l with Robert the Bruce. The origin of the dispute is
uncertain. Doubtless the two regarded each other as rivals; Comyn may
have refused to join in the insurrection planned by Bruce. At all events
the pair met at Dumfries in January 1306; during a heated altercation
charges of treachery were made, and Comyn was stabbed to death either by
Bruce or by his followers.

Another member of the Comyn family who took an active part in Scottish
affairs during these troubled times is JOHN COMYN, earl of Buchan (d. c.
1313). This earl, a son of Earl Alexander, was constable of Scotland,
and was first an ally and then an enemy of Robert the Bruce.

CONACRE (a corruption of corn-acre), in Ireland, a system of letting
land, mostly in small patches, and usually for the growth of potatoes as
a kind of return instead of wages. It is now practically obsolete.

CONANT, THOMAS JEFFERSON (1802-1891), American Biblical scholar, was
born at Brandon, Vermont, on the 13th of December 1802. Graduating at
Middlebury College in 1823, he became tutor in the Columbian University
(now George Washington University) from 1825 to 1827, professor of
Greek, Latin and German at Waterville College (now Colby College) from
1827 to 1833, professor of biblical literature and criticism in Hamilton
(New York) Theological Institute from 1835 to 1851, and professor of
Hebrew and of Biblical exegesis in Rochester Theological Seminary from
1851 to 1857. From 1857 to 1875 he was employed by the American Bible
Union on the revision of the New Testament (1871). He married in 1830
Hannah O'Brien Chaplin (1809-1865), who was herself the author of _The
Earnest Man_, a biography of Adoniram Judson (1855), and of _The History
of the English Bible_ (1859), besides being her husband's able assistant
in his Hebrew studies. He died in Brooklyn, New York, on the 30th of
April 1891. Conant was the foremost Hebrew scholar of his time in
America. His treatise, _The Meaning and Use of "Baptizein"
Philologically and Historically Investigated_ (1860), an "appendix to
the revised version of the Gospel by Matthew," is a valuable summary of
the evidence for Baptist doctrine. He translated and edited Gesenius's
_Hebrew Grammar_ (1839; 1877), and published revised versions with notes
of _Job_ (1856), _Genesis_ (1868), _Psalms_ (1871), _Proverbs_ (1872),
_Isaiah_ i.-xiii. 22 (1874), and _Historical Books of the Old Testament,
Joshua to II. Kings_ (1884).

CONATION (from