inancial relations, of which he was
chairman. Childers was a capable and industrious administrator of the
old Liberal school, and he did his best, in the political conditions
then prevailing, to improve the naval and military administration while
he was at the admiralty and war office. His own bent was towards
finance, but no striking reform is associated with his name. His most
ambitious effort was his attempt to effect a conversion of consols in
1884, but the scheme proved a failure, though it paved the way for the
subsequent conversion in 1888.

The _Life_ (1901) of Mr Childers, by his son, throws some interesting
side-lights on the inner history of more than one Gladstonian cabinet.

CHILDERS, ROBERT CAESAR (1838-1876), English Oriental scholar, son of
the Rev. Charles Childers, English chaplain at Nice, was born in 1838.
In 1860 he received an appointment in the civil service of Ceylon, which
he retained until 1864, when he was compelled to return to England owing
to ill-health. He had studied P[=a]li during his residence in Ceylon,
under Yatramulle Unnanse, a learned Buddhist for whom he cherished a
life-long respect, and he had gained an insight into the Sinhalese
character and ways of thought. In 1869 he published the first P[=a]li
text ever printed in England, and began to prepare a P[=a]li dictionary,
the first volume of which was published in 1872, and the second and
concluding volume in 1875. In the following year it was awarded the
Volney prize by the Institute of France, as being the most important
philological work of the year. He was a frequent contributor to the
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, in which he published the
_Mah[=a]-parinibb[=a]na Sutta_, the P[=a]li text giving the account of
the last days of Buddha's life. In 1872 he was appointed sub-librarian
at the India Office, and in the following year he became the first
professor of P[=a]li and Buddhist literature at University College,
London. He died in London on the 25th of July 1876.

CHILDREN, LAW RELATING TO. English law has always in theory given to
children the same remedies as to adults for ill-usage, whether by their
parents or by others, and has never recognized the _patria potestas_ as
known to the earlier Roman law; and while powers of discipline and
chastisement have been regarded as necessarily incident to paternal
authority, the father is civilly liable to his children for wrongs done
to them. The only points