Charles I., king of France, and emperor of the West by conquest, was born at the castle of Salzburg, in Upper Bavaria, in 742. The events in the life of this great monarch belong properly to the history of France. Equally illustrious in the cabinet and in the field, a wise legislator and a great warrior, the patron of men of letters and the restorer of learning, Charlemagne has united in his favour the suffrages of statesmen and soldiers, of ecclesiastics, lawyers, and men of letters, who have all vied with one another in bestowing the homage of their praise on the celebrated founder of the western empire. Politicians indeed have blamed him for having regulated everything in his states except the succession to the throne, which he left at the mercy of faction, and for having multiplied those assemblies where the royal power is necessarily weakened by being divided, a policy unsuitable to the extent and condition of his empire. Nor is this censure without foundation. By his genius, his courage, his activity, and the skill with which he distributed rewards, he unquestionably surmounted all obstacles; but he unfortunately consolidated nothing; and hence, to succeed him, we do not say with glory, but with safety to the throne and to France, it would have been necessary to resemble him in many of his great qualities. But such a successor was nowhere to be found. Charlemagne was the last hero of his race; and as he took no effectual measures to consolidate the empire which he had established, it went to pieces not long after that disastrous day when he, "with all his peerage, fell by Fontarabia." His death happened on the 28th January 814, in the seventy-second year of his age, and the forty-seventh of his reign. The works of Charlemagne are, 1. His Capitulaires, first collected by Ansegise, abbot of St Wandrille, the best edition of which is that of Etienne Baluze, Paris, 1677, two vols. fol.; 2. Letters, contained in the collection of D. Bouquet; 3. A Grammar, of which fragments are to be found in the Polygraphia of Trithemus; 4. His Testament, contained in Bouché's Bibliothèque du Droit Français, tom. iii. printed at Paris, 1667, fol.; 5. Some Latin poems, such as the Epistle of Pope Adrian, and the Song of Roland; 6. The Caroline Books. Of the more early historians of Charlemagne, the principal is Eginhard. A very respectable account of his life and reign has been published by Mr James, in one vol. 8vo. 1832.

Charkow, a circle in the Russian government of the Ukraine, bounded on the north by Kursk, on the east by Woltschansk, on the south-east by Kupinsk, on the south by Smijew, and on the west by Bogoduchow. It extends over 1980 square miles, and contains a population of 165,000 souls. The circle is watered by the Donez, which within it receives the waters of the Kharkowka, Lepanka, and Uda. It is highly productive of corn and fruit, but more especially of tobacco and hemp. The chief place, a city of the same name, is 1400 wersts, or 980 miles, from St Petersburg, on the river Donez; it was formerly surrounded with walls, which are now converted into gardens and promenades; and it contains a cathedral and seven other churches, two monasteries, a university, an ecclesiastical seminary, and several institutions for primary education. In 1815 the houses were 1552, and the inhabitants 15,000, exclusive of the military and the members of the university. It is a place of considerable trade, which consists chiefly in the productions of the vicinity. The chief articles prepared in the city are brandy, from corn; soap, leather, candles, and latterly some silk. It is in long. 36° 10'. E. lat. 49° 59' 20" N.