The Macdonalds of Clanranald and Kinloch Moidart, along with other

chieftains, again attempted to dissuade him from the rashness of an

unaided rising, but they yielded at last to the enthusiasm and charm of

his manner, and Charles landed on Scottish soil in the company of the

"Seven Men of Moidart" who had come with him from France. Everywhere,

however, he met with discouragement among the chiefs, whose adherence he

wished to secure; but at last, by enlisting the support of Cameron of

Lochiel, he gained a footing for a serious rebellion. With secrecy and

speed communications were entered into with the known leaders of the

Highland clans, and on the 19th of August, in the valley of Glenfinnan,

the standard of James III. and VIII. was raised in the midst of a motley

but increasing crowd. On the same day Sir John Cope at the head of 1500

men left Edinburgh in search of Charles; but, fearing an attack in the

Pass of Corryarrick, he changed his proposed route to Inverness, and

Charles thus had the undefended south country before him. In the

beginning of September he entered Perth, having gained numerous

accessions to his forces on his march. Crossing the Forth unopposed at

the Fords of Frew and passing through Stirling and Linlithgow, he

arrived within a few miles of the astonished metropolis, and on the 16th

of September a body of his skirmishers defeated the dragoons of Colonel

Gardiner in what was known as the "Canter of Coltbrig." His success was

still further augmented by his being enabled to enter the city, a few of

Cameron's Highlanders having on the following morning, by a happy ruse,

forced their way through the Canon-gate. On the 18th he publicly

proclaimed James VIII. of Scotland at the Market Cross and occupied

Holyrood.

Cope had by this time brought his disappointed forces by sea to Dunbar.

On the 20th Charles met and defeated him at Prestonpans, and returned to

prosecute the siege of Edinburgh Castle, which, however, he raised on

General Guest's threatening to lay the city in ruins. In the beginning

of November Charles left Edinburgh, never to return. He was at the head

of at least 6000 men; but the ranks were being gradually thinned by the

desertion of Highlanders, whose traditions had led them to consider war

merely as a raid and an immediate return with plunder. Having passed

through Kelso, on the 9th of November he laid siege to Carlisle, which

capitulated in a week. Manchester received the prince with a warm

welcome and with 150 recruits under Francis Towneley. On the 4th of

December he had reached Derby and was within ten days' march of London,

where the inhabitants were terror-struck and a commercial panic

immediately ensued. Two armies under English leadership were now in the

field against him, one under Marshal Wade, whom he had evaded by

entering England by the west, and the other under William, duke of

Cumberland, who had returned from the continent. London was not to be

supposed helpless in such an emergency; Manchester, Glasgow and

Dumfries, rid of his presence, had risen against him, and Charles

paused. There was division among his advisers and desertion among his

men, and on the 6th of December he reluctantly was forced to begin his

retreat northward. Closely pursued by Cumberland, he marched by way of

Carlisle across the border, and at last stopped to invest Stirling

Castle. At Falkirk, on the 17th of January 1746, he defeated General

Hawley, who had marched from Edinburgh to intercept his retreat. A

fortnight later, however, Charles raised the siege of Stirling, and

after a weary though successful march rested his troops at Inverness.

Having taken Forts George and Augustus, and after varying success

against the supporters of the government in the north, he at last

prepared to face the duke of Cumberland, who had passed the early spring

at Aberdeen. On the 8th of April the duke marched thence to meet

Charles, whose little army, exhausted with a futile night march,

half-starving, and broken by desertion, was completely worsted at

Culloden on the 16th of April 1746.

This decisive and cruel defeat sealed the fate of Charles Edward and the

house of Stuart. Accompanied by the faithful Ned Burke and a few other

followers, Charles at last gained the wild western coast. Hunted hither

and thither, he wandered on foot or cruised restlessly in open boats

among the many barren isles of the Scottish shore, enduring the greatest

hardships with marvellous courage and cheerfulness. Charles, upon whose

head a reward L30,000 had a year before been set, was thus for over five

months relentlessly pursued by the troops and spies of the government.

Disguised in female attire and aided by a passport obtained by the

devoted Flora Macdonald, he passed through Skye and parted from his

gallant conductress at Portree. Towards the end of July he took refuge

in the cave of Coiraghoth in the Braes of Glenmoriston, and in August he

joined Lochiel and Cluny Macpherson, with whom he remained in hiding

until the news was brought that two French ships were in waiting for him

at the place of his first arrival in Scotland--Lochnanuagh. He embarked

with speed and sailed for France, reaching the little port of Roscoff,

near Morlaix, on the 29th of September 1746. He was warmly welcomed by

Louis XV., and ere long he was again vigorously intriguing in Paris, and

even in Madrid. So far as political assistance was concerned, his

efforts proved fruitless, but he became at once the popular hero and

idol of the people of Paris. So enraged was he with his brother Henry's

acceptance of a cardinal's hat in July 1747, that he deliberately broke

off communication with his father in Rome (who had approved the step),

nor did he ever see him again. The enmity of the British government to

Charles Edward made peace with France an impossibility so long as she

continued to harbour the young prince. A condition of the treaty of

Aix-la-Chapelle, concluded in October 1748, was that every member of the

house of Stuart should be expelled the French dominions. Charles had

forestalled the proclamation of the treaty by an indignant protest

against its injustice, and a declaration that he would not be bound by

its provisions. But his indignation and persistent refusal to comply

with the request that he should voluntarily leave France had to be met

at last with force: he was apprehended, imprisoned for a week at

Vincennes, and on the 17th of December conducted to the French border.

He lingered at Avignon; but the French, compelled to hard measures by

the English, refused to be satisfied; and Pope Benedict XIV., alarmed by

the threat of a bombardment of Civita Vecchia, advised the prince to

withdraw. Charles quietly disappeared; for years Europe watched for him

in vain. It is now established, almost with certainty, that he returned

to the neighbourhood of Paris; and it is supposed that his residence was

known to the French ministers, who, however, firmly proclaimed their

ignorance. In 1750, and again, it is thought, in 1754, he was in London,

hatching futile plots and risking his safety for his hopeless cause, and

even abjuring the Roman Catholic faith in order to further his political

interests.

During the next ten years of his life Charles Edward's illicit connexion

with Miss Clementina Walkinshaw (d. 1802), whom he had first met at

Bannockburn House while conducting the siege of Stirling, his imperious

fretful temper, his drunken habits and debauched life, could no longer

be concealed. He wandered over Europe in disguise, alienating the

friends and crushing the hopes of his party; and in 1766, on returning

to Rome at the death of his father, he was treated by Pope Clement XIII.

with coldness, and his title as heir to the British throne was openly

repudiated by all the great Catholic powers. It was probably through the

influence of the French court, still intriguing against England, that

the marriage between Charles (now self-styled count of Albany) and

Princess Louise of Stolberg was arranged in 1772. The union proved

childless and unhappy, and in 1780 the countess fled for refuge from her

husband's drunken violence to a convent in Florence, where Charles had

been residing since 1774. Later, the countess of Albany (q.v.) threw

herself on the protection of her brother-in-law Henry, Cardinal York, at

Rome, and the formal separation between the ill-matched pair was finally

brought about in 1784, chiefly through the kind offices of King Gustavus

III. of Sweden. Charles, lonely, ill, and evidently near death, now

summoned to Florence his natural daughter, Charlotte Stuart, the child

of Clementina Walkinshaw, born at Liege in October 1753 and hitherto

neglected by the prince. Charlotte Stuart, who was declared legitimate

and created duchess of Albany, tended her father for the remaining years

of his life, during which she contrived to reconcile the two Stuart

brothers, so that in 1785 Charles returned to Rome, where he died in the

old Palazzo Muti on the 30th of January 1788. He was buried in his

brother's cathedral church at Frascati, but in 1807 his remains were

removed to the _Grotte Vaticane_ of St Peter's. His daughter Charlotte

survived her father less than two years, dying unmarried at Bologna in

November 1789, at the early age of thirty-six.

See A.C. Ewald, _Life and Times of Charles Stuart, the Young

Pretender_ (2 vols., 1875); C.S. Terry, _Life of the Young Pretender_,

and _The Rising of 1745; with Bibliography of Jacobite History

1689--1788_ (Scott. Hist. fr. Contemp. Writers, iii.) (1900); Earl

Stanhope, _History of England_ (1836) and _Decline of the Last

Stuarts_ (1854); Bishop R. Forbes, _The Lyon in Mourning_ (1895-1896);

Andrew Lang, _Pickle, the Spy_ (1897), and _Prince Charles Edward_

(1900); R. Chambers, _History of the Rebellion in Scotland_, &c. &c.

(H. M. V.)

CHARLES EMMANUEL I. [CARLO EMANUELE] (1562-1630), duke of Savoy,

succeeded his father, Emmanuel Philibert, in 1580. He continued the

latter's policy of profiting by the rivalry of France and Spain in order

to round off and extend his dominions. His three chief objects were the

conquest of Geneva, of Saluzzo and of Monferrato. Saluzzo he succeeded

in wresting from France in 1588. He intervened in the French religious

wars, and also fought with Bern and other Swiss cantons, and on the

murder of Henry III. of France in 1580 he aspired to the French throne

on the strength of the claims of his wife Catherine, sister of Henry of

Navarre, afterwards King Henry IV. In 1590 he sent an expedition to

Provence in the interests of the Catholic League, and followed it

himself later, but the peace of 1593, by which Henry of Navarre was

recognized as king of France, put an end to his ambitions. In the war

between France and Spain Charles sided with the latter, with varying

success. Finally, by the peace of Lyons (1601), he gave up all

territories beyond the Rhone, but his possession of Saluzzo was

confirmed. He now meditated a further enterprise against Geneva; but his

attempt to capture the city by treachery and with the help of Spain (the

famous _escalade_) in 1602 failed completely. The next few years were

filled with negotiations and intrigues with Spain and France which did

not lead to any particular result, but on the death in 1612 of Duke

Francesco Gonzaga of Mantua, who was lord of Monferrato, Charles

Emmanuel made a successful _coup de main_ on that district. This

arrayed the Venetians, Tuscany, the Empire and Spain against him, and

he was obliged to relinquish his conquest. The Spaniards invaded the

duchy from Lombardy, and although the duke was defeated several times he

fought bravely, gained some successes, and the terms of the peace of

1618 left him more or less in the _status quo ante_. We next find

Charles Emmanuel aspiring to the imperial crown in 1619, but without

success. In 1628 he was in alliance with Spain in the war against

France; the French invaded the duchy, which, being abandoned by Spain,

was overrun by their armies. The duke fought desperately, but was taken

ill at Savigliano and died in 1630. He was succeeded by his son Victor

Amedeo I., while his third son Tommaso founded the line of

Savoy-Carignano from which the present royal house of Italy is

descended. Charles Emmanuel achieved a great reputation as a statesman

and warrior, and increased the prestige of Savoy, but he was too shifty

and ingenious, and his schemes ended in disaster.

See E. Ricotti, _Storia della monarchia piemontese_, vols. iii. and

iv. (Florence, 1865); T. Raulich, _Storia di Carlo Emanuele I._

(Milan, 1896-1902); G. Curti, _Carlo Emanuele I. secondo; piu recenti

studii_ (Milan, 1894).

CHARLES MARTEL[1] (c. 688-741), Frankish ruler, was a natural son of

Pippin II., mayor of the palace, and Chalpaida. Charles was baptized by

St Rigobert, bishop of Reims. At the death of his father in 714,

Pippin's widow Plectrude claimed the government in Austrasia and

Neustria in the name of her grandchildren, and had Charles thrown into

prison. But the Neustrians threw off the Austrasian yoke and entered

into an offensive alliance with the Frisians and Saxons. In the general

anarchy Charles succeeded in escaping, defeated the Neustrians at

Ambleve, south of Liege, in 716, and at Vincy, near Cambrai, in 717, and

forced them to come to terms. In Austrasia he wrested the power from

Plectrude, and took the title of mayor of the palace, thus prejudicing

the interests of his nephews. According to the Frankish custom he

proclaimed a king in Austrasia in the person of the young Clotaire IV.,

but in reality Charles was the sole master--the entry in the annals for

the year 717 being "Carolus regnare coepit." Once in possession of

Austrasia, Charles sought to extend his dominion over Neustria also. In

719 he defeated Ragenfrid, the Neustrian mayor of the palace, at

Soissons, and forced him to retreat to Angers. Ragenfrid died in 731,

and from that time Charles had no competitor in the western kingdom. He

obliged the inhabitants of Burgundy to submit, and disposed of the

Burgundian bishoprics and countships to his _leudes_. In Aquitaine Duke

Odo (Eudes) exercised independent authority, but in 719 Charles forced

him to recognize the suzerainty of northern France, at least nominally.

After the alliance between Charles and Odo on the field of Poitiers, the

mayor of the palace left Aquitaine to Odo's son Hunald, who paid homage

to him. Besides establishing a certain unity in Gaul, Charles saved it

from a very great peril. In 711 the Arabs had conquered Spain. In 720

they crossed the Pyrenees, seized Narbonensis, a dependency of the

kingdom of the Visigoths, and advanced on Gaul. By his able policy Odo

succeeded in arresting their progress for some years; but a new vali,

Abdur Rahman, a member of an extremely fanatical sect, resumed the

attack, reached Poitiers, and advanced on Tours, the holy town of Gaul.

In October 732--just 100 years after the death of Mahomet--Charles

gained a brilliant victory over Abdur Rahman, who was called back to

Africa by the revolts of the Berbers and had to give up the struggle.

This was the last of the great Arab invasions of Europe. After his

victory Charles took the offensive, and endeavoured to wrest Narbonensis

from the Mussulmans. Although he was not successful in his attempt to

recover Narbonne (737), he destroyed the fortresses of Agde, Beziers and

Maguelonne, and set fire to the amphitheatre at Nimes. He subdued also

the Germanic tribes; annexed Frisia, where Christianity was beginning to

make progress; put an end to the duchy of Alemannia; intervened in the

internal affairs of the dukes of Bavaria; made expeditions into Saxony;

and in 738 compelled some of the Saxon tribes to pay him tribute. He

also gave St Boniface a safe conduct for his missions in Thuringia,

Alemannia and Bavaria.

During the government of Charles Martel important changes appear to have

been made in the internal administration. Under him began the great

assemblies of nobles known as the _champs de Mars_. To attach his

_leudes_ Charles had to give them church lands as _precarium_, and this

had a very great influence in the development of the feudal system. It

was from the _precarium_, or ecclesiastical benefice, that the feudal

fief originated. Vassalage, too, acquired a greater consistency at this

period, and its rules began to crystallize. Under Charles occurred the

first attempt at reconciliation between the papacy and the Franks. Pope

Gregory III., menaced by the Lombards, invoked the aid of Charles (739),

sent him a deputation with the keys of the Holy Sepulchre and the chains

of St Peter, and offered to break with the emperor and Constantinople,

and to give Charles the Roman consulate (_ut a partibus imperatoris

recederet et Romanum consulatum Carolo sanciret_). This proposal, though

unsuccessful, was the starting-point of a new papal policy. Since the

death of Theuderich IV. in 737 there had been no king of the Franks. In

741 Charles divided the kingdom between his two sons, as though he were

himself master of the realm. To the elder, Carloman, he gave Austrasia,

Alemannia and Thuringia, with suzerainty over Bavaria; the younger,

Pippin, received Neustria, Burgundy and Provence. Shortly after this

division of the kingdom Charles died at Quierzy on the 22nd of October

741, and was buried at St Denis. The characters of Charles Martel and

his grandson Charlemagne offer many striking points of resemblance. Both

were men of courage and activity, and the two men are often confused in

the _chansons de geste_.

See T. Breysig, _Jahrbucher d. frank. Reichs, 714--741; die Zeit Karl

Martells_ (Leipzig, 1869); A.A. Beugnot, "Sur la spoliation des biens

du clerge attribuee a Charles Martel," in the _Mem. de l'Acad. des

Inscr. et Belles-Lettres_, vol. xix. (Paris, 1853); Ulysse Chevalier,

_Bio-bibliographie_ (2nd ed., Paris, 1904). (C. Pf.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Or "The Hammer."

CHARLESTON, a city and the county-seat of Coles county, Illinois,

U.S.A., in the E. part of the state, about 45 m. W. of Terre Haute,

Indiana. Pop. (1900) 5488; (1910) 5884. It is served by the Cleveland,

Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis, and the Toledo, St Louis & Western

railways, and by interurban electric lines. It is the seat of the

Eastern Illinois state normal school (opened in 1899). The city is

situated in an important broom-corn raising district, and has broom

factories, a tile factory and planing mills. The water-works are owned

and operated by the municipality. Charleston was settled about 1835, was

incorporated in 1839, and was reincorporated in 1865. One of the

Lincoln-Douglas debates was held here in 1858.

CHARLESTON, the largest city of South Carolina, U.S.A., the county-seat

of Charleston county, a port of entry, and an important South Atlantic

seaport, on a narrow peninsula formed by the Cooper river on the E. and

the Ashley on the W. and S.W., and within sight of the ocean about 7 m.

distant. Pop. (1890) 54,955; (1900) 55,807, of whom 31,522 were of negro

descent and 2592 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 58,833. It is served

by the Atlantic Coast Line and the Southern railways, the Clyde

Steamship Line to New York, Boston and Jacksonville, the Baltimore &

Carolina Steamship Co. to Baltimore and Georgetown, and a branch of the

North German Lloyd Steamship Co., which brings immigrants from Europe

direct to the Southern states; there are freight boat lines to ports in

the West Indies, Central America and other foreign countries.

The city extends over 3.76 sq. m. of surface, nowhere rising more than 8

or 10 ft. above the rivers, and has about 9 m. of water front. In the

middle of the harbour, on a small island near its entrance, is the

famous Fort Sumter; a little to the north-east, on Sullivan's Island, is

the scarcely less historic Fort Moultrie, as well as extensive modern

fortifications; on James Island, opposite, is Fort Johnson, now the

United States Quarantine Station, and farther up, on the other islands,

are Fort Ripley and Castle Pinckney (now the United States buoy

station). Viewed from any of these forts, Charleston's spires and public

buildings seem to rise out of the sea. The streets are shaded with the

live oak and the linden, and are ornamented with the palmetto; and the

quaint specimens of colonial architecture, numerous pillared porticoes,

spacious verandas--both upper and lower--and flower gardens made

beautiful with magnolias, palmettoes, azaleas, jessamines, camelias and

roses, give the city a peculiarly picturesque character.

King Street, running north and south through the middle of the

peninsula, and Market Street, crossing it about 1 m. from its lower end,

are lined with stores, shops or stalls; on Broad Street are many of the

office buildings and banks; the wholesale houses are for the most part

on Meeting Street, the first thoroughfare east of King; nearly all of

the wharves are on the east side; the finest residences are at the lower

end of the peninsula on East Battery and South Battery, on Meeting

Street below Broad, on Legare Street, on Broad Street and on Rutledge

Avenue to the west of King. At the south-east corner of Broad and

Meeting streets is Saint Michael's (built in 1752-1761), the oldest

church edifice in the city, and a fine specimen of colonial

ecclesiastical architecture; in its tower is an excellent chime of eight

bells. Beneath the vestry room lie the remains of Charles Cotesworth

Pinckney, and in the churchyard are the graves of John Rutledge, James

Louis Petigru (1789-1863), and Robert Young Hayne. At the intersection

of the same streets are also the massive United States post office

building (Italian Renaissance in style), with walls of granite; the

county court house, the city hall and Washington Square--in which stand

a statue of William Pitt (one arm of which was broken off by a cannon

shot during the British bombardment in 1780), and a monument to the

memory of Henry Timrod (1829-1867), the poet. At the foot of Broad

Street is the Colonial Exchange in which the South Carolina convention

organized a new government during the War of Independence; and at the

foot of Market Street is the large modern custom house of white marble,

built in the Roman-Corinthian style. Saint Philip's church, with

admirable architectural proportions, has a steeple nearly 200 ft. in

height, from which a beacon light shines for the guidance of mariners

far out at sea. In the west cemetery of this church are the tombs of

John C. Calhoun, and of Robert James Turnbull (1775-1833), who was

prominent locally as a nullifier and under the name of "Brutus" wrote

ably on behalf of nullification, free trade and state's rights. The

French Protestant Church, though small, is an attractive specimen of

Gothic architecture; and the Unitarian, which is in the Perpendicular

style and is modelled after the chapel of Edward VI. in Westminster, has

a beautiful fan-tracery ceiling.

Of the few small city squares, gardens or parks, the White Point Garden

at the lower end of the peninsula is most frequented; it is shaded with

beautiful live oaks, is adorned with palmettoes and commands a fine view

of the harbour. About 1-1/2 m. north of this on Meeting Street is Marion

Square, with a tall graceful monument to the memory of John C. Calhoun

on the south side, and the South Carolina Military Academy along the

north border. The largest park in Charleston is Hampton Park, named in

honour of General Wade Hampton. It is situated in the north-west part of

the city and is beautifully laid out. The Isle of Palms, to the north of

Sullivan's Island, has a large pavilion and a wide sandy beach with a

fine surf for bathing, and is the most popular resort for visitors. The

Magnolia Gardens are about 8 m. up the Ashley. Twenty-two miles beyond

is the town of Summerville (pop. in 1900, 2420), a health resort in the

pine lands, with one of the largest tea farms in the country. Magnolia

Cemetery, the principal burial-place, is a short distance north of the

city limits; in it are the graves of William Washington (1732-1810) and

Hugh Swinton Legare. Charleston was the home of the Pinckneys, the

Rutledges, the Gadsdens, the Laurenses, and, in a later generation, of

W.G. Simms. A trace of the early social organization of the brilliant

colonial town remains in the St Cecilia Society, first formed in 1737 as

an amateur concert society.

Charleston has an excellent system of public schools. Foremost among the

educational institutions is the college of Charleston, chartered in 1785

and again in 1791, and opened in 1790; it is supported by the city and

by funds of its own, ranks high within the state, and has a large and

well-equipped museum of natural history, probably founded as early as

1777 and transferred to the college in 1850. Here, too, are the Medical

College of the state of South Carolina, which includes a department of

pharmacy; the South Carolina Military Academy (opened in 1843), which is

a branch of the University of South Carolina; the Porter Military

Academy (Protestant Episcopal), the Confederate home school for young

women, the Charleston University School, and the Avery Normal Institute

(Congregationalist) for coloured students. In the Charleston library

(about 25,000 volumes), founded in 1748, are important collections of

rare books and manuscripts; the rooms of the South Carolina Historical

Society are in the same building. The Charleston _News and Courier_,

published first as the _Courier_ in 1803 and combined with the _Daily

News_ (1865) in 1873, is one of the most influential newspapers in the

South. The charitable institutions of the city include the Roper

hospital, the Charleston Orphan Asylum (founded in 1792), the William

Euston home for the aged, and a home for the widows of Confederate

soldiers.

In 1878 the United States government began the construction of jetties

to remove the bar at the entrance to Charleston harbour, which was

otherwise deep and spacious and well protected, and by means of these

jetties the bar has been so far removed as to admit vessels drawing

about 30 ft. of water. The result has been not only the promotion of the

city's commerce, but the removal of the United States naval station and

navy yard from Port Royal to what was formerly Chicora Park on the left

bank of the Cooper river, a short distance above the city limits. The

city's commerce consists largely in the export of cotton,[1] rice,

fertilizers, fruits, lumber and naval stores; the value of its exports,

$10,794,000 in 1897, decreased to $2,196,596 in 1907 ($3,164,089 in

1908), while that of the import trade ($1,255,483 in 1897) increased to

$3,840,585 in 1907 ($3,323,844 in 1908). The principal industries are

the preparation of fertilizers--largely from the extensive beds of

phosphate rock along the banks of the Ashley river and from cotton-seed

meal--cotton compressing, rice cleaning, canning oysters, fruits and

vegetables, and the manufacture of cotton bagging, of lumber, of

cooperage goods, clothing and carriages and wagons. Between 1880 and

1890 the industrial development of the city was very rapid, the

manufactures in 1890 showing an increase of 229.6% over those of 1880;

the increase between 1890 and 1900 was only 6.2%. In 1900 the total

value of the city's manufactures, 16.3% (in value) of the product of the

entire state, was $9,562,387, the value of the fertilizer product alone,

much the most important, being $3,697,090.[2]

_History._--The first English settlement in South Carolina, established

at Albemarle Point on the west bank of the Ashley river in 1670, was

named Charles Town in honour of Charles II. The location proving

undesirable, a new Charles Town on the site of the present city was

begun about 1672, and the seat of government was removed to it in 1680.

The name Charles Town became Charlestown about 1719 and Charleston in

1783. Among the early settlers were English Churchmen, New England

Congregationalists, Scotch and Irish Presbyterians, Dutch and German

Lutherans, Huguenots (especially in 1680-1688) from France and

Switzerland, and a few Quakers; later the French element of the

population was augmented by settlers from Acadia (1755) and from San

Domingo (1793). Although it soon became the largest and the wealthiest

settlement south of Philadelphia, Charleston did not receive a charter

until 1783, and did not have even a township government. Local

ordinances were passed by the provincial legislature and enforced partly

by provincial officials and partly by the church wardens. It was,

however, the political and social centre of the province, being not only

the headquarters of the governor, council and colonial officials, but

also the only place at which courts of justice were held until the

complaints of the Up Country people led to the establishment of circuit

courts in 1772. After the American War of Independence it continued to

be the capital of South Carolina until 1790. The charter of 1783, though

frequently amended and altered, is still in force. By an act of the

state legislature passed in 1837 the terms "mayor" and "alderman"

superseded the older terms "intendant" and "wardens." The city was the

heart of the nullification movement of 1832-1833; and in St Andrew's

Hall, in Broad Street, on the 20th of December 1860, a convention called

by the state legislature passed an ordinance of secession from the

Union.

Charleston has several times been attacked by naval forces and has

suffered from many storms. Hurricane and epidemic together devastated

the town both in 1699 and in 1854; the older and more thickly settled

part of the town was burnt in 1740, and a hurricane did great damage in

1752. In 1706, during the War of the Spanish Succession, a combined

fleet of Spanish and French under Captain Le Feboure was repulsed by the

forces of Governor Nathaniel Johnson (d. 1713) and Colonel William Rhett

(1666-1721). During the War of Independence Charleston withstood the

attack of Sir Peter Parker and Sir Henry Clinton in 1776, and that of

General Augustus Prevost in 1779, but shortly afterwards became the

objective of a more formidable attack by Sir Henry Clinton, the

commander-in-chief of the British forces in America. In the later years

of the contest the British turned their attention to the reduction of

the colonies in the south, and the prominent point and best base of

operations in that section was the city of Charleston, which was

occupied in the latter part of 1779 by an American force under General

Benjamin Lincoln. In December of that year Sir Henry Clinton embarked

from New York with 8000 British troops and proceeded to invest

Charleston by land. He entrenched himself west of the city between the

Cooper and Ashley rivers, which bound it north and south, and thus

hemmed Lincoln in a _cul-de-sac_. The latter made the mistake of

attempting to defend the city with an inferior force. Delays had

occurred in the British operations and Clinton was not prepared to

summon the Americans to surrender until the 10th of April 1780. Lincoln

refused, and Clinton advanced his trenches to the third parallel,

rendering his enemy's works untenable. On the 12th of May Lincoln

capitulated. About 2000 American Continentals were made prisoners, and

an equal number of militia and armed citizens. This success was regarded

by the British as an offset against the loss of Burgoyne's army in 1777,

and Charleston at once became the base of active operations in the

Carolinas, which Clinton left Cornwallis to conduct. Thenceforward

Charleston was under military rule until evacuated by the British on the

14th of December 1782.

The bombardment and capture of Fort Sumter (garrisoned by Federal

troops) by the South Carolinians, on the 12th and 13th of April 1861,

marked the actual beginning of the American Civil War. From 1862 onwards

Charleston was more or less under siege by the Federal naval and

military forces until 1865. The Confederates repulsed a naval attack

made by the Federals under Admiral S.F. Du Pont in April 1863, and a

land attack under General Q.A. Gillmore in June of the same year. They

were compelled to evacuate the city on the 17th of February 1865, after

having burned a considerable amount of cotton and other supplies to

prevent them from falling into the hands of the enemy. After the Civil

War the wealth and the population steadily increased, in spite of the

destruction wrought by the earthquake of 31st August 1886 (see

EARTHQUAKE). In that catastrophe 27 persons were killed, many more were

injured and died subsequently, 90% of the buildings were injured, and

property to the value of more than $5,000,000 was destroyed. The South

Carolina Interstate and West Indian Exposition, held here from the 1st

of December 1901 to the 1st of June 1902, called the attention of

investors to the resources of the city and state, but was not successful

financially, and Congress appropriated $160,000 to make good the

deficit.

Much information concerning Charleston may be obtained in A.S.

Salley's _A Guide and Historical Sketch of Charleston_ (Charleston,

1903), and in Mrs St Julien Ravenel's _Charleston; The Place and the

People_ (New York, 1906). The best history of Charleston is William A.

Courtenay's _Charleston, S.C.: The Centennial of Incorporation_

(Charleston, 1884). There is also a good sketch by Yates Snowden in

L.P. Powell's _Historic Towns of the Southern States_ (New York,

1900). For the earthquake see the account by Carl McKinley in the

_Charleston Year-Book_ for 1886. See also SOUTH CAROLINA.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] At an early date cotton became an important article in

Charleston's commerce; some was shipped so early as 1747. At the

outbreak of the Civil War Charleston was one of the three most

important cotton-shipping ports in the United States, being exceeded

in importance only by New Orleans and New York.

[2] The special census of 1905 dealt only with the factory product,

that of 1905 ($6,007,094) showing an increase of 5.1% over that of

1900 ($5,713,315). In 1905 the (factory) fertilizer product of

Charleston was $1,291,859, which represented more than 35% of the

(factory) fertilizer product of the whole state.

CHARLESTON, the capital of West Virginia, U.S.A., and the county-seat of

Kanawha county, situated near the centre of the state, on the N. bank of

the Kanawha river, at the mouth of the Elk river, about 200 m. E. of

Cincinnati, Ohio, and about 130 m. S.W. of Wheeling. Pop. (1890) 6742;

(1900) 11,099, of whom 1787 were negroes, and 353 were foreign-born;

(1910 census) 22,996. It is served by the Chesapeake & Ohio, the Toledo

& Ohio Central, the Coal & Coke, and the Kanawha & West Virginia (39 m.

to Blakeley) railways, and by several river transportation lines on the

Kanawha river (navigable throughout the year by means of movable locks)

connecting with Ohio and Mississippi river ports. The city is

attractively built on high level land, above the river; in addition to a

fine customs house, court house and high school, it contains the West

Virginia state capitol, erected in 1880. The libraries include the state

law library, with 14,000 volumes in 1908, and the library of the state

Department of Archives and History, with about 11,000 volumes.

Charleston is in the midst of a region rich in bituminous coal, the

shipment of which by river and rail constitutes one of its principal

industries. Oil wells in the vicinity also furnish an important product

for export, and there are iron and salt mines near. An ample supply of

natural gas is utilized by its manufacturing establishments; and among

its manufactures are axes, lumber, foundry and machine shop products,

furniture, boilers, woollen goods, glass and chemical fire-engines. The

value of the city's factory products increased from $1,261,815 in 1900

to $2,728,074 in 1905, or 116.2%, a greater rate of increase than that

of any other city (with 8000 or more inhabitants) in the state during

this period. The first permanent white settlement at Charleston was made

soon after the close of the War of Independence; it was one of the

places through which the streams of immigrants entered the Ohio Valley,

and it became of considerable importance as a centre of transfer and

shipment, but it was not until the development of the coal-mining region

that it became industrially important. Charleston was incorporated in

1794, and was chartered as a city in 1870. Since the latter year it has

been the seat of government of West Virginia, with the exception of the

decade 1875-1885, when Wheeling was the capital.

CHARLESTOWN, formerly a separate city of Middlesex county,

Massachusetts, U.S.A., but since 1874 a part of the city of Boston, with

which it had long before been in many respects practically one. It is

situated on a small peninsula on Boston harbour, between the mouths of

the Mystic and Charles rivers; the first bridge across the Charles,

built in 1786, connected Charlestown and Boston. A United States navy

yard (1800), occupying about 87 acres, and the Massachusetts state

prison (1805) are here; the old burying-ground contains the grave of

John Harvard and that of Thomas Beecher, the first American member of

the famous Beecher family; and there is a soldiers' and sailors'

monument (1872), designed by Martin Milmore. Charlestown was founded in

1628 or 1629, being the oldest part of Boston, and soon rose into

importance; it was organized as a township in 1630, and was chartered as

a city in 1847. Within its limits was fought, on the 17th of June 1775,

the battle of Bunker Hill (q.v.), when Charlestown was almost completely

destroyed by the British. The Bunker Hill Monument commemorates the

battle; and the navy yard at Moulton's Point was the landing-place of

the attacking British troops. Little was done toward the rebuilding of

Charlestown until 1783. The original territory of the township was very

large, and from parts of it were formed Woburn (1642), Malden (1649),

Stoneham (1725), and Somerville (1842); other parts were annexed to

Cambridge, to Medford and to Arlington. S.F.B. Morse, the inventor of

the electric telegraph, was born here; and Charlestown was the

birthplace and home of Nathaniel Gorham (1738-1796), a member of the

Continental Congress in 1782-1783 and 1785-1787, and its president in

1786; and was the home of Loammi Baldwin (1780-1838), a well-known civil

engineer; of Samuel Dexter (1761-1816), an eminent lawyer, secretary of

war and for a short time secretary of the treasury in the cabinet of

President John Adams; and of Oliver Holden (1765-1831), a composer of

hymn-tunes, including "Coronation."

See R. Frothingham, _History of Charlestown_ (Boston, 1845), covering

1629-1775; J.F. Hunnewell, _A Century of Town Life ... 1775-1887_

(Boston, 1888); and Timothy T. Sawyer, _Old Charlestown_ (1902).

CHARLET, NICOLAS TOUSSAINT (1792-1845), French designer and painter,

more especially of military subjects, was born in Paris on the 20th of

December 1792. He was the son of a dragoon in the Republican army, whose

death in the ranks left the widow and orphan in very poor circumstances.

Madame Charlet, however, a woman of determined spirit and an extreme

Napoleonist, managed to give her boy a moderate education at the Lycee

Napoleon, and was repaid by his lifelong affection. His first employment

was in a Parisian mairie, where he had to register recruits: he served

in the National Guard in 1814, fought bravely at the Barriere de Clichy,

and, being thus unacceptable to the Bourbon party, was dismissed from

the mairie in 1816. He then, having from a very early age had a

propensity for drawing, entered the atelier of the distinguished painter

Baron Gros, and soon began issuing the first of those lithographed

designs which eventually brought him renown. His "Grenadier de

Waterloo," 1817, with the motto "La Garde meurt et ne se rend pas" (a

famous phrase frequently attributed to Cambronne, but which he never

uttered, and which cannot, perhaps, be traced farther than to this

lithograph by Charlet), was particularly popular. It was only towards

1822, however, that he began to be successful in a professional sense.

Lithographs (about 2000 altogether), water-colours, sepia-drawings,

numerous oil sketches, and a few etchings followed one another rapidly;

there were also three exhibited oil pictures, the first of which was

especially admired--"Episode in the Campaign of Russia" (1836), the

"Passage of the Rhine by Moreau" (1837), "Wounded Soldiers Halting in a

Ravine" (1843). Besides the military subjects in which he peculiarly

delighted, and which found an energetic response in the popular heart,

and kept alive a feeling of regret for the recent past of the French

nation and discontent with the present,--a feeling which increased upon

the artist himself towards the close of his career,--Charlet designed

many subjects of town life and peasant life, the ways of children, &c.,

with much wit and whim in the descriptive mottoes. One of the most

famous sets is the "Vie civile, politique, et militaire du Caporal

Valentin," 50 lithographs, dating from 1838 to 1842. In 1838 his health

began to fail owing to an affection of the chest. He died in Paris on

the 30th of October 1845. Charlet was an uncommonly tall man, with an

expressive face, bantering and good natured; his character corresponded,

full of boyish fun and high spirits, with manly independence, and a vein

of religious feeling, and he was a hearty favourite among his intimates,

one of whom was the painter Gericault. Charlet married in 1824, and two

sons survived him.

A life of Charlet was published in 1856 by a military friend, De la

Combe. (W. M. R.)

CHARLEVILLE, a town of north-eastern France, in the department of

Ardennes, 151 m. N.E. of Paris on the Eastern railway. Pop. (1906)

19,693. Charleville is situated within a bend of the Meuse on its left

bank, opposite Mezieres, with which it is united by a suspension bridge.

The town was founded in 1606 by Charles III. (Gonzaga), duke of Nevers,

afterwards duke of Mantua, and is laid out on a uniform plan. Its

central and most interesting portion is the Place Ducale, a large square

surrounded by old houses with high-pitched roofs, the porches being

arranged so as to form a continuous arcade; in the centre there is a

fountain surmounted by a statue of the duke Charles. A handsome church

in the Romanesque style and the other public buildings date from the

19th century. An old mill, standing on the bank of the river, dates from

the early years of the town's existence. On the right bank of the Meuse

is Mont Olympe, with the ruins of a fortress dismantled under Louis XIV.

Charleville, which shares with Mezieres the administrative institutions

of the department of Ardennes, has tribunals of first instance and of

commerce, a chamber of commerce, a board of trade-arbitrators and lycees

and training colleges for both sexes. Its chief industries are

metal-founding and the manufacture of nails, anvils, tools and other

iron goods, and brush-making; leather-working and sugar-refining, and

the making of bricks and clay pipes are also carried on.

CHARLEVOIX, PIERRE FRANCOIS XAVIER DE (1682-1761), French Jesuit

traveller and historian, was born at St Quentin on the 29th of October

1682. At the age of sixteen he entered the Society of Jesus; and at the

age of twenty-three was sent to Canada, where he remained for four years

as professor at Quebec. He then returned and became professor of belles

lettres at home, and travelled on the errands of his society in various

countries. In 1720-1722, under orders from the regent, he visited

America for the second time, and went along the Great Lakes and down the

Mississippi. In later years (1733-1755) he was one of the directors of

the _Journal de Trevoux_. He died at La Fleche on the 1st of February

1761. His works, enumerated in the _Bibliographie des Prers de la

Compagnie de Jesus_ (by Carlos Sommervogel), fall into two groups. The

first contains his _Histoire de l'etablissement, du progres et de la

decadence du Christianisme dans l'empire du Japon_ (Rouen, 1715; English

trans. _History of the Church of Japan_, 1715), and his _Histoire et

description generale du Japon_ (1736), a compilation chiefly from

Kampfer. The second group includes his historical work on America:

_Histoire de l'Isle Espagnole ou de Saint Domingue_ (1730), based on

manuscript memoirs of P. Jean-Baptiste Le Pers and original sources;

_Histoire de Paraguay_ (1756); _Vie de la Mere Marie de l'Incarnation,

institutrice et premiere superieure des Urselines de la Nouvelle-France_

(1724); _Histoire et description generale de la Nouvelle-France_ (1744;

in English 1769; tr. J.G. Shea, 1866-1872), a work of capital importance

for Canadian history.

CHARLEVOIX, a village and the county-seat of Charlevoix county,

Michigan, U.S.A., 16 m. E.S.E. of Petoskey, on Lake Michigan and Pine

Lake, which are connected by Pine river and Round Lake. Pop. (1890)

1496; (1900) 2079; (1904) 2395; (1910) 2420. It is on the main line of

the Pere Marquette railway, and during the summer season is served by

lake steamers. The village is best known as a summer resort; it is built

on bluffs and on a series of terraces rising from Round and Pine lakes

and affording extensive views; and there are a number of attractive

summer residences. Charlevoix is an important hardwood lumber port, and

the principal industries are the manufacture of lumber and of cement;

fishing (especially for lake trout and white fish); the raising of sugar

beets; and the manufacture of rustic and fancy wood-work. Charlevoix was

settled about 1866, and was incorporated as a village in 1879.

CHARLOTTE, a city and the county-seat of Mecklenburg county, North

Carolina, U.S.A., situated on Sugar Creek, in the south-west part of the

state, about 175 m. south-west of Raleigh. Pop. (1890) 11,557; (1900)

18,091, of whom 7151 were negroes; (1910 census) 34,014. It is served by

the Seaboard Air Line and the Southern railways. Among the public

buildings are a fine city hall, court-house, Federal and Young Men's

Christian Association buildings, and a Carnegie library; several

hospitals: St Peter's (Episcopal) for whites, Good Samaritan (Episcopal)

for negroes, Mercy General (Roman Catholic) and a Presbyterian. The city

is the seat of Elizabeth College and Conservatory of Music (1897), a

non-sectarian institution for women, of the Presbyterian College for

women, and of Biddle University (Presbyterian) for negroes, established

in 1867. There is a United States assay office, established as a branch

mint in 1837, during the days of North Carolina's great importance as a

gold producing state, and closed from 1861 to 1869. The city has large

cotton, clothing, and knitting mills, and manufactories of cotton-seed

oil, tools, machinery, fertilizers and furniture. The total value of its

factory products was $4,849,630 in 1905. There are large electric power

plants in and near the city. Printing and publishing are of some

importance: Charlotte is the publication headquarters of the African

Methodist Episcopal Zion Church; and several textile trade journals and

two medical periodicals are published here. The water-works are owned by

the municipality. Charlotte was settled about 1750 and was incorporated

in 1768. Here in May 1775 was adopted the "Mecklenburg Declaration of

Independence" (see NORTH CAROLINA), and in honour of its signers there

is a monument in front of the court-house. Charlotte was occupied in

September 1780 by Cornwallis, who left it after learning of the battle

of King's Mountain, and subsequently it became the principal base and

rendezvous of General Greene.

CHARLOTTENBURG, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Prussia, on the

Spree, lying immediately west of Berlin, of which it forms practically

the entire western suburb. The earlier name of the town was Lietzenburg.

Pop. (1890) 76,859; (1900) 189,290; (1905) 237,231. It is governed by a

council of 94 members. The central part of the town is connected with

Berlin by a magnificent avenue, the Charlottenburger Chaussee, which

runs from the Brandenburger Tor through the whole length of the

Tiergarten. Although retaining its own municipal government,

Charlottenburg, together with the adjacent suburban towns of Schoneberg

and Rixdorf, was included in 1900 in the police district of the capital.

The Schloss, built in 1696 for the electress Sophie Charlotte, queen of

the elector Frederick, afterwards King Frederick I., after whom the town

was named, contains a collection of antiquities and paintings. In the

grounds stands a granite mausoleum, the work of Karl Friedrich Schinkel,

with beautiful white marble recumbent statues of Frederick William III.

and his queen Louise by Christian Daniel Rauch, and also those of the

emperor William I. and the empress Augusta by Erdmann Encke. It was in

the Schloss that the emperor Frederick III. took over the reins of

government in 1888, and here he resided for nearly the whole of his

three months' reign. The town contains an equestrian statue of

Frederick. Of public buildings, the famous technical academy and the

Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church are referred to in the article BERLIN. In

Charlottenburg is the Physikalisch-technische Reichsanstalt, a state

institution for the carrying out of scientific experiments and

measurements, and for testing instruments of precision, materials, &c.

It was established in 1886 with money provided by Ernst Werner Siemens.

In addition to the famous royal porcelain manufactory, Charlottenburg

has many flourishing industries, notably iron-works grouped along the

banks of the Spree. Its main thoroughfares are laid out on a spacious

plan, while there are many quiet streets containing pretty villas. See

F. Schultz, _Chronik von Charlottenburg_ (Charlottenburg, 1888).

CHARLOTTESVILLE, a city and the county-seat of Albemarle county,

Virginia, U.S.A., picturesquely situated on the Rivanna river, 96 m. (by

rail) N.W. of Richmond in the beautiful Piedmont region. Pop. (1890)

5591; (1900) 6449 (2613 being negroes); (1910) 6765. The city is served

by the Chesapeake & Ohio, and the Southern railways, and is best known

as the seat of the University of Virginia (q.v.), which was founded by

Thomas Jefferson. Here are also the Rawlings Institute for girls,

founded as the Albemarle Female Institute in 1857, and a University

school. Monticello, Jefferson's home, is still standing about 2 m.

south-east of the city on a fine hill, called Little Mountain until

Jefferson Italianised the name. The south pavilion of the present house

is the original brick building, one and a half storeys high, first

occupied by Jefferson in 1770. He was buried near the house, which was

sold by his daughter some years after his death. George Rogers Clark was

born near Monticello. Charlottesville is a trade centre for the

surrounding country; among its manufactures are woollen goods, overalls,

agricultural implements and cigars and tobacco. The city owns its

water-supply system and owns and operates its gas plant; an electric

plant, privately owned, lights the streets and many houses. The site of

the city was a part of the Castle Hill estate of Thomas Walker

(1715-1794), an intimate friend of George Washington. The act

establishing the town of Charlottesville was passed by the Assembly of

Virginia in November 1762, when the name Charlottesville (in honour of

Queen Charlotte, wife of George III.) first appeared. In 1779-1780 about

4000 of Burgoyne's troops, surrendered under the "Convention" of

Saratoga, were quartered here; in October 1780 part of them were sent to

Lancaster, Pa., and later the rest were sent north. In June 1781

Tarleton raided Charlottesville and the vicinity, nearly captured Thomas

Jefferson, and destroyed the public records and some arms and

ammunition. In 1888 Charlottesville was chartered as a city

administratively independent of the county.

CHARLOTTETOWN, a city of Canada, the capital of Prince Edward Island,

situated in Queen's county, on Hillsborough river. Pop. (1901) 12,080.

It has a good harbour, and the river is navigable by large vessels for

several miles. The export trade of the island centres here, and the city

has regular communication by steamer with the chief American and

Canadian ports. Besides the government buildings and the court-house, it

contains numerous churches, the Prince of Wales College, supported by

the province, the Roman Catholic college of St Dunstan's and a normal

school; among its manufactures are woollen goods, lumber, canned goods,

and foundry products. The head office and workshops of the Prince Edward

Island railway are situated here. The town was founded in 1750 by the

French under the name of Port la Joie, but under British rule changed

its name in honour of the queen of George III.

CHARM (through the Fr. from the Lat. _carmen_, a song), an incantation,

verses sung with supposed magical results, hence anything possessing

powers of bringing good luck or averting evil, particularly articles

worn with that purpose, such as an amulet. It is thus used of small

trinkets attached to bracelets or chains. The word is also used,

figuratively, of fascinating qualities of feature, voice or character.

CHARNAY, (CLAUDE JOSEPH) DESIRE (1828- ), French traveller and

archaeologist, was born in Fleurie (Rhone), on the 2nd of May 1828. He

studied at the Lycee Charlemagne, in 1850 became a teacher in New

Orleans, Louisiana, and there became acquainted with John Lloyd

Stephens's books of travel in Yucatan. He travelled in Mexico, under a

commission from the French ministry of education, in 1857-1861; in

Madagascar in 1863; in South America, particularly Chile and Argentina,

in 1875; and in Java and Australia in 1878. In 1880-1883 he again

visited the ruined cities of Mexico. Pierre Lorillard of New York

contributed to defray the expense of this expedition, and Charnay named

a great ruined city near the Guatemalan boundary line Ville Lorillard in

his honour. Charnay went to Yucatan in 1886. The more important of his

publications are _Le Mexique, souvenirs et impressions de voyage_

(1863), being his personal report on the expedition of 1857-61, of

which the official report is to be found in Viollet-le-Duc's _Cites et

ruines americaines: Mitla, Palenque, Izamal, Chichen-Itza, Uxmal_

(1863), vol. 19 of _Recueil des voyages et des documents; Les Anciennes

Villes du Nouveau Monde_ (1885; English translation, _The Ancient Cities

of the New World_, 1887, by Mmes. Gonino and Conant); a romance, _Une

Princesse indienne avant la conquete_ (1888); _A travers les forets

vierges_ (1890); and _Manuscrit Ramirez: Histoire de I'origine des

Indiens qui habitent la Nouvelle Espagne selon leurs traditions_ (1903).

He translated Cortez's letters into French, under the title _Lettres de

Fernand Cortes a Charles-quint sur la decouverte et la conquete du

Mexique_ (1896). He elaborated a theory of Toltec migrations and

considered the prehistoric Mexican to be of Asiatic origin, because of

observed similarities to Japanese architecture, Chinese decoration,

Malaysian language and Cambodian dress, &c.

CHARNEL HOUSE (Med. Lat. _carnarium_), a place for depositing the bones

which might be thrown up in digging graves. Sometimes, as at Gloucester,

Hythe and Ripon, it was a portion of the crypt; sometimes, as at Old St

Paul's and Worcester (both now destroyed), it was a separate building in

the churchyard; sometimes chantry chapels were attached to these

buildings. Viollet-le-Duc has given two very curious examples of such

_ossuaires_ (as the French call them)--one from Fleurance (Gers), the

other from Faouet (Finistere).

CHARNOCK, JOB (d. 1693), English founder of Calcutta, went out to India

in 1655 or 1656, apparently not in the East India Company's service, but

soon joined it. He was stationed at Cossimbazar, and subsequently at

Patna. In 1685 he became chief agent at Hugli. Being besieged there by

the Mogul viceroy of Bengal, he put the company's goods and servants on

board his light vessels and dropped down the river 27 m. to the village

of Sutanati, a place well chosen for the purpose of defence, which

occupied the site of what is now Calcutta. It was only, however, at the

third attempt that Charnock finally settled down at this spot, and the

selection of the future capital of India was entirely due to his

stubborn resolution. He was a silent morose man, not popular among his

contemporaries, but "always a faithfull Man to the Company." He is said

to have married a Hindu widow.

CHARNOCK (or CHERNOCK), ROBERT (c.1663-1696), English conspirator,

belonged to a Warwickshire family, and was educated at Magdalen College,

Oxford, becoming a fellow of his college and a Roman Catholic priest.

When in 1687 the dispute arose between James II. and the fellows of

Magdalen over the election of a president Charnock favoured the first

royal nominee, Anthony Farmer, and also the succeeding one, Samuel

Parker, bishop of Oxford. Almost alone among the fellows he was not

driven out in November 1687, and he became dean and then vice-president

of the college under the new regime, but was expelled in October 1688.

Residing at the court of the Stuarts in France, or conspiring in

England, Charnock and Sir George Barclay appear to have arranged the

details of the unsuccessful attempt to kill William III. near Turnham

Green in February 1696, Barclay escaped, but Charnock was arrested, was

tried and found guilty, and was hanged on the 18th of March 1696.

CHARNOCKITE, a series of foliated igneous rocks of wide distribution and

great importance in India, Ceylon, Madagascar and Africa. The name was

given by Dr T.H. Holland from the fact that the tombstone of Job

Charnock, the founder of Calcutta, is made of a block of this rock. The

charnockite series includes rocks of many different types, some being

acid and rich in quartz and microcline, others basic and full of

pyroxene and olivine, while there are also intermediate varieties

corresponding mineralogically to norites, quartz-norites and diorites. A

special feature, recurring in many members of the group, is the presence

of strongly pleochroic, reddish or green hypersthene. Many of the

minerals of these rocks are "schillerized," as they contain minute platy

or rod-shaped enclosures, disposed parallel to certain crystallographic

planes or axes. The reflection of light from the surfaces of these

enclosures gives the minerals often a peculiar appearance, e.g. the

quartz is blue and opalescent, the felspar has a milky shimmer like

moonshine, the hypersthene has a bronzy metalloidal gleam. Very often

the different rock types occur in close association as one set forms

bands alternating with another set, or veins traversing it, and where

one facies appears the others also usually are found. The term

charnockite consequently is not the name of a rock, but of an assemblage

of rock types, connected in their origin because arising by

differentiation of the same parent magma. The banded structure which

these rocks commonly present in the field is only in a small measure due

to crushing, but is to a large extent original, and has been produced by

fluxion in a viscous crystallizing intrusive magma, together with

differentiation or segregation of the mass into bands of different

chemical and mineralogical composition. There have also been, of course,

earth movements acting on the solid rock at a later time and injection

of dikes both parallel to and across the primary foliation. In fact, the

history of the structures of the charnockite series is the history of

the most primitive gneisses in all parts of the world, for which we

cannot pretend to have as yet any thoroughly satisfactory explanations

to offer. A striking fact is the very wide distribution of rocks of this

group in the southern hemisphere; but they also, or rocks very similar

to them, occur in Norway, France, Germany, Scotland and North America,

though in these countries they have been mostly described as pyroxene

granulites, pyroxene gneisses, anorthosites, &c. They are usually

regarded as being of Archean age (pre-Cambrian), and in most cases this

can be definitely proved, though not in all. It is astonishing to find

that in spite of their great age their minerals are often in excellent

preservation. In India they form the Nilgiri Hills, the Shevaroys and

part of the Western Ghats, extending southward to Cape Comorin and

reappearing in Ceylon. Although they are certainly for the most part

igneous gneisses (or orthogneisses), rocks occur along with them, such

as marbles, scapolite limestones, and corundum rocks, which were

probably of sedimentary origin. (J. S. F.)

CHARNWOOD FOREST, an upland tract in the N.-W. of Leicestershire,

England. It is undulating, rocky, picturesque, and in great part barren,

though there are some extensive tracts of woodland; its elevation is

generally 600 ft. and upwards, the area exceeding this height being

about 6100 acres. The loftiest point, Bardon Hill, is 912 ft. On its

western flank lies a coalfield, with Coalville and other mining towns,

and granite and hone-stones are worked.

CHAROLLES, a town of east-central France, capital of an arrondissement

in the department of Saone-et-Loire, situated at the confluence of the

Semence and the Arconce, 39 m. W.N.W. of Macon on the Paris-Lyon

railway. Pop. (1906) 3228. It has a sub-prefecture, tribunals of primary

instance and commerce, and a communal college. There are stone quarries

in the vicinity; the town manufactures pottery, and is the centre for

trade in the famous breed of Charolais cattle and in agricultural

products. The ruins of the castle of the counts of Charolais occupy the

summit of a hill in the immediate vicinity of the town. Charolles was

the capital of Charolais, an old division of France, which from the

early 14th century gave the title of count to its possessors. In 1327

the countship passed by marriage to the house of Armagnac, and in 1390

it was sold to Philip of Burgundy. After the death of Charles the Bold,

who in his youth had borne the title of count of Charolais, it was

seized by Louis XI. of France, but in 1493 it was ceded by Charles VIII.

to Maximilian of Austria, the representative of the Burgundian family.

Ultimately passing to the Spanish kings, it became for a considerable

period an object of dispute between France and Spain, until at length in

1684 it was assigned to the great Conde, a creditor of the king of

Spain. It was united to the French crown in 1771.

CHARON, in Greek mythology, the son of Erebus and Nyx (Night). It was

his duty to ferry over the Styx (or Acheron) those souls of the deceased

who had duly received the rites of burial, in payment for which service

he received an obol, which was placed in the mouth of the corpse. It was

only exceptionally that he carried living passengers (_Aeneid_, vi. 295

ff). As ferryman of the dead he is not mentioned in Homer or Hesiod, and

in this character is probably of Egyptian origin. He is represented as a

morose and grisly old man in a black sailor's cape. By the Etruscans he

was also supposed to be a kind of executioner of the powers of the

nether world, who, armed with an enormous hammer, was associated with

Mars in the slaughter of battle. Finally he came to be regarded as the

image of death and the world below. As such he survives in the Charos or

Charontas of the modern Greeks--a black bird which darts down upon its

prey, or a winged horseman who fastens his victims to the saddle and

bears them away to the realms of the dead.

See J.A. Ambrosch, _De Charonte Etrusco_ (1837), a learned and

exhaustive monograph; B. Schmidt, _Volksleben der Neugriechen_

(1871), i. 222-251; O. Waser, _Charon, Charun, Charos,

mythologisch-archaologische Monographie_ (1898); S. Rocco, "Sull'

origine del Mito di Caronte," in _Rivista di storia antica_, ii.

(1897), who considers Charon to be an old name for the sun-god Helios

embarking during the night for the East.

CHARONDAS, a celebrated lawgiver of Catina in Sicily. His date is

uncertain. Some make him a pupil of Pythagoras (c. 580-504 B.C.); but

all that can be said is that he was earlier than Anaxilaus of Rhegium

(494-476), since his laws were in use amongst the Rhegians until they

were abolished by that tyrant. His laws, originally written in verse,

were adopted by the other Chalcidic colonies in Sicily and Italy.

According to Aristotle there was nothing special about these laws,

except that Charondas introduced actions for perjury; but he speaks

highly of the precision with which they were drawn up (_Politics_, ii.

12). The story that Charondas killed himself because he entered the

public assembly wearing a sword, which was a violation of his own law,

is also told of Diocles and Zaleucus (Diod. Sic. xii. 11-19). The

fragments of laws attributed to him by Stobaeus and Diodorus are of late

(neo-Pythagorean) origin.

See Bentley, _On Phalaris_, which (according to B. Niese s.v. in

Pauly, _Realencyclopadie_) contains what is even now the best account

of Charondas; A. Holm, _Geschichte Siciliens_, i.; F.D. Gerlach,

_Zaleukos, Charondas, und Pythagoras_ (1858); also art. GREEK LAW.

CHARPENTIER, FRANCOIS (1620-1702), French archaeologist and man of

letters, was born in Paris on the 15th of February 1620. He was intended

for the bar, but was employed by Colbert, who had determined on the

foundation of a French East India Company, to draw up an explanatory

account of the project for Louis XIV. Charpentier regarded as absurd the

use of Latin in monumental inscriptions, and to him was entrusted the

task of supplying the paintings of Lebrun in the Versailles Gallery with

appropriate legends. His verses were so indifferent that they had to be

replaced by others, the work of Racine and Boileau, both enemies of his.

Charpentier in his _Excellence de la langue francaise_ (1683) had

anticipated Perrault in the famous academical dispute concerning the

relative merit of the ancients and moderns. He is credited with a share

in the production of the magnificent series of medals that commemorate

the principal events of the age of Louis XIV. Charpentier, who was long

in receipt of a pension of 1200 livres from Colbert, was erudite and

ingenious, but he was always heavy and commonplace. His other works

include a _Vie de Socrate_ (1650), a translation of the _Cyropaedia_ of

Xenophon (1658), and the _Traite de la peinture parlante_ (1684).

CHARRIERE, AGNES ISABELLE EMILIE DE (1740-1805), Swiss author, was Dutch

by birth, her maiden name being van Tuyll van Seeroskerken van Zuylen.

She married in 1771 her brother's tutor, M. de Charriere, and settled

with him at Colombier, near Lausanne. She made her name by the

publication of her _Lettres neuchateloises_ (Amsterdam, 1784), offering

a simple and attractive picture of French manners. This, with _Caliste,

ou lettres ecrites de Lausanne_ (2 vols. Geneva, 1785-1788), was

analysed and highly praised by Sainte-Beuve in his _Portraits de femmes_

and in vol. in of his _Portraits litteraires_. She wrote a number of

other novels, and some political tracts; but is perhaps best remembered

by her liaison with Benjamin Constant between 1787 and 1796.

Her letters to Constant were printed in the _Revue suisse_ (April

1844), her _Lettres-Memoires_ by E.H. Gaullieur in the same review in

1857, and all the available material is utilized in a monograph on her

and her work by P. Godet, _Madame de Charriere et ses amis_ (2 vols.,

Geneva, 1906).

CHARRON, PIERRE (1541-1603), French philosopher, born in Paris, was one

of the twenty-five children of a bookseller. After studying law he

practised at Paris as an advocate, but, having met with no great

success, entered the church, and soon gained the highest popularity as a

preacher, rising to the dignity of canon, and being appointed preacher

in ordinary to Marguerite, wife of Henry IV. of Navarre. About 1588, he

determined to fulfil a vow which he had once made to enter a cloister;

but being rejected by the Carthusians and the Celestines, he held

himself absolved, and continued to follow his old profession. He

delivered a course of sermons at Angers, and in the next year passed to

Bordeaux, where he formed a famous friendship with Montaigne. At the

death of Montaigne, in 1592, Charron was requested in his will to bear

the Montaigne arms.

In 1594 Charron published (at first anonymously, afterwards under the

name of "Benoit Vaillant, Advocate of the Holy Faith," and also, in

1594, in his own name) _Les Trois Verites_, in which by methodical and

orthodox arguments, he seeks to prove that there is a God and a true

religion, that the true religion is the Christian, and that the true

church is the Roman Catholic. The last book (which is three-fourths of

the whole work) is chiefly an answer to the famous Protestant work

entitled _Le Traite de l'Eglise_ by Du Plessis Mornay; and in the second

edition (1595) there is an elaborate reply to an attack made on the

third _Verite_ by a Protestant writer. _Les Trois Verites_ ran through

several editions, and obtained for its author the favour of the bishop

of Cahors, who appointed him grand vicar and theological canon. It also

led to his being chosen deputy to the general assembly of the clergy, of

which body he became chief secretary. It was followed in 1600 by

_Discours chrestiens_, a book of sermons, similar in tone, half of which

treat of the Eucharist. In 1601 Charron published at Bordeaux his third

and most remarkable work--the famous _De la sagesse_, a complete popular

system of moral philosophy. Usually, and so far correctly, it is coupled

with the Essays of Montaigne, to which the author is under very

extensive obligations. There is, however, distinct individuality in the

book. It is specially interesting from the time when it appeared, and

the man by whom it was written. Conspicuous as a champion of orthodoxy

against atheists, Jews and Protestants--without resigning this position,

and still upholding practical orthodoxy--Charron suddenly stood forth as

the representative of the most complete intellectual scepticism. The _De

la sagesse_, which represented a considerable advance on the standpoint

of the _Trois Verites_, brought upon its author the most violent

attacks, the chief being by the Jesuit Francois Garasse (1585-1631), who

described him as a "brutal atheist." It received, however, the warm

support of Henry IV. and of the president Pierre Jeannin (1540-1622). A

second edition was soon called for. In 1603, notwithstanding much

opposition, it began to appear; but only a few pages had been printed

when Charron died suddenly in the street of apoplexy. His death was

regarded as a judgment for his impiety.

Charron's psychology is sensationalist. With sense all our knowledge

commences, and into sense all may be resolved. The soul, located in the

ventricles of the brain, is affected by the temperament of the

individual; the dry temperament produces acute intelligence; the moist,

memory; the hot, imagination. Dividing the intelligent soul into these

three faculties, he shows--after the manner which Francis Bacon

subsequently adopted--what branches of science correspond with each.

With regard to the nature of the soul he merely quotes opinions. The

belief in its immortality, he says, is the most universal of beliefs,

but the most feebly supported by reason. As to man's power of attaining

truth his scepticism is decided; and he plainly declares that none of

our faculties enable us to distinguish truth from error. In comparing

man with the lower animals, Charron insists that there are no breaks in

nature. The latter have reason; nay, they have virtue; and, though

inferior in some respects, in others they are superior. The estimate

formed of man is not, indeed, flattering. His most essential qualities

are vanity, weakness, inconstancy, presumption. Upon this view of human

nature and the human lot Charron founds his moral system. Equally

sceptical with Montaigne, and decidedly more cynical, he is

distinguished by a deeper and sterner tone. Man comes into the world to

endure; let him endure then, and that in silence. Our compassion should

be like that of God, who succours the suffering without sharing in their

pain. Avoid vulgar errors; cherish universal sympathy. Let no passion or

attachment become too powerful for restraint. Follow the customs and

laws which surround you. Morality has no connexion with religion. Reason

is the ultimate criterion.

Special interest attaches to Charron's treatment of religion. He insists

on the diversities in religions; he dwells also on what would indicate a

common origin. All grow from small beginnings and increase by a sort of

popular contagion; all teach that God is to be appeased by prayers,

presents, vows, but especially, and most irrationally, by human

suffering. Each is said by its devotees to have been given by

inspiration. In fact, however, a man is a Christian, Jew, or Mahommedan,

before he knows he is a man. One religion is built upon another. But

while he openly declares religion to be "strange to common sense," the

practical result at which Charron arrives is that one is not to sit in

judgment on his faith, but to be "simple and obedient," and to allow

himself to be led by public authority. This is one rule of wisdom with

regard to religion; and another equally important is to avoid

superstition, which he boldly defines as the belief that God is like a

hard judge who, eager to find fault, narrowly examines our slightest

act, that He is revengeful and hard to appease, and that therefore He

must be flattered and importuned, and won over by pain and sacrifice.

True piety, which is the first of duties, is, on the other hand, the

knowledge of God and of one's self, the latter knowledge being necessary

to the former. It is the abasing of man, the exalting of God,--the

belief that what He sends is all good, and that all the bad is from

ourselves. It leads to spiritual worship; for external ceremony is

merely for our advantage, not for His glory. Charron is thus the founder

of modern secularism. His political views are neither original nor

independent. He pours much hackneyed scorn on the common herd, declares

the sovereign to be the source of law, and asserts that popular freedom

is dangerous.

A summary and defence of the _Sagesse_, written shortly before his

death, appeared in 1606. In 1604 his friend Michel de la Rochemaillet

prefixed to an edition of the _Sagesse_ a Life, which depicts Charron

as a most amiable man of purest character. His complete works, with

this Life, were published in 1635. An excellent abridgment of the

_Sagesse_ is given in Tennemann's _Philosophie_, vol. ix.; an edition

with notes by A. Duval appeared in 1820.

See Liebscher, _Charron u. sein Werk, De la sagesse_ (Leipzig, 1890);

H.T. Buckle, _Introd. to History of Civilization in England_, vol. ii.

19; Abbe Lezat, _De la predication sous Henri IV._ c. vi.; J.M.

Robertson, _Short History of Free Thought_ (London, 1906), vol. ii. p.

19; J. Owen, _Skeptics of the French Renaissance_ (1893); Lecky,

_Rationalism in Europe_ (1865).

CHARRUA, a tribe of South American Indians, wild and warlike, formerly

ranging over Uruguay and part of S. Brazil. They were dark and heavily

built, fought on horses and used the bolas or weighted lasso. They were

always at war with the Spaniards, and Juan Diaz de Solis was killed by

them in 1516. As a tribe they are now almost extinct, but the modern

Gauchos of Uruguay have much Charrua blood in them.

CHART (from Lat. _carta, charta_, a map). A chart is a marine map

intended specially for the use of seamen (for history, see MAP), though

the word is also used loosely for other varieties of graphical

representation. The marine or nautical chart is constructed for the

purpose of ascertaining the position of a ship with reference to the

land, of finding the direction in which she has to steer, the distance

to sail or steam, and the hidden dangers to avoid. The surface of the

sea on charts is studded with numerous small figures. These are known as

the _soundings_, indicating in fathoms or in feet (as shown upon the

title of the chart), at low water of ordinary spring tides, the least

depth of water through which the ship may be sailing. Charts show the

nature of the unseen bottom of the sea--with the irregularities in its

character in the shape of hidden rocks or sand-banks, and give

information of the greatest importance to the mariner. No matter how

well the land maybe surveyed or finely delineated, unless the soundings

are shown a chart is of little use.

The British admiralty charts are compiled, drawn and issued by the

hydrographic office. This department of the admiralty was established

under Earl Spencer by an order in council in 1795, consisting of the

hydrographer, one assistant and a draughtsman. The first hydrographer

was Alexander Dalrymple, a gentleman in the East India Company's civil

service. From this small beginning arose the important department which

is now the main source of the supply of hydrographical information to

the whole of the maritime world. The charts prepared by the officers and

draughtsmen of the hydrographic office, and published by order of the

lords commissioners of the admiralty, are compiled chiefly from the

labours of British naval officers employed in the surveying service; and

also from valuable contributions received from time to time from

officers of the royal navy and mercantile marine. In addition to the

work of British sailors, the labours of other nations have been

collected and utilized. Charts of the coasts of Europe have naturally

been taken from the surveys made by the various nations, and in charts

of other quarters of the world considerable assistance has been

received from the labours of French, Spanish, Dutch and American

surveyors. Important work is done by the Hydrographic Office of the

American navy, and the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. The admiralty

charts are published with the view of meeting the wants of the sailor in

all parts of the world. They may be classed under five heads, viz.

ocean, general, and coast charts, harbour plans and physical charts; for

instance, the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean, approaches to Plymouth,

Plymouth Sound and wind and current charts. The harbour plans and coast

sheets are constructed on the simple principles of plane trigonometry by

the surveying officers. (See SURVEYING: _Nautical_.) That important

feature, the depth of the sea, is obtained by the ordinary sounding line

or wire; all soundings are reduced to low water of ordinary spring

tides. The times and heights of the tides, with the direction and

velocity of the tidal streams, are also ascertained. These MS. charts

are forwarded to the admiralty, and form the foundation of the

hydrography of the world. The ocean and general charts are compiled and

drawn at the hydrographic office, and as originals, existing charts,

latest surveys and maps, have to be consulted, their compilation

requires considerable experience and is a painstaking work, for the

compiler has to decide what to omit, what to insert, and to arrange the

necessary names in such a manner that while full information is given,

the features of the coast are not interfered with. As a very slight

error in the position of a light or buoy, dot, cross or figure, might

lead to grave disaster, every symbol on the admiralty chart has been

delineated with great care and consideration, and no pains are spared in

the effort to lay before the public the labours of the nautical

surveyors and explorers not only of England, but of the maritime world;

reducing their various styles into a comprehensive system furnishing the

intelligent seaman with an intelligible guide, which common industry

will soon enable him to appreciate and take full advantage of.

As certain abbreviations are used in the charts, attention is called to

the "signs and abbreviations adopted in the charts published by the

admiralty." Certain parts of the world are still unsurveyed, or not

surveyed in sufficient detail for the requirements that steamships now

demand. Charts of these localities are therefore drawn in a light

hair-line and unfinished manner, so that the experienced seaman sees at

a glance that less trust is to be reposed upon charts drawn in this

manner. The charts given to the public are only correct up to the time

of their actual publication. They have to be kept up to date. Recent

publications by foreign governments, newly reported dangers, changes in

character or position of lights and buoys, are as soon as practicable

inserted on the charts and due notice given of such insertions in the

admiralty "Notices to Mariners."

The charts are supplemented by the _Admiralty Pilots_, or books of

sailing directions, with tide tables, and lists of lighthouses, light

vessels, &c., for the coasts to which a ship may be bound. The

physical charts are the continuation of the work so ably begun by

Maury of the United States and FitzRoy of the British navy, and give

the sailor a good general idea of the world's ocean winds and currents

at the different periods of the year; the probable tracks and seasons

of the tropical revolving or cyclonic storms; the coastal winds; the

extent or months of the rainy seasons; localities and times where ice

may be fallen in with; and, lastly, the direction and force of the

stream and drift currents of the oceans. (T. A. H.)

CHARTER (Lat. _charta, carta_, from Gr. [Greek: chartes], originally for

_papyrus_, material for writing, thence transferred to paper and from

this material to the document, in O. Eng. _boc_, book), a written

instrument, contract or convention by which cessions of sales of

property or of rights and privileges are confirmed and held, and which

may be produced by the grantees in proof of lawful possession. The use

of the word for any written document is obsolete in England, but is

preserved in France, e.g. the Ecole des Chartes at Paris. In feudal

times charters of privileges were granted, not only by the crown, but by

mesne lords both lay and ecclesiastical, as well to communities, such as

boroughs, gilds and religious foundations, as to individuals. In modern

usage grants by charter have become all but obsolete, though in England

this form is still used in the incorporation by the crown of such

societies as the British Academy.

The grant of the Great Charter by King John in 1215 (see MAGNA CARTA),

which guaranteed the preservation of English liberties, led to a special

association of the word with constitutional privileges, and so in modern

times it has been applied to constitutions granted by sovereigns to

their subjects, in contradistinction to those based on "the will of the

people." Such was the Charter (_Charte_) granted by Louis XVIII. to

France in 1814. In Portugal the constitution granted by Dom Pedro in

1826 was called by the French party the "Charter," while that devised by

the Cortes in 1821 was known as the "Constitution." Magna Carta also

suggested to the English radicals in 1838 the name "People's Charter,"

which they gave to their published programme of reforms (see CHARTISM).

This association of the idea of liberty with the word charter led to its

figurative use in the sense of freedom or licence. This is, however,

rare; the most common use being in the phrase "chartered libertine"

(Shakespeare, _Henry V._ Act i. Sc. 1) from the derivative verb "to

charter," e.g. to grant a charter. The common colloquialism "to

charter," in the sense of to take, or hire, is derived from the special

use of "to charter" as to hire (a ship) by charter-party.

CHARTERED COMPANIES. A chartered company is a trading corporation

enjoying certain rights and privileges, and bound by certain obligations

under a special charter granted to it by the sovereign authority of the

state, such charter defining and limiting those rights, privileges and

obligations, and the localities in which they are to be exercised. Such

companies existed in early times, but have undergone changes and

modifications in accordance with the developments which have taken place

in the economic history of the states where they have existed. In Great

Britain the first trading charters were granted, not to English

companies, which were then non-existent, but to branches of the

Hanseatic League (q.v.), and it was not till 1597 that England was

finally relieved from the presence of a foreign chartered company. In

that year Queen Elizabeth closed the steel-yard where Teutons had been

established for 700 years.

The origin of all English trading companies is to be sought in the

Merchants of the Staple. They lingered on into the 18th century, but

only as a name, for their business was solely to export English products

which, as English manufactures grew, were wanted at home. Of all early

English chartered companies, the "Merchant Adventurers" conducted its

operations the most widely. Itself a development of very early trading

gilds, at the height of its prosperity it employed as many as 50,000

persons in the Netherlands, and the enormous influence it was able to

exercise undoubtedly saved Antwerp from the institution of the

Inquisition within its walls in the time of Charles V. In the reign of

Elizabeth British trade with the Netherlands reached in one year

12,000,000 ducats, and in that of James I. the company's yearly commerce

with Germany and the Netherlands was as much as L1,000,000. Hamburg

afterwards was its principal depot, and it became known as the "Hamburg

Company." In the "Merchant Adventurers'" enterprises is to be seen the

germ of the trading companies which had so remarkable a development in

the 16th and 17th centuries. These old regulated trade gilds passed

gradually into joint-stock associations, which were capable of far

greater extension, both as to the number of members and amount of stock,

each member being only accountable for the amount of his own stock, and

being able to transfer it at will to any other person.

It was in the age of Elizabeth and the early Stuarts that the chartered

company, in the modern sense of the term, had its rise. The discovery of

the New World, and the opening out of fresh trading routes to the

Indies, gave an extraordinary impulse to shipping, commerce and

industrial enterprise throughout western Europe. The English, French and

Dutch governments were ready to assist trade by the granting of charters

to trading associations. It is to the "Russia Company," which received

its first charter in 1554, that Great Britain owed its first intercourse

with an empire then almost unknown. The first recorded instance of a

purely chartered company annexing territory is to be found in the action

of this company in setting up a cross at Spitzbergen in 1613 with King

James's arms upon it. Among other associations trading to the continent

of Europe, receiving charters at this time, were the Turkey Company

(Levant Co.) and the Eastland Company. Both the Russia and Turkey

Companies had an important effect upon British relations with those

empires. They maintained British influence in those countries, and even

paid the expenses of the embassies which were sent out by the English

government to their courts. The Russia Company carried on a large trade

with Persia through Russian territory; but from various causes their

business gradually declined, though the Turkey Company existed in name

until 1825.

The chartered companies which were formed during this period for trade

with the Indies and the New World have had a more wide-reaching

influence in history. The extraordinary career of the East India Company

(q.v.) is dealt with elsewhere.

Charters were given to companies trading to Guinea, Morocco, Guiana and

the Canaries, but none of these enjoyed a very long or prosperous

existence, principally owing to the difficulties caused by foreign

competition. It is when we turn to North America that the importance of

the chartered company, as a colonizing rather than a trading agency, is

seen in its full development. The "Hudson's Bay Company," which still

exists as a commercial concern, is dealt with under its own heading, but

most of the thirteen British North American colonies were in their

inception chartered companies very much in the modern acceptation of the

term. The history of these companies will be found under the heading of

the different colonies of which they were the origin. It is necessary,

however, to bear in mind that two classes of charters are to be found in

force among the early American colonies: (1) Those granted to trading

associations, which were often useful when the colony was first founded,

but which formed a serious obstacle to its progress when the country had

become settled and was looking forward to commercial expansion; the

existence of these charters then often led to serious conflicts between

the grantees of the charter and the colonies; ultimately elective

assemblies everywhere superseded control of trading companies. (2) The

second class of charters were those granted to the settlers themselves,

to protect them against the oppressions of the crown and the provincial

governors. These were highly prized by the colonists.

In France and Holland, no less than in England, the institution of

chartered companies became a settled principle of the governments of

those countries during the whole of the period in question. In France

from 1599 to 1789, more than 70 of such companies came into existence,

but after 1770, when the great _Compagnie des Indes orientales_ went

into liquidation, they were almost abandoned, and finally perished in

the general sweeping away of privileges which followed on the outbreak

of the Revolution.

If we inquire into the economic ideas which induced the granting of

charters to these earlier companies and animated their promoters, we

shall find that they were entirely consistent with the general

principles of government at the time and what were then held to be sound

commercial views. Under the old regime everything was a matter of

monopoly and privilege, and to this state of things the constitution of

the old companies corresponded, the sovereign rights accorded to them

being also quite in accordance with the views of the time. It would have

been thought impossible then that private individuals could have found

the funds or maintained the magnitude of such enterprises. It was only

this necessity which induced statesmen like Colbert to countenance them,

and Montesquieu took the same view (_Esprit des lois_, t. xx. c. 10).

John de Witt's view was that such companies were not useful for

colonization properly so called, because they want quick returns to pay

their dividends. So, even in France and Holland, opinion was by no means

settled as to their utility. In England historic protests were made

against such monopolies, but the chartered companies were less exclusive

in England than in either France or Holland, the governors of provinces

almost always allowing strangers to trade on receiving some pecuniary

inducement. French commercial companies were more privileged, exclusive

and artificial than those in Holland and England. Those of Holland may

be said to have been national enterprises. French companies rested more

than did their rivals on false principles; they were more fettered by

the royal power, and had less initiative of their own, and therefore had

less chance of surviving. As an example of the kind of rules which

prevented the growth of the French companies, it may be pointed out that

no Protestants were allowed to take part in them. State subventions,

rather than commerce or colonization, were often their object; but that

has been a characteristic of French colonial enterprise at all times.

Such companies, however, under the old commercial system could hardly

have come into existence without exclusive privileges. Their existence

might have been prolonged had the whole people in time been allowed the

chance of participating in them.

To sum up the causes of failure of the old chartered companies, they are

to be attributed to (1) bad administration; (2) want of capital and

credit; (3) bad economic organization; (4) distribution of dividends

made prematurely or fictitiously. But those survived the longest which

extended the most widely their privileges to outsiders. According to

contemporary protests, they had a most injurious effect on the commerce

of the countries where they had their rise. They were monopolies, and

therefore, of course, obnoxious; and it is undoubted that the colonies

they founded only became prosperous when they had escaped from their

yoke.

On the other hand, it must not be forgotten that they contributed in no

small degree to the commercial progress of their own states. They gave

colonies to the mother country, and an impulse to the development of its

fleet. In the case of England and Holland, the enterprise of the

companies saved them from suffering from the monopolies of Spain and

Portugal, and the wars of the English, and those of the Dutch in the

Indies with Spain and Portugal, were paid for by the companies. They

furnished the mother country with luxuries which, by the 18th century,

had become necessaries. They offered a career for the younger sons of

good families, and sometimes greatly assisted large and useful

enterprises.

During the last twenty years of the 19th century there was a great

revival of the system of chartered companies in Great Britain. It is a

feature of the general growth of interest in colonial expansion and

commercial development which has made itself felt almost universally

among European nations. Great Britain, however, alone has succeeded in

establishing such companies as have materially contributed to the growth

of her empire. These companies succeed or fail for reasons different

from those which affected the chartered companies of former days, though

there are points in common. Apart from causes inherent in the particular

case of each company, which necessitates their being examined

separately, recent experience leads us to lay down certain general

principles regarding them. The modern companies are not like those of

the 16th and 17th centuries. They are not privileged in the sense that

those companies were. They are not monopolists; they have only a limited

sovereignty, always being subject to the control of the home government.

It is true that they have certain advantages given them, for without

these advantages no capital would risk itself in the lands where they

carry on their operations. They often have very heavy corresponding

obligations, as will be seen in the case of one (the East Africa) where

the obligations were too onerous for the company to discharge, though

they were inseparable from its position. The charters of modern

companies differ in two points strongly from those of the old: they

contain clauses prohibiting any monopoly of trade, and they generally

confer some special political rights directly under the control of the

secretary of state. The political freedom of the old companies was much

greater. In these charters state control has been made a distinguishing

feature. It is to be exercised in almost all directions in which the

companies may come into contact with matters political. Of course, it is

inevitable in all disputes of the companies with foreign powers, and is

extended over all decrees of the company regarding the administration of

its territories, the taxation of natives, and mining regulations. In all

cases of dispute between the companies and the natives the secretary of

state is _ex officio_ the judge, and to the secretary of state (in the

case of the South Africa Company) the accounts of administration have to

be submitted for his approbation. It is deserving of notice that the

British character of the company is insisted upon in each case in the

charter which calls it into life. The crown always retains complete

control over the company by reserving to itself the power of revoking

the charter in case of the neglect of its stipulations. Special clauses

were inserted in the charters of the British East Africa and South

Africa Companies enabling the government to forfeit their charters if

they did not promote the objects alleged as reasons for demanding a

charter. This bound them still more strongly; and in the case of the

South Africa Company the duration of the charter was fixed at

twenty-five years.

The chartered company of these days is therefore very strongly fixed

within limits imposed by law on its political action. As a whole,

however, very remarkable results have been achieved. This may be

attributed in no small degree to the personality of the men who have had

the supreme direction at home and abroad, and who have, by their social

position and personal qualities, acquired the confidence of the public.

With the exception of the Royal Niger Company, it would be incorrect to

say that they have been financially successful, but in the domain of

government generally it may be said that they have added vast

territories to the British empire (in Africa about 1,700,000 sq. m.),

and in these territories they have acted as a civilizing force. They

have made roads, opened facilities for trade, enforced peace, and laid

at all events the foundation of settled administration. It is not too

much to say that they have often acted unselfishly for the benefit of

the mother country and even humanity. We may instance the anti-slavery

and anti-alcohol campaigns which have been carried on, the latter

certainly being against the immediate pecuniary interests of the

companies themselves. It must, of course, be recognized that to a

certain extent this has been done under the influence of the home

government. The occupation of Uganda certainly, and of the Nigerian

territory and Rhodesia probably, will prove to have been rather for the

benefit of posterity than of the companies which effected it. In the two

cases where the companies have been bought out by the state, they have

had no compensation for much that they have expended. In fact, it would

have been impossible to take into account actual expenditure day by day,

and the cost of wars. To use the expression of Sir William Mackinnon,

the shareholders have been compelled in some cases to "take out their

dividends in philanthropy."

The existence of such companies to-day is justified in certain political

and economic conditions only. It may be highly desirable for the

government to occupy certain territories, but political exigencies at

home will not permit it to incur the expenditure, or international

relations may make such an undertaking inexpedient at the time. In such

a case the formation of a chartered company may be the best way out of

the difficulty. But it has been demonstrated again and again that,

directly, the company's interests begin to clash with those of foreign

powers, the home government must assume a protectorate over its

territories in order to simplify the situation and save perhaps

disastrous collisions. So long as the political relations of such a

company are with savages or semi-savages, it may be left free to act,

but directly it becomes involved with a civilized power the state has

(if it wishes to retain the territory) to acquire by purchase the

political rights of the company, and it is obviously much easier to

induce a popular assembly to grant money for the purpose of maintaining

rights already existing than to acquire new ones. With the strict system

of government supervision enforced by modern charters it is not easy for

the state to be involved against its will in foreign complications.

Economically such companies are also justifiable up to a certain point.

When there is no other means of entering into commercial relations with

remote and savage races save by enterprise of such magnitude that

private individuals could not incur the risk involved, then a company

may be well entrusted with special privileges for the purpose, as an

inventor is accorded a certain protection by law by means of a patent

which enables him to bring out his invention at a profit if there is

anything in it. But such privileges should not be continued longer than

is necessary for the purpose of reasonably recompensing the adventurers.

A successful company, even when it has lost monopoly or privileges, has,

by its command of capital and general resources, established so strong a

position that private individuals or new companies can rarely compete

with it successfully. That this is so is clearly shown in the case of

the Hudson's Bay Company as at present constituted. In colonizing new

lands these companies often act successfully. They have proved more

potent than the direct action of governments. This may be seen in

Africa, where France and England have of late acquired vast areas, but

have developed them with very different results, acting from the

opposite principles of private and state promotion of colonization.

Apart from national characteristics, the individual has far more to gain

under the British system of private enterprise. A strong point in favour

of some of the British companies has been that their undertakings have

been practically extensions of existing British colonies rather than

entirely isolated ventures. But a chartered company can never be

anything but a transition stage of colonization; sooner or later the

state must take the lead. A company may act beneficially so long as a

country is undeveloped, but as soon as it becomes even semi-civilized

its conflicts with private interests become so frequent and serious that

its authority has to make way for that of the central government.

The companies which have been formed in France during recent years do

not yet afford material for profitable study, for they have been subject

to so much vexatious interference from home owing to lack of a fixed

system of control sanctioned by government, that they have not been

able, like the British, to develop along their own lines.

See also BORNEO; NIGERIA; BRIT. EAST AFRICA; RHODESIA; &c. The

following works deal with the subject of chartered companies

generally: Bonnassieux, _Les Grandes Compagnies de commerce_ (Paris,

1892); Chailly-Bert, _Les Compagnies de colonisation sous l'ancien

regime_ (Paris, 1898); Cawston and Keane, _The Early Chartered

Companies_ (London, 1896); W. Cunningham, _A History of British

Industry and Commerce_ (Cambridge, 1890, 1892); Egerton, _A Short

History of British Colonial Policy_ (London, 1897); J. Scott Keltie,

_The Partition of Africa_ (London, 1895); Leroy-Beaulieu, _De la

colonisation chez les peuples modernes_ (Paris, 1898); _Les Nouvelles

Societes anglo-saxonnes_ (Paris, 1897); MacDonald, _Select Charters

illustrative of American History, 1606-1775_ (New York, 1899); B.P.

Poore, _Federal and State Constitutions_, &c (Washington, 1877; a more

complete collection of American colonial charters); H.L. Osgood,

_American Colonies in the 17th Cent._ (1904-7); Carton de Wiart, _Les

Grandes Compagnies coloniales anglaises au 19me siecle_ (Paris, 1899).

Also see articles "Compagnies de Charte," "Colonies," "Privilege," in

_Nouveau Dictionnaire d'economie politique_ (Paris, 1892); and

article "Companies, Chartered," in _Encyclopaedia of the Laws of

England_, edited by A. Wood Renton (London, 1907-1909). (W. B. Du.)