brief critical history of the science and an excellent bibliography; Introduzione allo studio dell’ economia politica (1876, English translation by L. Dyer, 1893); and Saggi di economia politica, 1878.
COSSA, PIETRO (1830–1880), Italian dramatist, was born at Rome in 1830, and claimed descent from the family of Pope John XXIII., deposed by the council of Constance. He manifested an independent spirit from his youth, and was expelled from a Jesuit school on the double charge of indocility and patriotism. After fighting for the Roman republic in 1849, he emigrated to South America, but failing to establish himself returned to Italy, and lived precariously as a literary man until 1870, when his reputation was established by the unexpected success of his first acted tragedy, Nero. From this time to his death in 1880 Cossa continued to produce a play a year, usually upon some classical subject. Cleopatra, Messalina, Julian, enjoyed great popularity, and his dramas on subjects derived from Italian history, Rienzi and The Borgias, were also successful. Plautus, a comedy, was preferred by the author himself, and is more original. Cossa had neither the divination which would have enabled him to reconstruct the ancient world, nor the imagination which would have enabled him to idealize it. But he was an energetic writer, never tame or languid, and at the same time able to command the attention of an audience without recourse to melodramatic artifice; while his sonorous verse, if scarcely able to support the ordeal of the closet, is sufficiently near to poetry for the purposes of the stage.
His collected Teatro poetico was published in 1887.
COSSACKS (Russ. Kazak; plural, Kazaki, from the Turki quzzāq, “adventurer, free-booter”), the name given to considerable portions of the population of the Russian empire, endowed with certain special privileges, and bound in return to give military service, all at a certain age, under special conditions. They constitute ten separate voiskos, settled along the frontiers: Don, Kuban, Terek, Astrakhan, Ural, Orenburg, Siberian, Semiryechensk, Amur and Usuri. The primary unit of this organization is the stanitsa, or village, which holds its land as a commune, and may allow persons who are not Cossacks (excepting Jews) to settle on this land for payment of a certain rent. The assembly of all householders in villages of less than 30 households, and of 30 elected men in villages having from 30 to 300 households (one from each 10 households in the more populous ones), constitutes the village assembly, similar to the mir, but having wider attributes, which assesses the taxes, divides the land, takes measures for the opening and support of schools, village grain-stores, communal cultivation, and so on, and elects its ataman (elder) and its judges, who settle all disputes up to £10 (or above that sum with the consent of both sides). Military service is obligatory for all men, for 20 years, beginning with the age of 18. The first 3 years are passed in the preliminary division, the next 12 in active service, and the last 5 years in the reserve. Every Cossack is bound to procure his own uniform, equipment and horse (if mounted)—the government supplying only the arms. Those on active service are divided into three equal parts according to age, and the first third only is in real service, while the two others stay at home, but are bound to march out as soon as an order is given. The officers are supplied in the usual way by the military schools, in which all Cossack voiskos have their own vacancies, or are non-commissioned Cossack officers, with officers’ grades. In return for this service the Cossacks have received from the state considerable grants of land for each voisko separately.
The total Cossack population in 1893 was 2,648,049 (1,331,470 women), and they owned nearly 146,500,000 acres of land, of which 105,000,000 acres were arable and 9,400,000 under forests. This land was divided between the stanitsas, at the rate of 81 acres per each soul, with special grants to officers (personal to some of them, in lieu of pensions), and leaving about one-third of the land as a reserve for the future. The income which the Cossack voiskos receive from the lands which they rent to different persons, also from various sources (trade patents, rents of shops, fisheries, permits of gold-digging, &c.), as also from the subsidies they receive from the government (about £712,500 in 1893), is used to cover all the expenses of state and local administration. They have besides a special reserve capital of about £2,600,000. The expenditure of the village administration is covered by village taxes. The general administration is kept separately for each voisko, and differs with the different voiskos. The central administration, at the Ministry of War, is composed of representatives of each voisko, who discuss the proposals of all new laws affecting the Cossacks. In time of war the ten Cossack voiskos are bound to supply 890 mounted sotnias or squadrons (of 125 men each), 108 infantry sotnias or companies (same number), and 236 guns, representing 4267 officers and 177,100 men, with 170,695 horses. In time of peace they keep 314 squadrons, 54 infantry sotnias, and 20 batteries containing 108 guns (2574 officers, 60,532 men, 50,054 horses). Altogether, the Cossacks have 328,705 men ready to take arms in case of need. As a rule, popular education amongst the Cossacks stands at a higher level than in the remainder of Russia. They have more schools and a greater proportion of their children go to school. In addition to agriculture, which (with the exception of the Usuri Cossacks) is sufficient to supply their needs and usually to leave a certain surplus, they carry on extensive cattle and horse breeding, vine culture in Caucasia, fishing on the Don, the Ural, and the Caspian, hunting, bee-culture, &c. The extraction of coal, gold and other minerals which are found on their territories is mostly rented to strangers, who also own most factories.
A military organization similar to that of the Cossacks has been introduced into certain districts, which supply a number of mounted infantry sotnias. Their peace-footing is as follows:—Daghestan, 6 regular squadrons and 3 of militia; Kuban Circassians, 1 sotnia; Terek, 8 sotnias; Kars, 3 sotnias; Batum, 2 infantry and 1 mounted sotnia; Turkomans, 3 sotnias; total, 25 squadrons and 2 companies.
For the origin and history of the Cossacks see Poland: History, and the biographies of Razin, Chmielnicki and Mazepa. (P. A. K.)
COSSIMBAZAR, or Kasimbazar, a decayed town on the river Bhagirathi in the Murshidabad district of Bengal, India, now included in the Berhampur municipality. Pop. (1901) 1262. Though the history of the place cannot be traced back earlier than the 17th century, it was of great importance long before the foundation of Murshidabad. From the first European traders set up factories here, and after the ruin of Satgaon by the silting up of the mouth of the Saraswati it gained a position, as the great trading centre of Bengal, which was not challenged until after the foundation of Calcutta. In 1658 the first English agent was established at Cossimbazar, and in 1667 the chief of the factory there became an ex-officio member of council. In English documents of this period, and till the early 19th century, the Bhagirathi was described as the Cossimbazar river, and the triangular piece of land between the Bhagirathi, Padma and Jalangi, on which the city stands, as the island of Cossimbazar. The proximity of the factory to Murshidabad, the Mahommedan capital, while it was the main source of its wealth and of its political importance, exposed it to constant danger. Thus in 1757 it was the first to be taken by Suraj-ud-dowlah, the nawab; and the resident with his assistant (Warren Hastings) were taken as prisoners to Murshidabad.
At the beginning of the 19th century the city still flourished; so late as 1811 it was described as famous for its silks, hosiery, koras and beautiful ivory work. But an insidious change in its once healthy climate had begun to work its decay; the area of cultivated land round it had shrunk to vanishing point, jungle haunted by wild beasts taking its place; and in 1813 its ruin was completed by a sudden change in the course of the Bhagirathi, which formed a new channel 3 m. from the old town, leaving an evil-smelling swamp around the ancient wharves. Of its splendid buildings the fine palace of the maharaja of Cossimbazar alone remains, the rest being in ruins or represented only by great mounds of earth. The first wife of Warren Hastings was buried at Cossimbazar, where her tomb with its inscription still remains.
See Imp. Gaz. of India (Oxford, 1908), s.v.
