trades established. The Conservatoire des arts et metiers is indebted to him for several useful collections. He resigned office in 1804, and in the same year he entered the senat-conservateur, of which he was appointed treasurer. In 1813-14 he was commissioner extraordinary at Lyons. On the return of Napoleon from Elba, he accepted the direction of commerce and manufactures; and for his devotion to this cause his name was erased by Louis XVIII. from the list of peers. In 1816 he was elected member of the Institute, to which he communicated several important memoirs. Chaptal has left a number of works, all marked by elegance of style, rigorous method, and great perspicuity; and which, though now old, may still, especially his "Chimie appliquée aux Arts," be consulted with advantage. His declining years were visited by cruel reverses; and of the immense fortune amassed by his great labours, and during his long and useful career, only a wreck eventually remained.—F. P.
CHARDIN, Sir John, an eminent eastern traveller, born at Paris in 1643, was the son of a jeweller, and was brought up to the same profession. To gratify his taste for travel, and "to endeavour the advancement of his fortunes and estate," he left France for the East in 1664, and before his return in 1670, visited Persia and the East Indies. In 1671 he again went to Persia, where he remained till 1677. In the course of his two journeys, he gained a perfect acquaintance with the language, and attained much familiarity with the manners and customs of Persia. In 1681 he settled in London, and was appointed jeweller to the court and the nobility; was knighted by Charles II., and elected a fellow of the Royal Society. The first part of his "Travels" was published in 1686, and the second in 1711. The work has been translated into various languages: an edition in 10 vols. 8vo, with notes by Langlés, was published at Paris in 1811. Chardin resided during the last years of his life at Turnham Green, and was buried at Chiswick in 1713.—J. S., G.
CHARES, a statuary of the seventh century. He was a native of Lindus in Rhodes, and a disciple of Lysippus. His fame rests on his colossus of the sun at Rhodes, which was wont to be reckoned one of the seven wonders of the world. The popular account of this wonder, dating from the time of Blaise de Vigenère, is now exploded. The statue was thrown down by an earthquake, b.c. 224.—R. M., A.
CHARES, an Athenian general, was born about 400 b.c. He was sent in 367 to the assistance of the Phliasians, who were hard pressed by the Argives, Arcadians, and the Theban garrison of Sicyon, and gained some successes over these aggressors. In 361 he was nominated successor to Leosthenes, who had met with a defeat from the ships of Alexander, and landing at Corcyra assisted the oligarchical faction in that place to overthrow their democratical opponents. In 358 he was sent to Thrace at the head of a considerable mercenary force, and compelled Charidemus and Chersobleptes to execute the convention of Athenodorus, by which the whole of the Chersonese was surrendered to Athens. In the following year Chares was appointed to take charge of the social war, along with Timotheus and Iphicrates, whom he accused before the people because they refused to risk an engagement, on the ground of a storm that was then raging. During the Olynthian war Chares was sent to the assistance of the Olynthians, and obtained some advantages over the mercenaries of Philip. He was one of the commanders of the Athenian army at the disastrous battle of Chæronea, and exculpated himself from blame by throwing the responsibility of that engagement on one of his colleagues, Lysicles, who was condemned to death. We last hear of him as holding Mitylene for the Persians, with a garrison of two thousand men; but, unable to hold out against the Macedonians, he agreed to evacuate the city, in 333 b.c. Chares acquired immense sums by plunder, which he spent in bribing the orators and gratifying his licentious tastes.—J. T.
CHARETTE de la Contrie, François Athanase, one of the principal heroes of the Vendean war, was born in 1763. He was descended from an old and respectable family, and his father was a captain in an infantry regiment. He entered the navy in 1779, was engaged in the American war, and attained the rank of lieutenant, but retired from the service when the Revolution broke out. He was living on his estate in Brittany when the outbreak of the royalists took place in Marth, 1793. Yielding to the urgent requests and even threats of the peasants of Machecoul, he reluctantly consented to be their leader. The army which he led was called that of Bas-Poitou, to distinguish it from the Vendean force under Cathelineau, which was called the army of Haut-Poitou. On the 29th the two armies united in the unsuccessful attack upon Nantes, in which Cathelineau was mortally wounded. While acting in concert, though defeated in an attack upon Luçon, they gained three signal victories over the republicans on the 19th, 21st, and 22nd of September. But Charette, who, with all his patriotism, had much personal ambition, quarrelled with the other generals, quitted the grand army, and carried on operations by himself. When General Hoche was sent with a numerous army to terminate the contest in the western provinces, he offered Charette liberty to quit the country with all the persons whom he chose to name, but the offer was rejected. On the 23rd of March, 1795, Charette was attacked by an overwhelming force, severely wounded, and taken prisoner. He was carried to Nantes, where, on the 29th, he was tried by a military commission, condemned, and immediately executed. The death of this able soldier terminated the war in La Vendee.—J. T.
CHARIDEMUS, a Greek general, born at Oreus in Eubœa, about 400 b.c. He was a commander of a band of mercenaries, and was in the habit of hiring himself to the best bidder. He entered into the service of Athens under Iphicrates, and was employed against Amphipolis in 367, but not long after entered into the pay of Cotys, king of Thrace, a decided enemy of Athens. Having been captured by the Athenian fleet, he was again prevailed on to serve Athens, and assisted Timotheus in his attack upon Amphipolis. He subsequently passed over into Asia, and hired himself to the satrap Artabazus, who had revolted against Artaxerxes III. Then returning to Europe, he took service with Cotys (whose sister he married) against his former employers the Athenians. On the murder of Cotys in 358, Charidemus became the main support of his son Chersobleptes, in his struggle with Athens for the possession of the Chersonesus. (See Cephisodotus, Chabrias, and Chares.) In the end he was compelled to surrender the long-coveted territory to the Athenians, retaining however Kardia for himself. In 349 Charidemus is once more found in the service of Athens, and was appointed commander of the troops sent to the assistance of the Olynthians; but next year he was superseded by Chares. From this period he disappears from history.—J. T.
CHARIDEMUS, an Athenian orator, was born about 390 b.c. In 358 he was sent ambassador along with Antiphon to Philip of Macedon, ostensibly for the purpose of confirming the treaty between that monarch and the Athenians; but in reality to treat secretly with him for the restitution of Amphipolis. He was a second time ambassador at the Macedonian court, when Philip was murdered in 336 b.c. Charidemus was one of the orators whose surrender was demanded by Alexander, 335 b.c., after the destruction of Thebes. He fled to Asia, and took refuge with Darius, by whose orders he was put to death, 333 b.c., shortly before the battle of Issus.—J. T.
CHARILAUS, king of Sparta, son of Polydectes, lived about 800 b.c. His father died early, leaving a pregnant widow, who made to her husband's brother, the celebrated Lycurgus, a proposal that he should marry her, and become king. Lycurgus, however, indignantly rejected the offer; and, on the birth of his nephew, Charilaus, held up the child publicly in the agora as the future king of Sparta, and immediately relinquished the authority which he had provisionally exercised. Charilaus undertook an expedition against the Tegeans, but was defeated and taken prisoner by an ambuscade of the women. They set him at liberty without ransom, telling him to remember never again to make war upon the Tegeans.—J. T.
CHARISI, R' Jehudah ben Solomon Alcharisi, surnamed by some writers Alchofni, a distinguished Hebrew poet and ingenious translator into Hebrew, was born about the year 1175 in a part of Spain subject to the Moors. He took for his model the famous Makamat by Mohamed ben Ali Al-Hariri of Basra, in which the Arab poet introduces two personages, Hareth ben Hemmam and Abu Seid, for the narration of their adventures in rhymed prose, interspersed with metrical pieces. This singularly charming production, Charisi imitated in Hebrew, under the title of “Mechaberath, or Machbereth, Ithiel," of which, unfortunately, instead of the fifty chapters of the original Arabic only twenty-seven have been preserved in Hebrew. The applause with which the version of Hariri's poem was received by the Hebrew-reading public in Spain and southern France, encouraged Charisi to attempt an original production of the same species of
