LA CHALOTAIS

la chalotais, louis rene de caradeuc de (1701-1785), french jurist, was born at rennes, on the 6th of march 1701. he was for 60 years procureur general at the parliament of brittany. he was an ardent opponent of the jesuits; drew up in 1761 for the parliament a memoir on the constitutions of the order, which did much to secure its suppression in france; and in 1763 published a remarkable "essay on national education," in which he proposed a programme of scientific studies as a substitute for those taught by the jesuits. the same year began the conflict between the estates of brittany and the governor of the province, the duc d'aiguillon (q.v.). the estates refused to vote the extraordinary imposts demanded by the governor in the name of the king. la chalotais was the personal enemy of d'aiguillon, who had served him an ill turn with the king, and when the parliament of brittany sided with the estates, he took the lead in its opposition. the parliament forbade by decrees the levy of imposts to which the estates had not consented. the king annulling these decrees, all the members of the parliament but twelve resigned (october 1764 to may 1765). the government considered la chalotais one of the authors of this affair. at this time the secretary of state who administered the affairs of the province, louis philypeaux, duc de la vrilliere, comte de saint-florentin (1705-1777), received two anonymous and abusive letters. la chalotais was suspected of having written them, and three experts in handwriting declared that they were by him. the government therefore arrested him, his son and four other members of the parliament. the arrest made a great sensation. there was much talk of "despotism." voltaire stated that the procureur general, in his prison of saint malo, was reduced, for lack of ink, to write his defence with a toothpick dipped in vinegar--which was apparently pure legend; but public opinion all over france was strongly aroused against the government. on the 16th of november 1765 a commission of judges was named to take charge of the trial. la chalotais maintained that the trial was illegal; being procureur general he claimed the right to be judged by the parliament of rennes, or failing this by the parliament of bordeaux, according to the custom of the province. the judges did not dare to pronounce a condemnation on the evidence of experts in handwriting, and at the end of a year, things remained where they were at the first. louis xv. then decided on a sovereign act, and brought the affair before his council, which without further formality decided to send the accused into exile. that expedient but increased the popular agitation; _philosophes_, members of the parliament, patriot bretons and jansenists all declared that la chalotais was the victim of the personal hatred of the duc d'aiguillon and of the jesuits. the government at last gave way, and consented to recall the members of the parliament of brittany who had resigned. this parliament, when it met again, after the formal accusation of the duc d'aiguillon, demanded the recall of la chalotais. this was accorded in 1775, and la chalotais was allowed to transmit his office to his son. in this affair public opinion showed itself stronger than the absolutism of the king. the opposition to the royal power gained largely through it, and it may be regarded as one of the preludes to the revolution of 1789. la chalotais, who was personally a violent, haughty and unsympathetic character, died at rennes on the 12th of july 1785. see, besides the _comptes-rendus des constitutions des jesuites_ and the _essai d'education nationale_, the _memoires de la chalotais_ (3 vols., 1766-1767). two works containing detailed bibliographies are marion, _la bretagne et le duc d'aiguillon_ (paris, 1893), and b. pocquet, _le duc d'aiguillon et la chalotais_ (paris, 1901). see also a controversy between these two authors in the _bulletin critique_ for 1902. la charite, a town of central france in the department of nievre, on the right bank of the loire, 17 m. n.n.w. of nevers on the paris-lyon-mediterranee railway. pop. (1906) 3990. la charite possesses the remains of a fine romanesque basilica, the church of sainte-croix, dating from the 11th and early 12th centuries. the plan consists of a nave, rebuilt at the end of the 17th century, transept and choir with ambulatory and side chapels. surmounting the transept is an octagonal tower of one story, and a square romanesque tower of much beauty flanks the main portal. there are ruins of the ramparts, which date from the 14th century. the manufacture of hosiery, boots and shoes, files and iron goods, lime and cement and woollen and other fabrics are among the industries; trade is chiefly in wood and iron. la charite owes its celebrity to its priory, which was founded in the 8th century and reorganized as a dependency of the abbey of cluny in 1052. it became the parent of many priories and monasteries, some of them in england and italy. the possession of the town was hotly contested during the wars of religion of the 16th century, at the end of which its fortifications were dismantled. la chaussee, pierre claude nivelle de (1692-1754), french dramatist, was born in paris in 1692. in 1731 he published an _epitre a clio_, a didactic poem in defence of leriget de la faye in his dispute with antoine houdart de la motte, who had maintained that verse was useless in tragedy. la chaussee was forty years old before he produced his first play, _la fausse antipathie_ (1734). his second play, _le prejuge a la mode_ (1735) turns on the fear of incurring ridicule felt by a man in love with his own wife, a prejudice dispelled in france, according to la harpe, by la chaussee's comedy. _l'ecole des amis_ (1737) followed, and, after an unsuccessful attempt at tragedy in _maximinien_, he returned to comedy in _melanide_ (1741). in _melanide_ the type known as _comedie larmoyante_ is fully developed. comedy was no longer to provoke laughter, but tears. the innovation consisted in destroying the sharp distinction then existing between tragedy and comedy in french literature. indications of this change had been already offered in the work of marivaux, and la chaussee's plays led naturally to the domestic drama of diderot and of sedaine. the new method found bitter enemies. alexis piron nicknames the author "_le reverend pere chaussee_," and ridiculed him in one of his most famous epigrams. voltaire maintained that the _comedie larmoyante_ was a proof of the inability of the author to produce either of the recognized kinds of drama, though he himself produced a play of similar character in _l'enfant prodigue_. the hostility of the critics did not prevent the public from shedding tears nightly over the sorrows of la chaussee's heroine. _l'ecole des meres_ (1744) and _la gouvernante_ (1747) form, with those already mentioned, the best of his work. the strict moral aims pursued by la chaussee in his plays seem hardly consistent with his private preferences. he frequented the same gay society as did the comte de caylus and contributed to the _recueils de ces messieurs_. la chaussee died on the 14th of may 1754. villemain said of his style that he wrote prosaic verses with purity, while voltaire, usually an adverse critic of his work, said he was "_un des premiers apres ceux qui ont du genie_." for the _comedie larmoyante_ see g. lanson, _nivelle de la chaussee et la comedie larmoyante_ (1887). laches (from anglo-french _lachesse_, negligence, from _lasche_, modern _lache_, unloosed, slack), a term for slackness or negligence, used particularly in law to signify negligence on the part of a person in doing that which he is by law bound to do, or unreasonable lapse of time in asserting a right, seeking relief, or claiming a privilege. laches is frequently a bar to a remedy which might have been had if prosecuted in proper time. statutes of limitation specify the time within which various classes of actions may be brought. apart from statutes of limitation courts of equity will often refuse relief to those who have allowed unreasonable time to elapse in seeking it, on the principle _vigilantibus ac non dormientibus jura subveniunt_.