CHALONS CHAMBERLAIN. 



135 



quent years, various pamphlets apologizing for those, 

 himself included, who had believed in the authenti- 

 city of the Shakspeare manuscripts forged by Mr Ire- 

 land. In 1800, he edited the works of Allan Ram- 

 say, with an elaborate memoir of the poet ; in 1805, 

 the works of Sir James Stewart of Coltness, also with 

 a life prefixed ; and in 1806, the writings of Sir David 

 Lindsay of the Mount, which were embellished in like 

 manner. The first volume of his " Caledonia," which 

 appeared in 1807, in quarto, displayed a vast extent 

 of erudition and research. It professes to be an ac- 

 count, historical and topographical, of North Britain, 

 from the most ancient to the present times ; and the 

 original intention of the author was, that it should be 

 completed in four volumes, quarto, each containing 

 nearly a thousand pages. Former historians had not 

 presumed to inquire any further back into Scottish 

 history than the reign of Canmore, describing all be- 

 fore that time as obscurity and fable. But Chalmers 

 plunged fearlessly into the middle ages, and was able, 

 by dint of incredible research, to give a pretty clear 

 account of the inhabitants of the northern part of the 

 island since the Roman conquest. The historical part 

 of his work, which occupies the first volume, is divid- 

 ed into periods analogous to the different races who 

 predominated in the country : thus we have the Ro- 

 mish period, the Pictish period, the Scottish period 

 (between the subjugation of the Picts, and the intru- 

 sion of the Saxons under Malcolm Canmore,) and the 

 Scoto-Saxon period which ends with the accession of 

 Robert Bruce. The remaining three volumes were 

 destined to contain a topographical and historical ac- 

 count of each county, and the second of these com- 

 pleted his task so far as the Lowlands were concern- 

 ed, when death stepped in, and arrested the busy pen 

 of tiie antiquary, May 31, 1825. Mr Chalmers is 

 understood to have left the remainder of his great 

 work nearly ready for the press; but hitherto, no 

 bookseller has ventured to publish it. 



CHALONS. There are two considerable cities of 

 this name in France Chalona-sur-Saone and Chalons- 

 sur-Mame. The latter is the most important. An- 

 ciently it was called Catalaunum. It lies on the river 

 Marne, and is the capital of the department of the 

 Marne. It is 20 miles east of Paris ; Ion. 4 22' E. ; 

 lat. 48 57' N. ; population, 10,784. Before the re- 

 volution, it was the see of a bishop, and chief place 

 of the generality of Champagne. It has manufac- 

 tures of coarse woollen cloth, is well built, and con- 

 tains a Gothic cathedral, ten churches, a public li- 

 brary of 30,000 volumes, a museum, a botanic garden, 

 and a cabinet of natural history. Attila, the scourge 

 of God, was here defeated by the Romans after an 

 obstinate and sanguinary contest. 



CHALOTAIS, Louis RENE DE CARADEUC DE LA ; 

 attorney-general at the parliament of Rennes. He 

 was born at Rennes, March 6, 1701, and died July 

 12, 1785. He is celebrated chiefly for a work which 

 he published against the Jesuits, and for the legal 

 process instituted against him, which accelerated the 

 approach of the French revolution. 



CHAMADE, in military language (generally de- 

 rived from the Italian chiamare, to call), is a signal, 

 either by beat of drum or sound of trumpet, to obtain 

 a conference, when any matter is to be proposed to 

 the enemy. 



CHAMBER. Forcellini defines camera an arched 

 roof or ceiling ; Herodotus uses the word xaftA^a, to 

 signify a covered wagon ; Ottfried and Notker, two 

 early German writers, use kammer to denote a vault- 

 ed chamber, the keeper of which, as early as the time 

 of king Dagobert, was called camerarius. The pub- 

 lic treasury of the princes was called in the tenth cen- 

 tury, camera ; and in German, down to the present 

 period, those sciences, an acquaintance with which 



is essential to the proper administration of the differ- 

 ent departments of government, are called cameral- 

 wissenschaften. Words derived from the Latin term 

 camera are common in modern European languages : 

 thus camera in Italian ; in French, chambre ; in Lng- 

 lish, chamber ; in German, kammer ; in Spanish, ca- 

 mara ; in Swedish, kamar. In many languages, cham- 

 ber is used to designate a branch of government 

 whose members assemble in a common apartment : 

 thus we have the camera apostolica, in Rome ; camara 

 dejusticia, in Spain ; chambre des deputes, in France ; 

 kammer gericht, in Germany, &c. 



Chamber of a cannon, in artillery; that part of the 

 bore of a cannon which receives the powder with 

 which it is charged. 



Chamber of a mortar; the space where the powder 

 lies. 



Chamber of a mine ; the place where the charge of 

 powder is lodged that is to be used for blowing up the 

 works. 



Chamber of a battery ; a place sunk under ground 

 to hold the powder, bombs, &c., so as to preserve 

 them from rain or moisture. 



Chamber of a lock is the space between the gates of 

 a lock in a canal, in which the barge rises and sinks, 

 so as to pass die lock. 



CHAMBER, IMPERIAL. The imperial chamber 

 (hi German, Reichskammergericht) was a court of the 

 German empire, established at Wetzlar, near the 

 Rhine. It was instituted by the emperor Maximilian 

 I., in 1495. In 1806, when the German empire was 

 dissolved, this court, of course, expired. The impe- 

 rial chamber had concurrent jurisdiction with the 

 aulic council (q. v.) at Vienna, and was intended, 

 among other things, to adjust the disputes between 

 the different independent members of the German 

 empire, and also such as arose between them and the 

 emperor. The intention of this establishment cer- 

 tainly was good, and its effect, at first, beneficial. 

 But the immense mass of cases which came before it, 

 together with the national pedantry of the Germans, 

 eventually occasioned the protraction of the processes 

 to an interminable length. By the conditions of the 

 peace of Westphalia, after the thirty years' war, par- 

 ticularly by the treaty of Osnaburg, in 1648, the im- 

 perial chamber was composed of a Catholic judge, 

 four presidents, named by the emperor (two Catholics 

 and two Protestants), and fifty counsellors, twenty-six 

 of whom were Catholics, and the rest Protestants. 

 After that time the members of the court were much 

 reduced. The sentences were without appeal, but 

 were often powerless, because the different German 

 princes frequently refused to allow them to be exe- 

 cuted in their territories. The history of the imperial 

 chamber affords another instance of the correctness 

 of Napoleon's judgment in dissolving the fabric of 

 the German empire, conformably to the demands of 

 the age. 



CHAMBERLAIN ; a court officer, originally em- 

 ployed, as the name indicates, either to take charge 

 of the private apartments of the king, or of the trea- 

 sury, called, in the tenth century, camera. (See 

 Chamber.) The golden key, which is worn by the 

 chamberlains of the European courts on two small 

 golden buttons (as well as the buttons themselves, 

 when the key is omitted), indicates, also, the origin 

 of the office. At present their employment (when 

 their office is not merely nominal) is to attend on the 

 persons of the princes and their consorts. There is 

 generally a chief or high chamberlain. This officer, 

 in England, is called lord great chamberlain of Eng- 

 land. His office is one of great antiquity and honour, 

 being ranked as the sixth great office of the English 

 crown. He dresses and undresses the king before 

 and after the coronation. There exists, also, a lord 



