and determines disputes between masters and apprentices.
He is elected annually by the liverymen.CHAMBERS, Ephraim, an English author, was born at Kendal, Westmoreland, in the latter part of the 17th century. He was apprenticed to a globe-maker, but having conceived the plan of his Cyclopaedia, he left this business, and devoted himself entirely to writing. The first edition of the Cyclopaedia, which was the result of many years intense application, appeared by subscription in 1728, in two vols. fol. It was dedicated to the king, and procured for Mr Chambers the honour of being elected fellow of the Royal Society. In less than ten years a second edition was printed, with corrections and additions (in 1738) ; and this was followed by a third a year later. In addition to the Cyclopaedia, Mr Chambers wrote for the Literary Magazine, and translated the History and Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris (1742), and the Jesuits Perspective. He died in 1740.
CHAMBERS, George (1803-1840), a marine painter, born at Whitby, Yorkshire, was the son of a seaman, and for several years he pursued his father s calling. While at sea he was in the habit of sketching the different classes of vessels. His master, observing this, gratified him by cancelling his indentures, and thus set him free to follow his natural bent. Chambers then apprenticed himself to an old woman who kept a painter s shop in Whitby, and began by house-painting. He also took lessons of a drawing-master, and found a ready sale for small and cheap pictures of shipping. Coming after wards to London, he was employed by Thomas Homer to assist in painting the great panorama of London for the Colosseum (the exhibition building in the Regent s Park, recently demolished), and he next became scene- painter at the Pavilion Theatre. In 1834 he was elected an associate, and in 1836 a full member, of the Water- colour Society. His best works represent naval battles. Two of these the Bombardment of Algiers in 183G, and the Capture of Porto Bello are in Greenwich Hospital. Not long before his death he was introduced to William IV., and his professional prospects brightened ; but his constitution, always frail, gave way, and brought him to an early grave. He died on the 28th October 1840. A Life of him, by John Watkins, was published in 1841.
CHAMBERS, Robert (1802-1871-), author and pub lisher, distinguished especially for his services to popular literature, was born at Peebles on the 10th July 1802. His parents were of the middle class, but owing to the father s misfortunes in business the family were reduced to poverty, and had to leave Peebles for Edinburgh while Robert was still young. He had before that received Buch an education as the parish and grammar schools of his native place afforded, and had shown himself possessed of unusual literary taste and ability. A small circulating library in the town, and a copy of the first edition of the Encydopcedia Britannica which his father had purchased, furnished him with stores of reading of which he eagerly availed himself. Long afterwards he wrote of his early years " Books, not playthings, filled my hands in child hood. At twelve I was deep, not only in poetry and fiction, but in encyclopaedias."
In Edinburgh the family had a somewhat hard struggle with their straitened circumstances. Robert had been destined by a sort of tacit understanding for the church, and was placed for a time at a classical school with a view to his being sent to the university. This design had, however, to be abandoned. After enduring many hard ships, and making two unsuccessful attempts to fill situa tions in mercantile houses in Leith, he commenced business on his own account as a bookstall-keeper in Leith Walk, on the advice of his elder brother and future partner, William. He was then only sixteen, and his whole stock consisted of a few old books belonging to his father. By slow degrees the stock was increased and the business extended. A similar but distinct concern was carried on during the same period with like success by William, and after a number of years the two brothers were united as partners in the now well-known publishing firm of W. and 11. Chambers.
From the commencement of his residence in Edinburgh, Robert Chambers had shown an enthusiastic interest in the history and antiquities of the city. In frequent rambles every feature of its ancient buildings grew familiar to him, and his mind became a storehouse for all sorts of informa tion connected with its famous persons and places. He thus found a most congenial task in the publication of the Traditions of Edinburgh (1823-4), which, though not his first work, was the first which brought him into general notice. It secured for him the approval, and what he doubtless valued even more highly, the personal friendship of Sir Walter Scott, then in the zenith of his fame. Other works on kindred subjects followed in rapid succession, the most popular and important being a History of the Rebellion of 1745. He also wrote from time to time a number of short poetical pieces of very considerable merit, which were afterwards collected and printed for private circulation (1835). For a year or two he acted as editor of the Edinburgh Advertiser, a Tory newspaper of old standing, which has now ceased to appear. With commendable and characteristic prudence the bookselling business was diligently prosecuted in the midst of these numerous literary engagements, so that his life at this period was one of ceaseless activity.
In the beginning of 1832 his brother William, after con sultation with him, started a weekly publication under the title of Chambers s Journal, which speedily attained an immense circulation, and still holds a leading place in the cheap popular periodical literature of which it was the pioneer. Robert s connection with it was at first only that of a contributor. After fourteen numbers had appeared, however, he became associated with his brother as joint- editor, and from that period he wrote for it nearly all the leading articles, which took the form of essays moral, familiar, and humorous. Written in an easy, graceful style, entirely free from any affectation of condescension, always interesting, and carefully avoiding the debateable ground of religion and politics, they contributed more perhaps than anything else to the remarkable success of the Journal. A number of them were republished in 1847 in the author s Select Writings, and are thought to be on the whole the best specimens of his original work. Of the same character as his work for the Journal were his numerous contributions to the Information for the People and the Miscellany of Useful and Entertaining Tracts published by his firm.
part the author, the Cydopcedia of English Literature, the Life and Writings of Burns, Ancient Sea Margins, the Domestic Annals of Scotland, and the Book of Days were the most important. The Cydopcedia of English Literature contained a series of admirably selected extracts from the best authors of every period, " set in a biographical and critical history of the literature itself." The biographies were gracefully written, and the critical estimates, though brief, were just and comprehensive. For the Life of Burns he made diligent and laborious original investigations, gathering many hitherto unrecorded facts from the surviv ing acquaintances of the poet, and especially from his sister, Mrs Begg, to whose benefit the whole profits of the work were generously devoted. The poems are interwoven
into the narrative in their proper chronological order, and
