projectile is called the hursling charge. See Ballistics and Gixxeuy.
CHARGE, in military tactics. See Attack;
Battle; J'actics. i"or lieraldic charges, see
liEKALDilV.
CHARGE AND SPECIFICATION. The
formal wrilleii statement before a general court-
martial of the oflense alleged to have been com-
mitted by the accused. In the United States
service a military charge consists of two parts —
the technical charge designating the general char-
acter of the oft'ense and the x/ieci/icalion giving
the statement of the offense in detail. The arti-
cle *it war under which the oll'ense comes is
mentioned in the charge. See Colkts,;Milit.rt.
CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE, The. A poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, written
in commenioration of the famous episode at the
battle of IJalaklava (October 2.5, 1854). and pub-
lished in quarto (Limdcm, 185.5). An altered ver-
sion appeared under the title of In Bonorem
(1856, octavo). In the second edition, the line
"some one had blundered." which had been
erased from the original draft, was restored.
The metre is that of Drayton's "Battle of Agin-
courl."
CHARGER. See Horse, for a discussion of
the military uses of the horse.
CHARGE D'AFFAIRES, shar'zha' da'tar'
(Fr.. cliargcd with affairs). A diplomatic agent,
ranking fourth, after ambassadors, ministers, and
resident ministers. He is accredited not to the
.sovereign, but to the State department of a
foreign power, and he holds his credentials only
from the minister. Sometimes, however, he may
be empowered by an ambassador to act in his
absence.
CHARICLEA, kar'i-kle'a. Daughter of Per-
sina. the (,>ueen of .Kthiopia, and heroine of the
story, in a Fourth Century novel by Heliodorus,
entitled Tlirdgene.i and Chariclea.
CHARING (char'ing) CROSS. A district
on the northwest bank of the Thames between
the Strand and Whitehall, adjacent to a great
cross, which is one and a quarter miles from Saint
Paul's, and is at present contained within the
yards of the Southeastern Railway Company.
The district stands upon the old site of the
Thirteenth Century village of Cherringe, where,
in 1291, a Gothic cross was erected by Edward I.
as a token that the bier of his beloved wife, Elea-
nor, had lieen set down there during its journey
from Grantham. Lincolnshire, to Westminster
Abbey. In 1047 the cross was demolished by the
Parliamentary Party as a relic of Popish super-
stition. The present copy was erected near the
original site in 1865. The site itself, as near as
it can be guessed, is now occupied by Le Sueur's
equestrian statue of Charles I., which was cast
in 1033 and erected in 1674.
CHARIOT (OF. chariot, dim. of char, car).
In ancicit times, a kind of carriage used either
for pleasure or in war. The use of the chariot
in war and peace was general in the East, and
it is common (m Eg^■ptian, Babylonian, and As-
syrian monuments. It was early introduced
among the Greeks, and is repwsented on '^U^-
cenaaii works of art. In the llomeric poems the
diariot is employed to convey the heroes to the
(leld of battle, though they usually fight on foot.
and also on journeys. In historical times the
war chariot was not used by Greeks or Romans,
though still a part of the Persian armies. Ciesar
also found chariots in use among the Britons, and
they arc frequently mentioned in the Irisli
epics. The ancient chariot was a light two-
wheeled car, usually with a closed front and
sides, but open l)ehind. In the earliest times
the chariot was drawn by two horses, yoked to a
pole, and this type was not uncommon later. (See
BiGA.) The racing chariot was the quadriga, and
was drawn 'oy four horses, harnessed abreast. The
centre i)air were attached to the yoke, the
outer were attached to the chariot by traces.
The quadriga used in the Roman triuin])h was
often elaborately adorned. The war chariot used
by the Britons. Persians, and other peoples were
often armed with scythes attached to the axles.
For abundant illustrations of the ancient chariot
in its many forms, see Daremberg and Saglio,
Dictionnaire dcs antiquitcs, s. v. Cuitus. See
Cariiiace.
CHARIS, ka'ris. In Homer's Iliad, the wife
of IIcpha>stus, and the personification of grace,
amplified into the Three Charities (q.v.).
CHARISITJS, ka-rishliis. Flavh'S Sosi-
r.^TEK. A Roman grammarian of the Fourth Cen-
tury A.D. Nothing is known of his personality,
and only a portion of the first five books of his
Grammar — .-Irs Grammatica — is preserved. It
is largely a work of conqiilation, but is valuable
to us for its many quotations from early authors.
The text will be found in Volume 1. of Keil,
Graminnlici Latini (Leipzig. 1857).
CHARISTICARIES, kfir-is'ti-ka'riz (lied.
Lat. cltaristicarius, from Gk. x"P""<'k, charis-
tikos, generous, from ,1'apa, chara, favor, from
Xalpeiv, chairein, to rejoice). In Greek ecclesi-
astical history, officers who had full power over
the revenues of hospitals and monasteries.
CHARITABLE TRUSTS, or CHARITIES.
Property, real or personal, voleil in trustees to
be administered by them for religious, eleemosy-
nary, educational, or other benevolent purpo.ses
of a public nature. The origin and use of the
term is due to the dilhculty, more apparent than
real, experienced by the Englisli Court of Chan-
cery in enforcing trusts created for the benefit
of a class of indefinite and unascertainable bene-
ficiaries, as a trust for the benefit of the in.=;ane,
generally, or for the benefit o^ the poor of Lon-
don. Inasmuch as there was no ascertained per-
son having the right to invoke the jurisdiction of
the court to compel the trustee to perform the
duty imposed on liim. such a trust was deemed
in many instances to be unenforceable and
void. To avoid this consecpience when the at-
tempted trust was of a salutary character, an
early English statute, known as the Statute of
Charitable Uses (43 Eliz. cap. 4. 1601), was
passed, declaring such trusts valid and enforce-
able by commissioners appointed by the Court of
Chancery. Such trusts have since been known
as charitable uses, or charitable tru.sts. It is
probable that the administration of such trusts
fell to some extent within the prerogative juris-
dicliim of the Chancellor before the statulc, and
its |)rincipal effect was to enlarge the jurisdiction
of the Court of Chancery and to define the use*
which were to be recognized as charitable, as
distinguished from those which, after the Refor-
mation, were deemed superstitious and void as
pertaining to the Catholic Church.
