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CHAMBER MUSIC 



CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 



however, he retired in 1874. Mr Chamberlain had 

 by this time acquired considerable celebrity as a 

 Radical politician. In 1868 he was appointed a 

 member of the Birmingham Town-council ; was 

 Mayor of Birmingham from 1873 to 1876, and chair- 

 man of the Birmingham School-board from 1874 to 

 1876. After unsuccessfully contesting Sheffield 

 against Mr Roebuck in 1874, he was returned for 

 Birmingham without opposition in June 1876. He 

 soon made his mark in parliament, and on the 

 return of the Liberals to power in 1880 he was 

 appointed President of the Board of Trade, with 

 a seat in the cabinet. To Mr Chamberlain's exer- 

 tions was due the passing of the Bankruptcy Bill, 

 but his efforts to amend the Merchant Shipping 

 Acts were unsuccessful. Meanwhile his influence 

 was increasing rapidly outside the House ; he came 

 to be regarded as the leader of the extreme Radical 

 party, and enunciated schemes for the regeneration 

 of the masses which were based on the doctrines 

 of the ' restitution ' of land and the ' ransom ' of 

 property. During the last hours of Mr Gladstone's 

 government he was understood to be opposed to the 

 renewal of the Irish Crimes Act ; and during the 

 general election of 1886 he was most severe in his 

 strictures on the moderate Liberals, and produced 

 an ' unauthorised ' programme ( in opposition to that 

 of Mr Gladstone ), which included the readjustment 

 of taxation, free schools, and the creation of allot- 

 ments by compulsory purchase. He was returned 

 free of expense by the western division of Birming- 

 ham. On February 1, 1886, he became President 

 of the Local Government Board, but resigned on 

 March 26 because of his strong objections to Mr 

 Gladstone's Home Rule measures for Ireland ; and 

 after the ' Round Table ' conference had failed to 

 reunite the Liberal party he assumed an attitude 

 of uncompromising hostility to his old leader's new 

 policy, and was bitterly assailed by Home Rulers 

 as a renegade. He became leader of the Liberal- 

 Unionists when the Duke of Devonshire went to 

 the Upper House. Lord Salisbury sent him to 

 Washington as commissioner on the Canadian 

 fishery dispute ; and in 1895 lie was made Colonial 

 minister in the Unionist Cabinet. As such he had, 

 besides sharing in responsibilities of his colleagues 

 (see SALISBURY), to face the troubles in South 

 Africa (see JAMESON, L. S.), and to cherish closer 

 fellow-feeling with the Colonies, as by welcoming 

 the colonial ministers and colonial troops to London 

 at the Queen's 'Diamond Jubilee' (1897), and by 

 concessions to Canadian commercial autonomy. 

 In 1896 he was elected Lord Rector of Glasgow 

 University. Collections of his speeches (one with 

 an introduction by Mr Lucy) have been published ; 

 and see the Life of him by S. H. Jeyes ( ' Public 

 Men ' series, 1896). 



Chamber Ullisic, as distinguished from con- 

 cert or church music or opera, usually means in- 

 strumental music for a single instrument or for a 

 small combination, up to the septett or octett. 



Chamber Of Commerce, a body of mer- 

 chants, traders, bankers, and others, associated 

 for the purpose of promoting local and general 

 interests of trade and commerce by (1 ) representing 

 and urging on the legislature the views of their 

 members in mercantile affairs ; ( 2 ) aiding in the 

 preparation of legislative measures having refer- 

 ence to trade, such, for example, as the Bank- 

 rupt and Limited Liability Acts; (3) collecting 

 statistics bearing upon the staple trade of the 

 district; (4) acting in some places as a sort of 

 court of arbitration in mercantile questions; (5) 

 attaining by combination advantages in trade 

 which might be beyond the reach of individual 

 enterprise. 



The oldest chamber of commerce is that of 



Marseilles, which dates from the end of the 14th 

 or commencement of the 15th century. It shared 

 in the municipal jurisdiction and in the admini- 

 stration of justice in mercantile questions. It 

 was several times suppressed and re-established, 

 and it was not till 1650 that it received its ulti- 

 mate organisation. The chamber of Dunkirk was 

 established in 1700. The same year a council- 

 general of commerce was instituted at Paris, which, 

 in addition to six councillors of state, consisted of 

 twelve merchants or traders, delegated by the prin- 

 cipal commercial towns of the country, an arrange- 

 ment which led within the next few years to the 

 formation of chambers of commerce everywhere in 

 France. We thus find that the chamber at Lyons 

 was instituted in 1702, those of Rouen and Toulouse 

 in 1703, of Montpellier in 1704, of Bordeaux in 

 1705, &c. These chambers were all suppressed by 

 a decree of the National Assembly in 1791, but 

 they were re-established by a consular edict in 

 1802. Their organisation was modified in 1832, in 

 1851, and in 1852. The members of these bodies 

 are now elected by the chief merchants of each 

 town chosen for that purpose by the prefect. The 

 number of this elective body cannot be less than 

 9 nor more than 21. They hold office for six years, 

 one-third of their number being renewed every two 

 years. The functions now assigned to these cham- 

 bers in France are to give to the government 

 advice and information on industrial and com- 

 mercial subjects ; to suggest the means of increas- 

 ing the industry and commerce of their respective 

 districts, or of improving commercial legislation 

 and taxation ; to suggest the execution of works 

 requisite for the public service, or which may tend 

 to the increase of trade or commerce, such as the 

 construction of harbours, the deepening of rivers, 

 the formation of railways, and the like. On these 

 and similar subjects the advice of the chambers, 

 when not volunteered, is demanded by the govern- 

 ment. In most of the other countries of conti- 

 nental Europe there are similar institutions. 



The oldest chamber of commerce in Great Britain 

 is believed to be that of Glasgow, which was 

 instituted 1st January 1783, and obtained a royal 

 charter, registered at Edinburgh on the 31st of 

 the same month. That of Edinburgh was insti- 

 tuted in 1785, and incorporated by royal charter 

 in 1786. The Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce 

 was the first public body which petitioned for 

 the abolition of the Corn Laws, and the adoption 

 of free-trade principles ; and it stood almost alone 

 in the United Kingdom in advocating the Suez 

 Canal project. It also originated the movement 

 which resulted in placing the telegraph service 

 in connection with the Post-office. Between 

 five and six hundred of the bankers, merchants, 

 and ship-owners of Edinburgh and Leith con- 

 stitute the chamber. The London Chamber of 

 Commerce ( 1882) may now be regarded as the most 

 important in the United Kingdom. The main 

 branches of commercial enterprise are dealt with 

 by separate departments of the chamber, while 

 by public lectures and the frequent publica- 

 tion of detailed reports it maintains com- 

 munication with chambers of commerce throughout 

 the country, and serves when necessary to unite 

 and concentrate their action in the promotion of 

 reforms in our mercantile system and in the 

 development of the commercial resources of the 

 empire. The Manchester chamber, so famous 

 for its exertions in the cause of free trade, was not 

 established till 1820, and for many years it con- 

 tinued to be the only institution of the kind in 

 England. Its members number over 900. In Hull 

 there has been a chamber of commerce since 1837, 

 but those of Liverpool, Leeds, and Bradford, not- 

 withstanding the great trading and manufacturing 



