CHARETTE CHARLEMAGNE. 



145 



busy and populous place, owes its numerous mercan- 

 tile and manufacturing establishments. The bridge 

 across the Marne must be considered as the key to 

 Paris on this side ; hence the memorable attacks upon 

 it both in the civil wars of France, and in those with 

 foreign enemies. In 865, the Normans made them- 

 selves masters of it, and destroyed it. In 1814, its 

 possession was warmly contested. The students of 

 the veterinary school at Alfort, in the neighbourhood, 

 had solicited from the government permission to de- 

 fend this post against the advancing troops of Wirt- 

 emberg and Austria. It was intrusted to them ; but 

 they were compelled to retire, after a heroic defence, 

 before superior numbers. At Petit-Charenton is the 

 celebrated hospital for the insane, where many unfor- 

 tunate individuals, of both sexes (usually 4 500), 

 are treated with great care, iii order to effect their 

 cure : those who are declared incurable are sent to 

 Bicetre. Here died, in 1813, Sade, the author of 

 Justine, whom Napoleon, on account of this immoral 

 and dangerous publication, had ordered to be treated 

 as insane. 



CHARETTE DE LA COUTRIE. See Vendee. 



CHARGE D'AFFAIRES. See Minister, Fo- 

 reign. 



CHARIOT. The chariots of the ancients were 

 strongly and even elegantly built, but were not well 

 adapted for speed. Those of the Romans were 

 named according to the number of horses used to 

 draw them. Thus, a chariot with two horses was 

 called a Biga ; one with three, a Triga ; one with 

 four, a Quadriga, &c. 



Triga. 



Quadriga, 



The Romans always yoked their horses in their 

 moe-chariots abreast. It is recorded that Nero once 



drove a chariot at the Olympic games with no fewer 

 than ten horses abreast. 



CHARITY, brothers and sisters of. See Frater- 

 nities. 



CHARKOW; capital of Slobodsk-Ukraine, in 

 Russia, containing about 1500 houses, and nearly 

 15,000 inhabitants. It carries on considerable com- 

 merce, and four great fairs are held in the place 

 every year. In 1803, the high school at Charkow 

 was erected into a university, and several professors 

 were invited thither from Germany. The emperor 

 granted it an annual income of 130,000 paper ru- 

 bles, and, in addition to this, a donation of 400,000 

 rubles was offered by the nobility of the country for 

 its organization, of which sum, however, the greater 

 part was yet unpaid in 1809. The number of pro- 

 fessors is thirty-eight, and that of the students about 

 300 ; sixty of whom are supported at the emperor's 

 expense. The latter are bound, after leaving the 

 university, to teach, for six years, in the schools 

 within the district of the university, and are pretty 

 arbitrarily sent, by the university, to those places in 

 which they are to be employed. The university pos- 

 sesses a library, and a cabinet for the natural sciences. 

 Charkow also contains a gymnasium, a military aca- 

 demy, &c. A philotechnic society likewise holds its 

 meetings there. 



CHARLATAN (hi Italian, ciarlatano) a moun- 

 tebank, quack-doctor, empiric; hence every one 

 who makes loud pretensions to knowledge or skill 

 which he does not possess. The word is probably 

 derived from the Italian ciarlare (to prate), because 

 the chief art of a charlatan consists in boasting and 

 idle talk. We find charlatans in all sciences, poli- 

 tics, religion, &c. Of the latter, Moliere says : 



Aussi ne vois-je rien qui soit plus odieux 



Que lea dehors platres d'un zele specieux; 



Que ces francs charlatans, que ces divots de plice, &c. 



How many political proclamations resemble, in char- 

 latanism, the boasting placards of quacks, or the ad- 

 vertisements of new systems for teaching languages, 

 &c., in a few hours ! 



CHARLEMAGNE (Carolus Magnus, Charles the 

 Great) ; one of those characters whose achievements 

 bear file impress of gigantic power, by whom nations 

 have been formed and destroyed, and who have exer- 

 cised an influence which has been felt for centuries, 

 and compelled succeeding generations to admire 

 their greatness, though unable to justify all their ac- 

 tions. Charlemagne, king of the Franks, and sub- 

 sequently emperor of the West, was born in 742, in 

 the castle of Carlsberg, on the lake of Wurmsee, in 

 Upper Bavaria. Others mention the castle of In* 

 gelheim, near Mentz, and others Aix-la-Chapelle, as 

 the place of his nativity. His father was Pepin the 

 Short, king of the Franks, son of Charles Martel. 

 After the decease of his father, in 768, he was 

 crowned king, and, according to the wish which Pe- 

 pin had expressed, divided France with his younger 

 brother Carloman ; but the conditions of this parti- 

 tion were several times altered, without being ever 

 adjusted to the satisfaction of the parties. Their 

 mutual discontent was fostered principally by the 

 king of the Lombards, Desiderius (the father-in-law 

 of both princes), because Charlemagne had repu- 

 diated his wife. Desiderius sought revenge for the 

 rejection of his daughter, by exciting and encourag- 

 ing commotions in France, in which ne was assisted 

 by the circumstance that the nobles aspired to inde- 

 pendence. The people of Aquitania were the first 

 who attempted to become independent. Charle- 

 magne marched against them with rather a small 

 army ; but he relied on the assistance of his brother 

 Carloman, to whom a portion of Aquitania then be- 

 longed. Carloman appeared, indeed, in the field, 



