who possessed
it not. Childeric was dethroned and placed in the monastery of St Omer;
his son, Theuderich, was imprisoned at Saint-Wandrille.

See W. Junghans, _Die Geschichte der fraenkischen Koenige Childerich und
Clodovech_ (Goettingen, 1857); J.J. Chiflet, _Anastasis Childerici I.
Francorum regis_ (Antwerp, 1655); J.B.D. Cochet, _Le Tombeau de
Childeric I, roi des Francs_ (Paris, 1859); and E. Lavisse, _Histoire
de France_, tome ii. (Paris, 1903).

CHILDERS, HUGH CULLING EARDLEY (1827-1896), British statesman, was born
in London on the 25th of June 1827. On leaving Cambridge he went out to
Australia (1850), and became a member of the government of Victoria, but
in 1857 returned to England as agent-general of the colony. Entering
parliament in 1860 as Liberal member for Pontefract (a seat that he
continued to hold till 1885), he became civil lord of the admiralty in
1864, and in 1865 financial secretary to the treasury. Childers occupied
a succession of prominent posts in the various Gladstone ministries. He
was first lord of the admiralty from 1868 to 1871, and as such
inaugurated a policy of retrenchment. Ill-health compelled his
resignation of office in 1871, but next year he returned to the ministry
as chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster. From 1880 to 1882 he was
secretary for war, a post he accepted somewhat unwillingly; and in that
position he had to bear the responsibility for the reforms which were
introduced into the war office under the parsimonious conditions which
were then part of the Liberal creed. During his term of office the
Egyptian War occurred, in which Childers acted with creditable energy;
and also the Boer War, in which he and his colleagues showed to less
advantage. From 1882 to 1885 he was chancellor of the exchequer, and the
beer and spirit duty in his budget of the latter year was the occasion
of the government's fall. Defeated at the general election at
Pontefract, he was returned as a Home Ruler (one of the few Liberals who
adopted this policy before Mr Gladstone's conversion) in 1886 for South
Edinburgh, and was home secretary in the ministry of 1886. When the
first Home Rule bill was introduced he demurred privately to its
financial clauses, and their withdrawal was largely due to his threat of
resignation. He retired from parliament in 1892, and died on the 29th of
January 1896, his last piece of work being the drafting of a report for
the royal commission on Irish f