CHARCOAL

is the best suited for fuel. In England a large quantity of charcoal is obtained in the dry distillation of wood in cast-iron cylinders, for the preparation of crude acetic acid. The charcoal thus prepared is preferable for making gunpowder, but is inferior for other purposes. A peculiar kind of charcoal of a reddish-brown colour, and hence termed charbon roux or red charcoal, is frequently prepared for the manufacture of the gunpowder used for sporting purposes, by subjecting wood in iron cylinders to the action of superheated steam under a pressure of two atmospheres. Powder made with this charcoal absorbs moisture more rapidly than ordinary gunpowder.

The general properties of wood-charcoal are, that it is black and brittle, and retains the form of the wood from which it is derived; it is insoluble in water, infusible and non-volatile in the most intense heat; its power of condensing gases is noticed under Carbon (q.v.); and from its power of destroying bad smells it has been regarded as possessing considerable antiseptic properties. It is frequently stated that charcoal is a bad conductor of heat, but a good conductor of electricity. These properties depend upon the nature of the charcoal, the lighter wood, such as willow, yielding a porous charcoal, with little power of conducting heat or electricity; while boxwood yields a very compact charcoal, which is a good conductor of heat and electricity, and is admirably adapted for the exhibition of the electric light. Charcoal never consists entirely of pure carbon, the degree of purity vary ing directly with the temperature at which it is formed; thus, charcoal charred at 480° (249° C.) contains 65 per cent. of carbon, while that charred at 750° (399° C.) contains 80, and that charred at 2730° (1499° C.) contains 96; but the loss of charcoal occasioned by these high temperatures is very great, the percentage yield of charcoal corresponding to these temperatures being 50, 20, and 15.

The uses of wood-charcoal are numerous and extensive. It is very largely employed as a fuel, taking the same place in many countries that coal occupies here. From its being proof against all ordinary chemical agencies, superficial charring is often employed to protect wood from decay, as in the case of fence-posts, of telegraph poles, or of piles which are driven into mud or into the beds of rivers to serve as foundations. With the same design it is not unusual to char the interior of tubs and casks destined to hold liquids. In a finelydivided state it is commonly regarded, as has been already stated, as an antiseptic; and there is no doubt that the offensive effluvia from animal matter in an advanced stage of putrefaction disappear when the putrefying substance is covered with a layer of charcoal; but in reality the decay goes on, without the emission of any odour, till at length the whole of the carbon is dissipated as carbonic acid gas, and the hydrogen as water, while the nitrogen remains as nitric acid. It has been shown that the action consists in a rapid process of oxidation, dependent upon the power which finely-divided charcoal possesses of condensing oxygen. In a finely-divided state, charcoal not only condenses gases to a marvellous extent, but has the power of absorbing colouring matters, bitter principles, &c.; and hence it is of extensive use in the laboratory. From the rapidity of its absorbing action, the use of a respirator filled with charcoal has been suggested to protect the mouth and nostrils in an infected atmosphere; trays of pow dered wood-charcoal in dissecting-rooms, in the wards of hospitals, and in situations where putres cent animal matter is present, exert a most beneficial influence in sweetening the atmosphere, by absorbing and decomposing the offensive gases. Charcoal is accordingly valuable in filters, not only

for decolourising purposes, but likewise for assisting in purifying water for domestic use. It is also successfully used to prevent the escape of noxious vapours at the ventilating openings of sewers, as it allows the free passage of air, but condenses the offensive effluvia in its pores, where they are destroyed by a process of oxidation. Besides its employment in the manufacture of gunpowder it has many applications in the arts. In medicine it is at present chiefly used to destroy fetor; for which purpose it is applied in the form of powder or poultice to gangrenous sores, phagedenic ulcers, &c.; it is also largely employed in tooth-powders, as by its mechanical action it removes incrustations, while by its chemical action it destroys fetor of the breath. In indigestion accompanied by much flatulence it may be given in doses of two or three teaspoonfuls suspended in water, or may be administered in the form of charcoal-biscuits (see BISCUITS). Very finely-divided poplar charcoal is regarded as the best for medicinal uses. For the pigments bone-black, ivory-black, and other charcoal blacks, see the article BLACK.

Chard, a municipal borough of Somersetshire, 15 miles SSE. of Taunton by rail. It is a fine old market-town, with manufactures of lace, and a neighbourhood rich in British and Roman remains. Pop. (1881) 2411; (1891) 2575.

Charente, a considerable river in the west of France, rises in the south-west of the department of Haute-Vienne, and flows first NW., then generally S. and WNW., mainly through the departments of Charente and Charente-Inférieure, to the Bay of Biscay, which it enters opposite the island of Oléron after a very circuitous course of 222 miles.

Charente, a department of France, formed chiefly out of the old province of Angoumois. Area, 2285 sq. m. Pop. (1866) 378,218; (1886) 366,408. It is generally level, with granite offshoots of the Limousin range in the north, and chalk-hills in the south, abounding in marine deposits; and it is watered by the river Charente and its tributaries, with the rivers Vienne and Dronne. The hills are in many places clad with chestnut forests. The climate is generally mild and healthy, and a sixth of the surface is devoted to vines, which flourish in the dry, hot limestone soil. The wines grown are spirituous and fiery in flavour, and are chiefly distilled into brandy, which forms the most important of the exports. Truffles grow abundantly in several parts. The principal manufactures besides brandy are paper, leather, felt, and pottery. Charente is divided into the five arrondissements of Angoulême, Cognac, Ruffec, Barbezieux, and Confolens. Angoulême is the chief town.

Charente-Inférieure, a maritime department of France, formed principally from the former provinces of Saintonge, Aunis, and a small portion of Poitou. The Bay of Biscay washes its western boundary. Area, 2625 sq. m. Pop. (1866) 479,529; (1886) 462,803. It is watered on its boundaries by the Sèvre-Niortaise and the Gironde, and in the centre by the navigable Charente and the coaststream Seudre. The surface is level; the soil, near the coast protected from the sea by dikes, is mostly chalky and sandy, but very fertile. The commerce is mainly in brandy and sea-salt; the evaporation from the salt-marshes from which the latter is taken renders some parts of the coast very unhealthy. The oyster and pilchard fisheries are important. The chief harbours are those of Rochefort and Tonnay-Charente. La Rochelle is the chief town.

Charenton-le-Pont, a town in the French department of Seine, on the right bank of the

Marne, 4 miles SE. of Paris. The bridge over the river, which is important from a military point of view, is defended by two forts forming a part of the fortifications of Paris. At the other side of the river is the National Lunatic Asylum. Pop. (1872) 7141; (1886) 13,535.

Charge is the exposition of the law made by the judge to the jury, in which he comments on the evidence and instructs the jury as to the application of the law to the facts. Charge is also the exhortation of a bishop or archdeacon to the clergy. Chargé d'Affaires is a fourth-class diplomatic agent, accredited, not to the sovereign, but to the department for foreign affairs; he also holds his credentials only from the minister. See AMBASSADOR.

any

Chariot, in ancient times a kind of carriage upon two wheels used both in peace and in war. The Roman form, the currus, was entered from behind, was closed in front and uncovered. It was drawn by two, three, or four horses, and carried either one or two persons, both standing. The word biga is often applied to a two-horse chariot for battle or for racing; triga was a name for a chariot drawn by three horses yoked abreast, of which two drew from the pole; while the quadriga was drawn by four horses abreast, the two centre ones (jugales) only yoked, the two outside ones (funales) being attached by ropes. The last was a form common in the racing chariot of the circus, and in processions. The currus triumphalis, in which the Roman generals rode during their triumphal entrance into the city, was a chariot of particular form, being quite round and without side open, while its panels were richly decorated with carvings in ivory. The Roman writers speak of the use among the Britons and some other foreign nations of war-chariots carrying iron blades or scythes fixed to the end of the pole and axle-tree. The war-chariot of the Homeric heroes (harma) was somewhat lighter than the Roman currus, being partly formed of open rail-work instead of panelling. The oldest war-chariots of which we read are those of Pharaoh (Exodus, xiv. 7). All the eastern nations used them, and many Assyrian tablets represent heroes, such as Sennacherib or Esarhaddon, riding in triumph at the head of their armies in chariots much heavier but otherwise not unlike the Roman forms of chariots with which we are familiar. Two fine four-wheeled chariots with rich ornamentation in bronze-work were dug up by Dr Petersen in a peat-bog in Jutland in 1881 and 1883, and dated by him a hundred years before Christ. See ASSYRIA.

Charities constitute a marked feature of English life. There are also many excellent institutions in Germany and France. The Deaconess House at Kaiserwerth, founded by Pastor Fliedner, Father Zeller's School at Benggen, near Basel, the Asylum for Poor Neglected Children at Dusselthal, the Blind School at Illzack, the Evangelical Asylum for Discharged Male Prisoners at Lintorf, the establishments of Mr J. Bost at Laforce these with many others recur to the mind, and forcibly testify to the amount of philanthropic work being done on the Continent; while in the United States the splendid medical and kindred benevolent institutions of New York and other great towns bear witness to the sympathy and beneficence of that large-hearted nation. But in no country are so many charities of such wide and far-reaching influence to be found as in Great Britain. Taking as an example London alone, there are no less than 1025 institutions of various kinds. This does not include the different bequests under the control of the opulent city companies, which if counted separately would amount to as

CHARITIES

many as 300 more, or the smaller semi-religious missions of which each parish, as a rule, possesses two or three. Of the 1025 charities, 813 have been established in the nineteenth century, and 58 since the year 1879. The oldest institution is St Bartholomew's Hospital, Smithfield, founded in 1123. Next to this comes St Katharine's Hospital, instituted 1145, though the present building was erected in 1827. The educational charities are mostly of ancient origin, and the majority were founded in the 16th century-during the reigns of Edward the gift of the city companies, for the making of VI. and Elizabeth; but some of less importance, in In the 16th century such well-known institutions small school grants and so on, are even still older. as St Paul's School (1509), Christ's Hospital (1553), St Peter's College, Westminster (1560), Merchant Taylors' School (1561), and Sir Roger Cholmley's School, Highgate (1565), were founded. are upwards of 80 different almshouse buildings connected with the metropolis, affording shelter to more than 2000 inmates. Many are of great age-some indeed, as land rose in value, have been abolished, and the money thus gained devoted to pensions; the oldest are the Salters' Company's Almshouses at Watford, founded in 1454. hospitals and dispensaries number 135. The longest established are the general institutions; those devoted to special forms of disease are of more recent origin, a remark that applies with additional force to the provident dispensaries. A curious feature is to be noticed in the principal lying-in charities. These were all founded between the years 1749 and 1765. For the missionary societies, see MISSIONS. The institutions for the blind number 29; in the majority of cases, the benefit conferred takes the form of a small annuity or pension. A few of the orphan asylums date their existence from the middle of the last century, but the greater proportion have been founded since 1850. It is to this form of charity that the present generation seems especially prone. Whereas in 1850 there were only 17 institutions of this kind, there are now 58. A great increase has also taken place in the number of convalescent homes, reformatory institutions, night refuges, and societies for the relief of the destitute. Following the example so admirably set at Kaiserwerth, various nursing and philanthropic sisterhoods have been estab lished, and within the last five years no fewer than three prominent charities have been formed to provide poor city children with the means of getting away for a limited period to the country or seaside. Finally, it may be mentioned that the receipts of the metropolitan charities for the year 1887 amounted to upwards of £4,500,000.

See Low's Handbook to the London Charities (annual), and Fry's; De Liefde, The Charities of Europe (1865); Cammann and Camp, The Charities of New York (1868); Kenny, Legislation with regard to Property given for Charitable Uses (1880).

CHARITY COMMISSIONERS were first appointed in 1853, under an act for the better administration of charitable trusts. For many years previous to this the subject of the endowed charities had been gradually growing in interest. The old Court of Chancery, with its slow, cumbrous, and ruinously expensive procedure, was felt to be out of date, a new order of things was required, and in especial some investigation into the condition of the charitable funds was needed. By an act dating so far back as 1601 (43 Eliz. chap. 4), the Lord Chancellor was empowered under certain conditions to appoint commissioners of inquiry, but these commissions had fallen into disuse, and action was now taken in the person of the Attorney-general-a method that was at once calculated to give rise to many abuses, and prove infinitely vexatious. The first endeavour

to procure the necessary inquiry was in 1786, when under Mr Gilbert's Act (26 Geo. III. chap. 58) information had been obtained on oath from the parochial clergy, churchwardens, and overseers; but these received no direct authority from the Charity Trustees to make such inquiry, and their knowledge was therefore found to be unreliable and inadequate. According to the returns then made to parliament, the endowed charities amounted to £258,710, 19s. 3d. a year-a sum, as was afterwards shown, greatly below their actual value. In 1812 Mr Lockhart, who was strenuously opposed by the city companies, succeeded in passing an Act (52 Geo. III. chap. 102) which required that particulars of the income, capital, object, and trustees of every existing charity, together with the names of the persons holding the deed of endowment, should be registered with the clerk of the peace for the county within six months of the passing of the act; and a similar provision was made for all future charities. A copy of each registration was also to be enrolled in Chancery. Four years later commenced the memorable investigations with which the name of Lord Brougham is so closely connected. In 1816 he moved for the appointment of a Committee of the House of Commons on the subject, and as a result of its deliberations the Committee recommended that an inquiry into the condition of the endowed charities should be undertaken. The first commission for this purpose was appointed by the crown, under an Act of 1818, and further commissions of inquiry were issued and prosecuted under that and subsequent acts until 1837. In the words of Lord John Russell, these successive inquiries destroyed many flagrant abuses, detected the perversion of a large amount of charitable funds, and led the way to those further inquiries and those remedial measures of which we have seen the commencement and the progress, but of which the consummation is yet to come.' As showing the magnitude and extent of these investigations, it may be mentioned that the printed reports occupy no fewer than 38 folio volumes, consisting of some 25,000 pages, describe 28,880 charities with an aggregate income of £1,209,395, and were compiled at a cost of upwards of half a million of money. The result of the wide attention thus drawn to the subject was that in 1853, after much parliamentary and private agitation, the great Charitable Trusts Act, for the public supervision of public endowments, was passed. The powers placed in the hands of the commissioners and inspectors appointed under the act, however, were at first exceedingly limited. Beyond a veto on suits by any one but the Attorneygeneral, the commissioners had only rights of inquiry, of advice, and of rendering assistance in a few cases where the trustees themselves might desire such aid. The act enabled the Lord Chancellor to appoint two persons to be, jointly with the secretary for the time being, 'the official trustees of charitable funds;' and those officers were constituted in 1854. In 1855 another act empowered the board to apportion parish charities under £30 a year; but in regard to the remodelling of these institutions, or in any way making new schemes for their extended usefulness, its operations were still subordinate, not only to Chancery, but to the county courts. A further act, passed in 1860, for the first time gave the commissioners judicial power over charities of £50 a year, and like power, with the consent of the trustees, over larger charities; but being judicial, the authority of the commissioners can only be called into operation at the suit of persons interested in each case. The powers formerly exercised by the Court of Chancery still exist in the High Court of Justice, but are very rarely called into execution. Should trustees prove

113

in

obstinate, or in other ways refuse to apply for new schemes in relation to their institutions, developing combative tendencies with which the commissioners have a difficulty in dealing, then the aid of the High Court of Justice is voked. Otherwise the whole administration of charitable endowments, under such conditions as above mentioned, lies in the hands of the Charity Commissioners. Under the jurisdiction thus given various improved schemes have been established, and trustees numbering upwards of 400 annually appointed. By the Act 37 and 38 Vict. chap. 87, the powers previously exercised by the Endowed Schools Commissioners were transferred to the Charity Commissioners for a period of five years, and the two bodies have since been amalgamated. The commissioners have also an important power under the Municipal Corporations Act, 1883, of framing schemes for the application of the property of the corporations dissolved under that act. Since the year 1854 the amount of stock transferred to the official trustees of charitable funds has amounted to £16,139,017 (of which sum £674,212 was handed over in 1887), and £2,853,815 has been retransferred, leaving the total sum held by the trustees at the end of 1886, £13,285,202, divided into 14,729 separate

accounts.

THE CHARITY ORGANISATION SOCIETY, founded in 1869, took its rise in a sense of the evil of temporary relief, which manifestly tends to lower the self-dependence of the recipient and to encourage pauperism. Previous to the advent of the society, many attempts had been made to cope successfully with the dangers that attend the bestowal of thoughtless charity. Amongst others, Edward Dennison and Octavia Hill had been especially noticeable for their efforts to raise the condition, both morally and physically, of the struggling poor, and for some time district visiting committees and several societies for the relief of distress through the agency of unpaid almoners had been at work. Attention, too, had been powerfully directed to the method of poor-law administration carried on at Elberfeld and other continental towns. It was felt that some scheme for uniting the charities of London in friendly business sympathy, so as to utilise their efforts more effectively and prevent imposition, was needed. This impression gaining ground may be said to have originated the Charity Organisation Society. The object of the society, as stated in its report, is the improvement of the condition of the poor (1) by bringing about co-operation between the charities and the poor-law, and amongst the charities; (2) by securing due investigation and fitting action in all cases; and (3) by repressing mendicity. At least one representative committee is formed in each of the poor-law divisions of the metropolis, and the society itself may be said to consist of a federation of those committees, at present numbering forty. Each committee appoints one or more charity agents to act under its instructions, and an important part of their duties is to collect particulars as to the actions of the charities of the district and the relief given by them; to receive applications from persons referred to the office, and to investigate their claims; and to keep up communication with the relieving-officers of the guardians. That there is great need for organisation in the matter of charitable relief is amply evidenced by the fact that the society computes that in London alone from four to seven millions sterling are annually dissipated in indiscriminate almsgiving, thus not only encouraging systematic mendicants and impostors, but recklessly wasting money which, if directed into the right channel, would go far to relieve the poverty and distress that exist.

The number of affiliated or corresponding institu

tions throughout the three kingdoms is upwards of eighty. A society based on similar lines to the English Charity Organisation Society was founded at Buffalo, U.S., in 1877; and Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Boston, Newport, Detroit, Baltimore, Washington, New York, and many other American towns have since followed the example.

Charity, SISTERS OF. See SISTERHOODS. Chariva'ri is a French term used to designate a wild tumult and uproar, produced by the beating of pans, kettles, and dishes, mingled with whistling, bawling, groans, and hisses, expressive of displeasure at the person against whom it is directed. Its etymology is obscure; the Germans translate it by Katzenmusik, to which in English Cat's-concert corresponds. In France, during the middle ages, a charivari was generally raised against persons contracting second nuptials, in which case the widow was specially assailed. On these occasions the participators in it, who were masked, accompanied their hubbub by the singing of satirical and indecent verses, and would not cease till the wedding couple had purchased their peace by ransom. Charivari answers to the English concert upon marrow-bones and cleavers, popularly termed 'rough music,' with which it was customary to attack a married couple who lived in notorious discord. It was also got up against an unequal match, such as where there was great disparity in age between the bride and bridegroom. The charivari 'shiveree' is not uncommon in the frontier

or

districts of the United States.

Sometimes these customs were of such a licentious and violent character as to require military interference. As early as the 14th century the church was forced to threaten punishment, and even excommunication, against those who participated in them. In more recent times, the charivari, from its suggesting derision, ridicule, and satire, has come to be employed as the name of several satirical journals, the most famous among which is the CHARIVARI, which was established in Paris, December 2, 1832. Punch (q.v.) is the English Charivari.

Charjui, a Russian town of Central Asia, on the Amu-Daria or Oxus, where the Transcaspian railway between Merv and Bokhara crosses the river by a great bridge opened in 1888.

Charkov'. See KHARKOV.

Charlatan, a mountebank, quack-doctor, or empiric, and hence any one who makes loud pretensions to knowledge or skill that he does not The word was introduced in the 16th century from the Italian ciarlatano, from ciarlare, 'to babble.'

possess.

Charlemagne, i.e. Charles the Great, king of the Franks (768-814), and Roman emperor (800-14), was born on 2d April 742, perhaps at Aix-la-Chapelle, and was the eldest son of Pepin the Short, the first Carlovingian (q.v.) king of the Franks, and grandson of Charles Martel. On Pepin's death in 768, Charles and his brother Carloman jointly succeeded to the throne; and by Carloman's death, and the exclusion of both his sons from the throne, the former became sole king in 771. In 772 it was resolved in the Diet at Worms to make war against the Saxons, for the security of the frontiers, which they continually threatened, and for the extension of the Christian religion. Charlemagne advanced as far as the Weser in 772, securing his conquests by castles and garrisons. Pope Adrian I. now called him to his aid against Desiderius, king of the Lombards. Charlemagne had married the daughter of Desiderius, and had sent her back to her father because she bore him no children, and married Hildegarde, daughter of the Swabian duke, Godfrey. Desiderius had sought

CHARLEMAGNE

revenge by urging the pope to crown the sons of Carloman, and on the pope's refusal had laid waste the papal territory. Charlemagne crossed the Alps from Geneva, with two armies, by the Great St Bernard and Mont Cenis, in 773, and overthrew the kingdom of the Lombards in 774. The Lombard dukes acknowledged him as their king, and he secured the pope's favour by confirming the gift exarchate of Ravenna. which Pepin had made to the papal see of the In 775 he was again employed in the most northerly part of his dominions, reducing the Saxons to subjection; in 776 he suppressed an insurrection in Italy; in 777 he so completed his victory over the Saxons that their nobles generally acknowledged him as their sovereign in an assembly at Paderborn. Being now invited to interpose in the wars of the Arabs and Moors in Spain, he hastened to that country in 778, and added to his dominions the region between the Pyrenees and the Ebro. From Spain he was summoned in haste by a new insurrection of part of but whom he drove back to the Elbe. In 781 he the Saxons, who had advanced almost to Cologne, went to Italy, where the pope crowned his second Louis, a child three years old, king of Aquison, Pepin, king of Italy, and his third son, taine. The Saxons, once more rising in armis, defeated and destroyed a Frankish army in 782, which Charlemagne, after a new victory, fearfully avenged by causing no fewer than 4500 prisoners to be executed as rebels in a single day. general rising of the Saxons followed, but in 783785 the Frankish monarch succeeded in reducing them completely to subjection, and in persuading their principal chiefs to submit to baptism and to become his faithful vassals. In 788 Bavaria was absorbed in the empire of Charlemagne, an event which brought the Franks into contact with the Avars. They, too, were now subdued, and the Frankish dominions extended to the Raab. The

eastern 'mark,' the nucleus of the Austrian empire, was established to defend the frontier in that direction (798).

In 800 Charlemagne undertook an Italian campaign which was attended with the most momentous consequences. Its immediate purpose was to support Pope Leo III. against the rebellious Romans. When Charlemagne, on Christmas Day 800, was worshipping in St Peter's Church, the pope unexpectedly, as it appeared, set a crown upon his head, and, amidst the acclamations of the people, saluted him as Carolus Augustus, emperor Although this added nothing directly to his power, yet it greatly confirmed and increased the respect entertained for him, such was

of the Romans.

still the lustre of a title with which were associated recollections of all the greatness of the Roman empire. A scheme for the union of the newly revived Western Empire with the Empire of the East by Charlemagne's marriage with Irene (q.v.), the Byzantine empress, failed by reason of Irene's overthrow. The remaining years of his reign were spent in further consolidating his vast empire, which extended from the Ebro to the Elbe. Bishoprics were founded in the Saxon country, many of the Slavs beyond the Elbe were brought into dependence on the empire, and the Eider was recognised as the boundary between the Frankish dominions and Denmark. The empire was divided into districts ruled by counts; counts specially called markgrafen, or counts of the marches, defended the frontiers against attack; and the unity of rule was maintained by officers, the missi dominici, who were sent out in all directions as the organs of the imperial will. This organisation was promoted also by a great annual military muster and by an annual assemblage of the high officials of the empire. Charlemagne