CREDIT FONCIER 



lilii.-uiaiis. His tragedy of Catiliiui, for which the 

 kin- t'limisli.-.l tin- projierties, was brought out 

 \\itli -i. 'at success in 174S. Aiming his other 

 works wen Siinirmnis, 1'yrrhius, and Le 



Triit iin-init, the last of which was written when 

 he waa eighty one years old. He died on June 17, 

 17o-_'. llr \\as a very unequal writer. An oppres- 

 sive gloom pervades the tragedies which he founded 

 on ( Ireek legend ; Imt occasionally he writes natur- 

 ally and powerfully. ' Not a few of his verses have 

 a grandeur which has been said to be hardly di- 

 ro\eral>le elseu here in French tragedy between 

 Corneille and Hugo' (Saint. shiny ). Next to Vol- 

 taire, he was the oest tragic dramatist of his age 

 in I 'ranee. There are editions of his works by 

 Perelle (2 vols. 1828) and Vitu (1885). CLAUDE 

 PROSPER JOLYOT DE CREBILLON, the younger son 

 of the dramatist, was lorii in Paris on February 

 14, 1707. He was educated at the Jesuit College 

 of Louis le Grand, and after writing a number of 

 slight pieces for the stage, acquired great popu- 

 larity as an author of prose fiction. In 1740 he 

 married an Englishwoman, Lady Stafford. One of 

 his hooks. Le Sopha, conte moral, having given 

 offence to Madame de Pompadour by its indecency, 

 he was banished from Pans for five years, but on 

 his return in 1755 was appointed to the censorship. 

 He was believed by his friends to be dead long 

 before he died on April 12, 1777. 



Creche (Fr., 'manger'), a sort of public nursery 

 where, for a small payment, the children of women 

 who have to go out to work are fed, nursed, and 

 taken care of during the work hours of the day. 



Cre"cy-en-Ponthieii, or CRESSY, a village 

 in the French department of Somme, on the Maye, 

 12 miles N. of Abbeville. Crecy is celebrated on 

 account of the brilliant victory obtained here, 26th 

 August 1346, by Edward III., with 40,000 English 

 soldiers, over a French army amounting, according 

 to Froissart, to 100,000 men under the command of 

 the Count of Alencon. In this great battle, one of 

 the most honourable to English prowess recorded in 

 history, perished the flower of the French chivalry, 

 as well as the blind king of Bohemia, who was 

 fighting on the side of France. Altogether about 

 30,000 of the French soldiers bit the dust. In 

 this battle the Black Prince distinguished himself 

 greatly, and gained his spurs (see the article ICH 

 DIENJ. Pop. 1382. 



Credence, a small table placed near the altar 

 or communion-table, at its south side, on which 

 the bread and wine intended for consecration are 

 placed in readiness. In the Greek Church this is 

 called the trupeza nrotheseos, or simply prothesis, 

 but is always placed north of the altar, usually in a 

 structural side-chapel. Archbishop Laud was a 

 great stickler for the credence, and pleaded the 

 authority of Bishop Andrewes and other bishops for 

 its use. There are ancient credences in various 

 Anglican churches ; among others, in the Collegiate 

 and St John's churches, Manchester, and in the 

 parish church at Ludlow, where they have been in 

 use from time immemorial. Sometimes the place 

 of the credence was supplied by a mere shelf across 

 the Fenestella, or a nicne in tne south wall of the 

 chancel. The term was also used for a buffet, or 

 sideboard, at which the meats were tasted in early 

 times before being presented to the guests, as a 

 precaution against poison. Hence the origin of the 

 word, which is derived from the Ital. credenzare, to 

 taste meats and drinks before they were offered 

 to another, an ancient court practice, which was 

 performed by the cup-l>earer8 and carvers, who for 

 this reason were called in (lor. rm// //;/. The 

 usage is still observed at Rome when the pope cele- 

 brates mass, some of the wafers and of the wine to 

 be offered being tasted by the assistant ministers 



before they are brought to him as oblation. The 

 introduction or restoration of credence* in one of 

 those restitutions of old usage* which marked 

 the Oxford movement in England ; and they have 

 been judicially pronounced legal omamento of the 

 churcn, as subsidiary or auxiliary to the celebrating 

 of Holy Communion, in order to compliance with 

 the rubrics in that part of the Common Prayer- 

 book. 



Credentials, papers or letters given to an 

 ambassador, or other public minister, to a foreign 

 court, in order to enable him to claim the confi- 

 dence of the court to which he is sent. 



Credit, in Political Economy, may be defined 

 as the power to make use of another man's wealth. 

 It rests on the simple fact that when one man has 

 more wealth than he proposes to use himself, he i 

 ready, for a consideration, to lend it to another. 

 The wealth thus lent may be used for purposes 

 either of production or consumption, though the 

 great function of credit in modern industry is to- 

 furnish the means of production to those who are in 

 need of them. Credit of course is not capital, but 

 it enables one man to utilise the capital of another. 

 The credit system is an elaborate system of appli- 

 ances and institutions, by which facilities for lending 

 and borrowing are provided. Bills and bank-notes- 

 are well-known instruments of credit. Banks are the 

 most notable institutions of credit, which is further 

 facilitated by companies of every kind, designed to- 

 transmit superabundant capital to the most distant 

 colonies and to all the ends of the earth. Credit 

 is thus a mighty organ of industry, whose opera- 

 tions are co-extensive with the world, but it has 

 attained to this far-reaching and cosmopolitan 

 position only in comparatively recent times. Yet 

 it is also one of the oldest phenomena in the his- 

 tory of society, marked by usages and laws, which 

 are of the highest interest and importance. Credit 

 is found in the earliest communities, one of its 

 most striking forms being in the relations of the 

 primitive farming class to the money-lender. It 

 was considerably developed in ancient Greece and 

 Rome, as also in the commercial Phoenician states 

 on the Mediterranean. During the middle ages it 

 grew up in the Italian republics, and afterwards 

 in the cities of Germany and the Netherlands. 

 But its vast extension dates from the great develop- 

 ment of commerce and industry connected with 

 the United States, India, and the colonies, com- 

 bined with the utilisation of ste m and the electric 

 telegraph. In short the development of the credit 

 system has gone hand in hand with the develop- 

 ment of modern industry. While the credit system 

 has thus so powerfully aided the development of 

 industry by supplying capital to those who have 

 ability and opportunity to utilise it, it is needless 

 to say that it has led to many abuses. In early 

 communities the creditor had power to enslave, 

 maim, or even to slay the debtor. In modern 

 times, by rendering capital accessible to adventurers 

 of every class, it has occasionally given scope for the 

 wildest and most dishonest speculation. 



Credit, CASH. See CASH A< v< > t M-. 



Credit Foneier ( ' landed credit ' ), a system of 

 lending money on the security of landed property, 

 established in France by an edict of 28th February 

 1852. Its peculiarity is that the loan is repayable 

 by a terminable annuity, the amount and currency 

 of the annuity being so calculated that when the 

 last payment is made, the loan and the interest on 

 it will \te extinguished. Or it may l>e descrilied as 

 a loan repayable by instalments. The borrower, 

 however, has the right of anticipating repayment. 

 The system is precisely regulated bv the edict, 

 which prohibits an advance to more than one-half 

 of the value of the property pledged or hypothecated. 



