CHARON CHARTER-PARTY. 



datum of professors ; 109 dormitories and six hotels, 

 for the lodging and dieting of the students. The 

 site is a little distance out of the village, and occu- 

 pies 200 acres. The institution is to receive annual- 

 ly from the Virginia literary fund, the sum of 15,000 

 dollars. 



CHARON, in mythology ; the son of Erebus and 

 Nox. It wa> his on":ce to ferry the dead, in his crazy 

 boat, over the dark floods of Acheron, over Cocytus, 

 resounding with the doleful lamentations of the dead, 

 and, finally, over the Styx, dreaded even by the im- 

 mortals. 'I lie shinies were each obliged to pay him 

 an oholus, which was put, at the time of burial, into 

 the mouth of the deceased. Those who could not 

 pay the fare, or had been so unfortunate as to find no 

 grave in the upper world, were compelled to wander 

 on tin desolate banks of the Acheron, till Charon 

 was pleased to carry them over to their final resting- 

 place. He was represented as an old man, with a 

 gloomy aspect, matted beard, and tattered garments. 

 Respecting the Egyptian origin of tliis fable, see Ce- 

 metery, and Egyptian Mythology. 



CHAROST (ARMAND JOSEPH DF.BETHUNE), duke 

 of, born at Versailles, in 1728, a worthy descendant 

 of his great ancestor Sully, distinguished himself, on 

 many occasions, in the military service of his coun- 

 try. He was the friend and father of his soldiers, 

 and rewarded the brave from his own resources. In 

 1758, he sent all his plate to the mint, to supply the 

 necessities of the state. The peace concluded in 

 1763 restored him to a more quiet sphere of useful- 

 ness ; yet he did not discontinue his favours towards 

 the soldiers whom he had commanded. Me was par- 

 ticularly active in the promotion of agriculture and 

 public institutions. Long before the revolution, he 

 abolished the feudal services on his estates, and wrote 

 against feudal instruction. He established charitable 

 institutions in sundry parishes, provided for the sup- 

 port and instruction of orphans, employed physicians 

 and midwives, founded and liberally endowed an hos- 

 pital. In a year of dearth, he imported grain into 

 Calais at his own expense. In the provincial assem- 

 blies, he spoke against the corvees. In the assembly 

 of the notables, he declared himself for an equal distri- 

 bution of the public burdens. The revolution broke 

 out. Before the decree relative to a patriotic contri- 

 bution appeared, he made a voluntary present of 

 100,000 francs to the state. During the reign of terror, 

 he retired to Meillant, where he was arrested, and did 

 not obtain his liberty until after the 9th Thermidor. 

 In the testimonies given in his behalf by the revolu- 

 tionary committees, he was called the father and 

 lienefoctor of suffering humanity. He returned to 

 Meillant, where he established an agricultural so- 

 ciety. No sacrifice was too great for him, and his 

 vast fortune was scarcely sufficient for his enter- 

 prises. He died October 27, 1800, of the small-pox, 

 lamented by the people, whose benefactor he had 

 been. 



CHARPENTIER, I. F. G. ; a man who did much 

 to improve the art of mining. He was born in 1738, 

 and died in 1805. He was one of the professors in 

 the mining academy at Freyburg, in Saxony. 



CHART. See Map. 



CHARTA MAGNA. See Magna Charta. 



CHARTER. Every written document in the 

 middle ages was called carta, charta, or chartula. 

 There were several kinds, distinguished by different 

 names, according to the nature of the subjects, or 

 the materials on which they were written, or their 

 internal or external form. Thus a kind of docu- 

 ments, common in England, are called indentures 

 (charta indentatte or partita), because originally writ- 

 ten on one piece of parchment, which was afterwards 

 cut asunder in an indented form, so that the fitting 



of the several parts to each other was cosidred ne- 

 cessary to prove their genuineness. (It was also 

 customary to write a word, commonly the word 

 cltirographum, lengthwise between the two instru- 

 ments, and cut it in two, whence such an instrument 

 was called chirograp/ntm). This method has also 

 been resorted to as a means of securing certificates 

 of stock from being counterfeited: they are hound 

 up, and then cut out, so that each number must lit 

 the part belonging to it remaining in the Ixiok. 

 Charta: per cruceni or per punctum signified, in the 

 middle ages, charters signed only by a cross or 

 point, for want of the knowledge of writing in the 

 signer. The signification which is now usually af- 

 fixed to the word charter, meaning a document re- 

 lating to public law, the constitution of a state, or 

 some parts of it, likewise originated in England, 

 where the royal grants of certain privileges to towns 

 or other corporations are styled charta libcrtatum, or 

 charters. No European nation has set so high a 

 value on documents of this nature, none has main- 

 tained its ancient rights and liberties with so much 

 care and jealousy, as the English ; for which reason 

 the literature of this department is richer among 

 them than in any other nation. Since 1783, when 

 the Doomsday-Book, that celebrated account of landed 

 property, or register and description of all feudal 

 estates, in the time of William 1. (commenced in 

 1080, and finished in 1085), was printed at the ex- 

 pense of parliament, and particularly since 1800, 

 when a committee of parliament was appointed for 

 the purpose of making search after the ancient docu- 

 ments that might be still extant, and causing them 

 to be printed, much has been done by the English 

 for promoting the publication of these monuments of 

 their history and constitution. Rymer's collection 

 (Fcedera, Convetitiones, Literce et cvjuscunyue Generis 

 Ada publica inter Reges Angliee, &c., 170435, 

 20 vols., folio; Hague, 1745, 10 vols., folio) was, 

 even in the first edition, very complete for a private 

 collection, and a model in its kind : the second and 

 part of the third edition have appeared under the 

 direction and at the expense of parliament, and are 

 far superior to the former. The first volume of this 

 work appeared in 1816. According to the report 

 of the committee, in 1821, 45 vols., folio, of ancient 

 documents, had then been printed since 1801, com- 

 prising a period of more than 700 years, which shed 

 great light on history and politics. The city of 

 London is still in possession of two original charters, 

 granted by William I. in the year 1066, one of 

 which confirms the privileges which the city had re- 

 ceived from Edward the Confessor, and the other 

 bestows on it the fief of Gyddersdaur. They are 

 handsomely written, in the Anglo-Saxon language, 

 on two pieces of parchment, each six inches in 

 length, by one in breadth, the former consisting of 

 nine lines, the latter of three. The seals, though 

 broken hi pieces, are still attached to them, enclosed 

 in silk bags. In France, the fundamental law of 

 constitutional liberty, given by Louis XVIII., is 

 called Charte constitutionnelle. In 1822, there was 

 established in France a school of charters (ecole des 

 chartes), to instruct young men in deciphering and 

 explaining the charters of the middle ages, which 

 are to be found in the French archives. There is, 

 even since the revolution has destroyed so many 

 documents, an immense mass of grants, charters, &c. 

 written on parchment, many of great antiquity, in 

 France. Mr Isambert has collected, in the preface 

 to vol.1. of his useful Recueil des Andennes Lois dn 

 Royaume, accurate and extensive information respect- 

 ing the catalogues, descriptions, places of deposit, &c, 

 of charters. 



CHARTER-PARTY is a contract underhand and 



