CHAMBERLAIN 



1261 



CHAMBERLAIN 



depths were taken, in order to study its chem- 

 ical composition and its temperature; and a 

 great number of specimens of the animal life 

 as well as of the vegetation of the oceans were 

 collected. The currents of the oceans were 

 studied and careful atmospheric and meteor- 

 ological observations were recorded. A great 

 number of geological specimens, taken both 

 from the bottom of the sea and from the 

 coasts, were also gathered. The results of 

 the observations made and the study of the 

 materials collected are embodied in the Chal- 

 lenger Report, which was published in fifty 

 volumes in London under the editorship of Sir 

 John Murray. 



CHAM'BERLAIN, the family name of a 

 father and son conspicuous in English political 

 life beginning soon after the middle of the 

 nineteenth century. 



Joseph Chamberlain (1836-1914) was one of 

 the leading English statesmen of his day and 

 was frequently called the greatest Colonial Sec- 

 retary England has ever had. He began public 

 life as a Radical; he ended it as a Unionist, 

 exactly the oppo- 

 site. Twice he 

 deserted his po- 

 litical chief 

 once Gladstone, 

 the Liberal, once 

 Balfour, the Con- 

 servative and 

 both times his 

 withdrawal/!]^ 

 caused the defeat 

 of the Ministry 

 and the division 

 of the party of 

 which he had 

 previously been a member. These changes of 

 party represented a gradual development in a 

 statesmanship which was at first local, then 

 national, and lastly imperial. The key to 

 Chamberlain's political career is that he began 

 as a reformer of local conditions in Birming- 

 ham and as he grew older he devoted his 

 attention less to Birmingham, even less to 

 England, and most to the Empire of which 

 they were parts. His life^ therefore, falls into 

 three periods. 



As a Local Leader. Chamberlain was born 

 on July 8, 1836, in London, where his father 

 was a prosperous business man. At sixteen 

 he began work in his father's office, but two 

 years later went to Birmingham to assist in 

 the management of a screw factory in which 



JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN 



his father had an interest. He invented a screw 

 with a point so hard that it could be driven 

 into wood without the necessity of first boring 

 a hole, and largely through his efforts the busi- 

 ness was amazingly successful. At the age of 

 thirty-eight Chamberlain retired from active 

 business with a fortune. Meanwhile, he had 

 become prominent in the political as well as 

 the business life of Birmingham, and in 1873 

 was elected mayor. 



A National Figure. Chamberlain's work in 

 Birmingham gave him a national reputation 

 which was properly recognized by his election 

 to the House of Commons in 1876, and only 

 four years elapsed before his ability won him 

 a place in Gladstone's Cabinet as President of 

 the Board of Trade. In 1886 Gladstone ap- 

 pointed him President of the Local Govern- 

 ment Board, but his opposition to Gladstone's 

 Home Rule Bill led him to resign after two 

 months. With other Liberals who opposed 

 this measure, he then organized the Liberal 

 Unionist party, and succeeded in overthrowing 

 the Ministry. In 1888 he was one of the 

 three delegates sent to the United States to 

 settle the Canadian fisheries' dispute, but the 

 most important result of the visit, so far as 

 Chamberlain himself was concerned, was his 

 marriage to Miss Mary Endicott, the daughter 

 of President Cleveland's Secretary of War. 



During these years the Liberal Unionists 

 were drifting further away from the Liberals, 

 and in 1895 their party existence practically 

 came to an end when Chamberlain accepted 

 the post of Secretary of State for the Colonies . 

 in Lord Salisbury's Cabinet. 



"Think Imperially!" The keynote of Cham- 

 berlain's life from 1895 until his death was 

 expressed in this appeal to his countrymen. It 

 was as Colonial Secretary, an office which he 

 held for eight years, that his most important 

 work was done. After 1895 the "economic 

 necessities of a world-wide empire" were his 

 first care. He determined that the colonies, 

 instead of being alternately neglected and ex- 

 ploited, should be steadily encouraged and 

 given cooperation. The colonies' appreciation 

 of his attitude was shown during the South 

 African War, when Canada, New Zealand and 

 Australia proved eager to send troops to the 

 aid of the mother country. It was during 

 Chamberlain's term in office that the Aus- 

 tralian colonies were united into a common- 

 wealth. 



In 1903 Chamberlain introduced tariff reform 

 as an issue in British politics, by proposing to 



