ers of the Western Union Telegraph Company, and accumulated a
large fortune. He was a delegate to the first national convention of
the Republican party (1856) and was a member of the New York assembly
in 1862-1863 and of the state senate in 1864-1867. He founded a
public library (dedicated in 1866) in Ithaca, and died there on the
9th of December 1874. Consult Alonzo B. Cornell, _True and Firm: A
Biography of Ezra Cornell_ (New York, 1884).

[2] New York's share amounted to 990,000 acres. The Morrill Act
prescribed that the proceeds from the sale of this land should not be
used for the purchase, erection or maintenance of any building or
buildings.

[3] He had previously--in 1865--bought scrip for 100,000 acres for
$50,000, on the understanding that all profits which might accrue
from the sale of the land should be paid to the university.

CORNET, a word having two distinct significations and two etymological
histories, both, however, ultimately referable to the same Latin
origin:--

1. (Fr. _cornette_, dim. of _corne_, from Lat. _cornu_, a horn), a small
standard, formerly carried by a troop of cavalry, and similar to the
pennon in form, narrowing gradually to a point. The term was then
applied to the body of cavalry which carried a cornet. In this sense it
is used in the military literature of the 16th century and, less
frequently, in that of the 17th. Before the close of the 16th century,
however, the world had also come to mean a junior officer of a troop of
cavalry who, like the "ensign" of foot, carried the colour. The spelling
"coronet" occurs in the 16th century, and has perhaps contributed to
obscure the derivation of "colonel" or "coronel." The rank of "cornet"
remained in the British cavalry until the general adoption of the term
"second lieutenant." In the Boer republics "field-cornets" were local
subordinate officers of the commando (q.v.), the unit of the military
forces. Elected for three years by the wards into which the electoral
districts were divided, they had administrative as well as military
duties, and acted as magistrates, inspectors of natives and registration
officers for their respective wards. In 1907, the "field-cornet" system
was re-established in the Transvaal; the new duties of the
"field-cornets" are those performed by assistant magistrates, viz. petty
jurisdiction, registration of voters, births and deaths, the carrying
out of re