CHANCERY

CHANCERY, the highest court of justice in Britain next to the parliament, and of very ancient institution. It has its name chancery (cancellaria) from the judge who presides here, the lord chancellor, or cancellarius; who, according to Sir Edward Coke, is so termed a cancellandus, from cancelling the king's letters patent when granted contrary to law, which is the highest point of his jurisdiction. In chancery there are two distinct tribunals: the one ordinary, being a court of common law; the other extraordinary, being a court of equity.

1. The ordinary legal court holds pleas of recognizances acknowledged in the chancery, writs of fine facias, for repeal of letters patent, writs of partition, &c. and also of all personal actions by or against any officer of the court. Sometimes a superfedeas, or writ of privilege, hath been here granted to discharge a person out of prison; one from hence may have a habeat corpus prohibition, &c. in the vacation; and here a subpenna may be had to force witnesses to appear in other courts, when they have no power to call them. But, in prosecuting causes, if the parties descend to issue, this court cannot try it by jury; but the lord chancellor delivers the record into the king's bench to be tried there; and after trial had, it is to be remanded into the chancery, and there judgment given: tho' if there be a demurrer in law, it shall be argued in this court.

In this court is also kept the officina justitie; out of which all original writs that pass under the great seal, all commissions of charitable uses, sewers, bankruptcy, &c.

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Characters. as well as the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic characters, were formed from the ancient Hebrew, which subsisted till the Babylonish captivity; for after that event the character of the Assyrians, which is the square Hebrew now in use, prevailed, the ancient being only found on some Hebrew medals, commonly called Samaritan medals. It was in 1091 that the Gothic characters, invented by Ulfilas, were abolished, and the Latin ones established in their room.

Medallists observe, that the Greek character, consisting only of majuscule letters, has preserved its uniformity on all medals, as low as the time of Gallienus, from which time it appears somewhat weaker and rounder: from the time of Constantine to Michael we find only Latin characters: after Michael, the Greek characters recommence; but from that time they began to alter with the language, which was a mixture of Greek and Latin. The Latin medals preserve both their character and language as low as the translation of the feast of the empire to Constantinople: towards the time of Decius the character began to lose its roundness and beauty; some time after, it retrieved, and subsisted tolerably till the time of Justin, when it degenerated gradually into the Gothic. The rounder, then, and better formed a character is upon a medal, the fairer pretence it has to antiquity.

II. Numeral Characters, or characters used to express numbers, are either letters or figures.

The Arabic character, called also the common one, because it is used almost throughout Europe in all sorts of calculations, consists of these ten digits 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0.

The Roman numeral character consists of seven majuscule letters of the Roman alphabet, viz. I, V, X, L, C, D, M. The I denotes one, V five, X ten, L fifty, C a hundred, D five hundred, and M a thousand. The I repeated twice makes two, II; thrice, three, III: four is expressed thus IV, as I before V or X takes an unit from the number expressed by these letters. To express six, an I is added to a V, VI; for seven, two, VII; and for eight, three, VIII. nine is expressed by an I before X, thus IX. The same remark may be made of the X before L or C, except that the diminution is by tens; thus, XL, denotes forty, XC ninety, and LX sixty. The C before D or M diminishes each by a hundred. The number five hundred is sometimes expressed by an I before a C inverted, thus, IC; and instead of M, which signifies a thousand, an I is sometimes used between two C's, the one direct, and the other inverted, thus CIC. The addition of C and I before or after raises CIC by tens, thus, CCIC expresses ten thousand, CCCIC expresses a hundred thousand. The Romans also expressed any number of thousands by a line drawn over any numeral less than a thousand; thus $\backslash overline\{V\}$ denotes five thousand, $\backslash overline\{LX\}$, sixty thousand: so likewise $\backslash overline\{M\}$ is one million, $\backslash overline\{MM\}$ is two millions, &c.

The Greeks had three ways of expressing numbers: 1. Every letter, according to its place in the alphabet, denoted a number, from $\backslash alpha$, one, to $\backslash omega$, twenty-four. 2. The alphabet was divided into eight units, $\backslash alpha$ one, $\backslash beta$ two, three, $\backslash gamma$, &c.; into eight tens, $\backslash iota$ ten, $\backslash kappa$ twenty, $\backslash lambda$ thirty, $\backslash mu$, &c.; and eight hundreds, $\backslash rho$ one hundred, $\backslash sigma$ two hundred, $\backslash tau$ three hundred, &c. 3. I stood for one, II five, $\backslash Delta$ ten, $\backslash Pi$ a hundred, $\backslash chi$ a thousand, $\backslash mathcal\{M\}$ ten thousand; and when the letter $\backslash Pi$ inclosed any of these,

except $\backslash iota$, it showed the inclosed letter to be five times its value: as $\backslash Pi\backslash iota$ fifty, $\backslash Pi\backslash Pi\backslash iota$ five hundred, $\backslash Pi\backslash Pi\backslash Pi\backslash iota$ five thousand, $\backslash Pi\backslash Pi\backslash Pi\backslash Pi\backslash iota$ fifty thousand.

The French CHARACTER used in the chamber of accounts, and by persons concerned in the management of the revenue, is, properly speaking, nothing else than the Roman numerals, in letters that are not majuscule: thus, instead of expressing fifty-six by LVI, they denote it by smaller characters lvj.

III. CHARACTERS of Abbreviations, &c. in several of the arts, are symbols contrived for the more concise and immediate conveyance of the knowledge of things. For the

CHARACTERS used in Algebra. See ALGEBRA, Introduction.

CHARACTERS used in Astronomy, viz.
Of the Planets. See Plate LXII. fig. 19.
Of the Signs. Plate LXXVI. fig. 158. & LXXXV. fig. 204.

Of the aspects.

Of time.

A. M. ante meridiem, before the sun comes upon the meridian.

O. or N. noon.

P. M. post meridiem, when the sun is past the meridian.

CHARACTERS in Commerce.

CHARACTERS in Chemistry. See Pl. cxxxii. & cxxxiii.

CHARACTERS in Geometry and Trigonometry.

CHARACTERS in Grammar, Rhetoric, Poetry, &c.

Character. fons, who, though they are not professed enemies, yet view him with an envious or a jealous eye, and who will gladly revive any tale to which truth has given the slightest foundation.

In this turbulent and confused scene, where our words and actions are often misunderstood, and oftener misrepresented, it is indeed difficult even for innocence and integrity to avoid reproach, abuse, contempt, and hatred. These not only hurt our interest and impede our advancement in life, but sorely afflict the feelings of a tender and delicate mind. It is then the part of wisdom first to do every thing in our power to preserve an irreproachable character, and then to let our happiness depend chiefly on the approbation of our own consciences, and on the advancement of our interest in a world where liars shall not be believed, and where slanderers shall receive countenance from none but him who, in Greek, is called, by way of eminence, Diabolus, or the calumniator.