th that of England, he was appointed to the
office previously held by his brother of clerk of the rules in the
king's bench; and in June of the same year he was elected member of
parliament for Helston, through the influence of the duke of Leeds. In
1796 Abbot commenced his career as a reformer in parliament by obtaining
the appointment of two committees--the one to report on the arrangements
which then existed as to temporary laws or laws about to expire, the
other to devise methods for the better publication of new statutes. To
the latter committee, and a second committee which he proposed some
years later, it is owing that copies of new statutes were thenceforth
sent to all magistrates and municipal bodies. To Abbot's efforts were
also due the establishment of the Royal Record Commission, the reform of
the system which had allowed the public money to lie for some time at
long interest in the hands of the public accountants, by charging them
with payment of interest, and, most important of all, the act for taking
the first census, that of 1801. On the formation of the Addington
ministry in March 1801 Abbot became chief secretary and privy seal for
Ireland; and in the February of the following year he was chosen speaker
of the House of Commons--a position which he held with universal
satisfaction till 1817, when an attack of erysipelas compelled him to
retire. In response to an address of the Commons, he was raised to the
peerage as Baron Colchester, with a pension of L4000, of which L3000 was
to be continued to his heir. He died on the 8th of May 1829. His
speeches against the Roman Catholic claims were published in 1828.

He was succeeded by his eldest son CHARLES (d. 1867), postmaster-general
in 1858; and the latter by his son REGINALD CHARLES EDWARD (b. 1842), as
3rd baron.

COLCHESTER a market town, river port and municipal and parliamentary
borough of Essex, England; 52 m. N. E. by E. from London by the Great
Eastern railway. Pop. (1901) 38,373. It lies on the river Colne, 12 m.
from the open sea. Among numerous buildings of antiquarian interest the
first is the ruined keep of the castle, a majestic specimen of Norman
architecture, the largest of its kind in England, covering nearly twice
the area of the White Tower in London. It was erected in the reign of
William I. or William II., and is quadrangular, turreted at the angles.
As in other ancient buildings in Colchester there are evidences of the
use of m