to enable General Weyler to enforce the reforms that had been wrung from the Madrid government, more by American diplomacy than from a sense of the inevitable, when the bullet of an anarchist, in August 1897, at the baths of Santa Agueda, cut short his career. On the whole, Canovas must be regarded as the greatest Spanish statesman of the close of the 19th century. He was not only a politician but also a man of the world, a writer of considerable merit, a scholar well versed in social, economic and philosophical questions, a great debater, a clever lecturer, a member of all the Madrid academies and a patron of art and letters. (A. E. H.)
CANROBERT, FRANÇOIS CERTAIN (1809–1895), marshal of France, was born at St Céré (Lot) on the 27th of June 1809 and educated at St Cyr; he received a commission as sub-lieutenant in 1828, becoming lieutenant in 1833. He went to Algeria in 1835, served in the expedition to Mascara, at the capture of Tlemcen, and in 1837 became captain. In the same year he was wounded in the storm of Constantine, receiving the Legion of Honour for his conduct. In 1839 he was employed in organizing a battalion of the Foreign Legion for the Carlist Wars. In 1841 he was again serving in Africa. Promoted lieutenant-colonel in 1846 and colonel of the 3rd regiment in 1847, he commanded the expedition against Ahmed Sghir in 1848, and defeated the Arabs at the Djerma Pass. Transferred to the Zouaves, he defeated the Kabyles, and in 1849 displayed both courage and energy in reinforcing the blockaded garrison of Bou Sada, and in command of one of the attacking columns at Zaatcha (December 1849). For his valour on the latter occasion he received the rank of general of brigade and the commandership of the Legion of Honour. He led the expedition against Narah in 1850 and destroyed the Arab stronghold. Summoned to Paris, he was made aide-de-camp to the president, Louis Napoleon, and took part in the coup d’état of the 2nd of December 1851. In the Crimean War he commanded a division at the Alma, where he was twice wounded. He held a dormant commission entitling him to command in case of St Arnaud’s death, and he thus succeeded to the chief command of the French army a few days after the battle. He was slightly wounded and had a horse killed under him at Inkerman, when leading a charge of Zouaves. Disagreements with the English commander-in-chief and, in general, the disappointments due to the prolongation of the siege of Sevastopol led to his resignation of the command, but he did not return to France, preferring to serve as chief of his old division almost up to the fall of Sevastopol. After his return to France he was sent on diplomatic missions to Denmark and Sweden, and made a marshal and senator of France (grand cross Legion of Honour, and honorary G.C.B.). He commanded the III. army corps in Lombardy in 1859, distinguishing himself at Magenta and Solferino. He successively commanded the camp at Châlons, the IV. army corps at Lyons and the army of Paris. In the Franco-German War he commanded the VI. army corps, which won the greatest distinction in the battle of Gravelotte, where Canrobert commanded on the St Privat position. The VI. corps was amongst those shut up in Metz and included in the surrender of that fortress. After the war Canrobert was appointed a member of the superior council of war, and was also active in political life, being elected senator for Lot in 1876 and for Charente in 1879 and again in 1885. He died at Paris on the 28th of January 1895 and his remains received a public funeral. His Souvenirs were published in 1898 at Paris.
CANT, ANDREW (1590?–1663), a leader of the Scottish Covenanters. About 1623 the people of Edinburgh called him to be their minister, but he was rejected by James I. Ten years later he was minister of Pitsligo in Aberdeenshire, a charge which he left in 1638 for that of Newbattle in Mid-Lothian. In July of that year he went with other commissioners to Aberdeen in the vain attempt to induce the university and the presbytery of that city to subscribe the National Covenant, and in the following November sat in the general assembly at Glasgow which abolished episcopacy in Scotland. In 1640 he was chaplain to the Scottish army and then settled as minister at Aberdeen. Though a stanch Covenanter, he was a zealous Royalist, preaching before Charles I. in Edinburgh, and stoutly advocating the restoration of the monarchy in the time of the Commonwealth. Cant’s frequent and bitter attacks on various members of his congregation led in 1660 to complaints laid before the magistrates, in consequence of which he resigned his charge. His son Andrew was principal of Edinburgh University (1675–1685).
CANT. (1) (Possibly through the Fr. from Lat. cantos, corner), in architecture, a term used where the corner of a square is cut off, octagonally or otherwise. Thus a bay window, the sides of which are not parallel, or at right angles to the spectator, is said to be canted. (2) (From the Lat. cantare, to sing, very early in use, in a depreciatory sense, of religious services), a word appearing in English in the 16th century for the whining speech of beggars; hence it is applied to thieves’ or gipsies’ jargon, to the peculiar language of any class or sect, to any current phrase or turn of language, and particularly to the hypocritical use of pious phraseology.
CANTABRI, an ancient tribe which inhabited the north coast of Spain near Santander and Bilbao and the mountains behind—a district hence known as Cantabria. Savage and untameable mountaineers, they long defied the Roman arms and made themselves a name for wild freedom. They were first attacked by the Romans about 150 B.C.; they were not subdued till Agrippa and Augustus had carried out a series of campaigns (29–19 B.C.) which ended in their partial annihilation. Thenceforward their land was part of the province Hispania Tarraconensis with some measure of local self-government. They became slowly Romanized, but developed little town life and are rarely mentioned in history. They provided recruits for the Roman auxilia, like their neighbours the Astŭres, and their land contained lead mines, of which, however, little is known.
CANTABRIAN MOUNTAINS (Span. Cordillera Cantabrica), a mountain chain which extends for more than 300 m. across northern Spain, from the western limit of the Pyrenees to the borders of Galicia, and on or near the coast of the Bay of Biscay. The Cantabrians stretch from east to west, nearly parallel to the sea, as far as the pass of Leitariegos, afterwards trending southward between Leon and Galicia. Their western boundary is marked by the valley of the river Miño (Portuguese Minho), by the lower Sil, which flows into the Miño, and by the Cabrera, a small tributary of the Sil. Some geographers regard the mountains of Galicia beyond the Miño as an integral part of the same system; others confine the name to the eastern half of the highlands between Galicia and the Pyrenees, and call their western half the Asturian Mountains. There are also many local names for the subsidiary ranges within the chain. As a whole, the Cantabrian Mountains are remarkable for their intricate ramifications, but almost everywhere, and especially in the east, it is possible to distinguish two principal ranges, from which the lesser ridges and mountain masses radiate. One range, or series of ranges, closely follows the outline of the coast; the other, which is loftier, forms the northern limit of the great tableland of Castile and Leon, and is sometimes regarded as a continuation of the Pyrenees. The coastal range rises in some parts sheer above the sea, and everywhere has so abrupt a declivity that the streams which flow seaward are all short and swift. The descent from the southern range to the high plateaus of Castile is more gradual, and several large rivers, notably the Ebro, rise here and flow to the south or west. The breadth of the Cantabrian chain, with all its ramifications, increases from about 60 m. in the east to about 115 m. in the west. Many peaks are upwards of 6000 ft. high, but the greatest altitudes are attained in the central ridges on the borders of Leon, Oviedo, Palencia and Santander. Here are the Peña Vieja (8743 ft.), Prieta (8304 ft.) and Espinguete (7898 ft.); an unnamed summit in the Peñas de Europa, to which range the Peña Vieja also belongs, rises on the right bank of the Sella to a height of 8045 ft.; farther west the peaks of Manipodre, Ubiña, Rubia and Cuiña all exceed 7000 ft. A conspicuous feature of the chain, as of the adjacent tableland, is the number of its parameras, isolated plateaus shut in by lofty mountains or even by precipitous walls of rock. At the south-western extremity of the chain is el Vierzo, once a
