, five times president
of the Budget Commission, minister of finance (1895-1898) and
vice-president of the chamber (1898-1902), and again finance minister in
the Briand Cabinet, 1909.

COCHIN, DENYS MARIE PIERRE AUGUSTIN (1851- ), French politician, was
born at Paris. He studied law, was elected to the chamber of deputies in
1893, and gradually became one of the leaders and principal orators of
the Conservative party. He opposed the project of the income-tax in
1894, the revision of the Dreyfus case in 1899, and the separation of
the church and state in 1905. He is known as an author by his works,
_L'Evolution de la vie_ (1895); _Le Monde exterieur_ (1895); _Contre
les barbares_ (1899); _Ententes et ruptures_ (1905).

COCHIN, a feudatory state of southern India, in political subordination
to Madras, with an area of 1361 sq. m. It is bounded on the N. by
British Malabar, on the E. by British Malabar, Coimbatore and
Travancore, on the S. by Travancore, and on the W. by British Malabar
and the Arabian Sea. Isolated from the main territory, and situated to
the north-east of it, lies the major portion of the Chittore _taluk_,
entirely surrounded by British territory. The whole state may be divided
into three well-defined regions or zones: (1) the eastern zone,
consisting of broken forested portions of the Western Ghats, which,
gradually decreasing in height, merge into (2) the central belt,
comprising the uplands and plains that dip towards the lagoons or
"backwaters" along the coast (see COCHIN, town), beyond which lies (3)
the western zone, forming the littoral strip. The low belt which borders
on the seas and the backwaters is by nature flat and swampy, but has in
the course of ages become enriched by the work of man. On leaving the
seaboard, an undulating country is found, diversified with grassy flats,
naked hills and wooded terraces, intersected by numerous torrents and
rapids, and profusely dotted with homesteads, orchards and cultivated
fields, up to the very foot of the Ghats. Here the landscape, now on a
grander scale, embraces great forests which form a considerable source
of wealth. Of the total area of the state the forests and lagoons cover
nearly 605 and 16 sq. m. respectively.

In 1901 the population was 812,025, showing an increase of 12% in the
decade. More than one-fifth are Christians, mostly Syrians and Roman
Catholics. The revenue is estimated at L153,000, subject to a tribute of
L13,000