Chapter III: Front Matter (3)

CHILDERIC II. (c. 653-673), king of Austrasia, was a son of the Frankish king Clovis II., and in 660, although a child, was proclaimed king of Austrasia, while his brother, Clotaire III., ruled over the rest of the dominions of Clovis. After the death of Clotaire in 670 he became ruler of the three Frankish kingdoms, Austrasia, Neustria and Burgundy, but soon quarrelled with some supporters in Neustria, and was assassinated whilst hunting. He was buried at St Germain near Paris.

CHILDERIC III. (d. c. 751), king of the Franks, was the last king of the Merovingian dynasty. The throne had been vacant for seven years when the mayors of the palace, Carloman and Pippin the Short, decided in 743 to recognize Childeric as king. We cannot say whose son he was, or what bonds bound him to the Merovingian family. He took no part in public business, which was directed, as before, by the mayors of the palace. When in 747 Carloman retired into a monastery, Pippin resolved to take the royal crown for himself; taking the decisive step in 751 after having received the celebrated answer of Pope Zacharias that it were better to name king him who possessed the power than him who possessed it not. Childeric was dethroned and placed in the monastery of St Omer; his son, Theuderich, was imprisoned at Saint-Wandrille.

See W. Junghans, _Die Geschichte der fraenkischen Koenige Childerich und
Clodovech_ (Goettingen, 1857); J.J. Chiflet, _Anastasis Childerici I.
Francorum regis_ (Antwerp, 1655); J.B.D. Cochet, _Le Tombeau de
Childeric I, roi des Francs_ (Paris, 1859); and E. Lavisse, _Histoire
de France_, tome ii. (Paris, 1903).

CHILDERS, HUGH CULLING EARDLEY (1827-1896), British statesman, was born in London on the 25th of June 1827. On leaving Cambridge he went out to Australia (1850), and became a member of the government of Victoria, but in 1857 returned to England as agent-general of the colony. Entering parliament in 1860 as Liberal member for Pontefract (a seat that he continued to hold till 1885), he became civil lord of the admiralty in 1864, and in 1865 financial secretary to the treasury. Childers occupied a succession of prominent posts in the various Gladstone ministries. He was first lord of the admiralty from 1868 to 1871, and as such inaugurated a policy of retrenchment. Ill-health compelled his resignation of office in 1871, but next year he returned to the ministry as chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster. From 1880 to 1882 he was secretary for war, a post he accepted somewhat unwillingly; and in that position he had to bear the responsibility for the reforms which were introduced into the war office under the parsimonious conditions which were then part of the Liberal creed. During his term of office the Egyptian War occurred, in which Childers acted with creditable energy; and also the Boer War, in which he and his colleagues showed to less advantage. From 1882 to 1885 he was chancellor of the exchequer, and the beer and spirit duty in his budget of the latter year was the occasion of the government's fall. Defeated at the general election at Pontefract, he was returned as a Home Ruler (one of the few Liberals who adopted this policy before Mr Gladstone's conversion) in 1886 for South Edinburgh, and was home secretary in the ministry of 1886. When the first Home Rule bill was introduced he demurred privately to its financial clauses, and their withdrawal was largely due to his threat of resignation. He retired from parliament in 1892, and died on the 29th of January 1896, his last piece of work being the drafting of a report for the royal commission on Irish financial relations, of which he was chairman. Childers was a capable and industrious administrator of the old Liberal school, and he did his best, in the political conditions then prevailing, to improve the naval and military administration while he was at the admiralty and war office. His own bent was towards finance, but no striking reform is associated with his name. His most ambitious effort was his attempt to effect a conversion of consols in 1884, but the scheme proved a failure, though it paved the way for the subsequent conversion in 1888.

The _Life_ (1901) of Mr Childers, by his son, throws some interesting
side-lights on the inner history of more than one Gladstonian cabinet.

CHILDERS, ROBERT CAESAR (1838-1876), English Oriental scholar, son of the Rev. Charles Childers, English chaplain at Nice, was born in 1838. In 1860 he received an appointment in the civil service of Ceylon, which he retained until 1864, when he was compelled to return to England owing to ill-health. He had studied P[=a]li during his residence in Ceylon, under Yatramulle Unnanse, a learned Buddhist for whom he cherished a life-long respect, and he had gained an insight into the Sinhalese character and ways of thought. In 1869 he published the first P[=a]li text ever printed in England, and began to prepare a P[=a]li dictionary, the first volume of which was published in 1872, and the second and concluding volume in 1875. In the following year it was awarded the Volney prize by the Institute of France, as being the most important philological work of the year. He was a frequent contributor to the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, in which he published the _Mah[=a]-parinibb[=a]na Sutta_, the P[=a]li text giving the account of the last days of Buddha's life. In 1872 he was appointed sub-librarian at the India Office, and in the following year he became the first professor of P[=a]li and Buddhist literature at University College, London. He died in London on the 25th of July 1876.

CHILDREN, LAW RELATING TO. English law has always in theory given to children the same remedies as to adults for ill-usage, whether by their parents or by others, and has never recognized the _patria potestas_ as known to the earlier Roman law; and while powers of discipline and chastisement have been regarded as necessarily incident to paternal authority, the father is civilly liable to his children for wrongs done to them. The only points in which infancy created a defect in civil status were that infants were subject to the restraints on complete freedom of action involved in their being in the legal custody of the father, and that it was and is lawful for parents, guardians, employers and teachers to inflict corporal punishment proportioned in amount and severity to the nature of the fault committed and the age and mental capacity of the child punished. But the court of chancery, in delegated exercise of the authority of the sovereign as _parens patriae_, always asserted the right to take from parents, and if necessary itself to assume the wardship of children where parental rights were abused or serious cruelty was inflicted, the power being vested in the High Court of Justice. Abuse of the power of correction was regarded as giving a cause of action or prosecution for assault; and if attended by fatal results rendered the parent liable to indictment for murder or manslaughter.

The conception of what constitutes cruelty to children undoubtedly changed considerably with the relaxation of the accepted standard of severity in domestic or scholastic discipline and with the growth of new ideas as to the duties of parents to children, which in their latest developments tend enormously to enlarge the parental duties without any corresponding increase of filial obligations.

Starting from the earlier conception, which limited ill-treatment legally punishable to actual threats or blows, the common law came to recognize criminal liability in cases where persons, bound under duty or contract to supply necessaries to a child, unable by reason of its tender years to provide for itself, wilfully neglected to supply them, and thereby caused the death of the child or injury to its health, although no actual assault had been committed. Questions have from time to time arisen as to what could be regarded as necessary within this rule; and quite apart from legislation, popular opinion has influenced courts of justice in requiring more from parents and employers than used to be required. But parliament has also intervened to punish abandonment or exposure of infants of under two years, whereby their lives are endangered, or their health has been or is likely to be permanently injured (Offences against the Person Act of 1861, s. 27), and the neglect or ill-treatment of apprentices or servants (same act, s. 26, and Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act 1875, s. 6). By the Poor Law Amendment Act 1868, parents were rendered _summarily_ punishable who wilfully neglected to provide adequate food, clothing, medical aid or lodging for their children under fourteen years of age in their custody, whereby the health of the child was or was likely to be seriously injured. This enactment (now superseded by later legislation) made no express exception in favour of parents who had not sufficient means to do their duty without resort to the poor law, and was construed as imposing criminal liability on parents whose peculiar religious tenets caused them advisedly to refrain from calling in a doctor to a sick child.

The chief progress in the direction of adequate protection for children prior to 1889 lay less in positive legal enactment on the subject than in the institution of an effective system of police, whereby it became possible to discover and repress cruelty punishable under the ordinary law. It is quite inaccurate to say that children had very few rights in England, or that animals were better protected. But before the constitution of the present police force, and in the absence of any proper system of public prosecution, it is undeniable that numberless cases of neglect and ill-treatment went unpunished and were treated as nobody's business, because there was no person ready to undertake in the public interest the protection of the children of cruel or negligent parents. In 1889 a statute was passed with the special object of preventing cruelty to children. This act was superseded in 1894 by a more stringent act, which was repealed by the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act 1904, in its turn superseded for the most part by the Children Act 1908, which introduced many new provisions in the law relating to children and specifically deals with the offence of "cruelty" to them. This offence can only be committed by a person over sixteen in respect of a child under sixteen of whom he has "custody," "charge" or "care." The act presumes that a child is in the custody of its parents, step-parents, or a person cohabiting with its parent, or of its guardians or persons liable by law to maintain it; that it is in the charge of a person to whom the parent has committed such charge (e.g. a schoolmaster), and that it is in the care of a person who has actual possession or control of it. Cruelty is defined as consisting in assault, ill-treatment (falling short of actual assault), neglect, abandonment or exposure of the child in a manner likely to cause _unnecessary_ suffering or injury to health, including injury to or loss of sight, hearing or limb, or any organ of the body or any mental derangement; and the act or omission must be wilful, i.e. deliberate and intentional, and not merely accidental or inadvertent. The offence may be punished either summarily or on indictment, and the offender may be sent to penal servitude if it is shown that he was directly or indirectly interested in any sum of money payable on the death of the child, e.g. by having taken out a policy permitted under the Friendly Societies Acts. A parent or other person legally liable to maintain a child or young person will be deemed to have "neglected" him by failure to provide adequate food, clothing, medical aid, or lodging, or if in the event of inability to provide such food, &c., by failure to take steps to procure the same under acts relating to the relief of the poor.

These statutes overlap the common law and the statutes already mentioned. Their real efficacy lies in the main in the provisions which facilitate the taking of evidence of young children, in permitting poor law authorities to prosecute at the expense of the rates, and in permitting a constable on arresting the offender to take the child away from the accused, and the court of trial on conviction to transfer the custody of the child from the offender to some fit and willing person, including any society or body corporate established for the reception of poor children or for the prevention of cruelty to children. The provisions of the acts as to procedure and custody extend not only to the offence of cruelty but also to all offences involving bodily injury to a child under sixteen, such as abandonment, assault, kidnapping and illegally engaging a child in a dangerous public performance. The act of 1908 also makes an endeavour to check the heavy mortality of infants through "overlaying,"[1] enacting that where it is proved that the death of an infant under three years of age was caused by suffocation whilst the infant was in bed with some other person over the age of sixteen, and that that person was at the time of going to bed under the influence of drink, that other person shall be deemed to have neglected the child in manner likely to cause injury to its health, as mentioned above. The acts have been utilized with great zeal and on the whole with much discretion by various philanthropic societies, whose members make it their business to discover the ill-treated and neglected children of all classes in society, and particularly by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, which is incorporated under royal charter of the 28th of May 1895, for the purposes _inter alia_ of preventing the public and private wrongs of children, and the corruption of their morals and of taking action to enforce the laws for their protection.

The act of 1908 enacted more stringent provisions against baby-farming (q.v.). The Infant Life Protection Act of 1897 did not apply where only one child was taken, but now by the act of 1908, where a person undertakes for reward the nursing and maintenance of one or more infants under the age of _seven_ years apart from their parents or having no parents, he must give notice in writing to the local authority within forty-eight hours from the reception of the child. If an infant is already in the care of a person without reward and he undertakes to continue the nursing for reward, such undertaking is a reception of the child. The notice to the local authority must state the name, sex, date and place of birth of the infant, the name and address of the person receiving the infant and of the person from whom the infant was received. Notice must also be given of any change of address of the person having the care of the infant, or of the death of the infant, or of its removal to the care of some other person, whose name and address must also be given. It is the duty of local authorities to provide for the carrying-out in their districts of that portion of the act which refers to nursing and maintenance of infants, to appoint infants' protection visitors, to fix the number of infants which any person may retain for nursing, to remove infants improperly kept, &c. Relatives or legal guardians of an infant who undertake its nursing and maintenance, hospitals, convalescent homes, or institutions, established for the protection and care of infants, and conducted in good faith for religious and charitable purposes, as well as boarding schools at which efficient elementary education is given, are exempt from the provisions of the act.

The acts of 1904 and 1908 deal with many other offences in relation to children and young persons. The act of 1904 introduced restrictions on the employment of children which lie on the border land between cruelty and the regulation of child labour. It prohibits custodians of children from taking them, or letting them be, in the street or in public-houses to sing, play, perform or sell between 9 P.M. and 6 A.M. These provisions apply to boys under fourteen and girls under sixteen. There are further prohibitions (1) on allowing children under eleven to sing, play, perform or be exhibited for profit, or offer anything for sale in public-houses or places of public amusement at any hour without a licence from a justice, which is granted only as to children over ten and under stringent conditions; (2) on allowing children under sixteen to be trained as acrobats, contortionists, or circus performers, or for any dangerous performance; and the Children's Dangerous Performances Act 1879, as amended in 1897, makes it an offence to employ a male young person under sixteen and a female under eighteen in a dangerous public performance.

The act of 1908 renders liable to a fine not exceeding L25, or alternatively, or in addition thereto, imprisonment with or without hard labour for any term not exceeding three months, any custodian, &c., of any child or young person who allows him to be in any street, premises or place for the purpose of begging or receiving alms, or of inducing the giving of alms, whether or not there is a pretence of singing, playing, performing or offering anything for sale. An important departure in the act of 1908 was the attempt to prevent the exposure of children to the risk of burning. Any custodian, &c., of a child under seven who allows that child to be in a room Containing an open grate not sufficiently protected to guard against the risk of burning or scalding is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding L10. Provision is made against allowing children between the ages of four and sixteen to be in brothels; it is also made a misdemeanour if any custodian, &c., of a girl under sixteen causes or encourages her seduction or prostitution, and any person having the custody of a young girl may be bound over to exercise proper care if it is shown to the satisfaction of a court of summary jurisdiction, on the complaint of any person, that she is exposed to such risk.

The act of 1908, following legislation in many parts of the United States and in some of the British colonies, places a penalty on selling tobacco to any person apparently under the age of sixteen, whether for his own use or not. It empowers constables and park keepers to seize tobacco in the possession of any person apparently under sixteen found smoking in any street or public place, as well as to search them; it also empowers a court, of summary jurisdiction to prevent automatic machines for the sale of tobacco being used by young persons. The act also contains useful provisions empowering the clearing of a court whilst a child or young person is giving evidence in certain cases (e.g. of decency or morality), and the forbidding children (other than infants in arms) being present in court during the trial of other persons; it places a penalty on pawnbrokers taking an article in pawn from children under fourteen; and on vagrants for preventing children above the age of five receiving education. It puts a penalty on giving intoxicating liquor to any child under the age of five, except upon the orders of a duly qualified medical practitioner, or in case of sickness, or other urgent cause; also upon any holder of the licence of any licensed premises who allows a child to be at any time in the bar of the licensed premises; or upon any person who causes or attempts to cause a child to be in the bar of licensed premises other than railway refreshment rooms or premises used for any purpose to which the holding of a licence is merely auxiliary, or where the child is there simply for the purpose of passing through to some other part of the premises. It makes provision for the safety of children at entertainments, and consolidates the law relating to reformatory and industrial schools, and to juvenile offenders (see JUVENILE OFFENDERS).

In the act of 1908, "child" is denned as a person under the age of fourteen years, and "young person" as a person who is fourteen years and upwards and under the age of sixteen years. The act applies to Scotland and Ireland. In the application of the act to Ireland exception is made relative to the exclusion of children from bars of licensed premises, in the case of a child being on licensed premises where a substantial part of the business carried on is a drapery, grocery, hardware or other business wholly unconnected with the sale of intoxicating liquor, and the child is there for the purpose of purchasing goods other than intoxicating liquor.

_British Possessions._--Legislation much on the lines of the acts of 1889-1908 has been passed in many British possessions, e.g. Tasmania (1895, 1906), Queensland (1896, 1905), Jamaica (1896), South Australia (1899, 1904), New South Wales (1892 and 1900), New Zealand (1906), Mauritius (1906), Victoria (1905,1906). In South Australia a State Children's Department has been created to care for and manage the property and persons of destitute and neglected children, and the officials of the council may act in cases of cruelty to children; the legislation of Victoria and Queensland is based on that of South Australia. See also CHILDREN'S COURTS, EDUCATION and LABOUR LEGISLATION. (W. F. C.; T. A. I.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] There has been some doubt as to whether it is more correct to
say a person "_overlays_" or "_overlies_" a child, and the question
came up in committee on the bill. According to Sir J.A.H. Murray
(see Letter in _The Times_, 12th of May 1908) "to lie," an
intransitive verb, becomes transitive when combined with a
preposition, e.g. a nurse lies over a child or overlies a child; "to
lay" is the causal derivative of "to lie," and is followed by two
objects, e.g. to lay the table with a cloth, or to lay a cloth on
the table; similarly, to overlay a surface with varnish, or to
overlay a child with a blanket, or with the nurse's or mother's
body. The instrument can be left unexpressed, and a person can be
said to overlay a child, i.e. with her own body, a pillow, &c. Thus,
while "overlie" covers the case where the woman herself lies over
the child, "overlay" is the more general word.

CHILDRENITE, a rare mineral species; a hydrous basic aluminium iron phosphate, orthorhombic in crystallization. The ferrous oxide is in part replaced by manganous oxide and lime, and in the closely allied and isomorphous species eosphorite manganese predominates over iron. The general formula for the two species is Al(Fe, Mn)(OH)2PO2 + H2O. Childrenite is found only as small brilliant crystals of a yellowish-brown colour, somewhat resembling chalybite in general appearance. They are usually pyramidal in habit, often having the form of double six-sided pyramids with the triangular faces deeply striated parallel to their shorter edges. Hardness 4.5-5; specific gravity 3.18-3.24. The mineral, named after the zoologist and mineralogist J.G. Children (1777-1852), secretary of the Royal Society, was detected in 1823 on specimens obtained some years previously during the cutting of a canal near Tavistock in Devonshire. It has also been found in a few copper mines in Cornwall and Devonshire.

Eosphorite occurs as crystals of prismatic habit with angles very nearly the same as those of childrenite. Unlike childrenite, it has a distinct cleavage in one direction, and often occurs in compact masses as well as in crystals. The colour is sometimes yellowish-white, but usually rose-pink, and on this account the mineral was named from [Greek: eosphoros], dawn-bearer. Hardness 5; specific gravity 3.11-3.145. It was discovered in 1878 in a pegmatite-vein at Branchville, Connecticut, where it is associated with other rare manganese phosphates. (L. J. S.)

CHILDREN'S COURTS, or JUVENILE COURTS, a special system of tribunals for dealing with juvenile offenders, first suggested in the United States. The germ of such institutions was planted in Massachusetts in 1869, when a plan was introduced at Boston of hearing charges against children separately, and apart from the ordinary business of the lesser tribunals. No great progress was made in the development of the idea in Massachusetts, as the legal authorities were not fully convinced of the utility or need for a separate court so long as the children were kept strictly apart from adults, and this could be assured by a separate session. But the system of "probation," by which children were handed over to the kindly care and guardianship of an appointed officer, and thus escaped legal repression, was created about the same time in Boston and produced excellent results. The probation officer is present at the judge's side when he decides a case, and is given charge of the offender, whom he takes by the hand, either at his parent's residence or at school, and continually supervises, having power if necessary to bring him again before the judge. The example of Massachusetts in due course influenced other countries, and especially the British colony of South Australia, where a State Children's Department was created at Adelaide in 1895, and three years later a juvenile court was opened there for the trial of persons under eighteen and was conducted with great success, though the system of probation officers was not introduced. A juvenile court was also established at Toronto (Canada) on the South Australian model.

The movement when once fully appreciated went ahead very rapidly. In the United States Illinois was the first state to call a distinct children's court into existence, and Judge Richard Tuthill was the pioneer at Chicago, where the court was established in 1899. Many states followed suit, including New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Kansas, Colorado, Indiana and others, till the number rose to nineteen in 1906. In New York, where juvenile probation is supervised by the Society for the Protection of Children, there is a separate children's court with rooms attached, where the children for detention wait till they are brought in for trial. Brooklyn has also a children's court. In Pennsylvania, where the juvenile court was at first opposed as unconstitutional, the difficulty was met by first bringing the child before the magistrate in the police court, a course which (though followed by his transferring the case to the special court) perpetuated the very evils the children's court was intended to avoid; the work of probation was, however, most effectively carried out, chiefly by female officers. The Chicago Juvenile Court sits twice weekly under an especially appointed judge, and policemen act as probation officers to some extent. The court of Indianapolis, however, gained the reputation of being the most complete and perfect in the United States. It works with a large and highly efficient band of volunteer probation officers under a chief. The juvenile court of Denver, Colorado, attained remarkable results under Judge B. Lindsey, whose magnetic personality, wonderful comprehension of boy nature, and extraordinary influence over them achieved great results. The court meets once a fortnight, when fresh cases are tried and boys already on probation report themselves, often to the number of two hundred at a time. The latter appear before the judge in batches, each hands in his school report in a sealed letter, and according to its purport receives praise or blame, or he may be committed to the Detention House. An efficient court was also constituted at Baltimore, Maryland, with a judge especially chosen to preside, probation being for fixed periods, varying from three months to three years, and children being brought back to the court for parole or discharge, or, if necessary, committal to the house of one of the philanthropic societies. In Washington, D.C., the system of having no distinct court or judge, but holding a separate session, was followed, and it was found that numbers of children came to the court for help and guidance, looking upon the judge for the time being as their friend and counsellor. Probation in this instance offered peculiar difficulties on account of the colour question, two-thirds of the children having negro blood and a white boy being always preferred for a vacant situation. Throughout, the action of juvenile courts in the United States has been to bring each individual into "human touch" with kindly helpful workers striving to lead the young idea aright and train it to follow the straight path. It was the result always of the effort of private persons and not due to government initiative, indeed the advocates and champions of the system only established it by overcoming strong opposition from the authorities.

Progress in the same direction has been made in England. The home office had recommended London police magistrates to keep children's cases separate from those of adults; the same practice or something analogous obtained in many county boroughs, such as Bath, Birmingham, Bristol, Bolton, Bradford, Hull, Manchester, Walsall, Halifax and others, and the Children Act 1908 definitely established children's courts. This act enacted that courts of summary jurisdiction when hearing charges, &c., against children or young persons should, unless the child or young person is charged jointly with an adult, sit in a different building or room from that in which the ordinary sittings of the court are held, or on different days or at different times. Furthermore, provision must be made for preventing persons apparently under the age of sixteen years whilst being conveyed to or from court, or whilst waiting before or after their attendance in court, from associating with adults, unless such adults are charged jointly with them. The act prohibits any persons other than members and officers of the court, the parties to the case, their solicitors, counsel and other persons directly concerned in the case, from being present in a juvenile court, except by leave of the court. Bona-fide press representatives are also excepted. The main object of the whole system is to keep the child, the embryotic offender who has probably erred from ignorance or the pressure of circumstances or misfortune, altogether free from the taint or contagion that attaches to criminal proceedings. The moral atmosphere of a legal tribunal is injurious to the youthful mind, and children who appear before a bench, whether as accused or as witness, gain a contemptuous familiarity with legal processes.

The most beneficial action of the children's court comes from its association with the system of personal guardianship and close supervision exercised by the probation officers, official and voluntary. Where the intervention of the newly constituted tribunal can not only save the child from evil association when first arrested, but can rescue him without condemnation and committal to prison, its functions may be relied upon to diminish crime by cutting it off at the source. Much depends upon the quality and temperament of the presiding authority. Where a judge with special aptitude can be appointed, firm, sympathetic, tactful and able to gain the confidence of those brought before him, he may do great good, by dealing with each individual and not merely with his offence, realizing that the court does not exist to condemn but to strengthen and give a fresh chance. Where the children's court is only a branch of the existing jurisdiction worked by the regular magistrate or judge fulfilling his ordinary functions and not specially chosen, the beneficial results are not so noticeable. (A. G.)

CHILDREN'S GAMES. The study of traditional games has in recent years become an important branch of folklore research in England, and has contributed not a little towards elucidating many unrecorded facts in early history. These games may be broadly divided into two kinds--dramatic games, and games of skill and chance. These differ materially in their object. Games of skill and chance are played for the purpose of winning property from a less fortunate player. The dramatic games consist of non-singing and singing games; they are divided between boys' games and girls' games. Boys' games are mostly of a contest character, girls' of a more domestic type. The boys' dramatic games have preserved some interesting beliefs and customs, but the tendency in these games, such as "prisoner's base," has been to drop the words and tune and to preserve only that part (action) which tends best for exercise and use in school playgrounds. The girls' singing-games have not developed on these lines, and have therefore not lost so much of their early characteristics. The singing games consist of words, tune and action. The words, in verse, express ideas contained in customs not now in vogue, and they may be traced back to events taking place between men and women and between people of different villages. The tunes are simple, and the same tune is frequently used for different games. The actions are illustrative of the ideas to be expressed. The players represent various objects--animals, villages and people. The singing game is therefore not a game in the usual sense of the word. There is no element of "gambling" or playing "to win" in it--no one is richer or poorer for it; it also requires a number of children to play together. It is really a "play," and has survived because it has handed down some instances of custom and belief which were deeply rooted and which made a strong appeal to the imagination of our ancestors. The singing games represent in dramatic form the survival of those ceremonial dances common to people in early stages of development. These dances celebrated events which served to bind the people together and to give them a common interest in matters affecting their welfare. They were dramatic in character, singing and action forming a part of them, and their performers were connected by ties of place or kindred. They are probably survivals of what we might call folk drama. In these times it was held imperative to perform religious ceremonies periodically; at sowing and harvesting to ensure good crops; in the care of cattle and on occasions of marriage, birth and death. These were matters affecting the welfare of the whole community. Events were celebrated with dance, song and feasting, and no event was too trivial to be unconnected with some belief which rendered ceremony necessary.

At first these ceremonial dances had deep religious feeling for their basis, but in process of time they became purely secular and were performed at certain seasons only, because it was the custom to do so. They then became recognized as beautiful or pleasing things in the life of the people, and so continued, altering somewhat in ideas but retaining their old dramatic forms. They were danced by old and young at festivals and holidays, these being held about the same time of year as that at which the previous religious ceremonies had been held.

Singing games are danced principally in one of two methods, "line" and "circle." These represent two of the early forms of dramatic action. The "line" form (two lines of players standing opposite each other having a space of ground between them, advancing and retiring in turn) represents two different and opposing parties engaged in a struggle or contest. This method is used in all cases where contest is involved. The "circle" form, on the other hand, where all players join hands, represents those occasions when all the people of one place were engaged in celebrating events in which all were interested. Thus games celebrating sowing and harvest, and those associated with love and marriage, are played in this form. Both these methods allow of development. The circle varies from examples where all perform the same actions and say the same words to that where two or more players have principal parts, the others only singing or acting in dumb show, to examples where the singing has disappeared. The form or method of play and the actions constitute the oldest remaining parts of the game (the words being subject to alterations and loss through ignorance of their meaning), and it is to this form or method, the actions and the accompaniment of song, that they owe their survival, appealing as they do to the strong dramatic instinct of children and of uncultured folk.

It will be convenient to give a few instances of the best-known singing games. In "line" form, a fighting game is "We are the Rovers." The words tell us of two opposing parties fighting for their land; both sides alternately deride one another and end by fighting until one side is victorious. Two other "line" games, "Nuts in May" and "Here come three dukes a-riding," are also games of contest, but not for territory. These show an early custom of obtaining wives. They represent marriage by capture, and are played in "line" form because of the element of contest contained in the custom. Another form, the "arch," is also used to indicate contest.

Circle games, on the contrary, show such customs as harvest and marriage, with love and courting, and a ceremony and sanction by assembled friends. "Oats and beans and barley" and "Sally Water" are typical of this form. The large majority of circle games deal with love or marriage and domestic life. The customs surviving in these games deal with tribal life and take us back to "foundation sacrifice," "well worship," "sacredness of fire," besides marriage and funeral customs.

Details may be found in the periodical publications of the Folk-lore
Society, and particularly in the following works:--A.B. Gomme's
_Traditional Games of Great Britain_ (2 vols., Nutt, 1894-1898);
Gomme's _Children's Singing Games_ (Nutt, 1904.); Eckenstein's
_Comparative Studies in Nursery Rhymes_ (Duckworth, 1906); Maclagan,
_Games of Argyllshire_, Folk-lore Society (1900); Newell's _Games of
American Children_ (Harper Bros., New York, 1884). In Mrs Gomme's
_Traditional Games_, several versions of each game, together with a
short account of the suggested origin and of the custom or belief
indicated, are given for each game. In vol. ii. (pp. 458-531) a memoir
of the history of games is given, and the customs and beliefs which
originated them, reviewing the whole subject from the anthropological
point of view, and showing the place which games occupy among the
evidences of early man. In Miss Eckenstein's comparative study of
nursery rhymes suggested origins are given for many of these, and an
attempt made to localize certain of the customs and events. In several
of the publications of the Folk-lore Society local collections of
games are given, all of which may be studied with advantage. Stubbes
and other early writers give many instances of boys' games in their
days, many of which still exist. Tylor and other writers on
anthropology, in dealing with savage custom, confirm the views here
expressed. For nursery rhymes see Halliwell, _Nursery Rhymes_ (1845),
and Chambers's _Popular Rhymes_ (first printed 1841, reprinted in
1870). The recently collected _Morris Dances_ by Mr Cecil Sharp should
also be consulted. One of the morris dances, bean-setting, evidently
dealing with planting or harvest, is danced in circle form, while
others indicating fighting or rivalry are danced in line form, each
line dancing in circle before crossing over to the opposite, side, and
thus conforming to the laws already shown to exist in the more
ordinary game. (A. B. G.*)

CHILDS, GEORGE WILLIAM (1829-1894), American publisher, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on the 12th of May 1829. He was educated in the public schools, and after a brief term of service in the navy, he became in 1843 a clerk in a book-shop at Philadelphia. There, in 1847, he established an independent book-shop, and two years later organized the publishing house of Childs & Peterson. In 1864, with Anthony J. Drexel, he purchased the _Public Ledger_, at that time a little known newspaper; he completely changed its policy and methods, and made it one of the most influential journals in the country. He died at Philadelphia on the 3rd of February 1894. Childs was widely known for his public spirit and philanthropy. In addition to numerous private benefactions in educational and charitable fields, he erected memorial windows to William Cowper and George Herbert in Westminster Abbey (1877), and to Milton in St Margaret's, Westminster (1888), a monument to Leigh Hunt at Kensal Green, a Shakespeare memorial fountain at Stratford-on-Avon (1887), and monuments to Edgar Allan Poe and to Richard A. Proctor. He gave Woodland Cemetery to the Typographical Society of Philadelphia for a printers' burial-ground, and with Anthony J. Drexel founded in 1892 a home for Union printers at Colorado Springs, Colorado.

His _Recollections_ were published at Philadelphia in 1890.

CHILE, or CHILI (derived, it is said, from the Quichua _chiri_, cold, or _tchili_, snow), a republic of South America, occupying the narrow western slope of the continent between Peru and its southern extremity. (For map see ARGENTINA.) It extends from the northern boundary of the province of Tacna, about 17 deg. 25' S., to Cape Horn at the extreme southern point of the Fuegian archipelago in 55 deg. 58' 40'' S., with an extreme meridian length of 2661 m., and with a coast line considerably exceeding that figure owing to a westward curve of about 3-1/2 deg. and an eastward trend south of 50 deg. S. of nearly 8 deg. Its mainland width ranges from about 46 to 228 m., and its area, including the islands of the southern coast, is officially computed to be 307,774 sq. m., though the Gotha computation (1904) places it at 293,062 sq. m. Chile is thus a ribbon-like strip of territory between the Andes and the Pacific, comparatively regular north of the 42nd parallel, but with an extremely ragged outline south of that line. It is bounded N. by Peru, E. by Bolivia and Argentina, S. and W. by the Pacific. Its eastern boundary lines are described under ARGENTINA and BOLIVIA. The war of 1879-81 with Peru and Bolivia gave to Chile 73,993 sq. m. of territory, or one-fourth her total area. By subsequent agreements the Bolivian department of the Literal, or Atacama, and the Peruvian department of Tarapaca, were formally ceded to Chile, and the northern frontier was removed to the river Camarones, which enters the Pacific at 19 deg. 12' S. Under the treaty of Ancon (20th October 1883) Chile was to retain possession of the provinces of Tacna and Arica belonging to the Peruvian department of Moquegua for a period of ten years, and then submit "to popular vote whether those territories are to belong to Chile or Peru." At the expiration of the period (1893) Chile evaded compliance with the agreement, and under various pretexts retained forcible possession of the territory. This arbitrary retention of Tacna and Arica, which became the province of Tacna under Chilean administration, removed the frontier still farther north, to the river Sama, which separates that province from the remaining part of the Peruvian department of Moquegua. Starting from the mouth of that river, in 17 deg. 57' S., the disputed boundary follows its course in an irregular N.E. direction to its source in the Alto do Toledo range, thence S. and E. along the water parting to the Bolivian boundary line in the Cordillera Silillica.

_Physiography._--For purposes of general topographical description
Chile may be divided into three regions: the desert region of the
north, the central agricultural region between the provinces of
Coquimbo and Llanquihue, and the heavily-forested rainy region south
of lat. 41 deg. S. The desert region is an elevated arid plateau
descending gradually from the Andes towards the coast, where it breaks
down abruptly from elevations of 800 to 1500 ft. From the sea this
plateau escarpment has the appearance of a range of flat topped hills
closely following the coast line. The surface is made up of extensive
plains covered with sand and deposits of alkaline salts, broken by
ranges of barren hills having the appearance of spurs from the Andes,
and by irregular lateral ranges in the vicinity of the main cordillera
enclosing elevated saline plateaus. This region is rainless, barren
and inhospitable, absolutely destitute of vegetation except in some
small river valleys where irrigation is possible, and on the slopes of
some of the snow-covered peaks where the water from the melting snows
nourishes a scanty and coarse vegetation before it disappears in the
thirsty sands. It is very rich in mineral and saline deposits,
however. The eastern parts of this region lie within the higher ranges
of the Andes and include a large district awarded to Chile in 1899
(see ARGENTINA and ATACAMA). This arid, bleak area is apparently a
continuation southward of the great Bolivian _altaplanicie_, and is
known as the Puna de Atacama. Its average elevation is estimated at
11,000 to 12,000 ft. A line of volcanoes crosses it from north to
south, and extensive lava beds cover a considerable part of its
surface. Large shallow saline lakes are also characteristic features
of this region. From 28 deg. S. the spurs from the cordillera toward the
coast are more sharply defined and enclose deeper valleys, where the
cultivation of the soil becomes possible, at first through irrigation
and then with the aid of light periodical rains. The slopes of the
Andes are precipitous, the general surface is rough, and in the north
the higher ground and coast are still barren. Beginning with the
province of Aconcagua the coast elevations crystallize into a range of
mountains, the Cordillera Maritima, which follows the shore line south
to the province of Llanquihue, and is continued still farther south by
the mountain range of Chiloe and the islands of the western coast,
which are the peaks of a submerged mountain chain. Lying between this
coast range and the Andes is a broad valley, or plain, extending from
the Aconcagua river south to the Gulf of Ancud, a distance slightly
over 620 m. with an average width of about 60 m. It is sometimes
called the "Vale of Chile," and is the richest and most
thickly-populated part of the republic. It is a highly fertile region,
is well watered by numerous streams from the Andes, has a moderate
rainfall, and forms an agricultural and grazing region of great
productiveness. It slopes toward the south, and its lower levels are
filled with lakes and with depressions where lakes formerly existed.
It is an alluvial plain for the greater part, but contains some sandy
tracts, as in Nuble and Arauco; in the north very little natural
forest is found except in the valleys and on the slopes of the
enclosing mountain ranges, but in the south, where the rainfall is
heavier, the plain is well covered with forest. South of 41 deg. S. the
country is mountainous, heavily-forested and inhospitable. There are
only a few scattered settlements within its borders, and a few nomadic
tribes of savages eke out a miserable existence on the coast. The
deeply-indented coast line is filled with islands which preserve the
general outline of the continent southward to the Fuegian archipelago,
the outside groups forming a continuation of the Cordillera Maritima.
The heavy and continuous rainfall throughout this region, especially
in the latitude of Chiloe, gives rise to a large number of rivers and
lakes. Farther south this excessive precipitation is in the form of
snow in the Cordilleras, forming glaciers at a comparatively low level
which in places discharge into the inlets and bays of the sea. The
extreme southern part of this region extends eastward to the Atlantic
entrance to the Straits of Magellan, and includes the greater part of
the large island of Tierra del Fuego with all the islands lying south
and west of it. There are some comparatively level stretches of
country immediately north of the Straits, partly forested and partly
grassy plains, where sheep farming has been established with some
degree of success, but the greater part of this extreme southern
territory is mountainous, cold, wet and inhospitable. The perpetual
snow-line here descends to 3500 to 4000 ft. above sea-level, and the
forest growth does not rise above an altitude of 1000 to 1500 ft.

Mountains.

It has been officially estimated that the arable lands of Chile
comprise about twenty-five millions of acres (slightly over 39,000 sq.
m.), or very nearly one-eighth of its total area. The desert regions
of the north include comparatively large areas of plains and gently
sloping surfaces, traversed by ranges of barren hills. The remainder
of the republic, probably more than three-fifths of its surface, is
extremely mountainous. The western slopes of the Andes, with its spurs
and lateral ranges, cover a broad zone on the eastern side of the
republic, and the Cordillera Maritima covers another broad zone on its
western side from about lat. 33 deg. to the southern extremity of Chiloe,
or below lat. 43 deg. This maritime range is traversed by several river
valleys, some of which, like the Bio-Bio, are broad and have so gentle
a slope as to be navigable. The Andes, however, present an unbroken
barrier on the east, except at a few points in the south where the
general elevation is not over 5000 to 6000 ft., and where some of the
Chilean rivers, as the Palena and Las Heras, have their sources on its
eastern side. From the 52nd to about the 31st parallel this great
mountain system, known locally as the Cordillera de los Andes,
apparently consists of a single chain, though in reality it includes
short lateral ranges at several points; continuing northward several
parallel ranges appear on the Argentine side and one on the Chilean
side which are ultimately merged in the great Bolivian plateau. The
Chilean lateral range, which extends from the 29th to the 19th
parallels, traverses an elevated desert region and possesses several
noteworthy peaks, among which are Cerro Bolson, 16,017 ft., and Cerro
Dona Ines, 16,706 ft. It is broken to some extent in crossing the
province of Antofagasta, the southern division being known as the
Sierra de Huatacondo. At the southern frontier of Bolivia the main
chain, which has served as the boundary line between Argentina and
Chile, divides into two great ranges, the principal one continuing
almost due north along the eastern side of the great Bolivian
_alta-planicie_, and the other forming its western rim, where it is
known as the Cordillera Silillica, and then following the trend of the
coast north-westward into Peru becomes the Cordillera Occidental. The
western slopes of the Andes are precipitous, with short spurs
enclosing deep valleys. The whole system is volcanic, and a
considerable number of volcanoes are still intermittently active,
noticeably in central and southern Chile. The culminating point of the
Chilean Andes is Aconcagua, which rises to a height of 23,097 ft.

In southern Chile the coast is highly mountainous, but the relation of
these elevations to the Andes has not been clearly determined. The
highest of these apparently detached groups are Mt. Maca (lat. 45 deg.
S.), 9711 ft., and Mt. Arenales (about 47 deg. S. lat.), 11,286 ft.
Cathedral Peak on Wellington Island rises to a height of 3838 ft. and
the highest point on Taytao peninsula to 3937 ft. The coast range of
central Chile has no noteworthy elevations, the culminating point in
the province of Santiago being 7316 ft. Between central Chile and the
northern desert region there is a highly mountainous district where
distinct ranges or elongated spurs cross the republic from the Andes
to the coast, forming transverse valleys of great beauty and
fertility. The most famous of these is the "Vale of Quillota" between
Valparaiso and Santiago. The Chilean Andes between Tacna and Valdivia
are crossed by 24 passes, the majority of them at elevations exceeding
10,000 ft. The best-known of these is the Uspallata pass between
Santiago and the Argentine city of Mendoza, 12,870 ft. above
sea-level. The passes of central and southern Chile are used only in
the summer season, but those of northern Chile are open throughout the
whole year.