of Prince Charles to the infanta of Spain, and who led the Commons in the decisive step of entering on the journal of the House the famous petition of the 18th December 1621, insisting on the freedom of parliamentary discussion, and the liberty of speech of every individual member. In con sequence, together with Pym and Sir Robert Philips, be was thrown into confinement; and, when in the August of the next year he was released, he was commanded te remain in his house at Stoke-Poges during his Majesty's pleasure. Of the first and second parliaments of Charles I Coke was again a member. From the second he was excluded by being appointed sheriff of Buckinghamshire. In 1628 he was at once returned for both Buckinghamshire and Suffolk, and he took his seat for the former county. After rendering other valuable support to the popular cause, he took a most important part in drawing up the great Petition of Right. The last act of his public career was to