Chapter 11

(H. Ch.)

CHAMBERLAIN, JOSHUA LAWRENCE(1828- ), American soldier and educationalist, was born at Brewer, Maine, on the 8th of September 1828. He graduated at Bowdoin College in 1852, and at the Bangor Theological Seminary in 1855, and was successively tutor in logic and natural theology (1855-1856), professor of rhetoric and oratory (1856-1861), and professor of modern languages (1861-1865), at Bowdoin. In 1862 he entered the Federal army as lieutenant-colonel of the 20th Maine Infantry. His military career was marked by great personal bravery and energy and intrepidity as a leader. He was six times wounded, and participated in all the important battles in the East from Antietam onwards, including Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Cold Harbor, Petersburg and Five Forks. For his conduct at Petersburg, where he was severely wounded, he was promoted to be brigadier-general of volunteers. He was breveted major-general of volunteers on the 29th of March 1865, and led the Federal advance in the final operations against General R.E. Lee. In 1893 he received a Congressional medal of honour “for daring heroism and great tenacity in holding his position on the Little Round Top and carrying the advance position on the Great Round Top at the Battle of Gettysburg.” After the war he was again professor of rhetoric and oratory at Bowdoin in 1865-1866, and in 1867-1870 was governor of Maine, having been elected as a Republican. From 1871 to 1883 he was president of Bowdoin College, and during 1874-1879 was professor of mental and moral philosophy also. Appointed in 1880 by Alonzo Garcelon, the retiring governor, to protect the property and institutions of the state until a new governor should be duly qualified, and acting as major-general of the state militia, Chamberlain did much to avert possible civil war, at a time of great political excitement and bitter partisan feeling. (SeeMaine:History.) In 1883-1885 he was a lecturer on political science and public law at Bowdoin, and in 1900 became surveyor of customs for the district of Portland, Maine. He publishedMaine, Her Place in History(1877), and editedUniversities and Their Sons(6 vols., 1898).

CHAMBERLAIN, SIR NEVILLE BOWLES(1820-1902), British field marshal, was the third son of Sir Henry Chamberlain, first baronet, consul-general and chargé d’affaires in Brazil, and was born at Rio on the 10th of January 1820. He entered the Indian army in 1837, served as a subaltern in the first Afghan War (1839-42), and was wounded on six occasions. He was attached to the Governor-General’s Bodyguard at the battle of Maharajpur, in the Gwalior campaign of 1843, was appointed military secretary to the governor of Bombay in 1846, and honorary aide-de-camp to the governor-general of India in 1847. He served on the staff throughout the Punjab campaign of 1848-49, and was given a brevet majority. In 1850 he was appointed commandant of the Punjab military police, and in 1852 military secretary to the Punjab government. Promoted lieut.-colonel in 1854, he was given the command of the Punjab Frontier Force with rank of brigadier-general, and commanded in several expeditions against the frontier tribes. In the Indian Mutiny he succeeded Colonel Chester as adjutant-general of the Indian army, and distinguished himself at the siege of Delhi, where he was severely wounded. He was rewarded with a brevet-colonelcy, the appointment of A.D.C. to the queen, and the C.B. He was reappointed to the command of the Punjab Frontier Force in 1858, and commanded in the Umbeyla campaign (1863), in which he was severely wounded. He was now made major-general for distinguished service and a K.C.B. He was made K.C.S.I. in 1866, lieut.-general in 1872, G.C.S.I. in 1873, G.C.B in 1875, and general in 1877. From 1876 to 1881 he was commander-in-chief of the Madras army, and in 1878 was sent on a mission to the amir of Afghanistan, whose refusal to allow him to enter the country precipitated the second Afghan War. He was for some time acting military member of the council of the governor-general of India. He retired in 1886, was made a field marshal in 1900, and died on the 18th of February 1902.

An excellent biography by G.W. Forrest appeared in 1909.

CHAMBERLAIN(O. Fr.chamberlain, chamberlenc, Mod. Fr.chambellan, from O.H. Ger.Chamarling, Chamarlinc, whence also the Med. Lat.cambellanus, camerlingus, camerlengus; Ital.camerlingo; Span,camerlengo, compounded of O.H. Ger.Chamara, Kamara[Lat.camera, “chamber”], and the Ger. suffix-ling), etymologically, and also to a large extent historically, an officer charged with the superintendence of domestic affairs. Such were the chamberlains of monasteries or cathedrals, who had charge of the finances, gave notice of chapter meetings, and provided the materials necessary for the various services. In these cases, as in that of the apostolic chamberlain of the Roman see, the title was borrowed from the usage of the courts of the western secular princes. A royal chamberlain is now a court official whose function is in general to attend on the person of the sovereign and to regulate the etiquette of the palace. He is the representative of the medievalcamberlanus, cambellanus, orcubicularius, whose office was modelled on that of thepraefectus sacri cubiculiorcubiculariusof the Roman emperors. But at the outset there was another class of chamberlains, thecamerarii,i.e.high officials charged with the administration of the royal treasury (camera). Thecamerariusof the Carolingian emperors was the equivalent of thehordereorthesaurarius(treasurer) of the Anglo-Saxon kings; he develops into theErzkämmerer(archicamerarius) of the Holy Roman Empire, an office held by the margraves of Brandenburg, and thegrand chambrierof France, who held hischamberieas a fief. Similarly in England after the Norman conquest thehorderebecomes the chamberlain. This office was of great importance. Before the Conquest he had been, with the marshal, the principal officer of the king’s court; and under the Norman sovereigns his functions were manifold. As he had charge of the administration of the royal household, his office was of financial importance, for a portion of the royal revenue was paid, not into the exchequer, but incamera regis. In course of time the office became hereditary and titular, but the complexities of the duties necessitated a division of the work, and the office was split up into three: the hereditary and sinecure office ofmagister camerariusor lord great chamberlain (seeLord Great Chamberlain), the more important domestic office ofcamerarius regis, king’s chamberlain or lord chamberlain (seeLord Chamberlain), and the chamberlains (camerarii) of the exchequer, two in number, who were originally representatives of the chamberlain at the exchequer, and afterwards in conjunction with the treasurer presided over that department. In 1826 the last of these officials died, when by an act passed forty-four years earlier they disappeared.

In France the office ofgrand chambrierwas early overshadowed by thechamberlains (cubicularii, cambellani, but sometimes alsocamerarii), officials in close personal attendance on the king, men at first of low rank, but of great and ever-increasing influence. As the office ofgrand chambrier, held by great feudal nobles seldom at court, became more and more honorary, the chamberlains grew in power, in numbers and in rank, until, in the 13th century, one of them emerges as a great officer of state, thechambellan de Franceorgrand chambellan(alsomagister cambellanorum, mestre chamberlenc), who at times shares with thegrand chambrierthe revenues derived from certaintrades in the city of Paris (seeRegestum Memoralium Camerae computorum, quoted in du Cange, s.Cameranus). The honorary office ofgrand chambriersurvived till the time of Henry II., who was himself the last to hold it before his accession; that ofgrand chambellan, which in its turn soon became purely honorary, survived till the Revolution. Among the prerogatives of thegrand chambellanwhich survived to the last not the least valued was the right to hand the king his shirt at the ceremonial levée. The offices ofgrand chambellan, premier chambellan, andchambellanwere revived by Napoleon, continued under the Restoration, abolished by Louis Philippe, and again restored by Napoleon III.

In the papal Curia the apostolic chamberlain (Lat.camerarius, Ital.camerlingo) occupies a very important position. He is at the head of the treasury (camera thesauraria) and, in the days of the temporal power, not only administered the papal finances but possessed an extensive civil and criminal jurisdiction. During a vacancy of the Holy See he is at the head of the administration of the Roman Church. The office dates from the 11th century, when it superseded that of archdeacon of the Roman Church, and the close personal relations of thecamerariuswith the pope, together with the fact that he is the official guardian of the ceremonial vestments and treasures, point to the fact that he is also the representative of the formervestarariusandvice-dominus, whose functions were merged in the new office, of which the idea and title were probably borrowed from the usage of the secular courts of the West (Hinschius,Kirchenrecht, i. 405, &c.). There are also attached to the papal household (famiglia pontificia) a large number of chamberlains whose functions are more or less ornamental. These are divided into several categories: privy chamberlains (camerieri segreti), chamberlains, assistant and honorary chamberlains. These are gentlemen of rank and belong to the highest class of the household (famiglia nobile).

In England the modern representatives of thecubiculariiare the gentlemen and grooms of the bed-chamber, in Germany theKammerherr(Kämmerer, fromcamerarius, in Bavaria and Austria) andKammerjunker. The insignia of their office is a gold key attached to their coats behind.

Many corporations appoint a chamberlain. The most important in England is the chamberlain of the corporation of the city of London, who is treasurer of the corporation, admits persons entitled to the freedom of the city, and, in the chamberlain’s court, of which he and the vice-chamberlain are judges, exercises concurrent jurisdiction with the police court in determining disputes between masters and apprentices. Formerly nominated by the crown, since 1688 he has been elected annually by the liverymen. He has a salary of £2000 a year. Similarly in Germany the administration of the finances of a city is called theKämmereiand the official in charge of it theKämmerer.

See alsoState, Great Officers of;Household, Royal; Du Cange,Glossarium, s. “Camerarius” and “Cambellanus”; Père Anselme (Pierre de Guibours),Hist. généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de France, &c. (9 vols., 3rd ed., 1726-1733); A. Luchaire,Manuel des institutions françaises(Paris, 1892); W.R. Anson,Law and Custom of the Constitution(Oxford, 1896); Hinschius,Kirchenrecht, i. 405 (Berlin, 1869).

CHAMBERLAYNE, WILLIAM(1619-1679), English poet, was born in 1619. Nothing is known of his history except that he practised as a physician at Shaftesbury in Dorsetshire, and fought on the Royalist side at the second battle of Newbury. He died on the 11th of July 1679. His works are:Pharonnida(1659), a verse romance in five books;Love’s Victory(1658), a tragi-comedy, acted under another title in 1678 at the Theatre Royal;England’s Jubilee(1660), a poem in honour of the Restoration. A prose version ofPharonnida, entitledEromena, or theNoble Stranger, appeared in 1683. Southey speaks of him as “a poet to whom I am indebted for many hours of delight.”Pharonnidawas reprinted by S.W. Singer in 1820, and again in 1905 by Prof. G. Saintsbury inMinor Poets of the Caroline Period(vol. i.). The poem is loose in construction, but contains some passages of great beauty.

CHAMBERS, EPHRAIM(d. 1740), English encyclopaedist, was born at Kendal, Westmorland, in the latter part of the 17th century. He was apprenticed to a globe-maker in London, but having conceived the plan of his Cyclopaedia, orUniversal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, he devoted himself entirely to it. The first edition appeared by subscription in 1728, in two vols. fol., and dedicated to the king (seeEncyclopaedia). TheEncyclopédieof Diderot and d’Alembert owed its inception to a French translation of Chambers’s work. In addition to theCyclopaedia, Chambers wrote for theLiterary Magazine(1735-1736), and translated theHistory and Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris(1742), and thePractice of Perspectivefrom the French of Jean Dubreuil. He died on the 15th of May 1740.

CHAMBERS, GEORGE(1803-1840), English marine painter, born at Whitby, Yorkshire, was the son of a seaman, and for several years he pursued his father’s calling. While at sea he was in the habit of sketching the different classes of vessels. His master, observing this, gratified him by cancelling his indentures, and thus set him free to follow his natural bent. Chambers then apprenticed himself to an old woman who kept a painter’s shop in Whitby, and began by house-painting. He also took lessons of a drawing-master, and found a ready sale for small and cheap pictures of shipping. Coming afterwards to London, he was employed by Thomas Horner to assist in painting the great panorama of London for the Colosseum (the exhibition building in Regent’s Park, demolished towards 1860), and he next became scene-painter at the Pavilion theatre. In 1834 he was elected an associate, and in 1836 a full member, of the Water-colour Society. His best works represent naval battles. Two of these—the “Bombardment of Algiers in 1816,” and the “Capture of Porto Bello”—are in Greenwich hospital. Not long before his death he was introduced to William IV., and his professional prospects brightened; but his constitution, always frail, gave way, and he died on the 28th of October 1840.

ALife, by John Watkins, was published in 1841.

CHAMBERS, ROBERT(1802-1871), Scottish author and publisher, was born at Peebles on the 10th of July 1802. He was sent to the local schools, and gave evidence of unusual literary taste and ability. A small circulating library in the town, and a copy of theEncyclopaedia Britannicawhich his father had purchased, furnished him with stores of reading of which he eagerly availed himself. Long afterwards he wrote of his early years—“Books, not playthings, filled my hands in childhood. At twelve I was deep, not only in poetry and fiction, but in encyclopaedias.” Robert had been destined for the church, but this design had to be abandoned for lack of means. The family removed to Edinburgh in 1813, and in 1818 Robert began business as a bookstall-keeper in Leith Walk. He was then only sixteen, and his whole stock consisted of a few old books belonging to his father. In 1819 his elder brother William had begun a similar business, and the two eventually united as partners in the publishing firm of W. & R. Chambers. Robert Chambers showed an enthusiastic interest in the history and antiquities of Edinburgh, and found a most congenial task in hisTraditions of Edinburgh(2 vols., 1824), which secured for him the approval and the personal friendship of Sir Walter Scott. AHistory of the Rebellions in Scotland from 1638 to 1745(5 vols., 1828) and numerous other works followed.

In the beginning of 1832 William Chambers started a weekly publication under the title ofChambers’s Edinburgh Journal(known since 1854 asChambers’s Journal of Literature, Science and Arts), which speedily attained a large circulation. Robert was at first only a contributor. After fourteen numbers had appeared, however, he was associated with his brother as joint-editor, and his collaboration contributed more perhaps than anything else to the success of theJournal.

Among the other numerous works of which Robert was in whole or in part the author, theBiographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen(4 vols., Glasgow, 1832-1835), theCyclopaedia of English Literature(1844), theLife and Works of Robert Burns(4 vols., 1851),Ancient Sea Margins(1848), theDomestic Annals of Scotland(3 vols., 1859-1861) and theBook of Days(2 vols.,1862-1864) were the most important.Chambers’s Encyclopaedia(1859-1868), with Dr Andrew Findlater as editor, was carried out under the superintendence of the brothers (seeEncyclopaedia). TheCyclopaedia of English Literature1contains a series of admirably selected extracts from the best authors of every period, “set in a biographical and critical history of the literature itself.” For theLife of Burnshe made diligent and laborious original investigations, gathering many hitherto unrecorded facts from the poet’s sister, Mrs Begg, to whose benefit the whole profits of the work were generously devoted. Robert Chambers was a scientific geologist, and availed himself of tours in Scandinavia and Canada for the purpose of geological exploration. The results of his travels were embodied inTracings of the North of Europe(1851) andTracings in Iceland and the Faroe Islands(1856). His knowledge of geology was one of the principal grounds on which the authorship of theVestiges of the Natural History of Creation(2 vols., 1843-1846) was eventually assigned to him. The book was published anonymously. Robert Chambers was aware of the storm that would probably be raised at the time by a rational treatment of the subject, and did not wish to involve his firm in the discredit that a charge of heterodoxy would bring with it. The arrangements for publication were made through Alexander Ireland of Manchester, and the secret was so well kept that such different names as those of Prince Albert and Sir Charles Lyell were coupled with the book. Ireland in 1884 issued a 12th edition, with a preface giving an account of its authorship, which there was no longer any reason for concealing. TheBook of Dayswas Chambers’s last publication, and perhaps his most elaborate. It was a miscellany of popular antiquities in connexion with the calendar, and it is supposed that his excessive labour in connexion with this book hastened his death, which took place at St Andrews on the 17th of March 1871. Two years before, the university of St Andrews had conferred upon him the degree of doctor of laws, and he was elected a member of the Athenaeum club in London. It is his highest claim to distinction that he did so much to give a healthy tone to the cheap popular literature which has become so important a factor in modern civilization.

His brother,William Chambers(1800-1883) was born at Peebles, on the 16th of April 1800. He was the financial genius of the publishing firm. He laid the city of Edinburgh under the greatest obligations by his public spirit and munificence. As lord provost he procured the passing in 1867 of the Improvement Act, which led to the reconstruction of a great part of the Old Town, and at a later date he proposed and carried out, largely at his own expense, the restoration of the noble and then neglected church of St Giles, making it in a sense “the Westminster Abbey of Scotland.” This service was fitly acknowledged by the offer of a baronetcy, which he did not live to receive, dying on the 20th of May 1883, three days before the reopening of the church. He was the author of a history of St Giles’s, of a memoir of himself and his brother (1872), and of many other useful publications. On his death in 1883 Robert Chambers (1832-1888), son of Robert Chambers, succeeded as head of the firm, and edited theJournaluntil his death. His eldest son, Charles Edward Stuart Chambers (b. 1859), became editor of theJournaland chairman of W. & R. Chambers, Limited.

See alsoMemoir of Robert Chambers, with Autobiographic Reminiscences of William Chambers(1872), the 13th ed. of which (1884) has a supplementary chapter; Alexander Ireland’s preface to the 12th ed. (1884) of theVestiges of Creation; theStory of a Long and Busy Life(1884), by William Chambers; and some discriminating appreciation in James Payn’sSome Literary Recollections(1884), chapter v. TheSelect Writings of Robert Chamberswere published in 7 vols. in 1847, and a complete list of the works of the brothers is added toA Catalogue of Some of the Rarer Books ... in the Collection of C.E.S. Chambers(Edinburgh, 1891).

1A new and enlarged edition of this work, edited by David Patrick, LL. D., appeared in 1903.

CHAMBERS, SIR WILLIAM(1726-1796), British architect, was the grandson of a rich merchant who had financed the armies of Charles XII., but was paid in base money, and whose son remained in Sweden many years endeavouring to obtain redress. In 1728 the latter returned to England and settled at Ripon, where William, who was born in Stockholm, was educated. At the age of sixteen he became supercargo to the Swedish East India Company, and voyaging to Canton made drawings of Chinese architecture, furniture and costume which served as basis for hisDesigns for Chinese Buildings, &c. (1757). Two years later he quitted the sea to study architecture seriously, and spent a long time in Italy, devoting special attention to the buildings of classical and Renaissance architects. He also studied under Clérisseau in Paris, with whom and with the sculptor Wilton he lived at Rome. In 1755 he returned to England with Cipriani and Wilton, and married the beautiful daughter of the latter. His first important commission was a villa for Lord Bessborough at Roehampton, but he made his reputation by the grounds he laid out and the buildings he erected at Kew between 1757 and 1762 for Augusta, princess dowager of Wales. Some of them have since been demolished, but the most important, the pagoda, still survives. The publication in a handsome volume of the designs for these buildings assured his position in the profession. He was employed to teach architectural drawing to the prince of Wales (George III.), and gained further professional distinction in 1759 by the publication of hisTreatise of Civil Architecture. He began to exhibit with the Society of Artists in 1761 at Spring Gardens, and was one of the original members and treasurer of the Royal Academy when it was established in 1768. In 1772 he published hisDissertation on Oriental Gardening, which attempted to prove the inferiority of European to Chinese landscape gardening. As a furniture designer and internal decorator he is credited with the creation of that “Chinese Style” which was for a time furiously popular, although Thomas Chippendale (q.v.) had published designs in that manner at a somewhat earlier date. It is not unreasonable to count the honours as divided, since Chippendale unquestionably adapted and altered the Chinese shapes in a manner better to fit them for European use. To the rage for every possible form ofchinoiserie, for which he is chiefly responsible, Sir William Chambers owed much of his success in life. He became architect to the king and queen, comptroller of his majesty’s works, and afterwards surveyor-general. In 1775 he was appointed architect of Somerset House, his greatest monument, at a salary of £2000 a year. He also designed town mansions for Earl Gower at Whitehall and Lord Melbourne in Piccadilly, built Charlemont House, Dublin, and Duddingston House near Edinburgh. He designed the market house at Worcester, was employed by the earl of Pembroke at Wilton, by the duke of Marlborough at Blenheim, and by the duke of Bedford in Bloomsbury. The state coach of George III., his constant patron, was his work; it is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Although his practice was mainly Classic, he made Gothic additions to Milton Abbey in Dorset. Sir William Chambers achieved considerable distinction as a designer of furniture. In addition to his work in the Chinese style and in the contemporary fashions, he was the author of what is probably the most ambitious and monumental piece of furniture ever produced in England. This was a combined bureau, dressing-case, jewel-cabinet and organ, made for Charles IV., king of Spain, in 1793. These combination pieces were in the taste of the time, and the effort displays astonishing ingenuity and resource. The panels were painted by W. Hamilton, R.A., with representations of the four seasons, night and morning, fire and water, Juno and Ceres, together with representations of the Golden Fleece and the Immaculate Conception. The organ, in the domed top, is in a case decorated with ormolu and Wedgwood. This remarkable achievement, which possesses much sober elegance, formed part of the loan collection of English furniture at the Franco-British Exhibition in London in 1908. Sir William Chambers numbered among his friends Dr Johnson, Goldsmith, Sir Joshua Reynolds, David Garrick and Dr Burney.

CHAMBERS(the Fr.chambre, from Lat.camera, a room), a term used generally of rooms or apartments, but especially in law of the offices of a lawyer or the semi-private rooms in which judges or judicial officers deal with questions of practice andother matters not of sufficient importance to be dealt with in court. It is a matter of doubt at what period the practice of exercising jurisdiction “in chambers” commenced in England; there is no statutory sanction before 1821, though the custom can be traced back to the 17th century. An act of 1821 provided for sittings in chambers between terms, and an act of 1822 empowered the sovereign to call upon the judges by warrant to sit in chambers on as many days in vacation as should seem fit, while the Law Terms Act 1830 defined the jurisdiction to be exercised at chambers. The Judges’ Chambers Act 1867 was the first act, however, to lay down proper regulations for chamber work, and the Judicature Act 1873 preserved that jurisdiction and gave power to increase it as might be directed or authorized by rules of court to be thereafter made. (SeeChancery;King’s Bench, Court of.)

CHAMBERSBURG,a borough and the county-seat of Franklin county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., at the confluence of Conoco-cheague Creek and Falling Spring, 52 m. S.W. of Harrisburg. Pop. (1890) 7863; (1900) 8864, of whom 769 were negroes; (1910) 11,800. It is served by the Cumberland Valley and the Western Maryland railways, and is connected by electric lines with Greencastle, Waynesboro, Caledonia, a beautiful park in the Pennsylvania timber reservation, on South Mountain, 12 m. east of Chambersburg, and Pen Mar, a summer resort, on South Mountain, near the boundary line between Pennsylvania and Maryland. Chambersburg is built on an elevated site in the broad and fertile Cumberland Valley, and commands a fine view of the distant hills and dales. The borough is the seat of Chambersburg Academy, a preparatory school; Penn Hall, a school for girls; and Wilson College, a Presbyterian institution for women, opened in 1870. The Wilson College campus, the former estate of Col. A.K. McClure (1828-1909), a well-known journalist, was laid out by Donald G. Mitchell (“Ik Marvel”), who was an enthusiastic landscape gardener. The shops of the Cumberland Valley railway are at Chambersburg, and among the borough’s manufactures are milling machinery, boilers, engines, hydraulic presses, steam-hammers, engineering and bridge supplies, hosiery, shoes, gloves, furniture, flour, paper, leather, carriages and agricultural implements; the total value of its factory product in 1905 was $1,085,185. The waterworks and the electric-lighting plant are owned and operated by the municipality. A settlement was founded here in 1730 by Benjamin Chambers, in whose honour the borough was named, and who, immediately after General Edward Braddock’s defeat in 1755, built a stone fort and surrounded it with a stockade for the protection of the community from the Indians. Chambersburg was laid out in 1764 and was incorporated as a borough in 1803. On the 30th of July 1864 Chambersburg was occupied by a Confederate cavalry force under General McCausland (acting under General Jubal A. Early’s orders), who, upon the refusal of the citizens to pay $100,000 for immunity, burned a large part of the borough.

CHAMBÉRY,a city of France, capital of the department of Savoie, pleasantly situated in a fertile district, between two hills, on the rivers Leysse and Albane, 79 m. by rail S.S.W. of Geneva. Pop. (1906) town, 16,852; commune, 23,027. The town is irregularly built, and has only two good streets—the Place Saint-Léger and the Rue de Boigne, the latter being named after General Benoît Boigne (1741-1830), who left a fortune of 3,400,000 francs (accumulated in India) to the town. The principal buildings are the cathedral, dating from the 14th and 15th centuries; the Hôtel-Dieu, founded in 1647; the castle, a modern building serving as the prefecture, and preserving only a great square tower belonging to the original structure; the palace of justice, the theatre, the barracks, and the covered market, which dates from 1863. Several of the squares are adorned with fountains; the old ramparts of the city, destroyed during the French Revolution, have been converted into public walks; and various promenades and gardens have been constructed. Chambéry is the seat of an archbishop (raised to that dignity from a bishopric in 1817) and of a superior tribunal. It has also a Jesuit college, a royal academical society, a society of agriculture and commerce, a public library with 60,000 volumes, a museum (antiquities and paintings), a botanic garden, and many charitable institutions. It manufactures silk-gauze, lace, leather and hats, and has a considerable trade in liqueurs, wine, lead, copper and other articles. Overlooking the town on the north is the Rocher de Lémenc, which derives its name from theLemincumof the Romans; and in the vicinity is Les Charmettes, for some time (1736-1740) the residence of Rousseau.

The origin of Chambéry is unknown, but its lords are mentioned for the first time in 1029. In 1232 it was sold to the count of Savoy, Thomas I., who bestowed several important privileges on the inhabitants. As capital of the duchy of Savoy, it has passed through numerous political vicissitudes. Between 1536 and 1713 it was several times occupied by the French; in 1742 it was captured by a Franco-Spanish army; and in 1792 it was occupied by the Republican forces, and became the capital of the department of Mont Blanc. Restored to the house of Savoy by the treaties of Vienna and Paris, it was again surrendered to France in 1860. Among the famous men whom it has given to France, the most important are Vaugelas (1585-1650), Saint-Réal (1639-1692), and the brothers Joseph (1754-1821) and Xavier (1763-1852) de Maistre.

CHAMBORD, HENRI CHARLES FERDINAND MARIE DIEUDONNÉComte de(1820-1883), the “King Henry V.” of the French legitimists, was born in Paris on the 29th of September 1820. His father was the duc de Berry, the elder son of the comte d’Artois (afterwards Charles X.); his mother was the princess Caroline Ferdinande Louise of Naples. Born seven months after the assassination of his father, he was hailed as the “enfant du miracle,” and was made the subject of one of Lamartine’s most famous poems. He was created duc de Bordeaux, and in 1821, as the result of a subscription organized by the government, received the château of Chambord. He was educated by tutors inspired by detestation of the French Revolution and its principles, and from the duc de Damas in particular imbibed those ideas of divine right and of devotion to the Church to which he always remained true. After the revolution of July, Charles X. vainly endeavoured to save the Bourbon cause by abdicating in his favour and proclaiming him king under the title of Henry V. (August 2, 1830). The comte de Chambord accompanied his grandfather into exile, and resided successively at Holyrood, Prague, and Görz. In 1841, during an extensive tour through Europe, he broke his leg—an accident that resulted in permanent lameness. The death of his grandfather, Charles X., in 1836, and of his uncle, the duc d’Angoulême, in 1844, left him the last male representative of the elder branch of the Bourbon family; and his marriage with the archduchess Maria Theresa, eldest daughter of the duke of Modena (November 7, 1846), remained without issue. The title to the throne thus passed to the comte de Paris, as representative of the Orleans branch of the house of Bourbon, and the history of the comte de Chambord’s life is largely an account of the efforts made to unite the Royalist party by effecting a reconciliation between the two princes. Though he continued to hold an informal court, both on his travels and at his castle of Frohsdorf, near Vienna, yet he allowed the revolution of 1848 and thecoup d’étatof 1851 to pass without any decisive assertion of his claims. It was the Italian war of 1859, with its menace to the pope’s independence, that roused him at last to activity. He declared himself ready “to pay with his blood for the triumph of a cause which was that of France, the Church, and God himself.” Making common cause with the Church, the Royalists now began an active campaign against the Empire. On the 9th of December 1866 he addressed a manifesto to General Saint-Priest, in which he declared the cause of the pope to be that of society and liberty, and held out promises of retrenchment, civil and religious liberty, “and above all honesty.” Again, on the 4th of September 1870, after the fall of the Empire, he invited Frenchmen to accept a government “whose basis was right and whose principle was honesty,” and promised to drive the enemy from French soil. These vague phrases, offered as a panacea to a nation fighting for its life, showed conclusively his want of all political genius; they had as little effect on the French as hisprotest against the bombardment of Paris had on the Germans. Yet fortune favoured him. The elections placed the Republican party in a minority in the National Assembly; the abrogation of the law of exile against the royal family permitted him to return to his castle of Chambord; and it was thence that on the 5th of July 1871 he issued a proclamation, in which for the first time he publicly posed as king, and declared that he would never abandon the white standard of the Bourbons, “the flag of Henry IV., Francis I., and Joan of Arc,” for the tricolour of the Revolution. He again quitted France, and answered the attempts to make him renounce his claims in favour of the comte de Paris by the declaration (January 25, 1872) that he would never abdicate. In the following month he held a great gathering of his adherents at Antwerp, which was the cause of serious disturbances. A constitutional programme, signed by some 280 members of the National Assembly, was presented for his acceptance, but without result. The fall of Thiers in May 1873, however, offered an opportunity to the Royalists by which they hastened to profit. The comte de Paris and the prince de Joinville journeyed to Frohsdorf, and were formally reconciled with the head of the family (August 5). The Royalists were united, the premier (the duc de Broglie) an open adherent, the president (MacMahon) a benevolent neutral. MM. Lucien Brun and Chesnelong were sent to interview the comte de Chambord at Salzburg, and obtain the definite assurances that alone were wanting. They returned with the news that he accepted the principles of the French Revolution and the tricolour flag. But a letter to Chesnelong, dated Salzburg, 27th of October, declared that he had been misunderstood: he would give no guarantees; he would not inaugurate his reign by an act of weakness, nor become “le roi légitime de la Révolution.” “Je suis le pilote nécessaire,” he added, “le seul capable de conduire le navire au port, parce que j’ai mission et autorité pour cela.” This outspoken adherence to the principle of divine right did credit to his honesty, but it cost him the crown. The duc de Broglie carried the septennate, and the Republic steadily established itself in popular favour. A last effort was made in the National Assembly in June 1874 by the duc de la Rochefoucauld-Bisaccia, who formally moved the restoration of the monarchy. The comte de Chambord on the 2nd of July issued a fresh manifesto, which added nothing to his former declarations. The motion was rejected by 272 to 79, and on the 25th of February 1875 the Assembly definitely adopted the Republic as the national form of government. From this time the comte de Chambord, though continuing to publish letters on political affairs, made no further effort to regain the throne. He died at Frohsdorf on the 24th of August 1883.

SeeManifestes et programmes politiques de M. le comte de Chambord, 1848-1873(1873), andCorrespondance de la famille royale et principalement de Mgr. le comte de Chambord avec le comte de Bouillé(1884). Of the enormous literature relating to him, mention may be made ofHenri V et la monarchie traditionnelle(1871),Le Comte de Chambord étudié dans ses voyages et sa correspondance(1880), andHenri de France, by H. de Pène (1885).

(H. Sy.)

CHAMBORD,a village of central France, in the department of Loir-et-Cher, on the left bank of the Cosson, 10 m. E. by N. of Blois by road. The village stands in the park of Chambord, which is enclosed by a wall 21 m. in circumference. The celebrated château (seeArchitecture:Renaissance Architecture in France) forms a parallelogram flanked at the angles by round towers and enclosing a square block of buildings, the façade of which forms the centre of the main front. The profusion of turrets, pinnacles, and dormer windows which decorates the roof of this, the chief portion of the château, constitutes the main feature of the exterior, while in the interior are a well-preserved chapel of the 16th century and a famous double staircase, the construction of which permits two people to ascend and descend respectively without seeing one another. There are 440 apartments, containing pictures of the 17th century and souvenirs of the comte de Chambord. The château was originally a hunting-box of the counts of Blois, the rebuilding of which was begun by Francis I. in 1526, and completed under Henry II. It was the residence of several succeeding monarchs, and under Louis XIV. considerable alterations were made. In the same reign Molière performedMonsieur de PourceaugnacandLe Bourgeois gentilhommefor the first time in the theatre. Stanislaus, king of Poland, lived at Chambord, which was bestowed by his son-in-law, Louis XV., upon Marshal Saxe. It was given by Napoleon to Marshal Berthier, from whose widow it was purchased by subscription in 1821, and presented to the duc de Bordeaux, the representative of the older branch of the Bourbons, who assumed from it the title of comte de Chambord. On his death in 1883 it came by bequest into the possession of the family of Parma.

CHAMBRE ARDENTE(Fr. “burning chamber”), the term for an extraordinary court of justice in France, mainly held for the trials of heretics. The name is perhaps an allusion to the fact that the proceedings took place in a room from which all daylight was excluded, the only illumination being from torches, or there may be a reference to the severity of the sentences inardente, suggesting the burning of the prisoners at the stake. These courts were originated by the Cardinal of Lorraine, the first of them meeting in 1535 under Francis I. TheChambre Ardenteco-operated with an inquisitorial tribunal also established by Francis I., the duty of which was to discover cases of heresy and hand them over for final judgment to theChambre Ardente. The reign of Henry II. of France was particularly infamous for the cruelties perpetrated by this court on the Huguenots. The marquise de Brinvilliers (q.v.) and her associates were tried in theChambre Ardentein 1680. The court was abolished in 1682.

See N. Weiss,La Chambre Ardente(Paris, 1889), and F. Ravaisson,Archives de la Bastille(Paris, 1866-1884, 16 vols.).

CHAMELEON,the common name of one of the three suborders of Lacertilia or lizards. The chief genus isChamaeleon, containing most of the fifty to sixty species of the whole group, and with the most extensive range, all through Africa and Madagascar into Arabia, southern India and Ceylon. The Indian species isCh. calcaratus; the dwarf chameleon of South Africa isCh. pumilus; the giant of the whole tribe, reaching a total length of 2 ft., isCh. parsoniof Madagascar. The commonest species in the trade isCh. vulgarisof North Africa, introduced into southern Andalusia. A few queer genera, with much stunted tail,e.g.Rhampholeon, in tropical Africa andBrookesiain Madagascar are the most aberrant. The common chameleon is the most typical. The head is raised into a pyramidal crest far beyond the occiput, there is no outer ear, nor a drum-cavity. The limbs are very long and slender, and the digits form stout grasping bundles; on the hand the first three form an inner bundle, opposed to the remaining two; on the foot the inner bundle is formed by the first and second toe, the outer by the other three toes. The tail is prehensile, by being rolled downwards; it is not brittle and cannot be renewed. The eyeballs are large, but the lids are united into one concentric fold, leaving only the small pupil visible. The right and left eyes are incessantly moved separately from each other and literally in every direction, up and down, forwards and straight backwards, producing the most terrible squinting. Chameleons alone of all reptiles can focus their eyes upon one spot, and conformably they alone possess a retinalmacula centralis, or spot of acutest, binocular vision. The tongue has attained an extraordinary development. It is club-shaped, covered with a sticky secretion, and based upon a very narrow root, which is composed of extremely elastic fibres and telescoped over the much elongated, style-shaped, copular piece of the hyoid. The whole apparatus is kept in a contracted state like a spring in a tube. When the spring is released, so to speak, by filling the apparatus with blood and by the play of the hyoid muscles, the heavy thick end shoots out upon the insect prey and is withdrawn by its own elasticity.The whole act is like a flash. An ordinary chameleon can shoot a fly at the distance of fully 6 in., and it can manage even a big sphinx moth.

Another remarkable feature is their changing of colour. This proverbial power is greatly exaggerated. They cannot assume in succession all the colours of the rainbow, nor are the changes quick. The common chameleon may be said to be greenish grey, changing to grass-green or to dull black, with or without maroon red, or brown, lateral series of patches. At night the same specimen assumes as a rule a more or less uniform pale straw-colour. After it has been watched for several months, when all its possibilities seem exhausted, it will probably surprise us by a totally new combination, for instance, a black garb with many small yellow specks, or green with many black specks. Pure red and blue are not in the register of this species, but they are rather the rule upon the dark green ground colour of the South African dwarf chameleon. The changes are partly under control of the will, partly complicated reflex actions, intentionally adaptive to the physical and psychical surroundings. The mechanism is as follows. The cutis contains several kinds of specialized cells in many layers, each filled with minute granules of guanine. The upper cells are the smallest, most densely filled with crystals, and cause the white colour by diffusion of direct light; near the Malpighian layer the cells are charged with yellow oil drops; the deeper cells are the largest, tinged light brown, and acting as a turbid medium they cause a blue colour, which, owing to the superimposed yellow drops, reaches our eye as green; provided always that there is an effective screen at the back, and this is formed by large chromatophores which lie at the bottom and send their black pigment half-way up, or on to the top of the layers of guanine and oil containing cells. When all the pigment is shifted towards the surface, as near the epidermis as possible, the creature looks black; when the black pigment is withdrawn into the basal portions of the chromatophores the skin appears yellow.

The lungs are very capacious, and end in several narrow blind sacs which extend far down into the body cavity, so that not only the chest but the whole body can be blown up. This happens when the animals hiss and fight, as they often do. But when they know themselves discovered, they make themselves as thin as possible by compressing the chest and belly vertically by means of their peculiarly elongated ribs. The whole body is then put into such a position that it presents only its narrow edge to the enemy, and with the branch of the tree or shrub interposed. They are absolutely arboreal, but they hibernate in the ground.

The usual mode of propagation is by eggs, which are oval, numerous, provided with a calcareous shell, and buried in humus, whence they are hatched about four months later. But a few species,e.g.the dwarf chameleon, are viviparous.

Chameleons are insectivorous. They prefer locusts, grass-hoppers and lepidoptera, but are also fond of flies and mealworms. They are notoriously difficult to keep in good health. They want not only warmth, but sunshine, and they must have water, which they lick up in drops from the edges of wet leaves whenever they have a chance. The silliness of the fable that they live on air is shown by the fact that they usually die in an absolutely emaciated and parched condition after three or four months’ starvation.

Back to Index Next