any thing else can be had. Nevertheless, naval officers, and others, condemned, by the nature of their service, to situations where they are long debarred from fresh provisions, sometimes have the cormorant served at their tables, after having taken the precaution to skin it, and endeavored, by the artifices of cookery, to disguise its peculiar flavor.

CORN; a hardened portion of cuticle, produced by pressure; so called, because a piece can be picked out like a corn of barley. Corns are generally found on the outside of the toes, but sometimes between them, on the sides of the foot, or even on the ball. They gradually penetrate deeper into the parts, and sometimes occasion extreme pain, and, from the frequency of their occurrence, hold a prominent rank among the petty miseries of mankind, and frequently exert no small influence upon the temper of individuals. A monarch's corns may affect the welfare of a nation. No part of the human body, probably, has been injured so much by our injudicious mode of dress, as the feet, which have become, in general, deformed; so much so, that sculptors and painters can hardly ever copy this part from living subjects, but depend for a good foot almost solely on the remains of ancient art. To this general deformity of the foot belong the corns, produced by the absurd forms of our shoes and boots. They appear, at first, as small, dark points in the hardened skin, and, in this state, stimulants or escharotics, as nitrate of silver (lunar caustic), are recommended. The corn is to be wet, and rubbed with a pencil of the caustic every evening. It is well to have the skin previously softened. If the corn has attained a large size, removal by cutting or by ligature will be proper; if it hangs by a small neck, it is recommended to tie a silk thread round it, which is to be tightened every day, until the corn is completely removed. In all cases of cutting corns, very great precaution is to be observed. The feet ought always to be bathed previously. Mortification has, in many instances, resulted from the neglect of this precaution, and from cutting too deep. Another simple and generally very efficacious means, is the application of a thick adhesive plaster, in the centre of which a hole has been made for the reception of the projecting part. From time to time, a plaster must be added. Thus, the surrounding parts being pressed down, the corn is often expelled, and, at all events, is prevented from enlarging. Paring with files, rubbing with fish-skin,

&c., have been likewise found effective. In large cities, as London, Paris, &c., people make a business of curing corns.

CORN, INDIAN. (See Maize.)

CORN LAWs. An adequate supply of bread stuffs is evidently of the very first importance to every country, and should be as regular as is possible, since sudden fluctuations in an article of so universal necessity are injurious, and scarcity, with the consequent high prices, brings distress upon the poorer classes, and is a fruitful cause of discontent and convulsions. The best means of securing a sufficient and steady supply of this article is a subject of some diversity of opinion, and the practice of governments has varied much at different times. One theory, urged by Adam Smith, but questioned by Mr. Malthus and most others, is, that the government should do absolutely nothing in the matter, on the ground that the farmers and corn-merchants, if unchecked, will always form correct views of their own interest, and that their interest will coincide with that of the community. But broad, sweeping theories of this sort are rarely adopted in the practical administration of affairs; and a government, in making regulations on this subject, as on every other, looks at its internal condition, the character and pursuits of its population, and its foreign commercial relations; and though it may not judge correctly of the best means of securing a steady and sufficient supply, this does not prove that a total neglect of the subject would be the wisest and safest policy in all countries and at all times. It is certain, however, that very unwise measures have often been resorted to, and sometimes such as tended to aggravate the evil rather than to provide a remedy. One way to guard against a scarcity is that adopted by the king of Egypt, in the time of Joseph-the purchasing of corn by the government, in time of plenty at home, or importing it from abroad, and storing it in public magazines, to be distributed as the public wants may demand. But this system is attended with great expense, and affords but an uncertain and inadequate provision. Most governments, accordingly, instead of making direct purchases, attempt to provide a remedy by the passage of laws. This subject of grain legislation is by no means entirely modern. The Athenians had laws prohibiting the exportation of corn, and requiring merchants who loaded their vessels with it in foreign ports, to bring their cargoes to Athens. The public provision and distribution of corn was an important branch of administration at Rome, and very intimately connected with the public tranquillity. The regulation of the supply of corn and the trade in the article has been a fruitful subject of legislation in modern Europe. But it is to be observed, that the public solicitude and current of legislation take this direction only in populous countries, or at least those in which the population presses hard upon the means of domestic production of bread stuffs; for a country of which, like Poland, the staple export is corn, needs to take no measures for securing a supply; and as flour and Indian meal are great articles of exportation in the U. States, this country has had no occasion for laws to guard against a famine, since the ordinary course of industry and trade gives the greatest possible security, by producing a surplus of provisions, which a high price at home, in anticipation of any scarcity, will be sure to retain for the supply of domestic wants. In agricultural countries, the object of solicitude is to supply the want of arts and manufactures, as in populous and highly improved countries, it is to supply the want of food. But the laws directed to this object have been very various, and some of them contradictory; for as in Athens, so in England at one period, the laws prohibited the exportation of corn; whereas, at another period, and for a very long one in the latter country, a bounty was given on the exportation; and both these laws had the same object, viz. the adequate and steady supply of the article. For this purpose, the bounty is the measure undoubtedly calculated to produce the effect intended, and the permanent prohibition of exportation must aggravate the scarcity which it is intended to prevent. Such a bounty tends to stimulate a surplus production, and so to give a country, by this factitious encouragement, the same security, in respect to a supply, as results from the spontaneous course of industry and trade in Poland, the southern part of Russia, and the U. States. But the objection to the bounty is its great expense, requiring, as it does, the imposition of a tax, and, at the same time, raising the price of the article to the domestic consumer. To secure the advantages, and avoid some of the burthens of this law, Mr. Burke, in 1773, proposed the system of corn laws since adhered to in Great Britain, according to which no bounty is paid, but the exportation of corn is permitted when it is sold under a certain price in the home market. This price is determined by the

average sales in certain specified places for a given time; and, when it rises above a certain other fixed price, the importation is permitted. By Mr. Burke's bill, wheat might be exported when the price was under 44 shillings the quarter, and imported when it was over 48 shillings. The home grower is, therefore, sure to be free from foreign competition at any price under 48 shillings, and this gives him confidence in pursuing this species of cultivation. The rates or prices at which exportation and importation have since been allowed, have varied, from time to time, very materially; but the principles of the laws and their effect are the same. This system is allowed by Mr. Malthus and many others, who are, in general, opposed to restrictions and encouragements of trade, to be the best system by which the home supply could be secured; and they further think, that Great Britain could not safely open its ports to a perfectly free trade in so essential an article, since the fluctuations of price and the occasional scarcity, in consequence of wars or other interruptions of trade with the countries depended upon for a supply, would produce great distress, and tend to breed disturbances and riots in the kingdom.

CORNARO, Ludovico, was descended from a Venetian family which had given several doges to Venice, and, in the 15th century, a queen to the island of Cyprus, who left that kingdom to the Venetian republic. He died at Padua, in 1566, aged 104 years, without pain or struggle. From the 25th to the 40th year of his age, he was afflicted with a disordered stomach, with the gout, and with slow fevers, till at length he gave up the use of medicine, and accustomed himself to extreme frugality in his diet. The beneficial effects of this he relates in his book entitled The Advantages of a temperate Life. Cornaro's precepts are not, indeed, applicable, in their full extent, to every constitution; but his general rules will always be correct. His diseases vanished, and gave place to a state of vigorous health and tranquillity of spirits, to which he had hitherto been an entire stranger. He wrote three additional treatises on the same subject. In his work upon the Birth and Death of Man, which he composed in his 95th year, he says of himself, "I am now as healthy as any person of 25 years of age. I write daily 7 or 8 hours, and the rest of the time I occupy in walking, conversing, and occasionally in attending concerts. I am happy, and relish every thing that I eat. My imagination is lively, my memory tenacious; my judgment good; and, what is most remarkable, in a person of my advanced age, my voice is strong and harmonious."

CORNEILLE, Peter, the founder of French tragedy, and the first, in point of time, among the great authors of the age of Louis XIV, was born at Rouen, June 6, 1606, at which place his father was advocate-general. In his later and more finished works, he showed how much the court intrigues, and the troubles which prevailed during the first years of the reign of Louis XIII, had influenced the formation of his character. A somewhat equivocal success with the mistress of his friend, to whom he was unsuspectingly introduced by her lover, first made him a comic writer. He related this adventure in verse, and brought it on the stage, under the name of Mélite, in the year 1629. Its great success encouraged him to persevere, and he soon produced Clitandre, La Veuve, and La Galerie du Palais, La Suivante and La Place Royale, the last of which appeared in 1635. The success of these pieces was so great, and the applause so universal, that a particular company of actors was established for their performance, and many of them, modernized in some respects, retain their place on the stage to this day. The neglect of nature was common to Corneille with his contemporaries. His Medea, produced in 1635, was imitated from Seneca, and written in the declamatory style of that author. At that time, cardinal Richelieu retained several poets in his pay, who were obliged to write comedies from plots furnished by him. Corneille was about to place himself in the same situation; but a change, which he took the liberty of making, in a plot submitted to him, offended the cardinal, and prevented the execution of this plan. He then withdrew to Rouen, where he met monsieur de Chalon, the former secretary of Mary of Medici, who advised him to turn his attention to tragedy, and recommended the Spanish writers as models. Upon this, Corneille learned the Spanish language, and, in 1636, produced the Cid, which confirmed the predictions of his intelligent friend. Cardinal Richelieu was the only person who did not join in the general admiration, and, mortified by the poet's open rejection of his offered patronage, induced the newly-established academy to decry the merits of the Cid. Chapelain, by whom the criticism was written, attempted to satisfy the founder, without too much offending the general opinion. The Sen

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timent de l'Académie Française sur la Tragi-comédie du Cid is, therefore, more creditable to the learning than to the taste of the French literati. Others hoped, by decrying the poet, to obtain the favor of the minister. But the works of Corneille were a sufficient answer to their attacks. In 1639, his Horaces made its appearance (the earlier editions had the title Horace, but the later ones have Horaces), whereby he refuted the reproach of a deficiency of invention; which was, however, repeated, when he brought out his Heraclius, in 1647, imitated from Calderon, and the Menteur, in 1642, after Pedro de Roxas. This objection, perhaps, was the cause of the poet's leaving modern subjects; for henceforward, henceforwa he applied himself almost exclusively to the Roman; and the strict patriotism of the ancient, with the artful politics of the more modern Romans, as an ingenious critic says, now took the place of that chivalric honor and faith, the representation of which in the Cid shows him to participate in the spirit of the Spanish dramatic writers. The French critics are inclined to consider Cinna, which appeared in 1639, as his masterpiece; but foreigners will not place it above Polyeucte. The happy blending of the pathetic with the dignified gravity to which Corneille so much inclines, makes this piece more attractive than the others. In the Mort de Pompée, which appeared in 1641, the noble dignity of the piece cannot excuse its bombast. In his Menteur, nature and truth of description take the place of the artificial tone then prevalent; and a comparison of this piece with the Spanish original (La Sospechosa Verdad) may be instructive to the friends of dramatic literature. At length, the genius of this prolific poet seemed to have been exhausted. Rhodogune, the favorite of Corneille, produced in 1646, leaves a painful impression, and the artful combination of the accumulated terrors of the piece cannot redeem it. The later works of Corneille (e. g., Heraclius, which appeared in 1647, Don Sanche d'Arragon, Andromède, a piece with music, processions and dancing), are less known, and, according to the opinion of the French, less worthy of being so, with the exception of Nicomède, which appeared in 1652, and which was revived by Talma, and still maintains its place upon the stage. The disdainful scorn of fate, in the hero of this piece, is susceptible of very great effect; but that rhetorical antithesis prevails in it which is found in many of Corneille's pieces. Pertharite, in 1653, failed entirely. Becoming distrustful of his talents, Corneille now wished to abandon dramatic writing, and applied himself, for six years, to the translation of the De Imitatione Jesu Christi, the first book of which he had previously finished in verse. At length, Fouquet entreated him to devote his talents again to the stage. Edipe, in 1659, and Sertorius, in 1662, were received with the applause which had been given him in his best days, and he endeavored to secure the public favor by accompanying the exhibition of the piece with splendid scenery. But his subsequent pieces-Otho, Agésilas, Attila, and many others-proved the failing power of a poet who had formerly shown himself without a rival. Of 33 pieces which Corneille left, only 8 still retain their places on the stage. Time has established his fame, and the French, long ago, surnamed him the Great, though Voltaire, the editor of his works, and La Harpe, who followed in the steps of his great predecessor, do not pronounce an

entirely favorable sentence upon his merits. A. W. Schlegel has criticised him in a masterly mode, and Lessing has pointed out, in a striking manner, the defects in the plots of many of his pieces. It is, indeed, sincerely to be regretted, that his great talents, which were displayed so brilliantly in the Cid, should have been so much checked in their developement by his inclination to the classic, or, rather, Roman forms. It was owing to the circumstances of the times, that he was induced to take political subjects as materials for tragedy. Voltaire remarked their influence upon the tragedy of Cinna, and did not fail to see that the interest, in many parts of Polyeucte, must have been increased by the Jansenist controversies, which may, in fact, have given occasion to the passages. Corneille had nothing captivating in his manners. His conversation was tedious, and by no means well chosen. Like Turenne, he was, in early years, considered as deficient in talent. In his external appearance, he resembled an inferior tradesman of Rouen, and it is very easy, then, to conceive that, with rather rude manners, and a high sense of his merits, he could not feel himself in his proper sphere at court. His profession and talents did not make him rich, and he lived with great frugality. During the year 1647, he was received into the French academy in the place of Maynard, and died Oct. 1, 1684, being the oldest member. A descendant of the eldest of his two sons lived till the year 1813, and was as little favored by fortune as the grandniece of Corneille, to whom Voltaire, by

the edition of the works of her great-uncle, discharged the debt of his country. The latest views of the French concerning this great man, who did so much for the establishment of their theatre, are found in an Éloge de Corneille, par M. Victorin Fabre, which received the prize of the French academy in 1807, and which has since been republished. The most complete and correct edition of his works, enriched by the principal productions of his brother, by Voltaire's commentaries, and by a selection of Palissot's notes, was published by Renouard, Paris, 1817, in 12 volumes. Napoleon is described, in the memoirs of Las Cases, as having said, that, had Corneille lived in his time, he would have made him a prince. The emperor was fond of reading the works of this poet during his abode on St. Helena, whilst he treated with comparative neglect several other poets adored by the French nation. CORNEILLE, Thomas, brother of the

preceding, was born at Rouen, Aug 20, 1625, and lived in the most friendly union with his brother Peter till the death of the latter. A comedy, which he wrote in Latin verse, while he was a scholar at the Jesuits' college, and which obtained the honor of a representation, as well as the success which attended the works of his brother, determined him to turn his attention to the drama. His first comedy, called Les Engagements du Hasard, which appeared in 1647, and was an imitation of Calderon, was successful. Many similar ones soon followed, also borrowed from the Spaniards. The number of his dramatic works is 42; yet most of them are now so little known, that even the catalogue of them in the records of the French academy will be found erroneous and incomplete. His comedies, however, at the time of their appearance, were received with greater interest, if possible, than those of the great Corneille, in imitation of whom Thomas applied himself to tragedy, and his Timocrate, which appeared in 1656, was received with such continual applause, that the actors, weary of repeating it, entreated the audience, from the stage, to permit the representation of something else, otherwise they should forget all their other pieces. Since that time, it has not been brought upon the boards at all. Camma, in 1661, produced an equal sensation. The spectators thronged in such numbers to witness the representation, that scarcely room enough was left for the performers. Of his dramatic works which now merit attention, are Ariane, which maintained a competition with Ra