The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 117

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).

CHAMBRE ARDENTE, a name given to certain courts of justice established to try certain cases that required to be sharply dealt with; they were held at night, and even when held in the daytime with lighted torches; a court of the kind was inst.i.tuted for trial of the Huguenots in 1530, and again in 1680 and 1716.

CHAMFORT, a French wit and litterateur, born in Auvergne; took to the Revolution, but offended the leaders, and being threatened with arrest committed suicide, "cutting and slas.h.i.+ng with frantic, uncertain hand, gaining, not without difficulty, the refuge of death"; he was a born cynic, and was famous for his keen insight into human nature and his sharp criticisms of it, summed up in a collection of maxims he left, as well as for his anecdotes in incisive portraiture of character. "He was a man," says Professor Saintsbury, "soured by his want of birth, health, and position, and spoilt by hanging on to the great persons of his time.

But for a kind of tragi-comic satire, a _soeva indignatio_, taking the form of contempt for all that is exalted and n.o.ble, he has no equal in literature except Swift" (1741-1794).

CHAMILLARD, Minister of Finance and of War under Louis XIV.; "distinguished himself by his incapacity" (1651-1721).

CHAMISSO, ADALBERT VON, a German naturalist and litterateur born in France, but educated in Berlin; is famous for his poetical productions, but especially as the author of "Peter Schlemihl," the man who lost his shadow, which has been translated into nearly every European language; he wrote several works on natural history (1781-1838).

CHAMOUNI, OR CHAMONIX, a village in the dep. of Haute-Savoie, 33 m.

SE. of Geneva, in a valley forming the upper basin of the Arve, famous for its beauty and for its glaciers; it is from this point that the ascent of Mont Blanc is usually made.

CHAMOUSSET, a French philanthropist, born in Paris; the originator of mutual benefit societies (1717-1773).

CHAMPAGNE, an ancient province of France, 180 m. long by 150 broad, annexed to the Crown 1286, and including the deps. of Aube, Haute-Marne, Marne, and Ardennes; the province where the wine of the name is princ.i.p.ally manufactured.

CHAMP-DE-MARS, a large s.p.a.ce, of ground in Paris, between the front of the ecole Militaire and the left bank of the Seine; the site of recent Expositions, and the scene of the Federation Fete, 14th July 1790.

CHAMPLAIN', a beautiful lake between the States of New York and Vermont; it is 100 m. in length, and from 1 m. at its S. end to 14 m. at its N. end broad.

CHAMPLAIN, SAMUEL DE, a French navigator, born at Brouage, in Saintonge, was founder of Quebec, and French Governor of Canada; wrote an account of his voyages (1570-1635).

CHAMPOLLION, JEAN FRANcOIS, a celebrated French Egyptologist, born in Figeac, dep. of Lot; early gave himself to the study of Coptic and Egyptian antiquities; was the first to decipher the hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt, a great discovery; conducted a scientific expedition to Egypt in 1828, and returned in 1830 with the fruits of his researches; a chair of Egyptology was in consequence inst.i.tuted in the College of France, and he was installed as the first professor; his writings on the science, of which he laid the foundation, are numerous (1790-1832).

CHAMPS-ELYSeES, a Parisian promenade between the Place de la Concorde and the Arc de Triomphe.

CHANCELLOR, RICHARD, an English seaman, voyaging in northern parts, arrived in the White Sea, and travelled to Moscow, where he concluded a commercial treaty with Russia on behalf of an English company; wrote an interesting account of his visit; after a second visit, in which he visited Moscow, was wrecked on the coast of Aberdeens.h.i.+re in 1556.

CHANDERNAGORE (25), a small town and territory on the Hooghly, 22 m.

N. of Calcutta, belonging to France.

CHANDLER, RICHARD, a learned h.e.l.lenistic archaeologist, born in Hants; travelled in Asia Minor and Greece, along with two artists, to examine and describe the antiquities; the materials collected were published in his "Ionian Antiquities," "Travels in Asia Minor," &c.