157 



CHAMBERS, WILLIAM AND ROBERT. 



CHAMISSO, ALDELBERT VON. 





Chauibers's most successful efforts, are the mansion which he built 

 for the Marquis of Abercorn at Duddiugstone, near Edinburgh, and 

 Milton Abbey in Dorsetshire, which ha built in the gothic style 

 for Lord Dorchester. 



* CHAMBERS, WILLIAM and ROBERT, the well-known publishers 

 of Edinburgh, claim a notice here as among the most zealous and 

 successful labourers in the great effort which has been made during 

 the past thirty years, to place sound and wholesome literature within 

 the reach of all classes of the population of this kingdom. The eldest 

 children of a respectable pair settled at Peebles in the south of Scot- 

 land, William was born in 1800, his brother Robert in 1802. They 

 received a good school education in their native town, Robert passing 

 through a complete classical course, and showing from his earliest 

 years a great love of study, while William was of a more practical 

 turn of mind. Through the misfortunes of their father in business, 

 they were thrown in mere boyhood on their own resources. The 

 family having removed to Edinburgh, William was apprenticed to a 

 bookseller there. Robert, failing to get to college as had been 

 designed, made what most people would have thought an eccentric 

 movement, and entered at sixteen on an important career as a book- 

 seller, with very small means. The early struggles of the two young 

 men would form a remarkable narrative as an example of self-relying 

 energy and industry. They conducted separate concerns in Edinburgh 

 till 1832, when they united in starting their well-known popular 

 periodical, ' Cbambers's Edinburgh Journal.' Before this time Robert 

 had written his ' Traditions of Edinburgh,' and contributed several 

 popular histories to Constable's ' Miscellany.' He bad also for some 

 years conducted a newspaper in Edinburgh. His attention to the 

 antiquities of Edinburgh had early gained him the notice of Sir 

 Walter Scott (who in his diary terms him " a clever young fellow 

 but hurts himself by too much haste"), Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, 

 and other eminent natives, who took an interest in the stories of the 

 Old Town. William Chambers had meanwhile published a laborious 

 work entitled the ' Book of Scotland." From 1832 their united career 

 as publishers has been marked by distinguished success. 



As soon as the success of the ' Edinburgh Journal ' became apparent, 

 (in 1834 its sale had reached 50,000 copies), the brothers gave up their 

 separate places of business, and formed one establishment in the High- 

 street, which hai gone on increasing in extent till it has grown to be 

 one of the most remarkable printing and publishing houses in Scotland. 

 The facilities which their extensive printing machinery and their 

 organisation for the circulation of the ' Journal ' gave them, Messrs. 

 Chambers were not slow in turning to account iu the publication of 

 various cheap works of a popular aud instructive character. Among 

 {he moat important of these have been their ' Information for the 

 People,' ' Popular Library,' ' Instructive and Entertaining Library,' 

 'Repository of Instructive and Entertaining Tracts,' 'Miscellany,' 'Edu- 

 cational Series,' &<x That their works were well calculated to meet a 

 popular want is evidenced by the remarkable extent of the circulation 

 of many of them. In statements published in their ' Journal," Messrs. 

 Chambers say that the sale of the numbers of the ' Information for the 

 People' averaged about 130,000 copies ; while the ' Miscellany of Useful 

 and Entertaining Tracts' sold from 150,000 to 200,000 copies, some 

 particular numbers nearly reaching 300,000 copies. 



Mr. Robert Chambers we have said early devoted much attention to 

 literature. His principal works are the ' Traditions of Edinburgh," 

 already mentioned ; ' History of the Rebellion of 1745-46;' 'Popular 

 Rhymes of Scotland ;' ' Life and Works of Burns ;' and his ' Essays," in 

 4 vols., selected from the Journal. Much of his leisure time has been 

 devoted to scientific pursuits, and especially to geology, the result of 

 which has been given to the public in a handsomely-illustrated volume 

 entitled 'Ancient Sea-Margins, as Illustrative of Changes of the Relative 

 Level of Sea and Land," ami iu occasional papers published iu the 

 scientific periodicals. 



Mr. William Chambers also contributed many essays to the 

 ' Journal,' but we believe the. only separate works published with his 

 lame, were his 'Book of Scotland,' and a brief notice of a tour iu 

 lollaud, until a year or two back, when he wrote an account of his 

 opressions of a tour in the United States, which, having first appeared 

 i the pages of the ' Journal," was subsequently issued in a revised form 

 I a distinct work under the title of ' Things as they are iu America." 

 fe has since published a short notice of ' Peebles and its Neighbour- 

 hood," and ' Improved Dwelling-Houses for the Humbler and other 

 Classes in Cities ; ' the latter being suggested, it is said, by his experience 

 during the last few years in improving the dwellings of his tenantry on 

 an estate he purchased near Peebles, the cultivation aud improvement 

 of which has formed a pleasant occupation of his well-earned leisure. 

 CHAMBOBD, COUNT DE. [BORDEAUX, Doo DB.] 



.M1JK AY, GEORGES, MARQUIS DE, was born at Paris in 

 1783. The De Chambray family was one of the oldest in Normandy, 

 but was ruined by the revolution. The young Chambray was educated 

 at the Ecole Polytechnique. He entered the artillery, aud served in 

 the German campaigns of 1806-9, in the course of which he rose to 

 the r:mk of captain. In the disastrous Hussion campaign he served as 

 i in the imperial artillery ; but in the retreat ha was left sick at 

 VVilnn, wli-re he fell into the hands of the Russians, who sent him 

 into the Ukraine. After the fall of Napoleon in 181o he returned to 

 France, and was made a major iu tho garde royale. By 1825 he had 



risen to the rank of colonel-director of the artillery of Perpignan ; but 

 his health had never wholly recovered from his sufferings in Russia, 

 and he was at length (1829) permitted to retire from the service with 

 the honorary title of mare'chal-de-camp. Relieved from his military 

 duties, M. de Chambray immediately set about the composition of a 

 work he had for some time meditated, on the Russian campaign, and 

 in the composition of it he had the. advantage, besides his own expe- 

 rience, of having access to the documents in the war office as well as 

 to the private papers of officers who had shared like himself in the 

 events he had to narrate. It appeared in 1833 in 2 vols. 8vo, with an 

 atlas, under the title of 'Histoire de 1'Expedition de Russie.' The 

 great importance of the work was at once recognised, aud the notices 

 which it called forth in other countries as well as in France, led M. de 

 Chambray to carefully revise it for another edition, which was pub- 

 lished in 1829 in 3 vols. 8vo ; and subsequently (1835) to add two 

 new chapters. M. de Chambray also published a ' Refutation de la 

 brochure iutitulee la verite" sur 1'incendie de Moscou, par le comte 

 Rotopschin;' as well as various pamphlets on infantry tactics and 

 other subjects connected with military affairs, reviews of Jomini, ana 

 Carion Nisas, and a life of Vauban, all of which have been collected 

 and published under the title of ' Melanges.' (Rabbe, Diet. Port. 

 de Contemp. ; Nouv. Rioi). Univ.) 



CHAMISSO, ALDELBERT VON, a distinguished poet, naturalist, 

 and traveller, was born on the 27th of January 1781 in the chateau 

 of Boncourt in Champagne. He belonged to a very ancient noble 

 family of Lorraine. Until the outbreak of the French revolution the 

 family lived quietly on their estate, and Adelbert's brother Charles 

 was one of the pages of Louis XVI., to whom he remained faithful to 

 the last, and for whom he risked his life on several occasions. Iu 1790 

 the chateau Boncourt was razed to the ground, whereupon the family 

 of the Chamissos quitted France ; and after having wandered about in 

 the Netherlands and the south of Germany they ultimately went to 

 Berlin in 1796, where, together with other French emigrants, they 

 took up their permanent residence. As they had lost all their property, 

 the whole family lived upon the little income which two of the sons 

 made by painting miniature portraits. Adelbert however was extremely 

 fortunate : the Queen of Prussia made him one of her pages, and took 

 great care of bis education, which he received iu one of the gymnasiums 

 of Berlin. He made himself thoroughly acquainted with the German 

 language aud literature, and the spirit which pervades all his owu 

 literary productions shows that he became so completely Germanised 

 that the peculiarities of the German mind, which are most foreign to 

 tne French, were iu him most prominent. In 1798 he entered the 

 Prussian army, and his parents accepting the offer of Napoleon, then 

 First Consul, returned to France. Shortly after this he began writing 

 poetry in German, aud from 1804 to 1806 he edited a 'Musen-almanach' 

 conjointly with Varnhagen von Ense. After the peace of Tilsit, Chamisso 

 quitted the Prussian service ; and in 1810 he returned to France, where 

 his family had recovered a great part of their property. For a ehort 

 time he was teacher in a school at Napole'onville, but his personal 

 feelings and the friendships he had formed in Germany drew him back 

 to that country. He now devoted himself almost entirely to the study 

 of the natural sciences. In 1813 he wrote for the amusement of the 

 children of a friend a little book called ' Peter Suhlemil," containing 

 the story of a man who loses bin shadow. This amusing little work, 

 which has been translated into English and most other European 

 languages, was first published in Germany by ChauiisBo's friend De la 

 Motte Fouque' (1814), which has led some persons to look upon it as 

 the production of Fouqud. A second edition, accompanied by son:o 

 lyric poems and ballads, was published by the author himself in 1827. 

 In 1814 Count Rumjanzow, chancellor of the Russian empire, prepared 

 an exploring expedition round the world at his own expense. He 

 invited Chamisso to accompany the expedition as naturalist, and tho 

 invitation was gladly accepted. In 1815 Chamisso embarked at Crou- 

 stadt under Captain Kotzebue, and returned thither iu 1818. One of 

 the main objects of the expedition had been the discovery of a north- 

 east passage, iu which the expedition failed ; but iu all other respects 

 the discoveries were highly satisfactory. An account of tha voyage, 

 was published by Kotzebue iu two volumes, and Chainisso himself 

 published ' liemerkuugeu und Ansichteu auf eiuer Keise urn die Welt,' 

 Weimar, 1821, 4to, which forms an indispensable supplement to 

 Kotzebue's work, and contains a most faithful account of everything 

 that came within the range of his personal observation. After his 

 return from this voyage Chamisso again took up his residence at 

 Berlin ; the university conferred upon him the degree of Doctor in 

 Philosophy ; he became a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, 

 and soon after he received the appointment of inspector of the botanical 

 gardens of the same city. While in this situation he wrote a botanical 

 work, ' Uebersicht der in Norddeutschland vorkommenden nutzlichsteu 

 und schadlichsten Gewiichse, nebst Ansichten iiber das Pflanzenreieh 

 und Pflanzenkunde,' Berlin, 1827. These subjects however did not 

 estrange him from the cultivation of poetry, for during the last ten 

 years of his life he produced a great number of small poems, many of 

 which, especially his popular legends and ballads, belong to the best 

 productions of the kind m German literature. He died on the 2 lot of 

 August 1838 at Berlin. His poems were collected aud published 

 separately, Leipzig, 1831, in 1 vol. 8vo, and a second edition appeared 

 in 1834. A collection of all his works, both in prose and in verse, was 



