7*9 



CHAMELION MINERAL. 



CHANCELLOR. 



750 



his " ancient bill of fees " is 9U. is. a-year. He obtains an annual profit 

 of from WOOL to 2(KW. from balances of the corporation money retained 

 in his hands. This principle of remunerating a public officer having 

 been objected to by the Commissioners of Corporation Inquiry 

 (' Second Report,' p. 102), a new system is about (1859) to be 

 introduced. 



In the Exchequer Court of the County Palatine of Chester there 

 is a chamberlain, an office generally held by some nobleman ; and there 

 is also a vice-chamberlain. 



There wag an officer called the chamberlain in two hundred and 

 three of the municipal corporations investigated in 1834 by the Com- 



>ners of Corporation Inquirv. 



CHAMKL10N MINERAL. "[MAN-GASES:.; Manyanlc Acid.] 

 CHAMPAGNE WINE. [Wi>T-.] 



CHANCE. This word has been used in two senses, as opposed to 

 Providence, and as opposed to certainty. For the theory of chances, in 

 the latter sense, see PROBABILITIES, THEORY OF. 



CHANCE-MEDLEY, in English law, is a singular corruption of 

 rJtatidtmdlf, a term well known in old French legal phraseology, and 

 in the barbarous Latin of ancient ordinances translated calida metteia. 

 The term in French law denoted, consistently with its etymology, a 

 casual affray or broil, accompanied with heat or violence, but without 

 deliberation or preconceived malice. (Ducange, 'Gloss.' Meslie.) In 

 English law, it can hardly be doubted that chance-medley originally 

 meant the same thing ; but in modern times the expression is limited 

 to a particular kind of homicide, namely, the killing another in self- 

 defence upon a sudden and unpremeditated encounter. There is often 

 much difficulty in distinguishing homicide by chance-medley, which, 

 though an offence by law, is excusable on Hie ground of self-defence, 

 from the crime of manslaughter. The general distinction is, that if 

 both parties are actually fitting, he who gives the mortal stroke is 

 guilty of manslaughter ; but if one of them at first refuses to fight, 

 ami on being closely pressed, retreats as far as he can , and at lost, in 

 order to avoid his own destruction, kills his antagonist, this is homi- 

 i i')n excusable on the ground of self-defence ; or, as ft is inaccurately 

 called, chance-medley. (Foster's Ooira Lav, tit. ' Homicide.') 



CHANCEL, that part of a church east of, or beyond, the nave, in 

 which the communion table or altar is placed, with the area before 

 it. in which the congregation assemble when tfee Eucharist is admi- 

 nistered. This part of a church was often separated from the nave 

 or body of the church by lattice work. ,,,.,//;, and it was -from this 

 circuniBtance that the term chancel seems to have originated. The 

 use of the term is restricted to parish churches and churches which 

 have no great choir, and no aisle or chapels around the choir or chancel. 

 The great arch dividing the chancel from the nave in Gothic chairches 

 is allied the chancel arch and is regarded by ecclesiological writers 

 as symbolising the gate of heaven. 



In gome churches we may hear of the chancel of a particular 

 family. This is in cases m which some particular family has Lad 

 a private oratory within the chrrrch, which has usually been also the 

 burial place <>f the family. These private chapels or chantries are 

 sometimes called chancels, for the same reason that the great choir 

 is sometimes so called ; that is, in consequence of being divided from 

 the rest of the church by canrelli. 



CHANCELLOR (in Latin, Canceflar/ns). The primary meaning of 

 cancellarius is " qui ad cancellos assistit," one who is stationed at the 

 lattice-work of a window or a doorway, to introduce visitors, &e. A 

 cancellarius in this sense was no more than a door-keeper. The 

 emperor Carinus made one of his cancellarii prefect of the city, a 

 promotion which caused great dissatisfaction. (Vopiscus, 'Carinus.') 

 In another sense, cancellarins was a kind of legal scribe, so called also 

 from his position at the cancelli of the courts of law. The cancellarius, 

 miller the later emperors, and in the Constantinopolitan court, was a 

 chief scribe or secretary (6 filyas \oyoftfnts), who was ultimately in- 

 vested with judicial powers, and a general superin tendency over the 

 rest of the officers of the emperor. He was called cancellarius because 

 he sat irUra canceHoe (within the lattice), a screen dividing off a portion 

 of a larger room for the sake of greater privacy ; from which circum- 

 stance the chancel of a church also acquires its name. 



The prelates of the Roman church had likewise an officer so called ; 



in tin; Church of England, each bishop has a chancellor, to whom are 



ted judicial functions. All the modern nations of Europe had 



a chancellor, though his powers and duties seem to have varied in 



each. 



In England the chancellor was originally the king's chief secretary, 

 to whom petitions were referred, by whom patents and grants from 

 th<; crown were approved and completed, and by whom reports upon 

 iiatterw were, if necessary, made to tie king; hence he was some- 

 times styled ReferendariuH. This term occurs in a charter of Ethelbert, 

 A.D. 605 ; and Selden considers it synonymous with chancellor, a name 

 which, he says, first occurs, in the history of England, in the tune of 

 Kdward the Elder, about 920. 



In the capacity of secretary he was the adviser of his master ; pre- 

 pared and made out his mandates, grants, and charters, and finally 

 (when seals came into use) affixed his seal. Hence, or perh: 

 cause in early times he was usually an ecclesiastic, he became keeper 

 of the king's conscience, examiner of his patents, the officer by Whom 

 prerogative write were prepared, and keeper of the great Beal. The 



last ecclesiastic who exercised the office was John Williams, archbishop 

 of York, who was lord keeper from July 10, 1621, to November 1, 

 1625 ; his friend and secretary, John Racket, who became bishop of 

 Lichfield and Coventry, wrote his life in a volume of singular interest, 

 which he entitled ' Scrinia Reserata.' 



In early times, and before tie precise limits and extent of the juris- 

 diction of the different courts of justice were clearly defined, the 

 special interference of the crown, as the fountain of justice, was fre- 

 quently sought against the decisions of the courts of law ; as well as 

 in matters which were not cognisable in the ordinary courts, or in 

 which, from the maintenance or protection afforded to his adversary, 

 the petitioner was unable to obtain redress. The jurisdiction witli 

 which the modern chancellor is invested, thus had its origin in that 

 discretionary power, that ultimate jurisdiction to administer justice, 

 which remained in the crown on the establishment of courts of justice 

 with properly defined authority ; therefore, although the exercise of 

 those powers in modem times is scarcely, if at all, less circumscribed 

 and hemmed in by rule and precedent than the strict jurisdiction of 

 the courts of law, controversies have occasionally arisen as to the 

 powers of the chancellor, the. most celebrated being that between Sir 

 Edmund Coke and Lord Chancellor Ellesruere. 



The style of this officer in England is, since the union with Scotland, 

 Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain. He takes rank above all duke.s 

 not of the blood royal, and next to the archbishop of Canterbury. HP 

 is appointed by the delivery of the great seal into his custody, and the 

 resumption of the great seal by the sovereign determines his office. 

 By virtue of his office he is the principal adviser of the crown in matters 

 of law, and a privy counsellor, speaker and prolocutor of the House of 

 Lords, chief judge in the court of chancery, and the head of the pro- 

 fession of the law ; visitor in right of the crown of all hospitals and 

 colleges of royal foundation ; and patron of all crown livings under the 

 value of 20/. a year, according to the valuation made in the reign of 

 Henry VIII., and confirmed in that of Elizabeth. He appoints nearly 

 all the judges of the superior courts (the prime minister of the day 

 nominating the two chief justices), the commissioners in bankruptcy, 

 and the judges of the county courts. He also appoints and removes 

 all justices of the peace, though usually -only at the recommendation 

 of lords-lieutenant of counties. He issues writs for summoning par- 

 liaments, and transacts all business connected with the custody and 

 use of the great seal. He is a conservator of the peace, and may award 

 precepts and take recognisances to keep the peace ; and has concurrent 

 jurisdiction with the other judges of the superior courts, with respect 

 to writs of habeas corptis. Except in the case of service of process, given 

 to him by some recent statutes, the lord chancellor has no jurisdiction 

 in Scotland. 



The authority of lord chancellor and lord keeper are made the samp 

 by the Stat. 5 Eliz. c. 18, though it is not now customary to appoint a 

 lord keeper. The last lord keeper was Lord Henley, in 1757. The 

 great seal is, however, sometimes put into commission during the 

 temporary vacancy of the office or the sickness of the chancellor, the 

 seal being entrusted to the chief commissioner. 



Tl.e chancellor is not only a judicial officer of the crown, but he has 

 important political functions ; he has a seat in the cabinet, and usually 

 takes au active part in public measures. He resigns office with the 

 party to which he is attached. The inconvenience and necessary delay 

 arising from his removal during the pendency of suite in his own 

 court and before the House of Lords, and the arrear of business caused 

 by the variety of duties which he is called \ipon to perform, have 

 suggested the necessity of some alteration in the constitution of the 

 office. Many expedients have been tried : vice-chancellors have been 

 appointed ; the master of the rolls has been empowered to assist in the 

 usual and ordinary functions of the court of chancery; a court of 

 appeal in chancery has been constituted ; and a number of useful and 

 important reforms have been made in the subordinate offices of the 

 court. But such is the pressure of business on this great officer, that 

 all these means have been ineffectual to remedy the inconvenience of 

 so many important duties being devolved on one individual. Various 

 propositions for the creation of a ministry of justice have been made ; 

 and it is not improbable that, before long, material alterations in the 

 nature and duties of this great office will be effected. 



By the Stat. 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. Ill, in consideration that the chan- 

 cellor had lost the patronage of certain offices then abolished, the 

 crown is empowered to grant an annuity of 5000L a year to the lord 

 chancellor or lord keeper on his resignation of office. There is also a 

 lord high chancellor of Ireland, whose authority within his own juris- 

 diction is in most respects the same as that of the lord high chancellor 

 of Great Britain. (Selden, ' Off. Oh. ;' Blackst. ' Comm. ;' Story ' on 

 Equity Jurisprudence.') 



The Chancellor of a Church or of a Bishop is vicar-general to the 

 oi.shop, holds his courts, and directs and assists him in matters of 

 ecclesiastical law. He has a freehold in his office, and he is not neces- 

 sarily an ecclesiastic ; but if he is a layman, or married, he must be a 

 doctor of the civil law. (Blackst. ' Comm.,' 37 H. VIII. c. 17.) 



The Chancellor of a Cathedral is an officer who superintends the 

 regularity of the religious services. 



The Chancellor of the Ihicliy of Lancaster presides either in person or 

 by deputy in the court of the duchy of Lancaster, concerning all 

 matters of equity relating to lands holden of the king, in right of the 



