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CHANCERY 



CHANDLER 



same- thing, that a particular homicide was justi- 

 fiable because it was done in the hot blood caused 

 by an unprovoked assault. The phrase has no 

 reference to homicide by accident. See MAN- 

 SLAUGHTER, SANCTUARY. 



Chancery, the office of a chancellor or ambas- 

 sador ; a place in which writs, &c. are prepared and 

 formally recorded. In England the Chancery was 

 in early times the office in which writs a,nd forms 

 of process were prepared ; some of these forms being 

 kept in the Hanaper or hamper, and some in the 

 Petty Bag. When the chancellor became a judi- 

 cial officer of the first rank, the COURT OF CHAN- 

 CERY exercised a very wide jurisdiction. The 

 court could not maintain its hold on criminal 

 cases, or on civil cases in which the common-law 

 courts could do adequate justice ; but the equit- 

 able jurisdiction of the court was established, after 

 a keen struggle with the common lawyers. The 

 assistance of the chancellor, as ' keeper of the 

 king's conscience,' was invoked in cases where the 

 common law might work injustice. A trustee, for 

 example, was in law the owner of the trust pro- 

 perty, but the Court of Chancery, which acted in 

 personam, would compel him to render an account 

 of his trust to the beneficial owner. This power to 

 enforce equitable claims gave the court an adminis- 

 trative jurisdiction which was used for the protec- 

 tion of infants, married women, mortgagors, &c. 

 The prejudice of the common lawyers against the 

 court was due to the fact that its extensive powers 

 were exercised at the discretion of the chancellor, 

 and not according to settled rules. So late as the 

 time of Charles II., Shaftesbury was thought to be 

 a good chancellor, though he was not a lawyer. A 

 succession of eminent chancellors, from Lord Not- 

 tingham to Lord Eldon, developed the rules of 

 equity into a logical system. They did so, it must 

 be admitted, at the expense of unfortunate suitors ; 

 and the Court of Chancery became a byword for 

 delay and expense. Some of the evils satirised, 

 and somewhat exaggerated, by Dickens in Bleak 

 House (1853) have been removed by modem 

 legislation. 



The judges of the Court of Chancery were the 

 Lord Chancellor, the Master of the Rolls (originally 

 a subordinate officer, but afterwards an independ- 

 ent judge), a Vice-chancellor added in 1813, and 

 two more Vice-chancellors added in 1841, when the 

 equity business of the Court of Exchequer was 

 transferred. Two Lords Justices of Appeal were 

 added in 1851. On the passing of the Judicature 

 Acts the inconvenient and indefensible distinction 

 between courts of equity and law was abolished, 

 and the judges of the Court of Chancery became 

 members of the Court of Appeal, or of the Chancery 

 Division of the High Court of Justice. 



Among the officers of the Court of Chancery were 

 the MASTERS IN CHANCERY, whose office is now 

 abolished, their duties being for the most part 

 assigned to the chief-clerks in the Chancery 

 Division. The office of Accountant-general is also 

 abolished, and Her Majesty's Paymaster-general 

 is charged with the duty of accounting for funds 

 ' in Chancery ' i.e. for cash and stocks standing in 

 the account of any cause or matter before the 

 court. In 1886 there were 39,944 accounts open ; 

 the balance of stocks was 71,946,527; balance 

 of cash, 3,931,054. In 1893 the total funds 

 were 65,481,866. The dormant and unclaimed 

 Chancery funds are only about 1,000,000, mostly 

 in very small sums. Under an Act of 1872, un- 

 claimed balances are transferred to the National 

 Debt Commissioners, but the Consolidated Fund 

 is liable in respect of any claim on these balances. 



In various British colonies Courts of Chancery 

 have been established, and the distinction between 

 courts of law and equity has been preserved. But 



in the colonies and the United States, as in Eng- 

 land, the ' fusion of law and equity ' has been 

 effected by legislation. The anomalies of the old 

 system have been removed ; but many of the 

 distinctive doctrines and rules of the Court of 

 Chancery remain. In several of the original 

 thirteen states there are distinct Courts of, 

 Chancery, but in most of the United States 

 equity powers have been conferred on the higher 

 law-courts, and the principles of equity are 

 administered therein. By the United States 

 constitution and several Acts of Congress, equity 

 powers commensurate with those of the Court of 

 Chancery in England were conferred on the Federal 

 Courts. 



The CHANCERY OFFICE, in Scotland, is an office 

 in the General Register House at Edinburgh, man- 

 aged by a director, in which all royal charters of 

 novodamus, patents of dignities, gifts of offices, re- 

 missions, legitimations, presentations, commissions, 

 and other writs appointed to pass the Great and 

 Quarter Seals, are recorded. Prior to 1874 a great 

 number of royal charters by progress passed through 

 this office ; and this is still done with regard to 



Erecepts from Chancery in favour of heirs in crown 

 oldings. It is the duty of the director to keep a. 

 record of the decrees of service pronounced in favour 

 of heirs by the Sheriff of Chancery, who holds a 

 special court in Edinburgh for considering such 

 petitions, and to send printed indexes of his record 

 to the sheriff-clerks in the various counties. The 

 record kept by the director also includes the decrees 

 of service pronounced in the different sheriff-courts, 

 and of these the director is bound to furnish 

 extracts. See SEAL. 



Chancre. See SYPHILIS. 



Chanda, chief town of a district of India, on 

 the south-west frontier of the Central Provinces, 

 90 miles S. of Nagpur. Its stone battlernented 

 walls are 5 miles round, and 15 to 20 feet high. 

 Pop. 16,137. 



ChandailSi, a town of the North-west Pro- 

 vinces of India, 27 miles S. of Moradabad. Pop. 

 28,111. 



Chanderi, a town of Central India, 105 miles 

 S. of Gwalior. It is now an insignificant place, but 

 its fort and many ruined buildings attest its 

 strength and splendour in former times, when it is 

 said to have contained 14,000 stone houses (not 

 to speak of mosques), and 360 caravanserais. 



Cliandernagore (properly Chandan-nagar, 

 ' city of sandahvood '), a French city, with a scanty 

 territory of about 3^ sq. m., on the right bank 

 of the Hugli, 22 miles above Calcutta by rail. 

 Established in 1673, the place for a while rivalled 

 Calcutta ; now, through the gradual silting up of 

 the river, it has lost most of its commercial advan- 

 tages, and has little external trade. It is the seat 

 of a French sub-governor, with a few soldiers, and 

 has in all a population of 25,395, including some 

 500 Europeans and Eurasians. The town was 

 bombarded and captured by the English in 1757, 

 restored in 1763, twice retaken, and finally restored 

 to the French in 1816. 



Chandler, RICHARD, a learned classical archre- 

 ologist, was born at Elson, Hants, in 1738, and edu- 

 cated at Winchester and at Queen's and Magdalen 

 colleges, Oxford. His first important work was 

 Marmora Oxoniensia (1763), an elaborate descrip- 

 tion of the Oxford marbles. He afterwards trav- 

 elled through Greece and Asia Minor, with Revett, 

 architect, and Pars, a painter, at the expense of 

 the Dilettanti Society, to examine and describe the 

 antiquities. The materials collected were given to 

 the world in the following publications : Ionian 

 Antiquities (1769), Inscriptiones Antiques (1774), 

 Travels in Asia Minor (1775), and Travels in Greece 



