Enforced labour on the roads and other public works, exacted from the French peasant before the Revolution. The same system prevailed in Egypt prior to the English occupation. Cossacks. The inhabitants of the debateable land between the Russian frontier and the Crim Tartars. The most important of these communities were those of the Dnieper and the Don. They retained a certain degree of independence until the reign of Catherine II of Russia. The soldiers of the military cordon established by the Russians and Poles along their southern frontiers were also known as Cossacks. Cottereaux. Bands of mercenaries in the French service during the twelfth century. Cotton Famine. The name given to the distress in Lancashire in 1862, in consequence of the cessation of cotton shipments from America during the Civil War, by which thousands of operatives were thrown out of employment. Large sums were received by subscriptions in aid, and in August of that year the Relief Act was passed, by which loans were granted to the guardians to enable them to establish relief works. Council of State. A council of forty-one members, in whom Parliament vested the executive power, on the proclamation of the Commonwealth in 1649. They were appointed for one year. Councils. _See_ Ancients, Anziani, Aulic, Blood, Castle, Clarendon, Consulta, Colonies, Federal, Fifteen, Five Hundred, Hlutdaw, Indies, Kilkenny, Magnum, North, Policy, Reason, Sixteen, Ten, Thirty-six. Councils, Church. _See_ Bari, Basle, Clermont, Constance, Constantinople, Dort, Lateran, Lyons, Nicæa, Œcumenical, Pisa, Trent, Vatican, Vienne. Country Party. A political party, formed about 1673, under the leadership of Lords Russell and Cavendish. They were in full sympathy with the demands of the Dissenters for toleration, and made it their special business to keep a watch on the religious and political designs of the Court. They afterwards became known as Whigs. County Palatine. A county possessing certain Royal privileges, created originally for defence of the frontier against the Welsh, the Scotch and the French. They were Chester, Lancaster, Durham, Kent, Shropshire, Pembrokeshire, and Hexhamshire. Only the three first named retained any of their privileges beyond the sixteenth century. Coup d’Etat. A term applied to any overthrow of free institutions by military intervention, but used especially to denote the bold stroke of Louis Napoleon, who by a display of military force in the Paris streets in December, 1851, and the imprisonment of the Republican members of the Chamber, succeeded in getting himself proclaimed Consul, and, later, Emperor. Cour d’Héritage. An ancient feudal court in Jersey, having jurisdiction over all disputed questions as to landed property. Cours Plénières. Assemblies of the Barons, called, on the great festivals of the year, by the early kings of France and England. Court Baron.