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CHA peninsula, and penetrated all ranks of society. It was arranged that Naples should commence the revolution, and that Piedmont should follow up the movement; both states were then to unite to expel the common enemy, Austria. The Piedmontese carbonari affiliated the prince of Carignano, and accepted him as leader of the constitutional movement. The Neapolitan revolution was promptly victorious, the Piedmontese was equally successful, and the Spanish constitution was proclaimed in all the important cities of the two kingdoms. In 1821 the king of Piedmont abdicated in favour of his brother Charles Felix, and nominated the prince of Carignano regent, until the arrival of the new king. The prince publicly swore fidelity to the constitution. Terrified, however, by the proclamation with which the new king heralded his arrival at Turin, he fled secretly at midnight to Novara, thence, after a conference with the general of Felix's forces, to Milan; nor was it until after three years' time, and at the price of bearing arms in Spain against the very constitution he had conspired to establish and sworn to maintain in Piedmont, that Charles Felix permitted him to return to his country.

On the death of Charles Felix in 1831, Charles Albert ascended the throne. The secret association of "Young Italy" was founded by Mazzini, already an exile, at Marseilles in this year. Its aim being the overthrow of all the existing Italian governments, for the creation of the unity of Italy by means of a war of the whole people, it was even more dreaded by the princes of Italy than carbonarism; and the edicts of Charles Albert condemned to the galleys all guilty of perusing or possessing the journal of the association. In 1833 an accident revealed to the government a trace of the vast conspiracy; indiscriminate arrests commenced, and fresh discoveries were the result. From this time forward, says Brofferio in his History of Piedmont, "the external policy of the Subalpine government may be briefly summed up by the words 'Rome and Vienna,' the internal may be expressed by 'the jesuits and the police.'" On the other hand, the king encouraged industry and the arts, promoted railways, and erected many useful public works, from which reforms the court party rapturously prophesied the pacific redemption of Italy, though the marriage of the duke of Genoa with an Austrian princess in 1842 was significative of opposite tendencies. In 1843 the centre of Italy was the scene of constant and threatening agitations among the people. In 1844 occurred the attempt of the Bandiera in Sicily. In 1847 the Sicilian revolution broke out, not alone in the name of reform and constitution, but of "Italy and Nationality," cries which were instantly echoed in every comer of Italy. Rome, Tuscany, and even Naples arose, and obliged their sovereigns to grant them representative governments and a national guard. Not until all the other princes of Italy had yielded, and when longer resistance was impossible, did Charles Albert concede to the threats of his subjects the constitution he had denied to their entreaties. A few days after, the news arrived of the insurrection of Milan and expulsion of the Austrians (1848). The excitement of the Piedmontese people could no longer be restrained; they loudly demanded to be led against the Austrians, and threatened to overthrow the government in case of a refusal. The king was compelled to yield; but before crossing the frontier, he addressed despatches to the governments of Europe, and especially to England, protesting that the step was taken under compulsion and in order to save his crown, as the republic would inevitably be proclaimed were he to delay. The Austrians—disorganized by their defeat at Milan, acted merely on the defensive, and fled, rather than retreated, into the fortresses of Verona, Mantua, Peschiera, and Legnago. Hampered by treaties with the other European governments, however, Charles Albert was unable to prosecute the war with vigour. He disbanded all the volunteers, withdrew those already in action from the passes of the Alps, leaving them and the port of Trieste open to the enemy, and sat down with the whole of his army before the fortresses. At the end of four months the Austrian general, Radetsky, having resumed the offensive, the king was defeated in two engagements, and obliged to make a precipitate retreat on Milan. The Milanese, on the approach of the Austrians, appealed to Mazzini to organize the defence of the city. He nominated a committee of defence who displayed extraordinary energy, and had already commenced vigorous preparations for resistance, when the Piedmontese army appeared before the walls. The king entered Milan, presented himself to the people, declared that his army would protect them, and swore that he and his sons would die in their defence. He had, however, secretly signed an armistice with Radetsky, the terms of which included the surrender of Milan, and he had no sooner thus quieted the people, than he fled privately from the city and withdrew his army into Piedmont, leaving Milan exposed to the merciless Austrians. On the expiration of the armistice, the renewed threats of his subjects, and it is thought also his own remorse, compelled the king to continue the war. The Piedmontese, 100,000 strong, under General Chrzanowsky, and the Austrians, 110,000 strong, under Radetsky, again confronted each other at Novara. The king exposed his own life so rashly during the engagement as to create the impression that, tortured by remorse, he wished to die; and the rout of the Piedmontese was so rapid and complete, though only a small portion of the army was engaged, that it was universally attributed to treachery in high quarters. The general-in-chief, General Ramorino—the same man who had betrayed Mazzini in Savoy—and even the king's eldest son, were accused by popular rumour, and it was found necessary to appease the public indignation by the execution of Ramorino for treason. The king again demanded an armistice, but the terms offered by Radetsky were so humiliating, that Charles Albert, preferred to abdicate rather than submit. He immediately retired to Portugal to a small villa on the banks of the Douro, where he expired, a prey to grief and remorse, on the 28th July, 1849.—E. A. H.  CHARLES,, a famous French natural philosopher, born at Beaugency in 1746; died at Paris in 1823. Attracted to the study of electrical science by the discoveries of Franklin, he gave prelections on that branch of natural philosophy to crowded Parisian audiences, from the fashionable as well as the scientific portion of which, his ingenious and flashy experiments never failed to elicit rapturous applause. The fame which he acquired in this way was little, however, compared with that which attended his experiments in the science of aërostation. Substituting hydrogen gas for the heated air used by the brothers Montgolfier in their experiments, he prepared a balloon of immense compass, and in company with Robert made an ascent from the garden of the Tuilleries, the triumphant success of which had some results advantageous both to the fortunes and the fame of the aëronaut, for he was assigned by Louis XVI. apartments in the Louvre, and shortly afterwards admitted into the academy. In his apartments in the Louvre, the amiable and retiring philosopher was surprised by the unwelcome visitors who crowded from the faubourgs to the Tuileries on the memorable 10th of August, 1792. It was an experiment, on the success of which the life of the philosopher depended, when he raised his voice to remind the furious mob of their delight at the success of his aërial voyage two years before. Charles' lectures, and many of his scientific papers, have merited the eulogies of Franklin and Blot. He was latterly occupied with the sciences of optics and acoustics, which he enriched with the results of numerous ingenious experiments.—J. S., G.  CHARLETON or CHARLTON,, a learned physician, born at Shepton-Mallet in Somersetshire in 1619. He was educated at Oxford, where he had for tutor Dr. Wilkins, afterwards bishop of Chester. Charleton was an ardent student of philosophy and medicine. He received his doctor's degree in 1642, and was soon after appointed one of the physicians in ordinary to the king, who at that time (the beginning of the civil wars) kept his court at Oxford. He removed to London, however, before the royal cause was completely ruined, and there, having been admitted of the College of Physicians, met with considerable success as a practitioner. He also became physician in ordinary to Charles II., and was one of the first members of the Royal Society. Charleton engaged in a controversy with Inigo Jones about the origin of Stonehenge; lectured on anatomy in the college theatre in 1683. and was chosen president of the College of Physicians in 1689. He is famous also for his defence of Harvey's claim to the discovery of the circulation of the blood. His last years were spent, in consequence of his straitened circumstances, in the island of Jersey. The following are some of his numerous writings—"De Lithiasi Diatriba," Leyden, 1650; "Natural History of Nutrition, Life," &c., London, 1658; "Exercitationes Physico-Anatomicæ de Œconomiâ Animali," 1659; "Natural History of the Passions," 1674; "Epicurus, his Morals," 1655. The last work has been translated into several languages.—R. M. A.  CHARLEVOIX,, a French 