112 



CHARGE 



CHARITIES 



Marne, 4 miles SE. of Paris. The bridge over the 

 river, which is important from a military point 

 of view, is defended by two forts forming a part 

 of the fortifications of Paris. At the other side 

 of the river is the National Lunatic Asylum. Pop. 

 (1872) 7141; (1886) 13,535; (1891) 14,458. 



Charge is the exposition of the law made by 

 the judge to the jury, in which he comments on 

 the evidence and instructs the jury as to the appli- 

 cation of the law to the facts. Charge is also the 

 exhortation of a bishop or archdeacon to the clergy. 



Charg6 d'Affaires is a fourth-class diplo- 

 matic agent, accredited, not to the sovereign, 

 but to the department for foreign affairs ; he also 

 holds his credentials only from the minister. See 

 AMBASSADOR. 



Chariot, in ancient times a kind of carriage 

 upon two wheels used both in peace and in war. 

 The Roman form, the currus, was entered from 

 behind, was closed in front and uncovered. It was 

 drawn by two, three, or four horses, and carried 

 either one or two persons, both standing. The 

 word biga is often applied to a two-horse chariot 

 for battle or for racing; triga was a name for a 

 chariot drawn by three horses yoked abreast, of 

 which two drew from the pole ; while the quadriga 

 was drawn by four horses abreast, the two centre 

 ones (jugales] only yoked, the two outside ones 

 (funales) being attached by ropes. The last was 

 a form common in the racing chariot of the 

 circus, and in processions. The currus triumphalis, 

 in which the Roman generals rode during their 

 triumphal entrance into the city, was a chariot 

 of particular form, being quite round and without 

 any side open, while its panels were richly decorated 

 with carvings in ivory. The Roman writers speak 

 of the use among the Britons and some other foreign 

 nations of war-chariots carrying iron blades or 

 scythes fixed to the end of the pole and axle-tree. 

 The war-chariot of the Homeric heroes (harma) was 

 somewhat lighter than the Roman currus, being 

 partly formed of open rail-work instead of panel- 

 ling. The oldest war-chariots of which we read are 

 those of Pharaoh ( Exodus, xiv. 7 ). All the eastern 

 nations used them, and many Assyrian tablets 

 represent heroes, such as Sennacherib or Esarhad- 

 don, riding in triumph at the head of their armies 

 in chariots much heavier but otherwise not unlike 

 the Roman forms of chariots with which we are 

 familiar. Two fine four-wheeled chariots with rich 

 ornamentation in bronze- work were dug up by Dr 

 Petersen in a peat-bog in Jutland in 1881 and 1883, 

 and dated by him a hundred years before Christ. 

 See ASSYRIA. 



Charities constitute a marked feature of 

 English life. There are also many excellent insti- 

 tutions in Germany and France. The Deaconess 

 House at Kaiserwerth, founded by Pastor Fliedner, 

 Father Zeller's School at Benggen, near Basel, the 

 Asylum for Poor Neglected Children at Dussel- 

 thal, the Blind School at Illzack, the Evangelical 

 Asylum for Discharged Male Prisoners at Lintorf, 

 the establishments of Mr J. Bost at Laforce 

 these with many others recur to the mind, and 

 forcibly testify to the amount of philanthropic 

 work being done on the Continent ; while in the 

 United States the splendid medical and kindred 

 benevolent institutions of New York and other 

 great towns bear Avitness to the sympathy and 

 beneficence of that large-hearted nation. But in 

 no country are so many charities of such wide and 

 far-reaching influence to be found as in Great 

 Britain. Taking as an example London alone, 

 there are no less than 1025 institutions of various 

 kinds. This does not include the different bequests 

 under the control of the opulent city companies, 

 which if counted separately would amount to as 



many as 300 more, or the smaller semi-religious 

 missions of which each parish", as a rule, possesses 

 two or three. Of the 1025 charities, 813 have been 

 established in the nineteenth century, and 58 since 

 the year 1879. The oldest institution is St Bar- 

 tholomew's Hospital, Smithfield, founded in 1123. 

 Next to this comes St Katharine's Hospital, insti- 

 tuted 1145, though the present building was erected 

 in 1827. The educational charities are mostly of 

 ancient origin, and the majority were founded in 

 the 16th century during the reigns of Edward 

 VI. and Elizabeth ; but some of less importance, in 

 the gift of the city companies, for the making of 

 small school grants and so on, are even still older. 

 In the 16th century such well-known institutions 

 as St Paul's School ( 1509), Christ's Hospital ( 1553), 

 St Peter's College, Westminster (1560), Merchant 

 Taylors' School ( 1561 ), and Sir Roger Cholmley's 

 School, Highgate (1565), were founded. There 

 are upwards of 80 different almshouse buildings 

 connected with the metropolis, affording shelter 

 to more than 2000 inmates. Many are of great 

 age some indeed, as land rose in value, have been 

 abolished, and the money thus gained devoted to 

 pensions ; the oldest are the Salters' Company's 

 Almshouses at Watford, founded in 1454. The 

 hospitals and dispensaries number 135. The longest 

 established are the general institutions ; those de- 

 voted to special forms of disease are of more recent 

 origin, a remark that applies with additional force 

 to the provident dispensaries. A curious feature is 

 to be noticed in the principal lying-in charities. 

 These were all founded between the years 1749 and 

 1765. For the missionary societies, see MISSIONS. 

 The institutions for the blind number 29 ; in 

 the majority of cases, the benefit conferred takes 

 the form of a small annuity or pension. A few 

 of the orphan asylums date their existence from 

 the middle of the last century, but the greater 

 proportion have been founded since 1850. It is 

 to this form of charity that the present generation 

 seems especially prone. Whereas in 1850 there 

 were only 17 institutions of this kind, there are 

 now 58. A great increase has also taken place in 

 the number of convalescent homes, reformatory 

 institutions, night refuges, and societies for the 

 relief of the destitute. Following the example 

 so admirably set at Kaiserwerth, various nursing 

 and philanthropic sisterhoods have been estab- 

 lished, and within the last five years no fewer 

 than three prominent charities have been formed 

 to provide poor city children with the means of 

 getting away for a limited period to the country 

 or seaside. Finally, it may be mentioned that 

 the receipts of the metropolitan charities for the 

 year 1887 amounted to upwards of 4,500,000. 



See Low's Handbook to the London Charities (annual), 

 and Fry's; De Liefde, The Charities of Europe (1865); 

 Cammann and Camp, The Charities of New York ( 1808) ; 

 Kenny, Legislation with regard to Property given for 

 Charitable Uses (1880). 



CHARITY COMMISSIONERS were first appointed in 

 1853, under an act for the better administration of 

 charitable trusts. For many years previous to 

 this the subject of the endowed charities had been 

 gradually growing in interest. The old Court of 

 Chancery, with its slow, cumbrous, and ruinously 

 expensive procedure, was felt to be out of date, a 

 new order of things was required, and in especial 

 some investigation into the condition of the chari- 

 table funds was needed. By an act dating so far 

 back as 1601 (43 Eliz. chap. 4), the Lord Chancellor 

 was empowered under certain conditions to appoint 

 commissioners of inquiry, but these commissions 

 had fallen into disuse, and action was now taken in 

 the person of the Attorney-general a method that 

 was at once calculated to give rise to many abuses, 

 and prove infinitely vexatious. The first endeavour 



