Page:EB1911 - Volume 05.djvu/418

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CARREL—CARRIAGE
401

345, with 4400 workmen, are at Carrara itself, and 50 (700 men) at Massa. The amount exported in 1899 was 180,000 tons. The quarries are served by a separate railway, with several branch lines.


CARREL, JEAN BAPTISTE NICOLAS ARMAND (1800–1836), French publicist, was born at Rouen on the 8th of May 1800. His father was a merchant in good circumstances, and he received a liberal education at the college of Rouen, afterwards attending the military school at St Cyr. He had an intense admiration for the great generals of Napoleon, and his uncompromising spirit, bold uprightness and independent views marked him as a man to be suspected. Entering the army as sub-lieutenant he took a secret but active part in the unsuccessful conspiracy of Belfort. On the outbreak of war with Spain in 1823, Carrel, whose sympathies were altogether with the liberal cause, sent in his resignation, and succeeded in effecting his escape to Barcelona. He enrolled himself in the foreign legion and fought gallantly against his former comrades. Near Figuières the legion was compelled to surrender, and Carrel became the prisoner of his old general, Damas. There was considerable difficulty about the terms of capitulation, and one council of war condemned Carrel to death. Fortunately some informality prevented the sentence being executed, and he was soon afterwards acquitted and set at liberty. His career as a soldier being then finally closed, Carrel resolved to devote himself to literature. He came to Paris and began as secretary to Augustin Thierry, the historian. His services were found to be of great value, and he not only obtained admirable training in habits of composition, but was led to investigate for himself some of the most interesting portions of English history. His first work of importance (he had already written one or two historical abstracts) was the History of the Counter-Revolution in England, an exceedingly able political study of the events which culminated in the Revolution of 1688. He gradually became known as a skilful writer in various periodicals; but it was not till he formed his connexion with the National that he became a power in France. The National was at first conducted by Thiers, Mignet and Carrel in conjunction; but after the revolution of July, Thiers and Mignet assumed office, and the whole management fell into the hands of Carrel. Under his direction this journal became the first political organ in Paris. His judgment was unusually clear, his principles solid and well founded, his sincerity and honesty beyond question; and to these qualities he united an admirable style, lucid, precise and well balanced. As the defender of democracy he had frequently to face serious dangers. He was once in Ste Pelagie, and several times before the tribunal to answer for his journal. Nor was he in less danger from private enmities. Before his last fatal encounter he was twice engaged in duels with editors of rival papers. The dispute which led to the duel with Émile de Girardin was one of small moment, and might have been amicably arranged had it not been for some slight obstinacy on Carrel’s part. The meeting took place on the morning of the 22nd of July 1836. De Girardin was wounded in the thigh, Carrel in the groin. The wound was at once seen to be dangerous, and Carrel was conveyed to the house of a friend, where he died after two days’ suffering.

His works, with biographical notice by Littré, were published in five volumes (Paris, 1858), A fine estimate of his character will be found in Mill’s Dissertations, vol. i.


CARRERA, JOSÉ MIGUEL (1785–1821), the principal leader in the early fighting for the independence of Chile, was born at Santiago on the 15th of October 1785. Sent to Spain for a military career, he served in the Spanish army in the Napoleonic war, but returned to Chile in July 1811, where his vigorous character and military experience enabled him by means of a series of coup d’etats to place himself at the head of the nationalist government. Though at first he laboured patriotically to establish a stable administration, to promote education, and to organize the Chilean forces, his selfish arrogant spirit produced dissensions between himself and other patriots, and it was his rivalry with Bernardo O’Higgins that led to the defeat of the nationalist forces at Rancagua in 1814. In the expedition of 1817, led by José de San Martin and Bernardo O’Higgins, which resulted in the liberation of Chile, Carrera had no share, owing to his hostility to the leaders, but he attempted to procure in the United States materials for a fresh enterprise of his own. The Argentine government, however, suspicious of his intentions, would not allow him to go to Chile, and Carrera, enraged by this treatment and by the execution of his brothers at Mendoza by the San Martin party, proceeded to organize rebellion in Argentina, but was eventually captured and shot at Mendoza on the 4th of September 1821.

See A. Valdes, Revolucion Chilena y Campañas de la Independencia (Santiago, 1888), which is practically a vindication of Carrera’s career; also P. B. Figueroa, Diccionario biografico de Chile, 1550–1887 (Santiago, 1888), and J. B. Suarez, Rasgos biograficos de hombres notables de Chile (Valparaiso, 1886), both giving biographical sketches of prominent characters in Chilean history.


CARRIAGE, a term which in its widest signification is used, as its derivation permits, for any form of “carrying”; thus, a person’s “carriage” is still spoken of in the sense of the way he bears himself. But it is more specifically the general term for all vehicular structures employed for the purposes of transport of merchandise and movable goods and of human beings. Such vehicles are generally mounted on wheels, but the sledge and the litter are types of the exception to this rule. Within this definition a vast variety of forms is included, ranging from the coster’s barrow and rude farm-cart up to the luxuriously appointed sleeping-cars of railways and the state carriages of royal personages. A narrower application, however, limits the term to such vehicles as are used for the conveyance of persons and are drawn by horses, and it is with carriages in this restricted sense that we are here concerned. Tramcars, railway carriages and motor-cars are dealt with in other articles.

History.—A wheeled carriage appears to have been in very general use in Egypt at an early period, called a car or chariot (q.v.); in the Bible the word is usually translated “chariot.” The bodies of these chariots were small, usually containing only two persons standing upright. They were very light, and could be driven at great speed. They were narrow, and therefore suitable to Eastern cities, in which the streets were very narrow, and to mountainous roads, which were often only 4 ft. wide. From Egypt the use of chariots spread into other countries, and they were used in war in large numbers on the great plains of Asia. We read of the 900 chariots of Jabin, king of Canaan; how David took 700 chariots from the kings of Syria and 1000 from the king of Zobah. Solomon had 1400 chariots, and his merchants supplied northern Syria and the surrounding countries with chariots brought out of Egypt at 600 shekels (about £50) apiece. From the ancient sculptures preserved from Nineveh and Babylon, some of which are in the British Museum, we observe the use of chariots continued for the purpose of hunting as well as for war. Homer describes the chief warriors on both sides at the siege of Troy as going into battle and fighting from their chariots. The Roman nation as it increased in power adopted the car, though chiefly for purposes of show and state. A beautiful marble model of one of these still exists at the Vatican in Rome: a copy of it and the horses drawing it is in the museum at South Kensington. The war chariots used by the Persians were larger; the idea seems to have been to form a sort of turret upon the car, from which several warriors might shoot or throw their spears. These chariots were provided with curved blades projecting from the axle-trees. Alexander the Great, king of Macedon, invading Asia was met upon the banks of the river Indus by King Porus, in whose army were a number of elephants and also several thousand chariots. On Alexander’s return from India towards Persia, he travelled in a chariot drawn by eight horses, followed by an innumerable number of others covered with rich carpets and purple coverlets. After Alexander’s death a funeral car was prepared to convey his body from Babylon to Alexandria in Egypt, and this car has perhaps never been excelled in the annals of coach-building. It was designed by the celebrated architect Hieronymus, and took two years to build. It was 18 ft. long and 12 ft. wide, on four massive wheels, and drawn by sixty-four mules, eight abreast. The car was composed