Part 117 (1/2)
CHALMERS, THOMAS, a celebrated Scotch ecclesiastic and pulpit orator, born at Anstruther, Fife; studied for the Church, and entered the ministry; after he did so was for some years more engrossed with physical studies and material interests than spiritual, but he by-and-by woke up to see and feel that the spiritual interest was the sovereign one, and to the promotion of that he henceforth devoted himself body and soul; it was for the sake of the spiritual he took the interest he did in the ecclesiastical affairs of the nation, and that the Church might have scope and freedom to discharge its spiritual functions was one chief ruling pa.s.sion of his life, and it is no wonder he bent all his energies on a movement in the Church to secure this object; he was not much of a scholar or even a theologian, but a great man, and a great force in the religious life of his country; though the first pulpit-orator of his day, and though he wrote largely, as well as eloquently, he left no writings worthy of him except the ”Astronomical Discourses” perhaps, to perpetuate his memory; he was distinguished for his practical sagacity, and was an expert at organisation; in his old age he was a most benignant, venerable-looking man: ”It is a long time,” wrote Carlyle to his mother, just after a visit he had paid him a few days before he died--”it is a long time since I have spoken to so _good_ and really pious-hearted and beautiful old man” (1780-1847).
CHaLONS-SUR-MARNE (25), capital of the French dep. of Marne, 100 m.
E. of Paris, where Attila was defeated by the Romans and Goths in 451; Napoleon III. formed a camp near it for the training of troops.
CHaLONS-SUR-SAoNE (24), a trading centre some 80 m. N. of Lyons; manufactures machinery, gla.s.s, paper, and chemicals.
CHAINS, chief town of the French dep. of Haute Vienne, where Richard Coeur de Lion was mortally wounded in 1199 by a shot with an arrow.
CHAM, the pseudonym of the French caricaturist Amedee de Noe, famous for his humorous delineations of Parisian life (1819-1884).
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, an a.s.sociation of merchants to promote and protect the interests of trade, particularly of the town or the district to which they belong.
CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES, a French legislative a.s.sembly, elected now by universal suffrage.
CHAMBERLAIN, RIGHT HON. JOSEPH, born in London, connected as a business man with Birmingham; after serving the latter city in a munic.i.p.al capacity, was elected the parliamentary representative in 1876; became President of the Board of Trade under Mr. Gladstone in 1880, and chief promoter of the Bankruptcy Bill; broke with Mr. Gladstone on his Home Rule measure for Ireland, and joined the Liberal-Unionists; distinguished himself under Lord Salisbury as Colonial Secretary; _b_.
1836.
CHAMBERS, EPHRAIM, an English writer, born in Kendal, author of a cyclopaedia which bears his name, and which formed the basis of subsequent ones, as Johnson confessed it did of his Dictionary (1680-1750).
CHAMBERS, GEORGE, an English marine painter, born at Whitby; _d_.
1840.
CHAMBERS, ROBERT, brother of the succeeding and in the same line of life, but of superior accomplishments, especially literary and scientific, which served him well in editing the publications issued by the firm; was the author of a great many works of a historical, biographical, and scientific, as well as literary interest; wrote the ”Vestiges of Creation,” a book on evolutionary lines, which made no small stir at the time of publication, 1844, and for a time afterwards, the authors.h.i.+p of which he was slow to own (1802-1871).
CHAMBERS, SIR WILLIAM, born at Peebles; apprenticed to a bookseller in Edinburgh, and commenced business on his own account in a small way; edited with his brother the ”Gazetteer of Scotland”; started, in 1832, _Chambers's Edinburgh Journal_ to meet a demand of the time for popular instruction in company with his brother founded a great printing and publis.h.i.+ng establishment, from which there has issued a number of valuable works in the interest especially of the propagation of useful knowledge of all kinds; was a distinguished Edinburgh citizen, and did much for the expansion and improvement of the city (1800-1883)
CHAMBERS, SIR WILLIAM, architect, born at Stockholm, of Scotch origin; architect of Somerset House; was of the Johnson circle of wits (1726-1796)
CHAMBeRY (19), chief town of dep. of Savoy, in a beautiful district; is the ancient capital, and contains the castle, of the dukes of Savoy; manufactures cloth, wines, soap, and textile fabrics; is also a summer resort.
CHAMBEZE, a head-stream of the Congo, N. of lake Nya.s.sa.
CHAMBORD, s.p.a.cious chateau in the dep. of Loire-et-Cher, France, built by Francis I.; after being long a residence for royalty and people of distinction, was presented in 1821 to the Duc de Bordeaux, the Comte de Chambord.
CHAMBORD, COMTE DE, Duc de Bordeaux, son of the Duc de Berri and grandson of Charles X., born at Paris; exiled in 1830, he retired to the chateau of Frohsdorf, in Austria, where he died without issue; his father and grandfather being dead, the monarchical party resolved to attempt a restoration in his behalf in 1872, but he refused to adopt the tricolor flag of the Revolution, and the scheme was abandoned, a like opportunity offering itself twice before being let slip (1820-1883).