Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/1058

CHA jesuit, the historian of New France, as the French possessions in North America were called, was born at St. Quentin, October 29th, 1682, and died at La Flèche, February 1st, 1761. Early in life he was a teacher of philosophy and the languages in a jesuit seminary. Being detailed for service on the missions in Canada, he embarked at Rochelle in July, 1720, and soon after his arrival in America undertook a long journey of exploration. He made large collections for the history of Canada, and an account of the native tribes, embracing his own observations; and in 1744 his work appeared, in 3 vols. quarto, entitled a "History of New France." It was translated and published in London in 1769. Though containing much extraneous matter, and showing considerable credulity and not much elegance of style, it is still the chief authority for the history of French America.—F. B.  CHARLOTTE, Princess of Saxe-Coburg, the only child of George IV. of England by his queen Caroline, was born 7th January, 1796. As heir to the English throne she was looked upon with deep interest by the nation, to whom her warm affection, great benevolence, and more than usual intelligence had endeared her. Stories are told, however, which show that she combined with these qualities a very irritable and imperious temper. It was long thought that the prince of Orange was her accepted lover, but in 1816 she was married to Prince Leopold, king of the Belgians. Besides the usual dowry and outfit, an annuity of £50,000 was settled on the royal couple during their joint lives. The hopes of the nation arising from this auspicious union were soon blighted by the death of the princess in childbed, November 6, 1817. The sad event caused deep lamentation throughout the country.—J. B.  CHARLOTTE, Queen of France, was born in 1445. A daughter of Louis, duke of Savoy, she was betrothed in 1450 to the dauphin, afterwards Louis XI., against the wishes of his father, Charles VII. It was chiefly the influence of the duke of Burgundy, in whose territories the dauphin for many years found an asylum, that brought about this alliance. The marriage, which proved an unhappy one, was consummated at Namur in 1457. The dauphin, after succeeding to the throne, broke with his former protectors, the houses of Savoy and Burgundy. His queen shared the consequences of his displeasure against her father's court. He kept her shut up with a small train of attendants, now in one castle and now in another. She founded a convent of the order of St. Francis at Paris in 1472, and died three months after the king in 1483—R. M. A.  CHARMIDES, an Athenian philosopher, son of Glaucon, cousin to Critias, and uncle by the mother's side to Plato, who, in the dialogue which bears his name, introduces him as a youth of surpassing beauty. In 404. he was one of the ten magistrates appointed by Lysander when he took Athens, and was slain fighting against Thrasybulus at the Piraeus.—J. S., G.  CHARNACÉ,, Baron de, a French soldier and diplomatist, was born towards the end of the sixteenth century. He was connected by marriage with the family of Richelieu. The cardinal appointed him ambassador to Sweden, where he concluded the treaty of Berwalde with Gustavus Adolphus in 1631. He was employed in other embassies, and fell in the trenches at the siege of Breda in 1637.—R. M. A.  CHARNOCK,, a writer of some note, was born in 1756. After studying at Winchester and Oxford, he retired to his father's house, and applied himself to the study of naval and military tactics. He entered the naval service as a volunteer, and attained considerable distinction. Retiring into private life, he sought to support himself by literary labour. Neglected by his friends, and though heir to a considerable fortune, he fell into debt and died in the prison of King's Bench, 16th May, 1807. His principal publications were—"Biographia Navalis," 6 vols., 1794, a very valuable work; "A Letter on Finance and on National Defence;" "A History of Marine Architecture;" and a "Life of Lord Nelson."—J. B.  CHARNOCK,, a learned nonconformist divine, was born in London in 1628. He was for a time senior proctor at Oxford, whence he went to Dublin, where he was admired as an eloquent preacher. After the Restoration he refused to conform, removed to London, and became minister of a dissenting church. He died in 1680. The greater part of his writings appeared after his death. They are—"Several Discourses of the Existence and Attributes of God," 1682; "Works," 1684; and "Two Discourses of Man's Enmity to God, and of the Salvation of Sinners," 1699.  CHARON (on the Hellespont), a Greek historian who lived before Herodotus, flourishing about 464 . He wrote a history of his native town; of Persia; and of Crete; but only fragments have reached us.—J. B. <section end="1058H" /> <section begin="1058I" />CHARONDAS, a lawgiver of Catania, who flourished before the time of Anaxilaus, tyrant of Rhegium,. 494-476. This tyrant abolished the laws of Charondas. They were long in use in Catania and other cities of Chalcidian origin in Italy and Sicily. Charondas is said to have been a disciple of Pythagoras. A tradition declares him to have fallen by his own hand in obedience to a law he had himself enacted against the wearing of arms in the popular assemblies—this law being inadvertently violated by him on the occasion of his being hastily summoned to quell a tumult which had arisen in an assembly of the people. <section end="1058I" /> <section begin="1058J" />CHARPENTIER,, born at Paris in 1620. His talents were of so high an order that the great minister, Colbert, engaged his pen to forward some of his own comprehensive projects for the public good. It was Charpentier who, by desire of Colbert, drew up a paper in favour of the plan of an East India company, which, after promising beginnings, was destined to yield to British ascendancy in that part of the globe. It was he also whom the minister placed at the head of the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, which he had lately founded. A writer on the fine arts, he took the side of the moderns against the ancients, but the prejudices of the day were too strong for argument. He died in April, 1702.—J. F. C. <section end="1058J" /> <section begin="1058K" />CHARPENTIER,, a French mechanician, born of poor parents at Blois in 1734. The discovery of a process by which he took coloured copies of the great masters, was the first of a long series of useful and ingenious inventions which his country owed to the genius of Charpentier. He refused many tempting offers of place and pension, and died in poverty in 1817.—R. M., A. <section end="1058K" /> <section begin="1058L" />CHARPENTIER,, a French physician and philosopher, born in 1524; died in 1574. For sixteen years he taught philosophy with prodigious success in the college de Bourgogne. He then studied medicine, and became dean of the faculty of Paris in 1568. Charpentier was devoted to scholasticism, and defended it, though too bitterly, against the famous Peter Ramus. He is even suspected of having been accessory to the murder of his opponent.—R. M., A. <section end="1058L" /> <section begin="1058M" />CHARRIERES, Mme., born at the Hague in 1740. This lady, although of Dutch family, has left writings which French critics pronounce to be, for style and sentiment, worthy of an eminent place in their literature. At an early age she married a Swiss gentleman, who lived as tutor in her father's family, and whom she accompanied to his native land. They lived for some time in the neighbourhood of Neufchâtel, and afterwards at Lausanne. Her letters, descriptive of Swiss scenes and manners, are singularly graphic. Besides her published correspondence, she has left "Trois Femmes," a novel. She died, December, 1805.—J. F. C. <section end="1058M" /> <section begin="1058Zcontin" />CHARRON or LE CHARRON,, the son of a bookseller, who had twenty-five children, was born at Paris in 1541. He was sent to study law, first at Orleans, and then at Bourges, where he obtained the degree of doctor. Having returned to Paris, he practised as an advocate in the court of parliament for five or six years; but, meeting with little success, he embraced the ecclesiastical state, and speedily obtained great reputation as a preacher. Arnaud de Pontac, bishop of Bazas, promoted him to be a canon in his diocese. The queen named him her preacher in ordinary, and the king, though a protestant, heard him with pleasure. After an absence of seventeen years, he returned to Paris in 1585, to accomplish a vow which he had made to enter the monastery of Chartreux. He was refused admission on account of his years, the austerities of the order requiring all the vigour of youth to sustain them. Having experienced a similar refusal from other religious orders, he considered his vow to be no longer binding, and resumed his preaching, first at Agen, and then at Bourdeaux. In this latter place he contracted a friendship with the celebrated Montaigne—a friendship which gave to his thoughts and character a new complexion. Montaigne, having no children, permitted Charron to bear the arms of his family, and he seems also to have inoculated him with the light and sceptical humour by which he was himself distinguished. Charron testified the sincerity of his friendship by bequeathing all he had to the brother-in-law of Montaigne. The first work of Charron was published <section end="1058Zcontin" />