Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/446

434 with the deputies of the &quot; Working-men s Association,&quot; the result being the appearance of the People s Charter, which embodied in the six following points the programme of their party: (1) annual parliaments; (2) universal suffrage; (3) vote by ballot ; (4) abolition of the property qualification for membership of the House of Commons ; (5) payment of members; (6) equal electoral districts. The most influ ential of the six members of the House who took part in the drawing up of the charter was O Connell, and the methods adopted for the propagation of their views were those practised by the great agitator with such success. Monster meetings were held, at which seditious language was occasionally spoken, and slight collisions with the military took place. Petitions of enormous size, signed in great part with fictitious names, were presented to Parlia ment ; and a great many newspapers were started, of which the Northern Star, conducted by Feargus O Connor, the active leader of the movement, had a circulation of 50,000. In 1840 the Chartist movement was still further organized by the inauguration at Manchester of the National Charter Association, which rapidly became powerful, being the head of about 400 sister societies, which are said to have numbered 40,000 members. Some time after, efforts were made towards a coalition with the more moderate radicals, but these failed ; and a land scheme was started by O Connor, which prospered for a few years. In 1844 the fanatical spirit of some of the leaders was only too well illustrated by their attitude towards the Anti-Coru-Law League. O Connor, especially, entered into a public controversy with Cobden and Bright, in which he was worsted; and he even endeavoured to defeat the purpose of the League. But it was not till 1848, during a season of great suffering among the working classes, and under the influence of the revolution at Paris, that the real strength of the Chartist movement was discovered, and the prevalent discontent became known. Early in March disturbances occurred in Glasgow which required the intervention of the military, while in the manufacturing districts all over the West of Scotland the operatives were ready to rise, in the event of the main movement succeeding. Some agitation, too, took place in Edinburgh and in Manchester, but of a milder nature ; in fact, while there was a real and wide-spread discontent, men were indisposed to resort to decided measures. The principal scene of intended Chartist demonstration was London. An enormous gathering of half a million was announced for the 10th April on Kennington Common, from which they were to march on the Houses of Parliament to present a petition signed by nearly six million names, in order by this imposing display of numbers to secure the enactment of the six points. Probably some of the more violent members of the party thought to imitate the Parisian mob by taking power entirely into their own hands. The announcement of the procession excited great alarm, and the most decided measures were taken by the authorities to prevent a rising. The procession was for bidden. The military was called out under the command of the Duke of Wellington, and by him concealed near the bridges and other points where the procession might attempt to force its way. Even the Bank and other public buildings were put in a state of defence, and special con stables, to the number, it is said, of 170,000, were enrolled, one of whom was destined shortly after to be the emperor of the French. After all these gigantic preparations on both sides the Chartist demonstration proved to be a very insignificant affair. Instead of half a million, only about 50,000 assembled on Kennington Common, and their leaders, Feargus O Connor and Ernest Jones, shrank from the responsibility of braving the authorities by conducting the procession to the Houses of Parliament. The monster petition was duly presented, and scrutinized, with the result that the number of signatures was found to have been grossly exaggerated, and that the most unheard of falsifica tion of names had been resorted to. Thereafter the movement specially called Chartism soon died out. The return of national prosperity relieved the working classes of their most pressing grievances ; and subseqent legislative changes have in great measure removed the causes that existed for discontent among the classes which mainly sup ported the charter.  CHARTRES, the chief town of the department of Eure- et-Loir, 55 miles south-west from Paris by railway, stands on a slope skirted by the River Eure, which flows partly within and partly beyond the ramparts. Its houses are antique and straggling ; but there are four fine squares, in one of which, used as the herb-market, is an obelisk in memory of General Marceau, a native of the town. Chartres is the seat of a tribunal of the first instance, a tribunal of commerce, a com munal college, and a diocesan seminary ; and it has a weekly corn-market, which is one of the largest in France and is well managed by a corporation of women. Its chief manu factures are woollens and leather. Its cathedral of Notre Dame, a vast Gothic edifice, with two spires of different construction, is reckoned one of the finest cathedrals in France. It was founded in the llth century by Bishop Fulbert on the site of an earlier church destroyed by fire in 1020. In 1194 another conflagration laid waste the new building then hardly completed ; but clergy and people set zealously to work, and the main part of the present structure was finished by 1240. Though there have been numerous minor additions and alterations since that time, the general character of the cathedral is unimpaired. The upper woodwork was consumed by fire in 1830, as well as the beautiful belfry of the old tower, but the rest of the building was saved; and it still preserves some of its magnificent stained-glass windows of the 13th century. (See Bulteau, Descript. de la cathedr. de Chartres, 1850.) The churches of St Pierre and St Andre may also be noticed.

1em  CHARTREUSE, or more usually, to distinguish it from other establishments of the order, , a famous Carthusian monastery of France, in the depart ment of Isere, situated about 14 miles north of Grenoble, at a height of 4268 feet above the level of the sea, in one of the upper valleys of a group of calcareous mountains, near the sources of the Guiers Mort and the Guiers Vif, two tributaries of the Rhone. The settlement was originally founded in 1084, and derived its name from a small village a short distance to the south-east, which was formerly known simply as Chartreuse or Cartusia, but is now distinguished as Saint Pierre de Chartreuse. The first convent on the present site was not erected till 1137, and most of the present edifice is of a later date than 1G76. It stands in a large meadow, which slopes to the south-west, and is watered by a tiny tributary of the Guiers Mort ; on the north a fine forest rises up to the Col of La Ruchere, while on the west the valley is shut in by well-wooded heights, and on the east is overshadowed by 