128 



CHARTERS TOWERS 



CHARTISM 



original condition, except where that condition is 

 altered by perils of the sea, hostile force, and 

 inevitable accident. It is now common, however, 

 by indemnity clauses in charter-parties to protect 

 the owner from liability for every damage that can 

 be covered by insurance. By statute, owners are 

 not liable for fire, or for the fault of a compulsory 

 pilot ; and in no case are they liable beyond a sum 

 representing 15 per ton of the ship's measurement. 

 It is always an important question whether the 

 arrangements made about the ship place the 

 charterer in the position of an owner, or whether 

 the owner retains such a possession and control 

 of the ship as to be able to exercise a lien for 

 freight, and on the other hand to incur liability 

 for repairs and supplies, and for damages caused 

 by negligence of the master or crew. 



In the United States, the law relating to charter- 

 parties is the same as that which has just been 

 explained. When the charterer has complete con- 

 trol over the voyage, he is generally considered the 

 owner for the voyage. But if the charter-party lets 

 only the use of the vessel, the owner retaining 

 possession and control over its navigation, the char- 

 terer is regarded as merely a contractor for a par- 

 ticular service, and the rights and duties of the 

 owner are unchanged. The usual printed parts of 

 a charter-party are construed like covenants in a 

 deed, but charter-parties are often informal instru- 

 ments, and are therefore construed as liberally as 

 other mercantile contracts, preserving the inten- 

 tion of the parties. The courts incline to construe 

 a charter-party as a contract for affreightment, 

 charging the shipowners as carriers. 



Charters Towers, a mining township of 

 North-east Queensland, situated on the northern 

 spurs of the Towers Mountain, 820 miles NW. of 

 Brisbane. It dates from the gold discovery here 

 of 1871-72, and was incorporated in 1877. It has 

 railway connection with Townsville on the coast. 

 Up till 1891, when the pop. was 4597 (of the field, 

 14,129), the gold-field had yielded over 2,300,000 oz. 



Chartier, ALAIN, who was born at Bayeux in 

 1386, and died before 1441 perhaps in 1435 lived 

 at the court of Charles VI. and Charles VII. 

 as secretary. According to a famous (but quite 

 unhistorical ) story, the Dauphine Margaret, 

 daughter of James I. of Scotland, and herself 

 a poetess, once kissed him as he lay asleep, in 

 token of her admiration of his verses. His chief 

 poetical piece is the Livre des Qtiatre Dames, 

 which was written shortly after Agincourt, and in 

 which four ladies alternately bewail the deaths 

 of their lovers who fell in the battle. The senti- 

 ment of the poem is sincere, and the expression 

 is often graceful and dignified. Chartier showed 

 considerable skill in handling the ballade and 

 other lyrical forms, but he is more interesting as 

 a prose-writer than as a poet. In his own day 

 he was known as the ' father of eloquence. ' His 

 chief prose works are Le Curial, an exposure of 

 the vices of the court ; L'Esperance, an attack on 

 the corruption of the clergy ; and the Quadriloge 

 Invectif, a noble appeal to Frenchmen to unite for 

 the deliverance of their land from the foreigner. 

 Chartier was a sincere patriot, and his writing 

 often rises into grave and moving eloquence. 

 He bravely espoused the cause of the oppressed 

 labouring class, and he did much to re-animate his 

 countrymen in their struggle with England. ' It 

 is the eternal glory of Alain Chartier, ' says M. 

 Geruzez, ' to have announced the mission of Jeanne 

 d'Arc.' His writings summoned his countrymen 

 to the task which they performed under the Maid 

 of Orleans. He has not received the attention 

 which he deserves. There is no better edition 

 of his works than Duchesne's (1617). See mono- 



graphs by Delauuay (1876) and Joret-Desclosieres 

 (1877). 



Chartism, a movement in Great Britain for 

 the extension of political power to the working- 

 classes, rising out of widespread national distress 

 and popular disappointment with the results of 

 the Reform Bill of 1832. Before that period the 

 middle classes had sought popular aid towan 

 obtaining their own enfranchisement. The assist 

 ance was given, the people expecting to receive 

 help in their turn. After the passing of the Reform 

 Bill, agitation ceased for a time, and the members 

 returned to parliament were indifferent, or opposed, 

 to any further change in the political arrangements 

 of the country. The middle classes were satisfied 

 with their own success, and generally looked with 

 small favour on projects for the further extension 

 of political influence among the masses. Lord John 

 Russell especially deprecated further change as a 

 breach of faith with those who had carried the 

 Reform Bill of 1832. This political discontent on 

 the part of the workmen was greatly increased by 

 the misery due to failing harvests and to a season 

 of commercial depression which set in about 1837. 

 Food became dear, wages fell, factories were closed, 

 and work was scarce. The people associated their 

 sufferings with their want of direct influence upon 

 the government, and agitation for an extended 

 franchise began. 



In 1838 the representatives of the working-men 

 drew up a programme embodying their views on 

 political reform, and called the ' People's Charter.' 

 Its six ' points ' were : (1) Manhood suffrage ; (2) 

 equal electoral districts; (3) vote by ballot; (4). 

 annual parliaments ; (5) abolition of property quali- 

 fication for members of the House of Commons ; 

 and (6) payment of members of parliament for 

 their services. The programme thus drawn up 

 was received with enthusiasm. Immense meet- 

 ings, attended by enormous crowds of people, 

 were held all over the country. The most pro- 

 minent leader of the Chartist agitation was Feargus 

 O'Connor, an Irishman, whose paper the Northern 

 Star had a circulation of 50,000. Others were 

 Attwood, Lovett, Stephens, Vincent, Ernest Jones, 

 and Thomas Cooper. The mass of the work- 

 ing-men in the industrial centres supported the 

 movement ; and while many of them exclusively 

 advocated an appeal to moral force, a great number 

 insisted on violent methods. A body calling itself 

 the National Convention, elected by the Chartists 

 throughout the kingdom, met in London and after- 

 wards in Birmingham in 1839. It proposed to the 

 people various means of coercing the legislature into 

 submission, recommending, among other things, a 

 run on the savings-banks for gold, abstinence from 

 excisable articles, exclusive dealing, and in the 

 last resort, universal cessation from labour. Dur- 

 ing its sittings a collision took place with the 

 military in Birmingham. Public meetings were 

 forbidden, and alarming excesses were committed 

 by the irritated mob. In June 1839 a petition in 

 favour of the Charter was presented to the House of 

 Commons signed by 1,280,000 persons. The House 

 refused to name a day for its consideration, by a 

 majority of 237 to 148, and the National Conven- 

 tion retaliated by advising the people to cease 

 from work throughout the country. Fortunately, 

 this advice was not followed ; but the disturbances 

 increased, and in November an outbreak at New- 

 port, in Monmouthshire, took place, which resulted 

 in the death of ten persons and the wounding 

 of great numbers. For taking part in this wild 

 insurrection, three of its leaders were sentenced to 

 death, but their punishment was afterwards com- 

 muted to transportation. In 1842 great riots took 

 place in the northern and midland districts, not 

 directly originated by the Chartists, but encouraged 



