CHALON-SUR-SAONE, a town of France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Saône-et-Loire, 81 miles by rail north of Lyons. It is a neat and well-built town, situated in an extensive plain on the right bank of the Saône, at the junction of the Canal du Centre, and connected by a fine stone bridge with the suburb of St Laurent on an island in the river. Its principal buildings are the cathedral of St Vincent, a Gothic edifice of the latter part of the 14th century, on the site of a church founded about 532; the church of St Pierre, with two lofty steeples; the hospitals of St Laurent and St Louis; the town hall, the market, and the courthouse. An obelisk was erected in the 18th century to commemorate the opening of the canal. There are tribunals of primary instance and commerce, an exchange, a communal college, a school of design, a public library, and societies for agriculture, history, archaeology, and arts. The industrial establishments are extensive and various, comprising docks, flourmills, sugar factories, glass-works, distilleries, breweries, and tile-works; and the transit trade, both with the north and south of France, is of the greatest importance. There is also manufactured in the town the essence d’orient, a preparation from the scales of the bleak (Cyprinus alburnus), employed in the fabrication of mock pearls....

CHALONER, Sir Thomas (1515-1565), a statesman and poet, of a noble Welsh family, was born in 1515. Under Henry VIII. he was sent as ambassador to Charles V., whom he accompanied on his unfortunate expedition against Algiers in 1541. On his return he was appointed to the office of first clerk of the council. He gained the friendship of the duke of Somerset; but after his fall he was obliged to live in retirement, and during the reign of Mary his Protestantism still kept him from the court. On the accession of Elizabeth he was received into high favour, and appointed ambassador, first to the Emperor Ferdinand I., and then to the court of Spain, where, however, he found himself so uncomfortable that after three years’ stay he obtained permission to return home in 1564. He died the following year. Chaloner enjoyed considerable reputation as a poet, and left Poetical Works, De Republixa Anglorum Instauranda, the Praise of Folie (from the Latin of Erasmus), In Lαudem Henrici Octavi Carmen Panegyricum, the Office of Servants (from the Latin of Cognatus), and some other small pieces.

CHÂLONS-SUR-MARNE, a town of France, capital of the department of Marne, is situated mainly on the right bank of the river, here crossed by a fine stone bridge, 107 miles E. of Paris on the railway to Strasburg, and 25 S. of Rheims by another line, in 48° 57' 2Γ r N. lat. and 4° 21' 27* E. long. It occupies a considerable area for its population, and is rather irregularly laid out; many of its streets are broad, and it has fine public walks. Among its principal buildings may be mentioned the cathedral of St Etienne, originally founded in the 12 th century on the site of an earlier church, but in several portions dating only from the 17th; the churches of Nôtre Dame, St Alpin, St Jean, and St Louis, belonging respectively to the 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries; the town-house, which was erected in 1771; the prefecture, formerly the palace of the count of Artois; the barracks of St Pierre, on the site of the Benedictine abbey; the public library; and the industrial school. The town is the seat of a bishopric, and has tribunals of primary instance and commerce, a communal college, two theological seminaries, a normal school, a theatre, a museum, a botanical garden, and societies of agriculture, commerce, arts, and sciences. To the east of the town lies a large public park of 19 acres, known as the Jard, which was stripped of its trees during the war of 1870-1; and beyond the river is the Church of St Prudentienne, annually in the month of May the rendezvous of about 50,000 pilgrims. Châlons has long been an important industrial centre. As early as the 14th century, it was famous for its woollen cloth, which was known by the name of the town, afterwards corrupted into “shalloon and in the 18th it maintained an extensive manufacture of linen goods of various ...