in separate bureaux, or committees. No tax can be levied without the consent of both chambers. The land-tax (impôt foncier) can be granted only year by year; other taxes may be voted for several years. The king convokes the two cham bers, and prorogues and dissolves that of the deputies, but in the case of dissolution he must assemble a new one within three months. All members are free from arrest for debt during the session and for six weeks before and after, and from arrest on a criminal charge during the session, unless taken in the act or arrested by permission of the chamber.

5th head, containing two articles. Des Ministres (Of the Ministers). They may be members of either chamber; and they have also the right of entry into the other chamber, in which they can claim to be heard. The deputies may impeach the ministers; the peers alone have the right to try them.

6th head, containing twelve articles.De l'Ordre Judiciaire (Of the Administration of Justice).-This head provides for the continuance of the previously existing institutions, including trial by jury, until properly modified by law; the publicity of criminal proceedings (except in particular cases); the non-removability of the judges, who are appointed by the king (the justices of peace, who are also appointed by the king, are however removable); and the right of the king to remit or commute the penalty imposed. It prohibits the confiscation of goods; the creation of special commissions or tribunals; and the withdrawal of any from the jurisdiction to which he is legally subject.

7th head, containing eight articles.Droits particuliers garantis par l'Etat (Individual Rights guaranteed by the State). Among other things, this head renders inviolable all engagements with the public creditor; provides for the government of the colonies by particular laws; and requires the king and his successors, on their accession, to swear to the faithful observance of the constitutional charter.

CHARTER. This word is from the Latin charta, a word of uncertain origin: the Greek form of the word is chartes

(xáprns). Charta appears to have signi fied writing material made of papyrus The term was afterwards applied ne only to the materials for writing, but t the writing itself, as to a letter or th leaf of a book. In English law it wa used to denote any public instrument deed, or writing, being written evidene of things done between man and mar and standing as a perpetual recort (Bracton, lib. 2, c. 26.) Among th Saxons such instruments were known # gewrite, or writings.

Charters are divided into-I. charter of the crown, and II. Charters of privat persons.

I. Royal charters were used at a ver early period, for grants of privileges, es emptions, lands, honours, pardon, an other benefits that the crown had to con fer; and thus the term became restricte to such instruments as conferred som right or franchise. These instrument did not differ in form from letters paten being usually addressed by the king ↑ all his subjects, and exposed to open view with the great seal pendent at the bot tom; but such as contained grants particular kinds were distinguished by the name of charters. Thus as giving wa the object of a charter, the term becam very popular, and was used in a more extended sense, to denote laws of a popu lar character.

As

Whatever may have been the pre rogatives and legislative authority of the kings of England, it is certain that from the earliest times there were many rights and liberties which by the law of the land belonged to the people. these were often restrained and violate, nothing was more acceptable to the nation than a formal recognition of them by the crown: and the popular name of charter was applied to those written laws by which the kings from time to tin confirmed or enlarged the liberties of the people. Such laws were regarded Lot only as concessions from the king, but as contracts between man and man-between the king and his subjects; while, at the same time, they were promulgated as the legislative acts of the sovereiga authority in the state.

The charter of William the Conqueror,

no less than 180 members were added to the House of Commons by royal charter, the last borough upon which that right was conferred, in this manner, having been Newark, in 1673. Several of these were ancient boroughs which had ceased to send members, and whose rights were thus restored by charter; while some towns, expressly created boroughs by charter, did not send members to parliament for centuries afterwards, as Queenborough, for example, to which a charter was granted in 1368, but which did not return members until 1578. Hence it has been argued that, notwithstanding the practice of later reigns, the charter of the crown alone was not sufficient in law to entitle a town to send members to parliament, although expressly created a borough, to which, by the common law, the right of sending members was incident. (Merewether and Stephen's History of Boroughs and Municipal Corporations, Introduction, and pp. 664, 1256, 1774, &c.) This view derives confirmation from the acknowledged law that the crown was unable, by charter, to exempt a borough from returning members, since that right was always held to be exercised for the benefit of the whole realm, and not for the advantage of the particular place. (Coke, 4th Inst. 49.) Upon these grounds a charter of exemption to the citizens of York was declared void by act of parliament, 29 Henry VI. c. 3. But as parliamentary representation has, at length, been comprehensively arranged for the whole kingdom by the Reform Acts, the legal effect of royal charters upon the elective franchise has become a question merely of historical interest. The peculiar rights of corporations have also been determined by the Municipal Corporations Act; but a power has been reserved to the crown, with the advice of the Privy Council, to grant charters of incorporation to other towns, upon the petition of the inhabitants, and to extend to them the provisions of the Municipal Corporations Acts (5 & 6 Will. IV. c. 76, § 141). [MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS.]

tice, contrary to the ancient and fundamental laws of the realm, which was abolished by the act 21 James I. c. 3. [MONOPOLY.]

The crown has ever exercised, and still retains, the prerogative of incorporating universities, colleges, companies, and other public bodies, and of granting them, by charter, powers and privileges not inconsistent with the law of the land. But as the most considerable bodies ordinarily require powers which no authority but that of parliament is able to confer, such corporations as the East India Company and the Bank of England, which were originally established by royal charter, have long since derived their extraordinary privileges from acts of parliament, as well as other public companies which have been incorporated in the first instance by statute.

But the largest powers now conferred by royal charter are those connected with the colonies and foreign possessions of the crown. Whenever a new country is obtained by conquest or treaty, the crown possesses an exclusive prerogative power over it, and by royal charters may establish its laws and the form of its government; may erect courts of justice, of civil and criminal jurisdiction, and otherwise provide for its municipal order, for the raising its revenue, and the regulation of its commerce. (Chitty, On Preroga tives, c. iii.) This sovereign power, however, is always subject to the ultimate control of parliament; and even if deputed to a legislative assembly, or other local government, possessing rights and liberties defined by charter, the crown cannot recall the charter, and govern by any laws inconsistent with its provisions, or at variance with the common law.

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CHARTER PARTY. [SHIPS.] CHARTISTS, the name given to a political party in this country, who propose extensive alterations in the representative system, as the most direct means of attaining social improvement, and whose views are developed in a document called the People's Charter." The principal points of this proposed charter are, universal suffrage, vote by ballot, annual parliaments, the division of the country into equal electoral districts, the abolition of property qualification in members and paying them for their services. The principles of the charter and the means of carrying them into effect have also been embodied in the form of a bill. It was prepared in 1838 by six members of the House of Commons, and six members of the London Working Men's Association; and the following are the most important of its enactments:-I. The preparers of the Bill allege the low state of public feeling as an apology for not admitting women to the franchise, and it is therefore only provided that every male inhabitant be entitled to vote for the election of a member of the Commons' House of Parliament, subject however to the following conditions:-1. That he be a native of these realms, or a foreigner who has lived in this country upwards of two years, and been naturalized. 2. That he be twenty-one years of age. 3. That he be not proved insane when the lists of voters are revised. 4. That he be not convicted of felony within six months from and after the passing of this act. 5. That his electoral rights be not suspended for bribery at elections, or for personation, or for forgery of election certificates, according to the penalties of this act. II. That the United Kingdom be divided into 300 electoral districts, so as to give uniform constituencies of about 20,000 voters each. III. That the votes be taken by ballot. IV. That a new Parliament be elected annually; that the elections take place on the same day in

There is nothing new in the principles or details of the People's Charter. They have, either separately, or some one or other of them in conjunction, been a prominent subject of discussion at various intervals within the last seventy years. In 1780 the Duke of Richmond introduced a bill into the House of Lords for annual parliaments and universal suffrage. In the same year the electors of Westminster appointed a committee to take into consideration the election of members of the House of Commons, and in their report they recommended the identical points which now constitute the main features of what is called the People's Charter. The Society of the Friends of the People, established in 1792, three years afterwards published a declaration which recommended a very large extension of the suffrage. In seasons of national distress, the amendment of the representative system has always been warmly taken up by the people of this country.

In 1831 the wishes of a large mass of the middle classes were realized and satisfied by the passing of the Reform Act. A season of political repose, and, as it happened also, of commercial prosperity, followed the excitement which preceded the passing of that measure. A victory had been gained, and the people waited for the benefits which they were to derive from it. In the next period of distress which arose, the amended state of the representative system and the advantages which it had brought were narrowly scanned; and the consequence was, the gradual formation of a party who were dissatisfied with its arrangements, and sought to attain the ends of political and social good by a more extensive change. This is briefly the origin of Chartism and of the Peo