[1] A new and enlarged edition of this work, edited by David Patrick,
LL. D., appeared in 1903.
CHAMBERS, SIR WILLIAM (1726-1796), British architect, was the grandson
of a rich merchant who had financed the armies of Charles XII., but was
paid in base money, and whose son remained in Sweden many years
endeavouring to obtain redress. In 1728 the latter returned to England
and settled at Ripon, where William, who was born in Stockholm, was
educated. At the age of sixteen he became supercargo to the Swedish East
India Company, and voyaging to Canton made drawings of Chinese
architecture, furniture and costume which served as basis for his
_Designs for Chinese Buildings_, &c. (1757). Two years later he quitted
the sea to study architecture seriously, and spent a long time in Italy,
devoting special attention to the buildings of classical and Renaissance
architects. He also studied under Clerisseau in Paris, with whom and
with the sculptor Wilton he lived at Rome. In 1755 he returned to
England with Cipriani and Wilton, and married the beautiful daughter of
the latter. His first important commission was a villa for Lord
Bessborough at Roehampton, but he made his reputation by the grounds he
laid out and the buildings he erected at Kew between 1757 and 1762 for
Augusta, princess dowager of Wales. Some of them have since been
demolished, but the most important, the pagoda, still survives. The
publication in a handsome volume of the designs for these buildings
assured his position in the profession. He was employed to teach
architectural drawing to the prince of Wales (George III.), and gained
further professional distinction in 1759 by the publication of his
_Treatise of Civil Architecture_. He began to exhibit with the Society
of Artists in 1761 at Spring Gardens, and was one of the original
members and treasurer of the Royal Academy when it was established in
1768. In 1772 he published his _Dissertation on Oriental Gardening_,
which attempted to prove the inferiority of European to Chinese
landscape gardening. As a furniture designer and internal decorator he
is credited with the creation of that "Chinese Style" which was for a
time furiously popular, although Thomas Chippendale (q.v.) had published
designs in that manner at a somewhat earlier date. It is not
unreasonable to count the honours as divided, since Chippendale
unquestionably adapted and altered the Chinese shapes in a manner better
to fit them for European use. To the rage for every possible form of
_chinoiserie_, for which he is chiefly responsible, Sir William Chambers
owed much of his success in life. He became architect to the king and
queen, comptroller of his majesty's works, and afterwards
surveyor-general. In 1775 he was appointed architect of Somerset House,
his greatest monument, at a salary of L2000 a year. He also designed
town mansions for Earl Gower at Whitehall and Lord Melbourne in
Piccadilly, built Charlemont House, Dublin, and Duddingston House near
Edinburgh. He designed the market house at Worcester, was employed by
the earl of Pembroke at Wilton, by the duke of Marlborough at Blenheim,
and by the duke of Bedford in Bloomsbury. The state coach of George
III., his constant patron, was his work; it is now in the Victoria and
Albert Museum. Although his practice was mainly Classic, he made Gothic
additions to Milton Abbey in Dorset. Sir William Chambers achieved
considerable distinction as a designer of furniture. In addition to his
work in the Chinese style and in the contemporary fashions, he was the
author of what is probably the most ambitious and monumental piece of
furniture ever produced in England. This was a combined bureau,
dressing-case, jewel-cabinet and organ, made for Charles IV., king of
Spain, in 1793. These combination pieces were in the taste of the time,
and the effort displays astonishing ingenuity and resource. The panels
were painted by W. Hamilton, R.A., with representations of the four
seasons, night and morning, fire and water, Juno and Ceres, together
with representations of the Golden Fleece and the Immaculate Conception.
The organ, in the domed top, is in a case decorated with ormolu and
Wedgwood. This remarkable achievement, which possesses much sober
elegance, formed part of the loan collection of English furniture at the
Franco-British Exhibition in London in 1908. Sir William Chambers
numbered among his friends Dr Johnson, Goldsmith, Sir Joshua Reynolds,
David Garrick and Dr Burney.
CHAMBERS (the Fr. _chambre_, from Lat. _camera_, a room), a term used
generally of rooms or apartments, but especially in law of the offices
of a lawyer or the semi-private rooms in which judges or judicial
officers deal with questions of practice and other matters not of
sufficient importance to be dealt with in court. It is a matter of doubt
at what period the practice of exercising jurisdiction "in chambers"
commenced in England; there is no statutory sanction before 1821, though
the custom can be traced back to the 17th century. An act of 1821
provided for sittings in chambers between terms, and an act of 1822
empowered the sovereign to call upon the judges by warrant to sit in
chambers on as many days in vacation as should seem fit, while the Law
Terms Act 1830 defined the jurisdiction to be exercised at chambers. The
Judges' Chambers Act 1867 was the first act, however, to lay down proper
regulations for chamber work, and the Judicature Act 1873 preserved that
jurisdiction and gave power to increase it as might be directed or
authorized by rules of court to be thereafter made. (See CHANCERY;
KING'S BENCH, COURT OF.)
CHAMBERSBURG, a borough and the county-seat of Franklin county,
Pennsylvania, U.S.A., at the confluence of Conoco-cheague Creek and
Falling Spring, 52 m. S.W. of Harrisburg. Pop. (1890) 7863; (1900) 8864,
of whom 769 were negroes; (1910) 11,800. It is served by the Cumberland
Valley and the Western Maryland railways, and is connected by electric
lines with Greencastle, Waynesboro, Caledonia, a beautiful park in the
Pennsylvania timber reservation, on South Mountain, 12 m. east of
Chambersburg, and Pen Mar, a summer resort, on South Mountain, near the
boundary line between Pennsylvania and Maryland. Chambersburg is built
on an elevated site in the broad and fertile Cumberland Valley, and
commands a fine view of the distant hills and dales. The borough is the
seat of Chambersburg Academy, a preparatory school; Penn Hall, a school
for girls; and Wilson College, a Presbyterian institution for women,
opened in 1870. The Wilson College campus, the former estate of Col. A.
K. McClure (1828-1909), a well-known journalist, was laid out by Donald
G. Mitchell ("Ik Marvel"), who was an enthusiastic landscape gardener.
The shops of the Cumberland Valley railway are at Chambersburg, and
among the borough's manufactures are milling machinery, boilers,
engines, hydraulic presses, steam-hammers, engineering and bridge
supplies, hosiery, shoes, gloves, furniture, flour, paper, leather,
carriages and agricultural implements; the total value of its factory
product in 1905 was $1,085,185. The waterworks and the electric-lighting
plant are owned and operated by the municipality. A settlement was
founded here in 1730 by Benjamin Chambers, in whose honour the borough
was named, and who, immediately after General Edward Braddock's defeat
in 1755, built a stone fort and surrounded it with a stockade for the
protection of the community from the Indians. Chambersburg was laid out
in 1764 and was incorporated as a borough in 1803. On the 30th of July
1864 Chambersburg was occupied by a Confederate cavalry force under
General McCausland (acting under General Jubal A. Early's orders), who,
upon the refusal of the citizens to pay $100,000 for immunity, burned a
large part of the borough.
CHAMBERY, a city of France, capital of the department of Savoie,
pleasantly situated in a fertile district, between two hills, on the
rivers Leysse and Albane, 79 m. by rail S.S.W. of Geneva. Pop. (1906)
town, 16,852; commune, 23,027. The town is irregularly built, and has
only two good streets--the Place Saint-Leger and the Rue de Boigne, the
latter being named after General Benoit Boigne (1741-1830), who left a
fortune of 3,400,000 francs (accumulated in India) to the town. The
principal buildings are the cathedral, dating from the 14th and 15th
centuries; the Hotel-Dieu, founded in 1647; the castle, a modern
building serving as the prefecture, and preserving only a great square
tower belonging to the original structure; the palace of justice, the
theatre, the barracks, and the covered market, which dates from 1863.
Several of the squares are adorned with fountains; the old ramparts of
the city, destroyed during the French Revolution, have been converted
into public walks; and various promenades and gardens have been
constructed. Chambery is the seat of an archbishop (raised to that
dignity from a bishopric in 1817) and of a superior tribunal. It has
also a Jesuit college, a royal academical society, a society of
agriculture and commerce, a public library with 60,000 volumes, a museum
(antiquities and paintings), a botanic garden, and many charitable
institutions. It manufactures silk-gauze, lace, leather and hats, and
has a considerable trade in liqueurs, wine, lead, copper and other
articles. Overlooking the town on the north is the Rocher de Lemenc,
which derives its name from the _Lemincum_ of the Romans; and in the
vicinity is Les Charmettes, for some time (1736-1740) the residence of
Rousseau.
The origin of Chambery is unknown, but its lords are mentioned for the
first time in 1029. In 1232 it was sold to the count of Savoy, Thomas
I., who bestowed several important privileges on the inhabitants. As
capital of the duchy of Savoy, it has passed through numerous political
vicissitudes. Between 1536 and 1713 it was several times occupied by the
French; in 1742 it was captured by a Franco-Spanish army; and in 1792 it
was occupied by the Republican forces, and became the capital of the
department of Mont Blanc. Restored to the house of Savoy by the treaties
of Vienna and Paris, it was again surrendered to France in 1860. Among
the famous men whom it has given to France, the most important are
Vaugelas (1585-1650), Saint-Real (1639-1692), and the brothers Joseph
(1754-1821) and Xavier (1763-1852) de Maistre.
CHAMBORD, HENRI CHARLES FERDINAND MARIE DIEUDONNE COMTE DE (1820-1883),
the "King Henry V." of the French legitimists, was born in Paris on the
29th of September 1820. His father was the duc de Berry, the elder son
of the comte d'Artois (afterwards Charles X.); his mother was the
princess Caroline Ferdinande Louise of Naples. Born seven months after
the assassination of his father, he was hailed as the "enfant du
miracle," and was made the subject of one of Lamartine's most famous
poems. He was created duc de Bordeaux, and in 1821, as the result of a
subscription organized by the government, received the chateau of
Chambord. He was educated by tutors inspired by detestation of the
French Revolution and its principles, and from the duc de Damas in
particular imbibed those ideas of divine right and of devotion to the
Church to which he always remained true. After the revolution of July,
Charles X. vainly endeavoured to save the Bourbon cause by abdicating in
his favour and proclaiming him king under the title of Henry V. (August
2, 1830). The comte de Chambord accompanied his grandfather into exile,
and resided successively at Holyrood, Prague, and Gorz. In 1841, during
an extensive tour through Europe, he broke his leg--an accident that
resulted in permanent lameness. The death of his grandfather, Charles
X., in 1836, and of his uncle, the duc d'Angouleme, in 1844, left him
the last male representative of the elder branch of the Bourbon family;
and his marriage with the archduchess Maria Theresa, eldest daughter of
the duke of Modena (November 7, 1846), remained without issue. The title
to the throne thus passed to the comte de Paris, as representative of
the Orleans branch of the house of Bourbon, and the history of the comte
de Chambord's life is largely an account of the efforts made to unite
the Royalist party by effecting a reconciliation between the two
princes. Though he continued to hold an informal court, both on his
travels and at his castle of Frohsdorf, near Vienna, yet he allowed the
revolution of 1848 and the _coup d'etat_ of 1851 to pass without any
decisive assertion of his claims. It was the Italian war of 1859, with
its menace to the pope's independence, that roused him at last to
activity. He declared himself ready "to pay with his blood for the
triumph of a cause which was that of France, the Church, and God
himself." Making common cause with the Church, the Royalists now began
an active campaign against the Empire. On the 9th of December 1866 he
addressed a manifesto to General Saint-Priest, in which he declared the
cause of the pope to be that of society and liberty, and held out
promises of retrenchment, civil and religious liberty, "and above all
honesty." Again, on the 4th of September 1870, after the fall of the
Empire, he invited Frenchmen to accept a government "whose basis was
right and whose principle was honesty," and promised to drive the enemy
from French soil. These vague phrases, offered as a panacea to a nation
fighting for its life, showed conclusively his want of all political
genius; they had as little effect on the French as his protest against
the bombardment of Paris had on the Germans. Yet fortune favoured him.
The elections placed the Republican party in a minority in the National
Assembly; the abrogation of the law of exile against the royal family
permitted him to return to his castle of Chambord; and it was thence
that on the 5th of July 1871 he issued a proclamation, in which for the
first time he publicly posed as king, and declared that he would never
abandon the white standard of the Bourbons, "the flag of Henry IV.,
Francis I., and Joan of Arc," for the tricolour of the Revolution. He
again quitted France, and answered the attempts to make him renounce his
claims in favour of the comte de Paris by the declaration (January 25,
1872) that he would never abdicate. In the following month he held a
great gathering of his adherents at Antwerp, which was the cause of
serious disturbances. A constitutional programme, signed by some 280
members of the National Assembly, was presented for his acceptance, but
without result. The fall of Thiers in May 1873, however, offered an
opportunity to the Royalists by which they hastened to profit. The comte
de Paris and the prince de Joinville journeyed to Frohsdorf, and were
formally reconciled with the head of the family (August 5). The
Royalists were united, the premier (the duc de Broglie) an open
adherent, the president (MacMahon) a benevolent neutral. MM. Lucien Brun
and Chesnelong were sent to interview the comte de Chambord at Salzburg,
and obtain the definite assurances that alone were wanting. They
returned with the news that he accepted the principles of the French
Revolution and the tricolour flag. But a letter to Chesnelong, dated
Salzburg, 27th of October, declared that he had been misunderstood: he
would give no guarantees; he would not inaugurate his reign by an act of
weakness, nor become "le roi legitime de la Revolution." "Je suis le
pilote necessaire," he added, "le seul capable de conduire le navire au
port, parce que j'ai mission et autorite pour cela." This outspoken
adherence to the principle of divine right did credit to his honesty,
but it cost him the crown. The duc de Broglie carried the septennate,
and the Republic steadily established itself in popular favour. A last
effort was made in the National Assembly in June 1874 by the duc de la
Rochefoucauld-Bisaccia, who formally moved the restoration of the
monarchy. The comte de Chambord on the 2nd of July issued a fresh
manifesto, which added nothing to his former declarations. The motion
was rejected by 272 to 79, and on the 25th of February 1875 the Assembly
definitely adopted the Republic as the national form of government. From
this time the comte de Chambord, though continuing to publish letters on
political affairs, made no further effort to regain the throne. He died
at Frohsdorf on the 24th of August 1883.
See _Manifestes et programmes politiques de M. le comte de Chambord,
1848-1873_ (1873), and _Correspondance de la famille royale et
principalement de Mgr. le comte de Chambord avec le comte de Bouille_
(1884). Of the enormous literature relating to him, mention may be
made of _Henri V et la monarchie traditionnelle_ (1871), _Le Comte de
Chambord etudie dans ses voyages et sa correspondance_ (1880), and
_Henri de France_, by H. de Pene (1885). (H. Sy.)
CHAMBORD, a village of central France, in the department of
Loir-et-Cher, on the left bank of the Cosson, 10 m. E. by N. of Blois by
road. The village stands in the park of Chambord, which is enclosed by a
wall 21 m. in circumference. The celebrated chateau (see ARCHITECTURE:
_Renaissance Architecture in France_) forms a parallelogram flanked at
the angles by round towers and enclosing a square block of buildings,
the facade of which forms the centre of the main front. The profusion of
turrets, pinnacles, and dormer windows which decorates the roof of this,
the chief portion of the chateau, constitutes the main feature of the
exterior, while in the interior are a well-preserved chapel of the 16th
century and a famous double staircase, the construction of which permits
two people to ascend and descend respectively without seeing one
another. There are 440 apartments, containing pictures of the 17th
century and souvenirs of the comte de Chambord. The chateau was
originally a hunting-box of the counts of Blois, the rebuilding of which
was begun by Francis I. in 1526, and completed under Henry II. It was
the residence of several succeeding monarchs, and under Louis XIV.
considerable alterations were made. In the same reign Moliere performed
_Monsieur de Pourceaugnac_ and _Le Bourgeois gentilhomme_ for the first
time in the theatre. Stanislaus, king of Poland, lived at Chambord,
which was bestowed by his son-in-law, Louis XV., upon Marshal Saxe. It
was given by Napoleon to Marshal Berthier, from whose widow it was
purchased by subscription in 1821, and presented to the duc de Bordeaux,
the representative of the older branch of the Bourbons, who assumed from
it the title of comte de Chambord. On his death in 1883 it came by
bequest into the possession of the family of Parma.
CHAMBRE ARDENTE (Fr. "burning chamber"), the term for an extraordinary
court of justice in France, mainly held for the trials of heretics. The
name is perhaps an allusion to the fact that the proceedings took place
in a room from which all daylight was excluded, the only illumination
being from torches, or there may be a reference to the severity of the
sentences in _ardente_, suggesting the burning of the prisoners at the
stake. These courts were originated by the Cardinal of Lorraine, the
first of them meeting in 1535 under Francis I. The _Chambre Ardente_
co-operated with an inquisitorial tribunal also established by Francis
I., the duty of which was to discover cases of heresy and hand them over
for final judgment to the _Chambre Ardente_. The reign of Henry II. of
France was particularly infamous for the cruelties perpetrated by this
court on the Huguenots. The marquise de Brinvilliers (q.v.) and her
associates were tried in the _Chambre Ardente_ in 1680. The court was
abolished in 1682.
See N. Weiss, _La Chambre Ardente_ (Paris, 1889), and F. Ravaisson,
_Archives de la Bastille_ (Paris, 1866-1884, 16 vols.).
CHAMELEON, the common name of one of the three suborders of Lacertilia
or lizards. The chief genus is _Chamaeleon_, containing most of the
fifty to sixty species of the whole group, and with the most extensive
range, all through Africa and Madagascar into Arabia, southern India and
Ceylon. The Indian species is _Ch. calcaratus_; the dwarf chameleon of
South Africa is _Ch. pumilus_; the giant of the whole tribe, reaching a
total length of 2 ft., is _Ch. parsoni_ of Madagascar. The commonest
species in the trade is _Ch. vulgaris_ of North Africa, introduced into
southern Andalusia. A few queer genera, with much stunted tail, e.g.
_Rhampholeon_, in tropical Africa and _Brookesia_ in Madagascar are the
most aberrant. The common chameleon is the most typical. The head is
raised into a pyramidal crest far beyond the occiput, there is no outer
ear, nor a drum-cavity. The limbs are very long and slender, and the
digits form stout grasping bundles; on the hand the first three form an
inner bundle, opposed to the remaining two; on the foot the inner bundle
is formed by the first and second toe, the outer by the other three
toes. The tail is prehensile, by being rolled downwards; it is not
brittle and cannot be renewed. The eyeballs are large, but the lids are
united into one concentric fold, leaving only the small pupil visible.
The right and left eyes are incessantly moved separately from each other
and literally in every direction, up and down, forwards and straight
backwards, producing the most terrible squinting. Chameleons alone of
all reptiles can focus their eyes upon one spot, and conformably they
alone possess a retinal _macula centralis_, or spot of acutest,
binocular vision. The tongue has attained an extraordinary development.
It is club-shaped, covered with a sticky secretion, and based upon a
very narrow root, which is composed of extremely elastic fibres and
telescoped over the much elongated, style-shaped, copular piece of the
hyoid. The whole apparatus is kept in a contracted state like a spring
in a tube. When the spring is released, so to speak, by filling the
apparatus with blood and by the play of the hyoid muscles, the heavy
thick end shoots out upon the insect prey and is withdrawn by its own
elasticity. The whole act is like a flash. An ordinary chameleon can
shoot a fly at the distance of fully 6 in., and it can manage even a big
sphinx moth.
[Illustration: Left Forefoot of _Chamaeleon o'shaughenesii_, outer
view.]
Another remarkable feature is their changing of colour. This proverbial
power is greatly exaggerated. They cannot assume in succession all the
colours of the rainbow, nor are the changes quick. The common chameleon
may be said to be greenish grey, changing to grass-green or to dull
black, with or without maroon red, or brown, lateral series of patches.
At night the same specimen assumes as a rule a more or less uniform pale
straw-colour. After it has been watched for several months, when all its
possibilities seem exhausted, it will probably surprise us by a totally
new combination, for instance, a black garb with many small yellow
specks, or green with many black specks. Pure red and blue are not in
the register of this species, but they are rather the rule upon the dark
green ground colour of the South African dwarf chameleon. The changes
are partly under control of the will, partly complicated reflex actions,
intentionally adaptive to the physical and psychical surroundings. The
mechanism is as follows. The cutis contains several kinds of specialized
cells in many layers, each filled with minute granules of guanine. The
upper cells are the smallest, most densely filled with crystals, and
cause the white colour by diffusion of direct light; near the Malpighian
layer the cells are charged with yellow oil drops; the deeper cells are
the largest, tinged light brown, and acting as a turbid medium they
cause a blue colour, which, owing to the superimposed yellow drops,
reaches our eye as green; provided always that there is an effective
screen at the back, and this is formed by large chromatophores which lie
at the bottom and send their black pigment half-way up, or on to the top
of the layers of guanine and oil containing cells. When all the pigment
is shifted towards the surface, as near the epidermis as possible, the
creature looks black; when the black pigment is withdrawn into the basal
portions of the chromatophores the skin appears yellow.
The lungs are very capacious, and end in several narrow blind sacs which
extend far down into the body cavity, so that not only the chest but the
whole body can be blown up. This happens when the animals hiss and
fight, as they often do. But when they know themselves discovered, they
make themselves as thin as possible by compressing the chest and belly
vertically by means of their peculiarly elongated ribs. The whole body
is then put into such a position that it presents only its narrow edge
to the enemy, and with the branch of the tree or shrub interposed. They
are absolutely arboreal, but they hibernate in the ground.
The usual mode of propagation is by eggs, which are oval, numerous,
provided with a calcareous shell, and buried in humus, whence they are
hatched about four months later. But a few species, e.g. the dwarf
chameleon, are viviparous.
Chameleons are insectivorous. They prefer locusts, grass-hoppers and
lepidoptera, but are also fond of flies and mealworms. They are
notoriously difficult to keep in good health. They want not only warmth,
but sunshine, and they must have water, which they lick up in drops from
the edges of wet leaves whenever they have a chance. The silliness of
the fable that they live on air is shown by the fact that they usually
die in an absolutely emaciated and parched condition after three or four
months' starvation. (H. F. G.)
In astronomy, "Chamaeleon" is a constellation situated near the south
pole and surrounded by the constellations of Octans, Mensa, Piscis
volans, Carina (Nauta), Musca and Apus. In chemistry, "chameleon
mineral" is a name applied to the green mass which is obtained when
pyrolusite (manganese dioxide) is fused with nitre, since a solution
in water assumes a purple tint on exposure to the air; this change is
due to the oxidation of the manganate, which is first formed, to a
permanganate.
CHAMFER, CHAMPFER or CHAUMFER (Fr. _chanfrein_; possibly from Lat.
_cantus_, corner, and _frangere_, to break), an architectural term; when
the edge or arris of any work is cut off at an angle of 45 deg. in a
small degree, it is said to be "chamfered," while it would be "canted"
if on a large scale. The chamfer is much used in medieval work, and is
sometimes plain, sometimes hollowed out and sometimes moulded. Chamfers
are sometimes "stopped" by a bead or some moulding, but when cut short
by a slope they are generally known as "stop chamfer."
CHAMFORT, SEBASTIEN ROCH NICOLAS (1741-1794), French man of letters, was
born at a little village near Clermont in Auvergne in 1741. He was,
according to a baptismal certificate found among his papers, the son of
a grocer named Nicolas. A journey to Paris resulted in the boy's
obtaining a bursary at the College des Grassins. He worked hard,
although he wrote later in one of his most contemptuous epigrams--_"Ce
que j'ai appris je ne le sais plus; le peu que je sais je l'ai divine."_
His college career ended, Chamfort assumed the dress of a _petit abbe.
"C'est un costume, et non point un etat,"_ he said; and to the principal
of his college who promised him a benefice, he replied that he would
never be a priest, inasmuch as he preferred honour to honours--_"j'aime
l'honneur et non les honneurs."_ About this time he assumed the name of
Chamfort.
For some time he contrived to exist by teaching and as a booksellers'
hack. His good looks and ready wit, however, soon brought him into
notice; but though endowed with immense strength--"Hercule sous la
figure d'Adonis," Madame de Craon called him--he lived so hard that he
was glad of the chance of doing a "cure" at Spa when the Belgian
minister in Paris, M. van Eyck, took him with him to Germany in 1761. On
his return to Paris he produced a comedy, _La Jeune Indienne_ (1764),
which was performed with some success, and this was followed by a series
of "epistles" in verse, essays and odes. It was not, however, until
1769, when he won the prize of the French Academy for his _Eloge_ on
Moliere, that his literary reputation was established.
Meanwhile he had lived from hand to mouth, mainly on the hospitality of
people who were only too glad to give him board and lodging in exchange
for the pleasure of the conversation for which he was famous. Thus
Madame Helvetius entertained him at Sevres for some years. In 1770
another comedy, _Le Marchand de Smyrne_, brought him still further into
notice, and he seemed on the road to fortune, when he was suddenly
smitten with a horrible disease. His distress was relieved by the
generosity of a friend, who made over to him a pension of 1200 livres
charged on the _Mercure de France_. With this assistance he was able to
go to the baths of Contrexeville and to spend some time in the country,
where he wrote an _Eloge_ on La Fontaine which won the prize of the
Academy of Marseilles (1774). In 1775, while taking the waters at
Bareges, he met the duchesse de Grammont, sister of Choiseul, through
whose influence he was introduced at court. In 1776 his poor tragedy,
_Mustapha et Zeangir_, was played at Fontainebleau before Louis XVI. and
Marie Antoinette; the king gave him a further pension of 1200 livres,
and the prince de Conde made him his secretary. But he was a Bohemian
naturally and by habit, the restraints of the court irked him, and with
increasing years he was growing misanthropical. After a year he resigned
his post in the prince's household and retired into solitude at Auteuil.
There, comparing the authors of old with the men of his own time, he
uttered the famous _mot_ that proclaims the superiority of the dead over
the living as companions; and there too he presently fell in love. The
lady, attached to the household of the duchesse du Maine, was
forty-eight years old, but clever, amusing, a woman of the world; and
Chamfort married her. They left Auteuil, and went to Vaucouleurs, where
in six months Madame Chamfort died. Chamfort lived in Holland for a time
with M. de Narbonne, and returning to Paris received in 1781 the place
at the Academy left vacant by the death of La Curne de Sainte-Palaye,
the author of the _Dictionnaire des antiquites francaises_. In 1784,
through the influence of Calonne, he became secretary to the king's
sister, Madame Elizabeth, and in 1786 he received a pension of 2000
livres from the royal treasury. He was thus once more attached to the
court, and made himself friends in spite of the reach and tendency of
his unalterable irony; but he quitted it for ever after an unfortunate
and mysterious love affair, and was received into the house of M. de
Vaudreuil. Here in 1783 he had met Mirabeau, with whom he remained to
the last on terms of intimate friendship. whom he assisted with money
and influence, and one at least of whose speeches--that on the
Academies--he wrote.
The outbreak of the Revolution made a profound change in the relations
of Chamfort's life. Theoretically he had long been a republican, and he
now threw himself into the new movement with almost fanatical ardour,
devoting all his small fortune to the revolutionary propaganda. His old
friends of the court he forgot. "Those who pass the river of
revolutions," he said, "have passed the river of oblivion." Until the
31st of August 1791 he was secretary of the Jacobin club; he became a
street orator and entered the Bastille among the first of the storming
party. He worked for the _Mercure de France_, collaborated with Ginguene
in the _Feuille villageoise_, and drew up for Talleyrand his _Adresse au
peuple francais_.
With the reign of Marat and Robespierre, however, his uncompromising
Jacobinism grew critical, and with the fall of the Girondins his
political life came to an end. But he could not restrain the tongue that
had made him famous; he no more spared the Convention than he had spared
the court. His notorious republicanism failed to excuse the sarcasms he
lavished on the new order of things, and denounced by an assistant in
the Bibliotheque Nationale, to a share in the direction of which he had
been appointed by Roland, he was taken to the Madelonnettes. Released
for a moment, he was threatened again with arrest; but he had determined
to prefer death to a repetition of the moral and physical restraint to
which he had been subjected. He attempted suicide with pistol and with
poniard; and, horribly hacked and shattered, dictated to those who came
to arrest him the well-known declaration--_"Moi, Sebastien-Roch-Nicolas
Chamfort, declare avoir voulu mourir en homme libre plutot que d'etre
reconduit en esclave dans une maison d'arret"_--which he signed in a
firm hand and in his own blood. He did not die at once, but lingered on
until the 13th of April 1794 in charge of a gendarme, for whose wardship
he paid a crown a day. To the Abbe Sieyes Chamfort had given fortune in
the title of a pamphlet ("_Qu'est-ce que le Tiers-Etat? Tout. Qu'a-t-il?
Rien_"), and to Sieyes did Chamfort retail his supreme sarcasm, the
famous "_Je m'en vais enfin de ce monde ou il faut que le coeur se brise
ou se bronze._" The maker of constitutions followed the dead wit to the
grave.
The writings of Chamfort, which include comedies, political articles,
literary criticisms, portraits, letters, and verses, are colourless and
uninteresting in the extreme. As a talker, however, he was of
extraordinary force. His _Maximes et Pensees_, highly praised by John
Stuart Mill, are, after those of La Rochefoucauld, the most brilliant
and suggestive sayings that have been given to the modern world. The
aphorisms of Chamfort, less systematic and psychologically less
important than those of La Rochefoucauld, are as significant in their
violence and iconoclastic spirit of the period of storm and preparation
that gave them birth as the _Reflexions_ in their exquisite restraint
and elaborate subtlety are characteristic of the tranquil elegance of
their epoch; and they have the advantage in richness of colour, in
picturesqueness of phrase, in passion, in audacity. Sainte-Beuve
compares them to "well-minted coins that retain their value," and to
keen arrows that "_arrivent brusquement et sifflent encore._"
An edition of his works--_OEuvres completes de Nicolas Chamfort_--Was
published at Paris in five volumes in 1824-1825. Selections--_OEuvres
de Chamfort_--in one volume, appeared in 1852, with a biographical and
critical preface by Arsene Houssaye, reprinted from the _Revue des
deux mondes_; and _Oeuvres choisies_ (2 vols.), with a preface and
notes by M. de Lescure (1879). See also Sainte-Beuve, _Causeries du
Lundi_.
CHAMIER, FREDERICK (1796-1870), English novelist, was the son of an
Anglo-Indian official. In 1809 he entered the navy, and was in active
service until 1827. He retired in 1833, and was promoted to be captain
in 1856. On his retirement he settled near Waltham Abbey, and wrote
several nautical novels on the lines popularized by Marryat, that had
considerable success. These were _The Life of a Sailor_ (1832), _Ben
Brace_ (1836), _The Arethusa_ (1837), _Jack Adams_ (1838), _Tom Bowling_
(1841) and _Jack Malcolm's Log_ (1846). He wrote a number of other
books, and edited and brought down to 1827 James's _Naval History_
(1837).
CHAMILLART, MICHEL (1652-1721), French statesman, minister of Louis
XIV., was born at Paris of a family of the noblesse of recent elevation.
Following the usual career of a statesman of his time he became in turn
councillor of the parlement of Paris (1676), master of requests (1686),
and intendant of the generality of Rouen (January 1689). Affable, of
polished manners, modest and honest, Chamillart won the confidence of
Madame de Maintenon and pleased the king. In 1690 he was made intendant
of finances, and on the 5th of September 1699 the king appointed him
controller-general of finances, to which he added on the following 7th
of January the ministry of war. From the first Chamillart's position was
a difficult one. The deficit amounted to more than 53 million livres,
and the credit of the state was almost exhausted. He lacked the great
intelligence and energy necessary for the situation, and was unable to
moderate the king's warlike tastes, or to inaugurate economic reforms.
He could only employ the usual expedients of the time--the immoderate
sale of offices, the debasement of the coinage (five times in six
years), reduction of the rate of interest on state debts, and increased
taxation. He attempted to force into circulation a kind of paper money,
_billets de monnaie_, but with disastrous results owing to the state of
credit. He studied Vauban's project for the royal tithe and
Boisguillebert's proposition for the _taille_, but did not adopt them.
In October 1706 he showed the king that the debts immediately due
amounted to 288 millions, and that the deficit already foreseen for 1707
was 160 millions. In October 1707 he saw with consternation that the
revenue for 1708 was already entirely eaten up by anticipation, so that
neither money nor credit remained for 1708. In these conditions
Chamillart, who had often complained of the overwhelming burden he was
carrying, and who had already wished to retire in 1706, resigned his
office of controller-general. Public opinion attributed to him the ruin
of the country, though he had tried in 1700 to improve the condition of
commerce by the creation of a council of commerce. As secretary of state
for war he had to place in the field the army for the War of the Spanish
Succession, and to reorganize it three times, after the great defeats of
1704, 1706 and 1708. With an empty treasury he succeeded only in part,
and he frankly warned the king that the enemy would soon be able to
dictate the terms of peace. He was reproached with having secured the
command of the army which besieged Turin (1706) for his son-in-law, the
incapable duc de la Feuillade. Madame de Maintenon even became hostile
to him, and he abandoned his position on the 10th of June 1709, retiring
to his estates. He died on the 14th of April 1721.
Chamillart's papers have been published by G. Esnault, _Michel
Chamillart, controleur general et secretaire d'etat de la guerre,
correspondance et papiers inedits_ (2 vols., Paris, 1885); and by A.
de Boislisle in vol. 2 of his _Correspondance des controleurs
generaux_ (1883). See D'Auvigny, _Vies des hommes illustres_ (1739),
tome vi. pp. 288-402; E. Moret, _Quinze annees du regne de Louis XIV_
(Paris, 1851); and the new edition of the _Memoires de St-Simon_, by
A. de Boislisle.
CHAMINADE, CECILE (1861- ), French musical composer, was born at Paris
on the 8th of August 1861. She studied in Paris, her musical talent
being shown at the age of eight by the writing of some church music
which attracted Bizet's attention; and at eighteen she came out in
public as a pianist. Her own compositions, both songs (in large numbers)
and instrumental pieces, were soon produced in profusion: melodious and
interesting, and often charming, they became very popular, without being
entitled to rank with the greater style of music. Both in Paris and in
England Mlle Chaminade and her works became well known at the principal
concerts. In 1908 she visited America and was warmly welcomed.
CHAMISSO, ADELBERT VON [LOUIS CHARLES ADELAIDE DE] (1781-1838), German
poet and botanist, was born at the chateau of Boncourt in Champagne,
France, the ancestral seat of his family, on the 30th of January 1781.
Driven from France by the Revolution, his parents settled in Berlin,
where in 1796 young Chamisso obtained the post of page-in-waiting to the
queen, and in 1798 entered a Prussian infantry regiment as ensign. His
family were shortly afterwards permitted to return to France; he,
however, remained behind and continued his career in the army. He had
but little education, but now sought distraction from the soulless
routine of the Prussian military service in assiduous study. In
collaboration with Varnhagen von Ense, he founded in 1803 the _Berliner
Musenalmanach_, in which his first verses appeared. The enterprise was a
failure, and, interrupted by the war, it came to an end in 1806. It
brought him, however, to the notice of many of the literary celebrities
of the day and established his reputation as a rising poet. He had
become lieutenant in 1801, and in 1805 accompanied his regiment to
Hameln, where he shared in the humiliations following the treasonable
capitulation of that fortress in the ensuing year. Placed on parole he
went to France, where he found that both his parents were dead; and,
returning to Berlin in the autumn of 1807, he obtained his release from
the service early in the following year. Homeless and without a
profession, disillusioned and despondent, he lived in Berlin until 1810,
when, through the services of an old friend of the family, he was
offered a professorship at the _lycee_ at Napoleonville in La Vendee. He
set out to take up the post, but drawn into the charmed circle of Madame
de Stael, followed her in her exile to Coppet in Switzerland, where,
devoting himself to botanical research, he remained nearly two years. In
1812 he returned to Berlin, where he continued his scientific studies.
In the summer of the eventful year, 1813, he wrote the prose narrative
_Peter Schlemihl_, the man who sold his shadow. This, the most famous of
all his works, has been translated into most European languages (English
by W. Howitt). It was written partly to divert his own thoughts and
partly to amuse the children of his friend Hitzig. In 1815 Chamisso was
appointed botanist to the Russian ship "Rurik," which Otto von Kotzebue
(son of August von Kotzebue) commanded on a scientific voyage round the
world. His diary of the expedition (_Tagebuch_, 1821) affords some
interesting glimpses of England and English life. On his return in 1818
he was made custodian of the botanical gardens in Berlin, and was
elected a member of the Academy of Sciences, and in 1820 he married.
Chamisso's travels and scientific researches restrained for a while the
full development of his poetical talent, and it was not until his
forty-eighth year that he turned again to literature. In 1829, in
collaboration with Gustav Schwab, and from 1832 in conjunction with
Franz von Gaudy, he brought out the _Deutsche Musenalmanach_, in which
his later poems were mainly published. He died on the 21st of August
1838.
As a scientist Chamisso has not left much mark, although his
_Bemerkungen und Ansichten_, published in an incomplete form in O. von
Kotzebue's _Entdeckungsreise_ (Weimar, 1821) and more completely in
Chamisso's _Gesammelte Werke_ (1836), and the botanical work, _Ubersicht
der nutzbarsten und schadlichsten Gewachse in Norddeutschland_ (1829)
are esteemed for their careful treatment of the subjects with which they
deal. As a poet Chamisso's reputation stands high, _Frauen Liebe und
Leben_ (1830), a cycle of lyrical poems, which was set to music by
Schumann, being particularly famous. Noteworthy are also _Schloss
Boncourt_ and _Salas y Gomez_. In estimating his success as a writer, it
should not be forgotten that he was cut off from his native speech and
from his natural current of thought and feeling. He often deals with
gloomy and sometimes with ghastly and repulsive subjects; and even in
his lighter and gayer productions there is an undertone of sadness or of
satire. In the lyrical expression of the domestic emotions he displays a
fine felicity, and he knew how to treat with true feeling a tale of love
or vengeance. _Die Lowenbraut_ may be taken as a sample of his weird and
powerful simplicity; and _Vergeltung_ is remarkable for a pitiless
precision of treatment.
The first collected edition of Chamisso's works was edited by J.E.
Hitzig, 6 vols. (1836); 6th edition (1874); there are also excellent
editions by M. Koch (1883) and O.F. Walzel (1892). On Chamisso's life
see J.E. Hitzig, "Leben und Briefe von Adelbert yon Chamisso" (in the
_Gesammelte Werke_); K. Fulda, _Chamisso und seine Zeit_ (1881); G.
Hofmeister, _Adelbert von Chamisso_ (1884); and, for the scientific
side of Chamisso's life, E. du Bois-Raymond, _Adelbert von Chamisso
als Naturforscher_ (1889).
CHAMKANNI, a small Pathan tribe on the Kohat border of the North-West
Province of India. They inhabit the western part of the Kurmana Valley
in the Orakzai portion of Tirah, but are supposed to be a distinct race.
They took part in the frontier risings of 1897, and during the Tirah
expedition of that year a brigade under General Gaselee was sent to
punish them.
CHAMOIS, the Franco-Swiss name of an Alpine ruminant known in the German
cantons as _Gemse_, and to naturalists as _Rupicapra tragus_ or _R.
rupicapra tragus_. It is the only species of its genus, and typifies a
subfamily, _Rupicaprinae_, of hollow-horned ruminants in some degree
intermediate between antelopes and goats (see ANTELOPE). About equal in
height to a roebuck, and with a short black tail, the chamois is readily
distinguishable from all other ruminants by its vertical,
backwardly-hooked, black horns, which are common to males and females,
although smaller in the latter. Apart from black and white
face-markings, and the black tail and dorsal stripe, the prevailing
colour of the Alpine chamois is chestnut brown in summer, but lighter
and greyer in winter. In the Pyrenees the species is represented by a
small race locally known as the izard; a very brightly-coloured form,
_R.t. picta_, inhabits the Apennines; the Carpathian chamois is very
dark-coloured, and the one from the Caucasus is the representative of
yet another race. A thick under-fur is developed in the winter-coat, as
in all other ruminants dwelling at high altitudes. Chamois are
gregarious, living in herds of 15 or 20, and feeding generally in the
morning or evening. The old males, however, live alone except in the
rutting season, which occurs in October, when they join the herds,
driving off the younger bucks, and engaging in fierce contests with each
other, that often end fatally for one at least of the combatants. The
period of gestation is twenty weeks, when the female, beneath the
shelter generally of a projecting rock, produces one and sometimes two
young. In summer they ascend to the limits of perpetual snow, being only
exceeded in the loftiness of their haunts by the ibex; and during that
season they show their intolerance of heat by choosing such
browsing-grounds as have a northern exposure. In winter they descend to
the wooded districts that immediately succeed the region of glaciers,
and it is there only they can be successfully hunted. Chamois are
exceedingly shy; and their senses, especially those of sight and smell,
very acute. The herd never feeds without having a sentinel posted on
some prominence to give notice of the approach of danger; which is done
by stamping on the ground with the forefeet, and uttering a shrill
whistling note, thus putting the entire herd on the alert. No sooner is
the object of alarm scented or seen than each one seeks safety in the
most inaccessible situations, which are often reached by a series of
astounding leaps over crevasses, up the faces of seemingly perpendicular
rocks, or down the sides of equally precipitous chasms. The chamois will
not hesitate, it is said, thus to leap down 20 or even 30 ft., and this
it effects with apparent ease by throwing itself forward diagonally and
striking its feet several times in its descent against the face of the
rock. Chamois-shooting is most successfully pursued when a number of
hunters form a circle round a favourite feeding ground, which they
gradually narrow; the animals, scenting the hunters to windward, fly in
the opposite direction, only to encounter those coming from leeward.
Chamois-hunting, in spite of, or perhaps owing to the great danger
attending it, has always been a favourite pursuit among the hardy
mountaineers of Switzerland and Tirol, as well as of the amateur
sportsmen of all countries, with the result that the animal is now
comparatively rare in many districts where it was formerly common.
Chamois feed in summer on mountain-herbs and flowers, and in winter
chiefly on the young shoots and buds of fir and pine trees. They are
particularly fond of salt, and in the Alps sandstone rocks containing a
saline impregnation are often met with hollowed by the constant licking
of these creatures. The skin of the chamois is very soft; made into
leather it was the original _shammy_, which is now made, however, from
the skins of many other animals. The flesh is prized as venison.
(R. L.*)
CHAMOMILE, or Camomile Flowers, the _flores anthemidis_ of the British
Pharmacopoeia, the flower-heads of _Anthemis nobilis_ (Nat. Ord.
_Compositae_), a herb indigenous to England and western Europe. It is
cultivated for medicinal purposes in Surrey, at several places in
Saxony, and in France and Belgium,--that grown in England being much
more valuable than any of the foreign chamomiles brought into the
market. In the wild plant the florets of the ray are ligulate and white,
and contain pistils only, those of the disk being tubular and yellow;
but under cultivation the whole of the florets tend to become ligulate
and white, in which state the flower-heads are said to be double. The
flower-heads have a warm aromatic odour, which is characteristic of the
entire plant, and a very bitter taste. In addition to a bitter
extractive principle, they yield about 2% of a volatile liquid, which on
its first extraction is of a pale blue colour, but becomes a yellowish
brown on exposure to light. It has the characteristic odour of the
flowers, and consists of a mixture of butyl and amyl angelates and
valerates. Angelate of potassium has been obtained by treatment of the
oil with caustic potash, and angelic acid may be isolated from this by
treatment with dilute sulphuric acid. Chamomile is used in medicine in
the form of its volatile oil, of which the dose is 1/2-3 minims. There
is an official extract which is never used. Like all volatile oils the
drug is a stomachic and carminative. In large doses the infusion is a
simple emetic.
Wild chamomile is _Matricaria Chamomilla_, a weed common in waste and
cultivated ground especially in the southern counties of England. It has
somewhat the appearance of true chamomile, but a fainter scent.
CHAMONIX, a mountain valley in south-east France, its chief village, of
the same name, being the capital of a canton of the arrondissement of
Bonneville in the department of Haute-Savoie. The valley runs from N.E.
to S.W., and is watered by the Arve, which rises in the Mer de Glace. On
the S.E. towers the snowclad chain of Mont Blanc, and on the N.W. the
less lofty, but rugged chain of the Brevent and of the Aiguilles Rouges.
Near the head of the valley is the village of Argentiere (4101 ft.),
which is connected with Switzerland by "char" (light carriage) roads
over the Tete Noire and past Salvan, and by a mule path over the Col de
Balme, which joins the Tete Noire route near Trient and then crosses by
a "char" road the Col de la Forclaz to Martigny in the Rhone valley. The
principal village, Chamonix (3416 ft.), is 6 m. below Argentiere by
electric railway (which continues via Finhaut to Martigny) and is
visited annually by a host of tourists, as it is the best starting-point
for the exploration of the glaciers of the Mont Blanc chain, as well as
for the ascent of Mont Blanc itself. It is connected with Geneva by a
railway (55 m.). In 1906 the population of the village was 806, of the
commune 3482.
The valley is first heard of about 1091, when it was granted by the
count of the Genevois to the great Benedictine house of St Michel de la
Cluse, near Turin, which by the early 13th century established a priory
therein. But in 1786 the inhabitants bought their freedom from the
canons of Sallanches, to whom the priory had been transferred in 1519.
In 1530 the inhabitants obtained from the count of the Genevois the
privilege of holding two fairs a year, while the valley was often
visited by the civil officials and by the bishops of Geneva (first
recorded visit in 1411, while St Francis de Sales came thither in 1606).
But travellers for pleasure were long rare. The first party to publish
(1744) an account of their visit was that of Dr R. Pococke, Mr W.
Windham and other Englishmen who visited the Mer de Glace in 1741. In
1742 came P. Martel and several other Genevese, in 1760 H.B. de
Saussure, and rather later Bourrit.
See J.A. Bonnefoy and A. Perrin, _Le Prieure de Chamonix_ (2 vols.,
Chambery, 1879 and 1883); A. Perrin, _Histoire de la vallee et du
prieure de Chamonix_ (Chambery, 1887); L. Kurz and X. Imfeld, _Carte
de la chaine du Mont Blanc_ (1896; new ed., 1905); L. Kurz, _Climbers'
Guide to the Chain of Mont Blanc_ (London, 1892); also works referred
to under BLANC, MONT. (W. A. B. C.)
CHAMPAGNE, an ancient province of the kingdom of France, bounded N. by
Liege and Luxemburg; E. by Lorraine; S. by Burgundy; and W. by Picardy
and Isle de France. It now forms the departments of Ardennes, Marne,
Aube and Haute Marne, with part of Aisne, Seine-et-Marne, Yonne and
Meuse. Its name--in Latin Campania, "country of plains"--is derived from
the immense plains near Reims, Chalons and Troyes. It was constituted
towards the end of the middle ages by joining to the countship of
Champagne the ecclesiastical duchies of Reims and Langres, together with
the ecclesiastical countship of Chalons. Documents of the 12th and 13th
centuries make it possible to determine the territorial configuration of
the countship of Champagne with greater accuracy than in the case of any
other fief of the crown of France. Formed at random by the acquisitions
of the counts of the houses of Vermandois and Blois, Champagne reckoned
among its dependencies, from 1152 to 1234, the countship of Blois and
Chartres, of which Touraine was a fief, the countship of Sancerre, and
various scattered fiefs in the Bourbonnais and in Burgundy. Officially
called the "countship of Champagne and Brie" since 1217, this state was
formed by the union of the countships of Troyes and Meaux, to which the
greater part of the districts embraced in the country known, since the
beginning of the middle ages, by the name of Champagne and Brie came in
course of time to be attached. Placed under the authority of a single
count in 960, the countships of Troyes and Meaux were not again
separated after 1125. For the counts of Troyes before the 11th century
see TROYES. We confine ourselves here to the counts of Champagne of the
house of Blois.
About 1020 Eudes or Odo I. (Odo II., count of Blois) became count of
Champagne. He disputed the kingdom of Burgundy with the emperor Conrad,
and died in 1037, in a battle near Bar-le-Duc. In 1037 he was succeeded
by his younger son, Stephen II. About 1050 Odo II., son of Stephen II.,
became count. This prince, guilty of murder, found refuge in Normandy,
where he received the castle of Aumale. He took part in 1066 in the
conquest of England, and became earl of Holderness. About 1063 Theobald
(Thibaud) I., count of Blois and Meaux, eldest son of Odo I., became
count of Champagne. In 1077 he seized the countships of Vitry and
Bar-sur-Aube, left vacant by Simon of Valois, who had retired to a
monastery. In 1089 Odo III., second son of Theobald II., became count,
and was succeeded about 1093 by his younger brother, Hugh, who became a
templar in 1125, and gave up the countship to his suzerain, the count of
Blois. In 1125 the countship of Champagne passed to Theobald II. the
Great, already count of Blois and Meaux, and one of the most powerful
French barons of his time. He was related to the royal house of England,
and incurred the displeasure of the king of France, who in 1142 invaded
Champagne and burnt the town of Vitry. After Theobald the Great the
countship of Blois ceased to be the dominant fief of his house and
became the appanage of a younger branch. In 1152 Henry the Liberal,
eldest son of Theobald II., became count of Champagne; he married Mary,
daughter of Louis VII. of France, and went to the crusade in 1178. He
was taken prisoner by the Turks, recovered his liberty through the good
offices of the emperor of the East, and died a few days after his return
to Champagne. In 1181 his eldest son, Henry II., succeeded him under the
tutelage of Mary of France. In 1190 he went to the Holy Land, and became
king of Jerusalem in 1192 by his marriage with Isabelle, widow of the
marquis of Montferrat. He died in 1197 in his town of Acre from the
results of an accident. In 1197 Theobald III., younger son of Henry I.,
became count, and was succeeded in 1201 by Theobald IV., "le
Chansonnier" (the singer), who was the son of Theobald III. and Blanche
of Navarre, and was born some days after the death of his father. From
1201 to 1222 he remained under the tutelage of his mother, who governed
Champagne with great sagacity. The reign of this prince was singularly
eventful. The two daughters of count Henry II. successively claimed the
countship, so that Theobald had to combat the claims of Philippa, wife
of Erard of Brienne, seigneur of Rameru, from 1216 to 1222, and those of
Alix, queen dowager of Cyprus, in 1233 and 1234. In 1226 he followed
king Louis VII. to the siege of Avignon, and after the death of that
monarch played a prominent part during the reign of St Louis. At first
leagued with the malcontent barons, he allowed himself to be gained over
by the queen-mother, and thus came into collision with his old allies.
He became king of Navarre in 1234 by the death of his maternal uncle,
Sancho VII. but by the onerous treaty which he concluded in that year
with the queen of Cyprus he was compelled to cede to the king, in return
for a large sum of money, the overlordship of the countships of Blois,
Chartres and Sancerre, and the viscounty of Chateaudun. In 1239 and 1240
he took part in an expedition to the Holy Land, probably accompanied St
Louis in 1242 in the campaign of Saintonge against the English, and died
on the 14th of July 1254 at Pampeluna. If the author of the _Grandes
chroniques de France_ can be believed, Theobald IV. conceived a passion
for Queen Blanche, the mother of St Louis,--a passion which she
returned, and which explains the changes in his policy; but this opinion
apparently must be relegated to the category of historical fables. The
witty and courtly songs he composed place him in the front rank of the
poets of that class, in which he showed somewhat more originality than
his rivals. In 1254 Theobald V. the Young, eldest son of Theobald IV.
and, like his father, king of Navarre, became count of Champagne. He
married Isabelle of France, daughter of St Louis, and followed his
father-in-law to Tunis to the crusade, dying on his return. In 1270 he
was succeeded by Henry III. the Fat, king of Navarre. Henry was
succeeded in 1274 by his only daughter, Joan of Navarre, under the
tutelage of her mother, Blanche of Artois, and afterwards of Edmund,
earl of Lancaster, her mother's second husband. In 1284 she married the
heir-presumptive to the throne of France, Philip the Fair, to whom she
brought the countship of Champagne as well as the kingdom of Navarre.
She became queen of France in 1285, and died on the 4th of April 1305,
when her eldest son by King Philip, Louis Hutin, became count of
Champagne. He was the last independent count of the province, which
became attached to the French crown on his accession to the throne of
France in 1314.
The celebrated fairs of Champagne, which flourished in the 12th and 13th
centuries, were attended by merchants from all parts of civilized
Europe. They were six in number: two at Troyes, two at Provins, one at
Lagny-sur-Marne, and one at Bar-sur-Aube. They formed a kind of
continuous market, divided into six periods, and passed in turn from
Lagny to Bar, from Bar to Provins, from Provins to Troyes, from Troyes
to Provins and from Provins to Troyes, to complete the year. It was, in
fact, a perpetual fair, which had at once unity and variety, offering to
the different parts of the countship the means of selling successively
the special productions of their soil or their industry, and of
procuring in exchange riches and comforts. These fairs had special
legislation; and special magistrates, called "masters of the fairs," had
control of the police.
For the wine "champagne" see WINE.
AUTHORITIES.--H. d'Arbois de Jubainville, _Histoire des ducs et des
comtes de Champagne_ (1859-1866); A. Longnon, _Documents relatifs au
comte de Champagne et de Brie_ (1901 seq.; vol. i. with map); F.
Bourquelot, _Etudes sur les foires de Champagne_ (1865). (A. Lo.)
CHAMPAGNY, JEAN BAPTISTE NOMPERE DE (1756-1834), French politician, was
born at Roanne, and entered the navy in 1774. He fought through the war
in America and resigned in 1787. Elected deputy by the _noblesse_ of
Forex to the states-general in 1789, he went over to the third estate on
the 21st of June and collaborated in the work of the Constituent
Assembly, especially occupying himself with the reorganization of the
navy. A political career seems to have attracted him little; he remained
in private life from 1791 to 1799, when Napoleon named him member of the
council of state. From July 1801 to August 1804 he was ambassador of
France at Vienna, and directed with great intelligence the incessant
negotiations between the two courts. In August 1804 Napoleon made him
minister of the interior, and in this position, which he held for three
years, he proved an administrator of the first order. In addition to the
ordinary charges of his office, he had to direct the recruitment of the
army, organize the industrial exhibition of 1808, and to complete the
public works undertaken in Paris and throughout France. He was devoted
to Napoleon, on whom he lavished adulation in his speeches. In August
1807 the emperor chose him to succeed Talleyrand as minister for
foreign affairs. He directed the annexation of the Papal States in April
1808, worked to secure the abdication of Charles IV. of Spain in May
1808, negotiated the peace of Vienna (1809) and the marriage of
Napoleon. In April 1811 a quarrel with the emperor led to his
retirement, and he obtained the sinecure office of intendant general of
the crown. In 1814, after the abdication, the empress sent him on a
fruitless mission to the emperor of Austria. Then he went over to the
Bourbons. During the Hundred Days he again joined Napoleon. This led to
his exclusion by Louis XVIII., but in 1819 he recovered his dignity of
peer. He died in Paris in 1834. He had three sons who became men of
distinction. Francois (1804-1882) was a well-known author, who was made
a member of the French Academy in 1869. His great work was a history of
the Roman empire, in three parts, (1) _Les Cesars_ (1841-1843, 4 vols.),
(2) _Les Antonins_ (1863, 3 vols.), (3) _Les Cesars du IIIe siecle_
(1870, 3 vols.). Napoleon (1806-1872) published a _Traite de la police
municipale_ in 4 volumes (1844-1861), and was a deputy in the Corps
Legislatif from 1852 to 1870. Jerome Paul (1809-1886) was also deputy in
the Corps Legislatif from 1853 to 1870, and was made honorary
chamberlain in 1859. He worked at the official publication of the
correspondence of Napoleon I.
CHAMPAIGN, a city of Champaign county, Illinois, U.S.A., about 125 m. S.
by W. of Chicago, on the head-waters of the Vermilion river. Pop. (1890)
5839; (1900) 9098, of whom 973 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 12,421.
It is served by the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis, the
Wabash, and the Illinois Central railways (the last having repair shops
here), and by the Illinois (electric) Traction System from Danville,
Illinois, to St Louis, Missouri. In 1906 the city covered 3.5 sq. m.; it
is situated in a rich agricultural region, and has small manufacturing
interests. Immediately east of Champaign is the city of Urbana, the
county-seat of Champaign county, served by the Wabash and the Cleveland,
Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis railways, with repair shops of the
latter. In 1890 the population of Urbana was 3511; in 1900, 5728 (300
foreign-born); in 1910, 8245. Partly in Urbana and partly in Champaign
is the University of Illinois (see ILLINOIS); immediately south of its
campus is the 400-acre farm of the university. Each city has a public
library, and in Champaign are the Burnham Athenaeum, the Burnham
hospital, the Garwood home for old ladies, and several parks, all gifts
of former citizens. Champaign was founded in 1855, incorporated as a
city in 1860, and re-chartered in 1883. Urbana secured a city charter in
1855.
CHAMPAIGNE, PHILIPPE DE (1602-1674), Belgian painter of the French
school, was born at Brussels of a poor family. He was a pupil of J.
Fouquieres; and, going to Paris in 1621, was employed by N. Du Chesne to
paint along with Nicholas Poussin in the palace of the Luxembourg. His
best works are to be found at Vincennes, and in the church of the
Carmelites at Paris, where is his celebrated Crucifix, a signal
perspective success, on one of the vaultings. After the death of Du
Chesne, Philippe became first painter to the queen of France, and
ultimately rector of the Academy of Paris. As his age advanced and his
health failed, he retired to Port Royal, where he had a daughter
cloistered as a nun, of whom (along with Catherine Agnes Arnauld) he
painted a celebrated picture, now in the Louvre, highly remarkable for
its solid unaffected truth. This, indeed, is the general character of
his work,--grave reality, without special elevation or depth of
character, or charm of warm or stately colour. He produced an immense
number of paintings, religious and other subjects as well as portraits,
dispersed over various parts of France, and now over the galleries of
Europe. Philippe was a good man, indefatigable, earnest and scrupulously
religious. He died on the 12th of August 1674.
CHAMPARAN, or CHUMPARUN, a district of British India, in the Patna
division of Bengal, occupying the north-west corner of Behar, between
the two rivers Gandak and Baghmati and the Nepal hills. It has an area
of 3531 sq. m. In 1901 the population was 1,790,463, showing a decrease
of 4% in the decade. A broad grass-covered road or embankment defines
the Nepal frontier, except where rivers or streams form a natural
boundary. The district is a vast level except in the N. and N.W., where
it undulates, and gradually assumes a rugged appearance as it approaches
the mountains and forests of Nepal. Wide uncultivated tracts cover its
north-western corner; the southern and western parts are carefully
cultivated, and teem with an active agricultural population. The
principal rivers are the Gandak, navigable all the year round, the Buri
Gandak, Panch Nadi, Lalbagia, Koja and Teur. Old beds of rivers
intersect Champaran in every direction, and one of these forms a chain
of lakes which occupy an area of 139 sq. m. in the centre of the
district. Champaran, with the rest of Bengal and Behar, was acquired by
the British in 1765. Up to 1866 it remained a subdivision of Saran. In
that year it was separated and formed into a separate district. The
administrative headquarters are at Motihari (population, 13,730); Bettia
is the centre of a very large estate; Segauli, still a small military
station, was the scene of a massacre during the Mutiny. Champaran was
the chief seat of indigo planting in Behar before the decline of that
industry. There are about 40 saltpetre refineries. The district suffered
severely from drought in 1866 and 1874, and again in 1897. In the last
year a small government canal was opened, and a canal from the Gandak
has also been constructed. The district is traversed almost throughout
its length to Bettia by the Tirhoot state railway. A considerable trade
is conducted with Nepal.