The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 120

CHASLES, MICHEL, an eminent French mathematician, and held one of the first in the century; on the faith of certain autographs, which were afterwards proved to be forgeries, he in 1867 astonished the world by ascribing to Pascal the great discoveries of Newton, but had to admit he was deceived (1793-1880).

CHASLES, PHILAReTE, a French litterateur, born near Chartres, a disciple of Rousseau; lived several years in England, and wrote extensively on English subjects, Shakespeare, Mary Stuart, Charles I., and Cromwell among the chief (1799-1873).

CHa.s.se, DAVID HENDRIK, BARON, a Dutch soldier; served France under Napoleon, who called him "General Baonnette," from his zealous use of the bayonet; fought at Waterloo on the opposite side; as governor of Antwerp, gallantly defended its citadel in 1832 against a French and Belgian force twelve times larger than his own (1765-1849).

CHa.s.sEPOT, a French breech-loading rifle named from the inventor.

CHa.s.sEURS, picked bodies of light cavalry and infantry in the French service, called respectively _Cha.s.seurs-a-cheval_ and _Cha.s.seurs-a-pied_.

CHASTELARD, PIERRE DE BOSCOSEL DE, grandson of Bayard; conceived an insane pa.s.sion for Queen Mary, whom he accompanied to Scotland; was surprised in her bedchamber, under her bed, and condemned to death, it being his second offence (1540-1562).

CHAT MOSS, a large bog in Lancas.h.i.+re, 7 m. W. of Manchester, which is partly reclaimed and partly, through the ingenuity of George Stephenson, traversed by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.

CHaTEAUBRIAND, FRANcOIS RENe DE, eminent French litterateur, born in St. Malo, younger son of a n.o.ble family of Brittany; travelled to N.

America in 1791; returned to France on the arrest of Louis XVI., and joined the EMIGRANTS (q. v.) at Coblenz; was wounded at the siege of Thionville, and escaped to England; wrote an "Essay on Revolutions Ancient and Modern," conceived on liberal lines; was tempted back again to France in 1800; wrote "Atala," a story of life in the wilds of America, which was in 1802 followed by his most famous work, "Genie du Christianisme"; entered the service of Napoleon, but withdrew on the murder of the Duc d'Enghien; though not obliged to leave France, made a journey to the East, the fruit of which was his "Itineraire de Paris a Jerusalem"; hailed with enthusiasm the restoration of the Bourbons in 1814; supported the Bourbon dynasty all through, though he wavered sometimes in the interest of liberty; withdrew from public life on the elevation of Louis Philippe to the throne; he was no thinker, but he was a fascinating writer, and as such exercised no small influence on the French literature of his day; he lived in a transition period, and hovered between legitimism and liberty, the revolution and reaction, and belonged to the Romantic school of literature--was perhaps the father of it in France (1766-1848).

CHaTEAUX EN ESPAGNE, castles in Spain, visionary projects.

CHaTELET, MARQUISE DE, a learned Frenchwoman, born at Paris, with whom Voltaire kept up an intimate acquaintances.h.i.+p (1706-1749).

CHaTELLERAULT (18), a town in the dep. of Vienne, 24 m. NE. of Poitiers; gave t.i.tle to the Scottish regent, the Earl of Arran; manufactures cutlery and small-arms for the Government.

CHATHAM (59), a town in Kent, on the estuary of the Medway, a fortified naval a.r.s.enal; is connected with Rochester.

CHATHAM, WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF, a great British statesman and orator, born in Cornwall; determined opponent of Sir Robert Walpole; succeeded in driving him from power, and at length installing himself in his place; had an eye to the greatness and glory of England, summoned the English nation to look to its laurels; saw the French, the rivals of England, beaten back in the four quarters of the globe; driven at length from power himself, he still maintained a single regard for the honour of his country, and the last time his voice was heard in the Parliament of England was to protest against her degradation by an ign.o.ble alliance with savages in the war with America; on this occasion he fell back in a faint into the arms of his friends around, and died little more than a month after; "for four years" (of his life), says Carlyle, "king of England; never again he; never again one resembling him, nor indeed can ever be." See SMELFUNGUS on his character and position in Carlyle's "Frederick," Book xxi. chap. i. (1708-1775).

CHATHAM ISLANDS, a group of islands 360 m. E. of New Zealand, and politically connected with it; the chief industry is the rearing of cattle.

CHATSWORTH, the palatial seat of the Duke of Devons.h.i.+re, in Derbys.h.i.+re, 8 m. W. of Chesterfield, enclosed in a park, with gardens, 10 m. in circ.u.mference.

CHATTERTON, THOMAS, a poet of great promise, had a tragic fate, born at Bristol, pa.s.sed off while but a boy as copies of ancient MSS., and particularly of poems which he ascribed to one Rowley, a monk of the 17th century, what were compositions of his own, exhibiting a genius of no small literary, not to say lyric, power; having vainly endeavoured to persuade any one of their genuineness, though he had hopes of the patronage of Sir Robert Walpole, he left Bristol for London, and made vehement efforts with his pen to bespeak regard, but failed; grew desperate, and committed suicide at the early age of 18 (1752-1770).

CHAUCER, GEOFFREY, the great early English poet, and father of English poetry, the son of a vintner and taverner, born probably in London, where he lived almost all his days; when a lad, served as page in the royal household; won the favour and patronage of the king, Edward III. and his son, John of Gaunt, who pensioned him; served in an expedition to France; was made prisoner, but ransomed by the king; was often employed on royal emba.s.sies, in particular to Italy; held responsible posts at home; was thus a man of the world as well as a man of letters; he comes first before us as a poet in 1369; his poetic powers developed gradually, and his best and ripest work, which occupied him at intervals from 1373 to 1400, is his "CANTERBURY TALES" (q. v.), characterised by Stopford Brooke as "the best example of English story-telling we possess"; besides which he wrote, among other compositions, "The Life of St. Cecilia," "Troilus and Cressida," the "House of Fame," and the "Legend of Good Women"; his influence on English literature has been compared to that of Dante on Italian, and his literary life has been divided into three periods--the French, the Italian, and the English, according as the spirit of it was derived from a foreign or a native source (1340-1400).

CHAUMETTE, PIERRE GASPARD, a violent member of the extreme party in the French Revolution, could "recognise the suspect from the very face of them"; provoked the disgust of even Robespierre, and was arrested amid jeers and guillotined (1763-1794).

CHAUTAUQUA, a summer resort on a lake of the name in the W. of New York State, centre of a novel inst.i.tution, which prescribes a four years'

course of private readings, and grants diplomas to those who anywhere achieve it.

CHAUVINISM, a name among the French for what is known as Jingoism among the English, i. e. an extravagant zeal for the glory of one's country or party, from one _Chauvin_, who made threatening displays of his devotion to Napoleon after his fall in 1815.

CHEDDAR, a village in Somersets.h.i.+re, on the Mendip Hills, famous for its cheese.

CHEKE, SIR JOHN, a zealous Greek scholar, born at Cambridge, and first regius professor of Greek there; did much to revive in England an interest in Greek and Greek literature; was tutor to Edward VI., who granted him landed estates; favouring the cause of Lady Jane Grey on the accession of Mary, left the country, was seized, and sent back; for fear of the stake abjured Protestantism, but never forgave himself, and died soon after; he introduced the mode of p.r.o.nouncing Greek prevalent in England (1514-1557).

CHELMSFORD (11), the county town of Ess.e.x, on the Chelmer.

CHELSEA (96), a western suburb of London, on the N. of the Thames; famous for its hospital for old and disabled soldiers, and the place of residence of sundry literary celebrities, among others Sir Thomas More, Swift, Steele, and Carlyle.

CHELTENHAM (49), a healthy watering-place and educational centre in Gloucesters.h.i.+re; first brought into repute as a place of fas.h.i.+onable resort by the visits of George III. to it; contains a well-equipped college, where a number of eminent men have been educated.

CHELYUSKIN, CAPE, in Siberia, the most northerly point in the Eastern hemisphere.

CHEMICAL AFFINITY, the tendency elementary bodies have to combine and remain in combination.

CHEMISM, in the Hegelian philosophy "the mutual attraction, interpenetration, and neutralisation of independent individuals which unite to form a whole."

CHEMISTRY, the science that treats of elementary bodies and their combinations: _inorganic_, relating to physical compounds; _organic_, relating to vegetable and animal compounds.

CHEMNITZ (160), a manufacturing town in Saxony, called the "Saxon Manchester," at the foot of the Erzgebirge, in a rich mineral district; manufactures cottons, woollens, silks, machinery, &c.

CHEMNITZ, MARTIN, an eminent Lutheran theologian, born in Brandenburg, a disciple of Melanchthon; author of "Loci Theologici," a system of theology; took a leading part in procuring the adoption of the "Formula of Concord"; his chief work "Examen Concilii Tridentini"

(1522-1586).

CHEMOSH, the national G.o.d of the Moabites, akin to Moloch, and their stay in battle, but an abomination to the children of Jehovah.