CHAMBERS 



91 



est.s of these towns, were not established till 

 . in \\hich year also a similar institution 

 established in South Australia. The Liver- 

 pool Chamber of Commerce numbers .">."><). The 

 annual income of the Manchester chamber is up- 

 t'l-KKI, contributeil entirely by the sub- 

 lions, ranging from 1, Is. for individual 

 members, to tin, l()s. for large linns. There are 

 now similar chambers in all the great mercantile 

 t.>un- of Creat Britain and Ireland, and in 1860 

 there was established an 'Association of Chambers 

 niiuerce of the United Kingdom,' which meets 

 in annual conference for the promotion of commerce. 

 The Chamber of Commerce of New York, organised 

 in ITtis, was incorporated by a royal charter in 1770, 

 afterwards superseded by charter granted by the 

 government. Its aims are similar to those in 

 liritain, and it comprises some 800 members, who 

 have established a court of arbitration for differ- 

 ences amongst members. Like bodies have been 

 fonne<l in other large American cities. In Canada 

 the Dominion Board of Trade consists of the 

 Chambers of Commerce, or Boards of Trade, as 

 they are indifferently called, of the most important 

 cities of the Dominion. 



Chambers are private rooms attached to most 

 of the English courts, in which the judges, or more 

 frequently the masters and chief clerks, transact a 

 large, amount of judicial business. In fact nearly 

 all business which is begun by what is technically 

 called a Summons in England goes to chain bers 

 e.g. all such incidental matters as the recovery of 

 documents, examination of witnesses about to go 

 abroad, investigation of accounts, settling of deeds 

 between parties. A decree of the court which 

 directs further procedure is carried out by a 

 .summons to proceed in chambers. Counsel attend 

 in chambers only in important matters. In 

 Scotland a good deal of this business takes the form 

 of a remit to an accountant or other man of business, 

 a judicial reference, a commission to examine 

 witnesses, but all initiated by a motion in court. 



Chamber-counsel, a barrister or advocate who 

 gives opinions in his own chambers, but does not, 

 or rarely does, plead in court. 



Chambers EPHRAIM, an amiable but frugal 

 and free-thinking encyclopaedist, was born about 

 1680 at Kendal, and began life as an appren- 

 tice to a globe-maker in London, where he con- 

 ceived the idea of a cyclopaedia that should surpass 

 Harris's Lexicon Technicum (1704). It appeared in 

 2 folio vols. in 1728, and reached a 6th edition in 

 17 "ID, Chambers having died meanwhile on 15th 

 May 1740. A French translation gave rise to the 

 more famous Encyclopedic of Diderot and D'Aleni- 

 bert ; itself expanded into Rees's Encyclopaedia, 

 Dr Johnson told Boswell that he had partly formed 

 his style upon Chambers 's Proposal for his Dic- 

 tionary. See ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 



Chambers, SIR WILLIAM, architect, was born 

 of a Scotch family at Stockholm in 1726, but was 

 brought up in England. At first a sailor, he soon 

 turned to the study of architecture in Italy and at 

 I'.uis. He rose rapidly, and as early as 1757 was 

 employed by Augusta, Princess-dowager of Wales, 

 to construct the well-known semi-Roman and 

 oriental buildings in Kew Gardens. The king of 

 s-A.'den made him a knight of the Polar Star. 

 .-> >nierset House (1776) was his design, which 

 rergusson pronounces ' the greatest architectural 

 work of the reign of George HI.' His Treatise of 

 Civil Architecture (1759) was successful, but his 

 absurdly pretentious and ignorant Dissertation 

 on Oriental Gardening ( 1772) justly covered him 

 with ridicule. Chambers enjoyed the friendship 

 of Johnson, Reynolds, and Garrick, and died in 

 London, March 8, 1796. 



Chambers, WILLIAM, publisher, wan born 16th 



April 1H<M) at Peebles, his father luting a cotton 

 manufact urer there. The boy got a fair elementary 

 education ; but owing to the father's misfortune*, 

 his schooling terminated with his thirteenth year. 

 Hence his education for life-work wan mainly due 

 to the habit, very early acquired and long main- 

 tained, of miscellaneous and extensive reading. 

 The household migrated to Edinburgh in 1813, and 

 next year William was apprenticed to a bookseller. 

 His five years up, he started business in a humble 

 way for himself (May 1819), to bookselling after- 

 wards adding printing. Between 1825 and 1830 he 

 wrote the Book of Scotland, and in conjunction 

 with his brother Robert, a Gazetteer of Scotland. 

 His experience gained as a bookseller and printer 

 was next utilised in his attempt ' to take advan- 

 tage of the universal appetite for instruction 

 which at present exists,' and to 'supply that appe- 

 tite with food of the best kind,' which resulted in 

 the founding of Chambers'* Edinburgh Journal 

 on 4th February 1832. This was about six weeks 

 in advance of the Penny Magazine, and it may be 

 considered the pioneer of that class of cheap and 

 popular periodicals of a wholesome kind now BO 

 generally diffused. At the end of the fourteenth 

 number he united with his brother Robert in found- 

 ing the business of William & Robert Chambers, 

 in which they were associated in writing, edit- 

 ing, printing, and publishing. W. & R. Chambers 

 issued a series of works designed for popular 

 instruction, including besides the Journal, Infor- 

 mation for the People, 2 vols. ; the ' Educational 

 Course ' series ; Cyclopedia of English Literature, 

 2 vols. ; Miscellany of Useful and Entertaining 

 Tracts, 20 vols. ; Papers for the People, 12 vols. ; 

 and the present Encyclopaedia, 10 vols. ( 1859-1868 ; 

 new edition, 1888-92). In 1849 William acquired 

 the estate of Glenormiston, Peeblesshire, and in 

 1859 founded and endowed an institution in his 

 native town for purposes of social improvement. 

 Twice elected Lord Provost of Edinburgh, William 

 occupied that office for four years (1865-69), 

 during which he promoted several important public 

 acts, including one for the improvement of the 

 older part of the city, which has resulted in a great 

 diminution of the death-rate. (The death-rate 

 of the city in 1865-75 was 26*26 per 1000; in 

 1875-85, only 19'94.) He also carried out at his 

 own cost a thorough restoration of St Giles' 

 Cathedral. He died 20th May 1883, having shortly 

 before received the offer of a baronetcy. He was 

 made LL.D. of Edinburgh in 1872. A statue has 

 been erected to his memory in Edinburgh. Besides 

 many contributions to the Journal, he was author 

 and editor of various volumes, and wrote The 

 Youths' Companion and Counsellor, History of 

 Peeblesshire ( 1864), Ailie Gilroy, Stones of Remark- 

 able Persons, Stories of Old Families, and Histori- 

 cal Sketch of St Giles 1 Cathedral ( 1879). 



ROBERT CHAMBERS, born in Peebles, 10th July 

 1802, took to Latin and books at an early age, and 

 began business as a bookseller in Edinburgh in 

 1818. His leisure hours were devoted to literary 

 composition, the impulse to which, his brother says, 

 came upon him like an inspiration at nineteen years 

 of age. In 1824 he published the Tradition* of 

 Edinburgh, the writing of which procured him 

 the friendship of Sir \\alter Scott, who furnished 

 some memoranda for the work. Between 1822 

 and 1834 he wrote in all twenty-five volumes, 

 many of them of great literary interest and per- 

 manent historical value. He had already won 

 reputation as an author when he Joined his brother 

 after the success of the Journal in 1832 ; and this 

 success was materially promoted by his essays, and 

 by his versatility and elegance as a writer, his 

 diligence in collecting and working up stray 



