Champlain, Samuel de
Samuel de (1570-1635), a French soldier and explorer. He was born in France and died at Quebec. He served under the French flag in the West Indies and Mexico. In 1603 he began the exploration of the St. Lawrence. In 1608 he founded Quebec, and in the following year discovered the lake which bears his name. He spent his life in the service of France, fighting the Iroquois, fortifying Quebec, locating settlers, and developing the fur trade of New France.
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Champollion
JEAN FRANÇOIS (shan-pol-yôn'), a French scholar, celebrated for his discoveries in the department of Egyptian hieroglyphics, born in Figeac, Dec. 23, 1790. At an early age he devoted himself to the study of Hebrew, Arabic, Coptic, etc., and in 1809 became Professor of History at Grenoble. He soon, however, retired to Paris, where, with the aid of the trilingual inscription of the Rosetta Stone and the suggestions thrown out by Dr. Thomas Young, he at length discovered the key to the graphic system of the Egyptians, the three elements of which-figurative, ideographic, and alphabetic-he expounded before the Institute in a series of memoirs in 1823. These were published in 1824 at the expense of the state, under the title of "Hieroglyphic System of the Ancient Egyptians." He died in Paris, March 4, 1832. CHAMPS-ÉLYSÉES (cshôn'zā-lē-zā'), [Fr. "Elysian Fields"], a place of public resort in Paris, which consists of an avenue and the gardens sur surrounding it. These extend from the Place de la Concorde to the Place de l'Etoile, a distance of 14 miles. It became the property of the crown in 1616 and was ceded to the city in 1828. Its lower end forms a park, flanked by the Palais de l'Élysée, and by the two Palais des Beaux-Arts.
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Chancel
the E. end of a church, in which the altar is placed. It was formerly, and is even now in places, divided from the body of the church by a screen or lattice-work, and is raised by steps above the level of the body of the church.
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Chancellorsville
BATTLE OF, one of the great battles of the American Civil War, fought at Chancellorsville, Va., May 2 and 3, 1863. Gen. Joseph Hooker commanded the Federal force, and Gen. Robert E. Lee the Confederate force. Although Hooker's army was superior in numbers, being about 130,000 against 60,000 of the Confederates, the advantage at the end of the battle lay with the latter. During a flank movement the 11th corps of the Federal army, under Gen. O. O. Howard, was surprised and thrown into a panic near nightfall of the first day. The flank movement extended so far that the bullets of the Confederates were turned upon their own troops, and by their fire "Stonewall" Jackson was mortally wounded. The Federal loss was 18,000, the Confederate loss 13,000.
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Chancery
in law, a court having special defined power. The English Court of Chancery was the highest court of judicature next to the House of Lords. The Lord Chancellor presided in this court, having under him the Lords Justices and Vice-Chancellors, who acted for him in separate courts, and the Master of the Rolls, who had the keeping of all the rolls and records of the Court of Chancery, and also presided in a court of his own. The Court of Chancery was a court of equity. Under the Judicature Act of 1873 the powers and jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery were transferred to the High Court of Justice, and it now exists as the chancery division of that court. In the United States it is a court hav ing equity jurisdiction. American courts of equity are, in some instances, distinct from those of law; in others, the same tribunals exercise the jurisdiction both of courts of law and equity, though their forms of proceeding are different in their two capacities. The Supreme Court of the United States, and the Circuit Courts, are invested with general equity powers, and act either as courts of law or equity.
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Chandos
a great English family, descended from a follower of William the Conqueror, the last representative in the direct male male line being Sir John Chandos (died 1428), whose sister married one Giles Brydges. Their descendant, Sir John Brydges, was lieutenant of the Tower under Queen Mary, and was created Baron Chandos in 1554. James Brydges (1673-1744), eighth Lord Chandos, sat in Parliament for Hereford from 1698 to 1714, and was created Duke of Chandos in 1719. The lucrative post of paymaster of the forces abroad (1707- 1712) supplied means for building a palace at Canons, near Edgeware, which cost £200,000, but was torn down at the duke's death. Here Handel lived two years, wrote anthems for the chapel service, and produced "Esther." In 1796 the title passed by marriage to the family of Grenville, the present dukes of Buckingham and Chandos. The third and last duke of this line died in 1889.
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Chang-Sha
a city of China, capital of the province of Hu-Nan, on the Hang- Kiang, a tributary of the Yang-tse- Kiang. Chang-Sha has an important rade, manufactures silk extennative trade, sively. Pop. about 250,000.
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Changeling
a child left in place of another. During the Middle Ages there was a popular superstition that the fairies were likely to take away a babe and place their own in its stead. The more vigorous a young child, the more likely the fairies were to desire it. The exchange might be made any time before the christening. Young babes were watched, therefore, closely, until that ceremony had been performed. A stunted, dwarfed, crippled, or underwitted child was believed commonly to be a changeling. Spenser speaks of changelings changed by "faeries' theft." The term is employed frequently by the British poets. Lowell, who lost a little daughter, uses the idea beautifully. He speaks of the memory of his little child as though it were a changeling left in its place by the angels. This child is not mine as the first was, I cannot sing it to rest, I cannot lift it up fatherly, And bless it upon my breast; Yet it lies in my little one's cradle, And sits in my little one's chair, And the light of the heaven she's gone to Transfigures its golden hair.
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