820 



CAM DEN. 



Cassandnna, became, after the death of liis futlur, 

 king of the Persians ami Mcilrs, A. ('. 5MO. Soon 

 after his accession to the throne, he made an attack 

 upon Kgypt, killed the king of this country, IVain- 

 infiiitus, plundered the chief city, Memphis, ami con- 

 quered the whole kingdom within six months. He 

 now wished to send a fleet against Carthage, to con- 

 quer Ethiopia, and to obtain possession ot the temple 

 of Jupiter Ammon. The first of these expeditions, 

 however, did not take place, because the fleet, which 

 was manned with Phoenicians, refused obedience to 

 him. The army which was sent against the Ammon- 

 ites perished in the desert ; and the troops, at whose 

 head he himself had set out against the Ethiopians, 

 were compelled by hunger to retreat. From this time 

 he gave himself up to the greatest cruelties. On his 

 Miti-nice into Memphis, seeing the Egyptians engaged 

 in tin- n lehniiion of a feast in honour of their god 

 Apis, whom they had found, he believed that they 

 were rejoicing at his misfortunes. He caused the 

 holy bull to be brought before him, slew him with his 

 own sword, and caused the priest to be scourged with 

 nx Is. To drown his vexation, he indulged himself in 

 the most immoderate enjoyment of wine. No relation 

 was held sacred by him when intoxicated. He caused 

 his brother Smerdis, a dream concerning whom had 

 disturbed him, to be murdered. His sister and wife 

 Atossa, who lamented the death of Smerdis, he killed 

 with a blow of his foot. These and other actions of 

 the most insane rage had irritated his subjects. A 

 magian availed himself of this discontent, and ob- 

 tained possession of the throne under the name of 

 Smerdis, whose death had been concealed. C. had 

 resolved to go to Susa, in order to punish him, when, 

 as he was mounting his horse, he was wounded in the 

 hip by his sword. He died of this wound soon after, 

 In 522, at Ecbatana, in Assyria, without leaving any 

 children. 2. A Persian of low descent, the grand- 

 father of the former, to whom king Astyages gave 

 his daughter Mandane in marriage, in order to pre- 

 vent the fulfilment of a dream, according to which he 

 was to lose his crown by means of his daughter's son, 

 while he flattered himself with the hope that his 

 grandson would constantly hold in remembrance the 

 benefit conferred on his father. He did not, however, 

 escape his fate, for Cyrus, the son of Mandane, de- 

 throned him. 



CAMDEN ; a post-town, and capital of Kershaw dis- 

 trict, South Carolina, on the E. side of the Wateree, 

 thirty-five miles N. E. Columbia, 130 N. N. W. 

 Charleston ; Ion. 80 33 W. ; lat. 34 IT N. ; popu- 

 lation about 1000. It is a pleasant town, regularly 

 laid out, and contains a court-house, a jail, an acade- 

 my, and four places of public worship. The surround- 

 ing country is fertile and pleasant. The Wateree is 

 navigable to this place for boats of seventy tons. 

 Two battles were fought here during the revolution- 

 ary war ; one, Aug. 16, 1780, between general Gates 

 and lord Cornwallis, in which the Americans were de- 

 feated ; the other, April 25, 1781, between general 

 Greene and lord Rawdon. The Americans had 126 

 men killed, and 100 taken prisoners. The British 

 had about 100 killed. 



CAMDEN (Charles Pratt), earl of, a distinguished 

 British lawyer and statesman of the last century, was 

 the son of. Sir John Pratt, chief justice of the king's 

 bench, and was born in 1713. After studying at Eton 

 Bnd King's college, Cambridge, where he took the 

 degree of M. A., in 1739, and obtained a fellowship, 

 he entered as a student at Lincoln's inn, and, in due, 

 time, was called to the bar. In 1754 he was chpsen 

 member of parliament for the borough of Downton. 

 After acquiring great reputation as an advocate, he 

 was, in 1759, appointed attorney-general, having, the 

 ea-jie year, been elected recorder of the city of Bath. 



In January, 17G2, he was called to the dignity of 9 

 serjeant-at-law, and elevated to the office of chief jus- 

 tice of the common pleas, when he received the 'ho- 

 nour of knighthood. While he presided in this court, 

 Wilkes was arrested on a general warrant, as the au- 

 thor of the North Briton, a periodical paper which 

 gave offence to government. He was committed i<> 

 the Tower as a state prisoner ; and, being brought, in 

 obedience to a writ of habeas corpus, before the court 

 of common pleas, the lord chief justice Pratt dis 

 charged him from his confinement, on May 6, 17<>H. 

 The behaviour of the judge on this occasion, and in 

 the consequent judicial proceedings between the prin- 

 ters of the North Briton and the messengers of the 

 house of commons, and other agents ot the ministry. 

 was so acceptable to the metropolis, that the city of 

 London presented him with the freedom of the cor- 

 poration, in a gold box, and requested to have his pic- 

 ture. In July, 1765, he was raised to the peerage, by 

 the title of baron Camden ; and, about a year after, 

 he was made lord chancellor. In this capacity he 

 presided at the decision of a suit against the messen- 

 gers who arrested Mr Wilkes, when he made a speech, 

 in which he stated, that " it was the unanimous opi- 

 nion of the court, that general warrants, except in 

 cases of high treason, were illegal, oppressive, and 

 unwarrantable." On his opposing the taxation of the 

 American colonies, he was deprived of the seals, in 

 1770. He came into office again, as president of the 

 council, under the administration of the marquis of 

 Rockingham, in March, 1782; on whose death, he 

 resigned, the following year. He soon after, how- 

 ever, resumed his place under Mr Pitt, and, in 17SG, 

 was made earl Camden. He died April is, 17 ( JJ. 

 He is said to have been the author of a pamphlet, en- 

 titled an Inquiry into the Nature and Effect ot the 

 U'rit of Habeas Corpus. 



CAMDEN, WILLIAM, a celebrated antiquary and histo- 

 rian, was born in London in 1551. He received part 

 of his education at Christ's hospital and St Paul's 

 school, after which he studied at Oxford. In 1575 

 le was appointed second master of Westminster school, 

 through the patronage of dean Goodman. He devoted 

 liimself faithfully to the duties of his situation, employ- 

 ing all his leisure in his favourite study of British an- 

 tiquities. At this time he began to make collections 

 for his great work, the "Britannia," In 15^2 lie 

 travelled through the eastern and northern parts of 

 England, to survey the country, and arrange a cor- 

 respondence for the supply of further information. 

 The result of his researches appeared in 1586, when 

 the first edition of his " Britannia" was published in 

 Latin, in an octavo vokime, with a dedication to lord 

 Burleigh. This work, though at first necessarily im- 

 perfect, procured the author high reputation at home 

 and abroad. In 1589 and 1590 he went into Wales 

 and the west of England, and obtained materials for 

 the improvement of his book, of which the fourth edi- 

 tion, 1594, was enlarged to a quarto volume. In 

 1593 he succeeded Dr Edward Grant, as head master 

 of Westminster ; for the use of which seminary he 

 drew up a Greek grammar, published in 1597. The 

 same year he obtained the office of Clarencieux, king- 

 at-arms, which left him at leisure to cultivate his la- 

 vourite branches of knowledge. In 1600 appeared 

 the fifth edition of the Britannia, w : th a defence 

 against some animadversions made on the work by 

 Ralph Brooke. York herald, who was probably influ- 

 enced by a jealousy of Camden, though many of his 

 remarks were by no means destitute? of foundation. 

 In 1605 was published " Remains of a greater work 

 concerning Britain;" and in 1607 appeared a narra- 

 tive of the conspiracy called the gun-powder plot, 

 written in Latin by the king's command. The same 

 year Camden published the last edition of the Britannia 



