like his brother, he was employed by Louis XIV. His finest works are the famous group of the Horse Tamers in the Champs Elysees at Paris, the Ocean and Mediterranean at Marly, the bronze Rhone which formed part of the statuo of Louis XIV. at Lyons, the facade of the Chateau d Eau, and the bas-reliefs of the entrance of the Hotel des Invalides. His work is specially distinguished by its
fire and energy.Guillaume Coustou, the younger (1716-1777), the son of Nicholas, also studied at Rome, as winner of the Colbert prize. While to a great extent a copyist of his predecessors, he was much affected by the bad taste of his time, and produced little or nothing of permanent value.
COUTANCES, a town of France, capital of an arrondissement of the department of La Manche, and the seat of a bishop, is built on a granite ridge which rises between the canalized River Soulle and the stream called the Bui- sard, 16 miles W.S.W. of St Lo and 7 miles from the sea. From the hill, up the sides of which the crooked streets of the town are built, a fine panorama of the surrounding country is obtained. The cathedral of Notre Dame on the height, with two lofty towers terminating in spires, was inaugurated by William the Conqueror in 1056, and is one of the finest specimens of ecclesiastical architecture in Normandy. The churches of St Nicolas and St Pierre, dating from the 14th and 15th centuries, are also fine. The palais de justice, lyce"e, episcopal palace, and halle aux grains are among tli3 chief buildings. Some manufactures of woollen and cotton goods, marble working, and traffic in corn, poultry, cattle, and horses are the industries of the town. Coutances is the ancient Roman Cosedia in the country of the Unelli. Towards the end of the 3d century its name was changed to Constantia. Many traces of Roman work are still to be seen in its environs. An aqueduct, between the town and a hill on the east, was constructed about the middle of the 13th century on the site of one which was built by the Romans ; originally it had sixteen arches, but eleven of these are now ruined. In the Middle Ages Coutances was capital of the vice-county of Coutentin or Cotentin, a district noted for its breed of cattle. It was held by the English from 1417 to 1449. Population (1872), 14,557.
COUTHON, Georges (1756-1794), one of the most notorious actors in the Reign of Terror, was born at Orsay (Orcet), a village in the district of Clermont in Auvergne, in 1756. He studied law, and was admitted advocate at Clermont in 1785. At this period he was noted for his integrity, gentle-heartedness, and charitable disposition. His health was feeble, and his body was half paralyzed from a recent misadventure. In 1787 he was a member of the provincial assembly of Auvergne. When the Revolution began Couthon avowed the most liberal sentiments, but at the same time spoke with great moderation. He became very popular, and was appointed chief magistrate of Clermont and president of the tribunal of the town. With the progress of events, however, his feelings rose to a higher pitch, and his sympathies were with the van of the Revolu tionary army. In 1791 he was elected deputy to the legislative assembly ; and here he soon took his place among the most violent of the Jacobins. He advocated extreme measures against the king. A visit to FJanders for the sake of health brought him into close intercourse and sympathy with Dumouriez. In September 1792 Couthon was elected member of the National Convention, and voted the death of the king without appeal. He soon attached himself to Robespierre, for whom at first he felt only aversion ; and he was the first to demand the arrest of the proscribed Girondins. In July 1793 he became a member of the Committee of Public Safety, and in the following month he was sent as commissioner of the <irmy to conduct the siege of Lyons. Impatient at the slow pro gress made by the besieging force he collected a body of 60,000 men, and having stormed the place resolved on its destruction. He made a beginning with a kind of state ceremonial. Carried on a litter, with a silver hammer in his hand, he struck the doors or walls of the houses doomed to be demolished, and his army of satellites then executed his orders. The demolition was carried on for six months, and the cost of it was enormous. Couthon s rage, however, chiefly vented itself on the buildings ; the slaughter of the inhabitants was the work of his successor Collot d Herbois. Couthon returned to Paris, where Robespierre felt the need of his assistance. He was one of the promoters of the infamous law of the 22d Prairial, which shortened the proceedings before the Revolutionary Tri bunal by depriving the accused of the aid of counsel or of vvitnesses for their defence. This was not long before the 9th Thermidor. Couthon had become one of the Trium virate, with Robespierre and St Just, and alarmed at the opposition which was rising against their power and projects, declined to make the visit which he had promised to Auvergne. He was arrested at the same time with his colleagues, and after being subjected to indescribable suffer ings and insults, was taken on the same car with his master to the scaffold. There, amidst the exultations and execra tions of the fierce crowd, he wept with terror, and died by the guillotine (9th Thermidor) July 28, 1794.
COUTTS, Thomas, an eminent banker, head of the London house of Coutts & Co., was born probably about 1731, He was the fourth son of John Coutts, who carried on business at Edinburgh as a corn factor and negotiator of bills of exchange, and who in 1742 was elected lord provost of the city. The family was originally of Montrose, but one of its members had settled at Edinburgh about or before 1696. Soon after the death of John Coutts, the ex- provost, the business was divided into two branches, one carried on at Edinburgh, the other in London. The London branch was in the hands of Patrick and Thomas Coutts, the eldest and the youngest sons of John Coutts. From the death of his brother in 1788, Thomas, as surviv ing partner, became sole head of the firm ; and under his direction the banking house rose to the highest distinction. His ambition was to establish his character as a man of business and to make a fortune ; and he lived to succeed in this aim and long to enjoy his reputation and wealth. A gentleman in manners, hospitable and benevolent, he counted amongst his friends some of the literary men and the best actors of his day. Of the enormous wealth which came into his hands he made munificent use. His private life was not without its romantic elements. Soon after his settlement in London he married Elizabeth Stark ey, a young woman of humble origin, who was in attendance on the daughter of his brother James. They lived happily together, and had three daughters, Susan, married in 1796 to the third earl of Guildford ; Frances, married in 1800 to the first marquis of Bute ; and Sophia, married in 1793 to Sir Francis Burdett, Baronet. Mrs Coutts dying in 1815, her husband soon after married the popular actress, Harriet Mellon ; and to her he left the whole of his immense fortune. He died in London, February 24 } 1822. His widow married in 1827 the duke of St Albans, and died ten years later, having bequeathed her property to Angela, youngest daughter of Sir Francis Burdett, who then assumed the additional name and arms of Coutts. She was created Baroness Burdett-Coutts in 1871.
to a party, embracing the great majority of the people, who during the 17th century bound themselves to establish and maintain the Presbyterian doctrine and polity as the sole
religion of the country, to the exclusion of Prelacy and