CHA 



CHA 



quer was always reputed to have justice 

 on his side. Champions, who fought for 

 interest only, were held infamous: these 

 hired themselves to the nobility, to fight 

 for them in case of need, and did homage 

 for their pension. 



When two champions were chosen to 

 maintain a cause, it was always required 

 that there should be a decree of the 

 judge to authorize the combat : when the 

 judge had pronounced sentence, the ac- 

 cused threw a gage or pledge, originally 

 a glove or gauntlet, which being taken up 

 by the accuser, they were both taken in- 

 to safe custody, till the day of battle ap- 

 pointed by the judge. 



Before the champions took the field, 

 their heads were shaved to a kind of 

 crown or round, which was left at the 

 top : then they made an oath, that they 

 believed the person who retained them 

 to be in the right, &c. They always 

 engaged on foot, and with no other 

 weapon than a club and a shield, which 

 weapons were blessed in the field by the 

 priest, with a world of ceremonies ; and 

 they always made an offering to the 

 church, that God might assist them in 

 the battle. 



The action began with railing, and giv- 

 ing each other ill language; and at the 

 sound of a trumpet, they went to blows. 

 After the number of blows or encoun- 

 ters expressed in the cartel, the judges 

 of the combat threw a rod into the air, 

 to advertise the champions that the com- 

 bat was ended. If it lasted till night, or 

 ended with equal advantage on both 

 sides, the accused was reputed the vic- 

 tor. If the conquered champion fought in 

 the cause of a woman, and it was a capital 

 offence, the woman was burnt, and the 

 champion hanged. If it was the cham- 

 pion of a man, and the crime capital, the 

 vanquished was immediately disarmed, 

 led out of the field, and hanged, together 

 with the party whose cause he maintain- 

 ed. If the crime was not capital, he not 

 only made satisfaction, but had his right 

 hand cut off': the accused was close 

 confined in prison, till the battle was 

 over. 



CHAMPION of the king, a person whose 

 office it is, at the coronations of our kings, 

 to ride armed into Westminster-hall, 

 while the king is at dinner there, and, by 

 the proclamation of a herald, make chal- 

 lenge to this effect, viz. "That if any man 

 shall deny the king's title to the crown, 

 he is there ready to defend it in single 

 combat, &c.". Which done, the king 

 drinks to him, and sends him a gilt cup, 

 with a corer, full of wine, which the 



champion drinks, and has the cup for his 

 fee. This office is hereditary. 



CHANCE, in a general sense, a terui 

 applied to events not necessarily produc- 

 ed as the natural effects of any proper 

 foreknown cause. We certainly mean no 

 more in saying that a thing happened by 

 chance, than that its cause is unknown to 

 us: for chance itself is no natural agent 

 or cause ; it is incapable of producing 

 any effect, and is no more than a crea- 

 ture of man's own making ; for the things 

 done in the corporeal world are really 

 done by the parts of the universal matter, 

 acting and suffering, according to the 

 laws of motion established by the author 

 of nature. 



Chance is also confounded with fate 

 and destiny. 



CHANCES, doctrine of, in mixed mathe- 

 matics, a subject of great importance, es- 

 pecially as applied to the doctrine of 

 life annuities, assurance, &c. in a great 

 commercial country like this. The 

 writers on this branch of science have 

 been comparatively few. In our own 

 language the principal treatises are, a 

 large quarto by De Moivre, and a very 

 small work by the celebrated Mr. Tho 

 mas Simpson, in which, however, there 

 are some problems never before attempt- 

 ed, or, at least, never before communicat- 

 ed to the public. In the year 1753, Mr. 

 Dodson rendered this subject more acces- 

 sible to persons not far advanced in ana- 

 lytical'studies, by publishing, in his se- 

 cond volume of the " Mathematical Re- 

 pository," a number of questions, with 

 their several solutions, with an express 

 reference to the doctrine of life annui- 

 ties. We shall give his first problem. 



Suppose a round piece of metal, equal- 

 ly formed, having two opposite faces, 

 one white, the other black, be thrown 

 up, in order to see which of those faces 

 will be uppermost after the metal has 

 fallen to the ground, when, if the white 

 face appears uppermost, a person is to 

 be entitled to 51. it is required to deter- 

 mine, before the event, what chance or 

 probability that person has of receiving 

 the 5/. and what sum he may expect 

 should be paid to him in consideration of 

 his resigning his chance to another. 



Solution. Since there is nothing in the 

 form of the metal that can incline it to 

 shew one face rather than the other, and 

 since it must shew one, it will follow, that 

 there is an equal chance for the appear- 

 ance of either face, or there is one chance 

 out of two for the appearance of the 

 white face, and consequently the proba- 

 bility of it may be expressed by the frac- 



