166 



CHASTELET CHATHAM. 



Tyrol : Cliasteler fearlessly encountered it ; but his 

 anny was routed on the 13th of May. After the 

 close of the war, he received several appointments, 

 iiiul. in 1 hrember, 1814, was made governor of 

 Venice, where he died, May 7, 1825. This general 

 was of a chivalrous character and a cultivated mind ; 

 he spoke twelve languages, was as brave as he \\ us 

 generous, and was one of the noblest Walloons in I lie 

 annies of Austria. 



CHASTELET (GABRIELLE EMILIE BRETEUIL) 

 marquise du ; of nn ancient family in 1'icardy ; born 

 in 1706. She was taught Latin by her father, baron 

 Breteuil, and was as well acquainted with that lan- 

 guage as madaine Dacier; but her favourite study 

 was mathematics. She had a sound judgment and 

 much taste; loved society and the amusements of 

 her age and sex ; but abandoned all these pleasures, 

 and, in 1733, retired to the dilapidated castle of Ci- 

 rey, situated in a dreary region on the borders of 

 Champagne and Lorraine. She embellished this re- 

 sidence, formed a library, collected instruments, &c. 

 Cirey was often visited by the learned ; for instance, 

 by Maupertuis, John Bernoulli!, &c. Here the mar- 

 chioness learned English of Voltaire in the space of 

 three months, and read witli him Newton, Locke, 

 and Pope. She learned Italian with equal rapidity. 

 She also wrote an analysis of the system of Leibnitz, 

 and translated Newton's Principia, with an algebraic 

 commentary. Voltaire lived six years with Tier at 

 Cirey. She then went to Brussels, to prosecute a 

 lawsuit, which was terminated by an advantageous 

 compromise, brought about by Voltaire. She also 

 carried on a correspondence with the German philo- 

 sopher Wolf until her death. Her Traite de la Na- 

 ture duFeu obtained the prize of the Parisian academy 

 of sciences, and is published in their collections. Her 

 husband, the marquis du Chastelet Lomont, was high 

 steward of king Stanislaus Leczinsky, at Luneville. 

 The marchioness died at Luneville, in 1749. 



CHATEAUROUX, MARIE ANNE, duchess of, of 

 the illustrious house of Nesle, was married to the 

 marquis de la Tournelle in 1734. Being left a widow 

 at the age of twenty-three, she was received by her 

 aunt, the duchess Mazarin, but soon lost this support. 

 Her two sisters (mesdames de Vintimille and Mailly) 

 had successively been in the possession of the heart 

 of Louis XV., when the king conceived an ardent 

 passion for her. She was made lady of honour to 

 the queen, and afterwards duchess of Chateauroux, 

 with a pension of 80,000 livres. By her persuasion, 

 Louis XV. put himself at the head of the armies in 

 Flanders and Alsace. He fell sick at Metz, his life 

 was despaired of, and he was obliged to consent to 

 the dismission of the duchess. She was received in 

 Paris by Richelieu, who, after the king's recovery, 

 effected her recall. Her triumph was complete, and 

 ;he was promised the important post of superintendent 

 of the dauphiness, when she died, in 1744. A col- 

 lection of her letters appeared in Paris, 1806, in two 

 small volumes. 



CHATELET was anciently a small chateau or 

 fortress, and the.officer who commanded it was called 

 chdtelain. The word is a diminutive of chateau, form- 

 ed from castellum, a diminutive of castrum ; or from 

 castetiatum, a diminutive of castellum, castle. The 

 term, in later times, has been applied to certain courts 

 of justice, established in several cities in France. The 

 grand chdtelet, in Paris, was the place where the pre- 

 sidial or ordinary court of justice of the prevot of 

 Paris was kept, consisting of a presidial, a civil cham- 

 ber, a criminal chamber, and a chamber of police. 

 The term signified the same at Montpellier, Orleans, 

 &c. When Paris was confined to the limits of the 

 old city (cite), it could be entered only by two bridges 

 le petit pont and le pnrtt au change), each of which 



was fortified with two towers, a smaller one in the 

 wall, facing the city, and a larger one before tiie 

 bridge, towards the country. These two exterior 

 turrets are \\\c grand and petit chateli-t. '1 he tradi- 

 tion that the grand chdtelet was built by Julius Cjesar, 

 though adopted by some literati (e. g. La Marre, in 

 his Traite de Police, vol. i. p. 87), is not well support- 

 ed; but it is certain that the great tower was siaud- 

 ing as early as the siege of the city by the Normans 

 (885). '1 lie grand chdtelet was the castle of the counts 

 of 1'aris, and, therefore, the seat of all the royal 

 courts of justice within the city and county, and al.-o 

 of the feudal court. The city had no proper jurisdic- 

 tion whatever ; its bailiff or provost (prevtif) was iijp- 

 pointed by the king, and was president of the court 

 (though only nominally, because he had no voice in 

 the judgments), and, by virtue of his office, leader or 

 the nobility. The office of provost of the merdum.s 

 (prev6t des marchands ; in other cities, niuire), es- 

 tablished before the former, and afterwards united 

 with it for a time, was finally separated from it in 

 1388. The business of the chdtelet was transacted by 

 the deputies of the bailiff (lieutenants), of whom there 

 were five, three for civil causes, one chief judge of cri- 

 minal cases, and a lieutenantrgeneral of police 

 (lieutenant-general de la police). The latter, indeed, 

 was minister of police for the whole kingdom, and the 

 extent of his functions and power, particularly after 

 the new arrangement, made by the celebrated d' A r- 

 genson, under Louis XIV., rendered him one of the 

 most important officers of the state. In the chdtelet, 

 however, he held only the fourth place. The whole 

 court of justice was composed of fifty-six counsellors, 

 with thirteen state attorneys, and a multitude of 

 subalterns, as sixty-three secretaries or grejfiers, 113 

 notaries, 236 attorneys, &c. All these offices were 

 sold. The place of the first officer of the civil cham- 

 ber was rated at 500,000 livres ; that of a notary at 

 40,000 livres. The chdtelet was first in rank after the 

 supreme courts (cours souveruines), 



CHATELET, the marchioness of. See Chastelet. 



CHATHAM ; a town in Kent, England, on the 

 Medway, united to the city of Rochester, of which it 

 is considered a suburb ; thirty miles S. E. of London. 

 It is celebrated for its dock. An immense quantity 

 of naval stores of all kinds are kept ready, in maga- 

 zines and warehouses, arranged in such regular order 

 that whatever is wanted may be procured without the 

 least confusion. Above twenty forges are constantly 

 at work. Anchors are made, some of which weigh 

 five tons. In the rope-house, which is 700 feet in 

 length, cables have been made 120 fathoms long, 

 ana twenty-two inches round. The dock-yard is 

 about a mile long, the sail-loft 209 feet in length, 

 and there are large store-rooms, one of which is 658 

 feet long. Here is an hospital for decayed seamen 

 and their widows. The town is defended by fort 

 Pitt, and very extensive fortifications called the lines ; 

 and, witli the exception of Portsmouth, Chatham is 

 considered the most regular and complete fortress in 

 Great Britain. Population in 1831, 17,936. 



Many towns and counties in America are called 

 Chatham, after the great minister (q. v.) ; also straits, 

 islands, &c. ; for instance, Chatham bay, or Punjo 

 bay, on the S. W. coast of East Florida, Ion. 81 30' 

 W., lat. 25 30" N. Chatham island, in the South 

 Pacific ocean; Ion. 183 10* E., lat. 44" S. Chatham 

 sound, between the islands of Dundas and Stephens, 

 on the W. coast of North America. Chatham strait, 

 a channel of the North Pacific ocean, on the coast of 

 North America, between King George the Third's 

 archipelago and Admiralty island, rather more than 

 100 miles in length from N. to S. 



CHATHAM (WILLIAM PITT), earl of; one of the 

 most illustrious statesmen of Britain. Integrity, disin- 



