CORNWAL'LIS, CHARLES, Marquis, an English gen. and statesman, son of time first earl Cornwallis, was b. Dec. 31, 1738, and was educated at Eton and Cambridge. He served as aide-de-camp to the marquis of Granby in the seven years' war; in 1776, was made a col., and four years later, governor of the tower of London. Though personally opposed to the war in America, he accompanied his regiment thither, and with an inferior force gained victories over gen. Gates at Camden in Aug., 1780, and over gen. Greene at Guil ford, Mar., 1781. In the same year, however, he was forced to surrender with all his troops at Yorktown, Va. This disaster proved the ruin of the British cause in America, and was the occasion of much dissatisfaction, resulting in a change of minis ters at home. C., however, who was high in favor with the king, escaped censure. In 1786, C. was appointed governor-general of India and commander-in-chief, and in this double capacity distinguished himself by his victories over Tippoo Seib, and by his unwearying efforts to promote the welfare of the natives. His measures, however, were far from answering the purposes he intended. He returned from India in 1793. when he was raised to the rank of marquis. Appointed lord-lieutenant of Ireland in 1798 during the time of the rebellion, he succeeded in putting it down, and in establishing order in a manner that gained him the gond-will of the Irish people. As plenipotentiary to France, he negotiated the peace of Amiens. Reappointed governor-general of India in 1804, he died at Ghaziporc, in the province of Benares, in Oct., 1805, on his way to assume the command of the army in the upper provinces. As a statesman or warrior, C.'s talents (lid not rise much above respectable mediocrity, but he was upright, diligent, and humane in a more than ordinary degree.
- CORN WEEVIL, Calandra granaries, a coleopterous insect of the.family curculionida ,
which, although a small creature, not.quite two lines long, is often extremely destructive to grain stored in granaries. It is much more common in the southern than in the northern parts of Europe. The perfect insect is of a dark chestnut or reddish pitchy color, with short oval wing-cases, but without wings, the thorax much marked with depressed dots, the head elongated into a proboscis, the antennae bent at right angles. The female makes a little hole in a grain of corn, and deposits an egg in it, the larva feeds on the farina; and as a single female lays many eggs, and perfect insects are soon produced from them, the mischief, unless counteracted, extends very rapidly. To arrest it, however, has always been found extremely difficult; and the most successful method is said to be that of making a little separate heap of grain, which being left unstirred, whilst the greater heap is stirred very frequently, soon becomes the refuge of the weevils, particularly if it is a heap of barley, of which they are fondest, although they will eat any grain, and there they are killed by boiling water.—Of the same genus are the rice weevil (calandra oryza), and a large South American insect (C. palmarum), an inch and a half long, the grub of which lives in the stems of palms, and is eaten as a delicacy both by Indians and Creoles.
CORO (recently named FALCON), a state in Venezuela on the Caribbean sea and the gulf of Venezuela, the extreme n. part of the republic; 10,253 sq.m.; pop. 99,920. It is drained by many small rivers emptying into the Caribbean sea, one of which, the Tocoyo, is navigable for 120 miles. The soil is sandy and dry, and a large portion is still covered with forests. The principal productions are coffee, corn, cacao, and trop ical fruits.