Chapter XI: Part 11

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 medieval _camberlanus, cambellanus_, or _cubicularius_, whose office was modelled on that of the _praefectus sacri cubiculi_ or _cubicularius_ of the Roman emperors. But at the outset there was another class of chamberlains, the _camerarii_, i.e. high officials charged with the administration of the royal treasury (_camera_). The _camerarius_ of the Carolingian emperors was the equivalent of the _hordere_ or _thesaurarius_ (treasurer) of the Anglo-Saxon kings; he develops into the _Erzkammerer_ (_archicamerarius_) of the Holy Roman Empire, an office held by the margraves of Brandenburg, and the _grand chambrier_ of France, who held his _chamberie_ as a fief. Similarly in England after the Norman conquest the _hordere_ becomes 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 in _camera 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 of _magister camerarius_ or lord great chamberlain (see LORD GREAT CHAMBERLAIN), the more important domestic office of _camerarius regis_, king's chamberlain or lord chamberlain (see LORD 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 of _grand chambrier_ was early overshadowed by the _chamberlains (cubicularii, cambellani_, but sometimes also _camerarii_), officials in close personal attendance on the king, men at first of low rank, but of great and ever-increasing influence. As the office of _grand 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, the _chambellan de France_ or _grand chambellan_ (also _magister cambellanorum, mestre chamberlenc_), who at times shares with the _grand chambrier_ the revenues derived from certain trades in the city of Paris (see _Regestum Memoralium Camerae computorum_, quoted in du Cange, s. _Cameranus_). The honorary office of _grand chambrier_ survived till the time of Henry II., who was himself the last to hold it before his accession; that of _grand chambellan_, which in its turn soon became purely honorary, survived till the Revolution. Among the prerogatives of the _grand chambellan_ which survived to the last not the least valued was the right to hand the king his shirt at the ceremonial levee. The offices of _grand chambellan, premier chambellan_, and _chambellan_ were 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 the _camerarius_ with 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 former _vestararius_ and _vice-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 the _cubicularii_ are the gentlemen and grooms of the bed-chamber, in Germany the _Kammerherr_ (_Kammerer_, from _camerarius_, in Bavaria and Austria) and _Kammerjunker_. 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 L2000 a year. Similarly in Germany the administration of the finances of a city is called the _Kammerei_ and the official in charge of it the _Kammerer_.

See also STATE, GREAT OFFICERS OF; HOUSEHOLD, ROYAL; Du Cange,
_Glossarium_, s. "Camerarius" and "Cambellanus"; Pere Anselme (Pierre
de Guibours), _Hist. genealogique et chronologique de la maison royale
de France, &c_. (9 vols., 3rd ed., 1726-1733); A. Luchaire, _Manuel
des institutions francaises_ (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 of _Pharonnida_, entitled _Eromena_, or the _Noble Stranger_, appeared in 1683. Southey speaks of him as "a poet to whom I am indebted for many hours of delight." _Pharonnida_ was reprinted by S.W. Singer in 1820, and again in 1905 by Prof. G. Saintsbury in _Minor 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, or _Universal 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 (see ENCYCLOPAEDIA). The _Encyclopedie_ of Diderot and d'Alembert owed its inception to a French translation of Chambers's work. In addition to the _Cyclopaedia_, Chambers wrote for the _Literary Magazine_ (1735-1736), and translated the _History and Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris_ (1742), and the _Practice of Perspective_ from 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.

A _Life_, 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 the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_ which 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 his _Traditions of Edinburgh_ (2 vols., 1824), which secured for him the approval and the personal friendship of Sir Walter Scott. A _History 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 of _Chambers's Edinburgh Journal_ (known since 1854 as _Chambers'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 the _Journal_.

Among the other numerous works of which Robert was in whole or in part the author, the _Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen_ (4 vols., Glasgow, 1832-1835), the _Cyclopaedia of English Literature_ (1844), the _Life and Works of Robert Burns_ (4 vols., 1851), _Ancient Sea Margins_ (1848), the _Domestic Annals of Scotland_ (3 vols., 1859-1861) and the _Book 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 (see ENCYCLOPAEDIA). The _Cyclopaedia of English Literature_[1] contains 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 the _Life of Burns_ he 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 in _Tracings of the North of Europe_ (1851) and _Tracings in Iceland and the Faroe Islands_ (1856). His knowledge of geology was one of the principal grounds on which the authorship of the _Vestiges 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. The _Book of Days_ was 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 the _Journal_ until his death. His eldest son, Charles Edward Stuart Chambers (b. 1859), became editor of the _Journal_ and chairman of W. & R. Chambers, Limited.

See also _Memoir 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 the _Vestiges of Creation_; the _Story of a Long and Busy
Life_ (1884), by William Chambers; and some discriminating
appreciation in James Payn's _Some Literary Recollections_ (1884),
chapter v. The _Select Writings of Robert Chambers_ were published in
7 vols. in 1847, and a complete list of the works of the brothers is
added to _A Catalogue of Some of the Rarer Books ... in the Collection
of C.E.S. Chambers_ (Edinburgh, 1891).

FOOTNOTE:

[1] A 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 his _Designs 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 Clerisseau 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 his _Treatise 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 his _Dissertation 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 of _chinoiserie_, 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 L2000 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 and other 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. (See CHANCERY; 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.

CHAMBERY, 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-Leger and the Rue de Boigne, the latter being named after General Benoit 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 Hotel-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. Chambery 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 Lemenc, which derives its name from the _Lemincum_ of the Romans; and in the vicinity is Les Charmettes, for some time (1736-1740) the residence of Rousseau.

The origin of Chambery 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-Real (1639-1692), and the brothers Joseph (1754-1821) and Xavier (1763-1852) de Maistre.

CHAMBORD, HENRI CHARLES FERDINAND MARIE DIEUDONNE COMTE 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 chateau 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 Gorz. 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'Angouleme, 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 the _coup d'etat_ of 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 his protest 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 legitime de la Revolution." "Je suis le pilote necessaire," he added, "le seul capable de conduire le navire au port, parce que j'ai mission et autorite 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.

See _Manifestes et programmes politiques de M. le comte de Chambord,
1848-1873_ (1873), and _Correspondance de la famille royale et
principalement de Mgr. le comte de Chambord avec le comte de Bouille_
(1884). Of the enormous literature relating to him, mention may be
made of _Henri V et la monarchie traditionnelle_ (1871), _Le Comte de
Chambord etudie dans ses voyages et sa correspondance_ (1880), and
_Henri de France_, by H. de Pene (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 chateau (see ARCHITECTURE: _Renaissance Architecture in France_) forms a parallelogram flanked at the angles by round towers and enclosing a square block of buildings, the facade 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 chateau, 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 chateau 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 Moliere performed _Monsieur de Pourceaugnac_ and _Le Bourgeois gentilhomme_ for 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 in _ardente_, 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. The _Chambre Ardente_ co-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 the _Chambre 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 the _Chambre Ardente_ in 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 is _Chamaeleon_, 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 is _Ch. calcaratus_; the dwarf chameleon of South Africa is _Ch. pumilus_; the giant of the whole tribe, reaching a total length of 2 ft., is _Ch. parsoni_ of Madagascar. The commonest species in the trade is _Ch. vulgaris_ of North Africa, introduced into southern Andalusia. A few queer genera, with much stunted tail, e.g. _Rhampholeon_, in tropical Africa and _Brookesia_ in 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 retinal _macula 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. (H. F. G.)

In astronomy, "Chamaeleon" is a constellation situated near the south
pole and surrounded by the constellations of Octans, Mensa, Piscis
volans, Carina (Nauta), Musca and Apus. In chemistry, "chameleon
mineral" is a name applied to the green mass which is obtained when
pyrolusite (manganese dioxide) is fused with nitre, since a solution
in water assumes a purple tint on exposure to the air; this change is
due to the oxidation of the manganate, which is first formed, to a
permanganate.

CHAMFER, CHAMPFER or CHAUMFER (Fr. _chanfrein_; possibly from Lat. _cantus_, corner, and _frangere_, to break), an architectural term; when the edge or arris of any work is cut off at an angle of 45 deg. in a small degree, it is said to be "chamfered," while it would be "canted" if on a large scale. The chamfer is much used in medieval work, and is sometimes plain, sometimes hollowed out and sometimes moulded. Chamfers are sometimes "stopped" by a bead or some moulding, but when cut short by a slope they are generally known as "stop chamfer."

CHAMFORT, SEBASTIEN ROCH NICOLAS (1741-1794), French man of letters, was born at a little village near Clermont in Auvergne in 1741. He was, according to a baptismal certificate found among his papers, the son of a grocer named Nicolas. A journey to Paris resulted in the boy's obtaining a bursary at the College des Grassins. He worked hard, although he wrote later in one of his most contemptuous epigrams--_"Ce que j'ai appris je ne le sais plus; le peu que je sais je l'ai divine."_ His college career ended, Chamfort assumed the dress of a _petit abbe. "C'est un costume, et non point un etat,"_ he said; and to the principal of his college who promised him a benefice, he replied that he would never be a priest, inasmuch as he preferred honour to honours--_"j'aime l'honneur et non les honneurs."_ About this time he assumed the name of Chamfort.

For some time he contrived to exist by teaching and as a booksellers' hack. His good looks and ready wit, however, soon brought him into notice; but though endowed with immense strength--"Hercule sous la figure d'Adonis," Madame de Craon called him--he lived so hard that he was glad of the chance of doing a "cure" at Spa when the Belgian minister in Paris, M. van Eyck, took him with him to Germany in 1761. On his return to Paris he produced a comedy, _La Jeune Indienne_ (1764), which was performed with some success, and this was followed by a series of "epistles" in verse, essays and odes. It was not, however, until 1769, when he won the prize of the French Academy for his _Eloge_ on Moliere, that his literary reputation was established.

Meanwhile he had lived from hand to mouth, mainly on the hospitality of people who were only too glad to give him board and lodging in exchange for the pleasure of the conversation for which he was famous. Thus Madame Helvetius entertained him at Sevres for some years. In 1770 another comedy, _Le Marchand de Smyrne_, brought him still further into notice, and he seemed on the road to fortune, when he was suddenly smitten with a horrible disease. His distress was relieved by the generosity of a friend, who made over to him a pension of 1200 livres charged on the _Mercure de France_. With this assistance he was able to go to the baths of Contrexeville and to spend some time in the country, where he wrote an _Eloge_ on La Fontaine which won the prize of the Academy of Marseilles (1774). In 1775, while taking the waters at Bareges, he met the duchesse de Grammont, sister of Choiseul, through whose influence he was introduced at court. In 1776 his poor tragedy, _Mustapha et Zeangir_, was played at Fontainebleau before Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette; the king gave him a further pension of 1200 livres, and the prince de Conde made him his secretary. But he was a Bohemian naturally and by habit, the restraints of the court irked him, and with increasing years he was growing misanthropical. After a year he resigned his post in the prince's household and retired into solitude at Auteuil. There, comparing the authors of old with the men of his own time, he uttered the famous _mot_ that proclaims the superiority of the dead over the living as companions; and there too he presently fell in love. The lady, attached to the household of the duchesse du Maine, was forty-eight years old, but clever, amusing, a woman of the world; and Chamfort married her. They left Auteuil, and went to Vaucouleurs, where in six months Madame Chamfort died. Chamfort lived in Holland for a time with M. de Narbonne, and returning to Paris received in 1781 the place at the Academy left vacant by the death of La Curne de Sainte-Palaye, the author of the _Dictionnaire des antiquites francaises_. In 1784, through the influence of Calonne, he became secretary to the king's sister, Madame Elizabeth, and in 1786 he received a pension of 2000 livres from the royal treasury. He was thus once more attached to the court, and made himself friends in spite of the reach and tendency of his unalterable irony; but he quitted it for ever after an unfortunate and mysterious love affair, and was received into the house of M. de Vaudreuil. Here in 1783 he had met Mirabeau, with whom he remained to the last on terms of intimate friendship. whom he assisted with money and influence, and one at least of whose speeches--that on the Academies--he wrote.

The outbreak of the Revolution made a profound change in the relations of Chamfort's life. Theoretically he had long been a republican, and he now threw himself into the new movement with almost fanatical ardour, devoting all his small fortune to the revolutionary propaganda. His old friends of the court he forgot. "Those who pass the river of revolutions," he said, "have passed the river of oblivion." Until the 31st of August 1791 he was secretary of the Jacobin club; he became a street orator and entered the Bastille among the first of the storming party. He worked for the _Mercure de France_, collaborated with Ginguene in the _Feuille villageoise_, and drew up for Talleyrand his _Adresse au peuple francais_.

With the reign of Marat and Robespierre, however, his uncompromising Jacobinism grew critical, and with the fall of the Girondins his political life came to an end. But he could not restrain the tongue that had made him famous; he no more spared the Convention than he had spared the court. His notorious republicanism failed to excuse the sarcasms he lavished on the new order of things, and denounced by an assistant in the Bibliotheque Nationale, to a share in the direction of which he had been appointed by Roland, he was taken to the Madelonnettes. Released for a moment, he was threatened again with arrest; but he had determined to prefer death to a repetition of the moral and physical restraint to which he had been subjected. He attempted suicide with pistol and with poniard; and, horribly hacked and shattered, dictated to those who came to arrest him the well-known declaration--_"Moi, Sebastien-Roch-Nicolas Chamfort, declare avoir voulu mourir en homme libre plutot que d'etre reconduit en esclave dans une maison d'arret"_--which he signed in a firm hand and in his own blood. He did not die at once, but lingered on until the 13th of April 1794 in charge of a gendarme, for whose wardship he paid a crown a day. To the Abbe Sieyes Chamfort had given fortune in the title of a pamphlet ("_Qu'est-ce que le Tiers-Etat? Tout. Qu'a-t-il? Rien_"), and to Sieyes did Chamfort retail his supreme sarcasm, the famous "_Je m'en vais enfin de ce monde ou il faut que le coeur se brise ou se bronze._" The maker of constitutions followed the dead wit to the grave.

The writings of Chamfort, which include comedies, political articles, literary criticisms, portraits, letters, and verses, are colourless and uninteresting in the extreme. As a talker, however, he was of extraordinary force. His _Maximes et Pensees_, highly praised by John Stuart Mill, are, after those of La Rochefoucauld, the most brilliant and suggestive sayings that have been given to the modern world. The aphorisms of Chamfort, less systematic and psychologically less important than those of La Rochefoucauld, are as significant in their violence and iconoclastic spirit of the period of storm and preparation that gave them birth as the _Reflexions_ in their exquisite restraint and elaborate subtlety are characteristic of the tranquil elegance of their epoch; and they have the advantage in richness of colour, in picturesqueness of phrase, in passion, in audacity. Sainte-Beuve compares them to "well-minted coins that retain their value," and to keen arrows that "_arrivent brusquement et sifflent encore._"

An edition of his works--_OEuvres completes de Nicolas Chamfort_--Was
published at Paris in five volumes in 1824-1825. Selections--_OEuvres
de Chamfort_--in one volume, appeared in 1852, with a biographical and
critical preface by Arsene Houssaye, reprinted from the _Revue des
deux mondes_; and _Oeuvres choisies_ (2 vols.), with a preface and
notes by M. de Lescure (1879). See also Sainte-Beuve, _Causeries du
Lundi_.

CHAMIER, FREDERICK (1796-1870), English novelist, was the son of an Anglo-Indian official. In 1809 he entered the navy, and was in active service until 1827. He retired in 1833, and was promoted to be captain in 1856. On his retirement he settled near Waltham Abbey, and wrote several nautical novels on the lines popularized by Marryat, that had considerable success. These were _The Life of a Sailor_ (1832), _Ben Brace_ (1836), _The Arethusa_ (1837), _Jack Adams_ (1838), _Tom Bowling_ (1841) and _Jack Malcolm's Log_ (1846). He wrote a number of other books, and edited and brought down to 1827 James's _Naval History_ (1837).