765 



CHARTER-HOUSE. 



CHASING OP METALS. 



ree 



of parliameut ; and if once deputed to a legislative assembly or other 

 local government, possessing rights and liberties denned by charter, 

 cannot be recalled. 



J. ('hauler- < 'f private persons are the title-deeds of lands, many of 

 which are the ancient grants of feudal lords to their tenants. These 

 pass with the land as incident thereto, and belong to him who has the 

 inheritance, or, if the land be conveyed to another and his heirs, the 

 charters belong to the feoffee. A charter of the crown, granted at the 

 suit of the grantee, is construed most beneficially for the crown, and 

 against the party ; but a private charter is construed most strongly 

 against the grantor. 



CHARTER-HOUSE, London. Sir Walter de Manny, knight, a 

 stranger born, lord of the town of Manny, In the diocese of Cambray, 

 in the Netherlands, who for services rendered to King Edward III. 

 was made one of the first knights of the order of the garter, in the 

 year of the great plague, 1349, bought a piece of ground without the 

 bar of West Smithfield, which he inclosed and had consecrated for the 

 burial of the dead, and where, in that year alone, more than 50,000 

 bodies are said to have been interred. It was thereupon called the 

 New Church-Hawe, and a chapel was built, wherein, about the year 

 1360, Sir Walter de Manny intended to found a college for a warden 

 'ii and twelve secular priests; but in the next year that design 

 was altered, when Michael de Northburgh, bishop of London, joined 

 with him in the building and endowing a priory in this place for 

 double the number of Carthusian monks, which was to be called 

 " The Salutation of the Mother of God," and the foundation appears 

 to have been finished about 1370. The gross revenue of this house 

 at its surrender to King Henry VIII., June 10, 1535, amounted to 

 7-W. 2.. "(I. , its clear income to 642/. 0*. l^cl. per annum. Bear- 

 croft, in his ' Historical Account,' says the site of this house was first 

 granted June 12, 1542, to John Bridges and Thomas Hale, for then- 

 joint lives ; and April 14, 1555, to Sir Edward North, who was made 

 a baron, 1st Manic : his son.Roger Lord North, sold it May 31, 1565, 

 to the duke of Norfolk, for 2500t, whose son, Thomas Howard, earl 

 of Suffolk, sold it in the 9th Jac. I., to Thomas Suttou, Esq., for 

 '/., who founded upon it, and largely endowed, a most magnifi- 

 cent hospital, consisting of a master, preacher, a head schoolmaster, 

 a second master, with forty-four boys and eighty decayed gentlemen, 

 who have been soldiers or merchants, besides a physician, chirurgeons, 

 registrar, and other officers and servants of the house. Besides the 

 scholars upon the foundation, whose number is now limited to forty- 

 two, the masters are allowed to receive certain others, whose number 

 fluctuates from one to two hundred. The Charter-House is considered 

 i the first schools of the metropolis. Among the eminent 

 persons who have received their education there, may be enumerated 

 Dr. Isaac Barrow, the mathematician ; Addisou ; Steele ; Dr. Benson, 

 bishop of Gloucester ; Sir William Blackstoue ; the Rev. Dr. Charles 

 Burney ; and the late Sir Henry Havelock. 



The Charter- House, no doubt, derives its name from a corruption 

 , a monastery of Carthusians. The persecution of certain 

 - of this house forma a striking feature in the history of the 

 Reformation of the time of Henry VII I. 



(See Dugdale's Moiuwlifon, new edit., vol. vi.. p. 6 ; Tanner's Notlt. 

 Monait., edit. Nasmith, Midd. viii., 3 ; Bearcroft's Hist. Account of 

 Tli'n.i'i* S,,r/n,i, En)., 8vo, Lond,, 1737.) 



CHARTER-PARTY. [Siirrs.] 



CHARTISTS, the name given to a political party in this country, 

 who propose extensive alterations in the representative system, as the 

 most direct means of attaining social improvement, and whose views 

 are developed in a document called the " People's Charter." The 

 principal points of this proposed charter are, universal suffrage, vote 

 by ballot, annual parliaments, the division of the country into equal 

 electoral districts, the abolition of property qualification in meml UTS 

 tying them for their services. The principles of the charter and 

 arm of carrying them into effect have also been embodied in the 

 fcjrni of a bill. It wan prepared in 1838, by six members of the House 

 iiuons and six members of the London Working Men's Associa- 

 tion ; and the following are the most important of its enactments: 

 I. The prepare of the Bill allege the low state of public feeling as an 

 V for not admitting women to the franchise, and it is therefore 

 only provided that every male inhabitant be entitled to vote for the 

 election of a member of the Commons' House of Parliament, subject 

 however to the following conditions : 1. That he be a native of these 

 realms, or a foreigner who has lived in this country upwards of two 

 yearn, and has been naturalised. 2. That he be twenty-one years of age 



3. That he be not proved insane when the lists of voters are revised. 



4. That he be not convicted of felony within six months from and 

 after the panging of this Act. 5 That his electoral rights be not 

 Hiispended for bribery at elections, or for personation, or for forgery 



'rti Beaten, according to the penalties of this Act. II. That 



the United KiiiK<l"m \: dividi-d int.. .; I i-ctoral districts, so as to 



give uniform constituencies of about 20,000 voters each. III. That 

 the votes b taken by ballot. IV. That a new parliament be elected 

 annually; that the elections take place on the same day in all the 

 districts; and that electors vote only for the representative of the 

 ilittriet in nhich they are registered. V, That no other qualification 

 be required fur members than the choice of the electors. VI. That 

 every member be paid 600/, a year out of the public treasury for 



his legislative services; and that a register be kept of the daily 

 attendance of each member. 



There is nothing new in the principles or details of the People',; 

 Charter. They have either separately, or some one or other of them 

 in conjunction, been a prominent subject of discussion at various 

 intervals within the last eighty years. In 1780 the Duke of Rich- 

 mond introduced a bill into the House of Lords for annual parliaments 

 and universal suffrage. In the same year the electors of Westminster 

 appointed a committee to take into consideration the election of 

 members of the House of Commons, and in their report they recom- 

 mend the identical points which now constitute the main features of 

 what is called the People's Charter. The Society of the Friends of the 

 People, established in 1792, three years afterwards published a declara- 

 tion which recommended a very large extension of the suffrage. 

 In seasons of national distress, the amendment of the representa- 

 tive system has always been warmly taken up by the people of this 

 country. 



In 1831 the wishes of a large mass of th middle classes were 

 realised by the passing of the Reform Act. A season of political 

 repose, and, as it happened also, of commercial prosperity, followed the 

 excitement which preceded the passing of that measure. A victory 

 had been gained, and the people waited for the benefits which they 

 were to derive from it. In the next period of distress which arose, the 

 amended state of the representative system and the advantages which 

 it had brought were narrowly scanned ; and the consequence was, the 

 gradual formation of a party who were dissatisfied with its arrange- 

 ments, and sought to attain the ends of political and social good by a 

 more extensive change. This is briefly the origin of Chartism and of 

 the People's Charter. The middle classes were, however, well satisfied 

 on the whole with the overthrow of the rotten boroughs and the en- 

 franchisement of the large towns, and therefore the Chartists stood alone, 

 and began to regard them with a feeling of hostility. Chartists Avere 

 sometimes found, as in all other parties, ready to assist the party which 

 differed most widely from them, with the object of thwarting the 

 political objects which the middle classes had at heart. In 1838 they 

 had become a large party and embraced a great number of the working 

 classes employed otherwise than in agriculture. The number of signa- 

 tures attached to the petition presented at the commencement of the 

 session of 1839 in favour of the People's Charter was upwards of one 

 million and a quarter. Unfortunately the idea began to be entertained 

 amongst a certain class of the Chartists that physical force might be 

 justifiably resorted to if necessary for obtaining political changes ; and 

 the party became divided into the Physical Force Chartists and the 

 Moral Force Chartists. The former became implicated in disturbances 

 which took place at various times in several parts of the country ; and 

 many persons of this class never having had correct views respecting 

 the wages of labour, it appeared as if they had adopted the cry of " a 

 fair day's wages for a fair day's work " as an additional point of the 

 People's Charter. The disturbances in 1842 in the midland and 

 northern counties were to some extent encouraged by the less intelli- 

 gent of the Physical Force Chartists. At the close of 1841 however 

 an attempt was made to combine the middle classes with the Chartists 

 in their attempt to obtain an extension of the sum-age. Early in 1842 

 a Complete Suffrage Union was formed at Birmingham : and in April 

 of the same year a conference, consisting of eighty-seven delegates, -was 

 assembled at Birmingham, which sat for four days ; three of which 

 were spent in agreeing upon a basis of union between the middle and 

 working classes, and the last day in adopting plans of practical organ- 

 isation. The six points of the People's Charter were adopted by 

 the conference, and the details were left for settlement to a future 

 conference. It was resolved also at this conference to establish a 

 National Complete Suffrage Union. The proposed National Conference 

 commenced its meetings hi December, 1842, and was attended by 374 

 delegates. Here a rupture took place between the Chartists and the 

 Complete Suffrage party, and the latter were outvoted on the question 

 of adopting the People's Charter instead of the Complete Suffrage Bill. 

 The minority however proceeded to act upon their views as developed 

 in the Complete Suffrage Bill. This bill does not contain any dis- 

 qualifying clauses. In other respects it differs from the People's Charter 

 only in matters of detail. The Chartists and the Complete Suffragists 

 are only nominally distinct parties ; and the former are now almost 

 extinct as a party, having merged into the Complete Suffrage party, 

 which however has some unimportant subdivisions. 



CHASE, that part of a gun which is between the ring near the 

 trunnions, and the astragal mouldings near the muzzle. 



CHASING OF METALS. The process termed chasing, or en- 

 chasing, as applied to working in metals, so far resembles a kind of 

 stamping as to admit of the two processes being described here 

 together. 



Metallic goods are generally made in one of three ways by casting 

 in moulds, by forging or turning in masses, or by pressing or stamping 

 out of thin sheets. The last of these throe has been greatly developed 

 at Birmingham within the last few years. Either the entire article 

 receives its form from the sheet by stamping, or, when roughly formed, 

 it receives an ornamental device by the action of fine punches. For 

 the latter variety of work, steel blocks, punches, or bosses, are pro- 

 vided, each one presenting at the end a definite form, such as curved, 

 angular, square, &c. ; and these are fixed or held with the finished end 



