as the "Astronomical Discourses," he vindicated for the christian revelation its place of high and magnificent enthronement. Then again, he knew right well that in a commercial capital the gospel's great opponent was not any scientific doubt or intellectual difficulty, so much as actual earthly-mindedness; and leaving it to others to adjust theological niceties, he dealt open war with the love of pelf, the pride of purse, the tricks of trade, the gambling, the swindling, and the hardness of feeling which are apt to beset men hastening to be rich; and to such frank and faithful exhortations as abound in the "Commercial Discourses" may be ascribed not a little of the public spirit and princely munificence which, amidst many mortifying exceptions, still make "Glasgow flourish."
Such sermons, however, and such toils were self-consuming. Accordingly, when the chair of moral philosophy in his own alma mater, St. Andrews, was offered to him in 1823 he accepted it as an asylum opportune and welcome. His fame secured a crowded classroom, and from his high-souled religious grandeur, as much as from his ethical expositions, a multitude of ardent disciples carried away the impulses which are not yet exhausted, and the lessons for which the world is the better still. Here, too, he was enabled to revise and mature those opinions on social science, of which the ripe results were afterwards (1832) given to the world in his volume "On Political Economy." According to the testimony of Mr. John Stuart Mill and other competent judges, this work, characterized by free and independent thought, has thrown much new light on the perplexed but urgent questions of which it treats; and the great principle by which it is pervaded, viz., the need of moral worth in order to a nation's material well-being, is every day forcing itself on our legislators and statesmen more and more. It may be questioned, however, whether the originality and value of his speculations on social and economical topics have been sufficiently recognized in his own country. Doubtless, it was chiefly to these that he was indebted for a high distinction conferred on him in 1834, when he was elected a corresponding member of the Institute of France.
In 1828 he was translated to the professorship of divinity in the university of Edinburgh. This appointment not only gave him opportunity to expatiate on those broad and comprehensive features of the christian faith for which his own soul had an intense affinity; but it enabled him to inculcate with eager minuteness those views of parochial administration with which as a christian patriot he believed that the well-being of his country was identified. Nor was he content with academic demonstrations. Convinced that the thousand parish churches, supplemented by some hundreds of seceding chapels, did not provide for the population a sufficiency of instruction and superintendence, he committed himself to a herculean undertaking; and, through the prestige of his name and the powerful appeals with which he passed from town to town and from village to village during the campaigns of successive summers, contributions were obtained for the erection of nearly two hundred places of worship. But before this movement was completed a contest had arisen between the civil and ecclesiastical tribunals of the country, which, on the 18th of May, 1843, ended in the disruption of the church of Scotland. At the head of the maintainers of spiritual independence was Dr. Chalmers; and he was borne by acclamation into the moderatorship or presidency of the first Free Church Assembly. He had now passed the grand climacteric, and with so many of his favourite projects for ever frustrated, and with his new churches left behind him, it would have been no wonder if his spirit had soured or his heart had broken; but though disappointed, he was not dismayed. Cheered by the self-sacrifice of four hundred and seventy ministerial brethren, and by the munificence which evolved like magic over all the land in a still larger number of new churches, he set to work and organized that mutual sustentation fund which invites the stronger congregations to support the weak, and which seeks to give a palpable expression to presbyterian parity. Called to the principalship of the Free Church college, and surrounded by the love and reverence of his brethren, he passed his few remaining years in thankfulness and hope, and abounding in labours to the last. That last came abruptly; his sun went down when no one thought that it was setting, and the pang which the sudden tidings sent through the nation's heart proclaimed that, like Knox, and Burns, and Scott, all Scotland was proud of Thomas Chalmers.
Before his death he had edited his own works in a collective series, extending to twenty-five foolscap volumes. Of these, to thoughtful readers, the most abidingly valuable are likely to be his work on the Christian Evidences, and his Bridgewater Treatise. Since his death nine additional octavos have appeared, five of them being observations on passages of scripture, unspeakably interesting and valuable as the free and off-hand expression of a piety so genuine and of an intelligence so superior. Known to his contemporaries chiefly as a pulpit orator, or as the champion of some great principle in church courts. Dr. Chalmers will go down to posterity as the most inventive and influential of christian philanthropists. Familiar as they have now become, his schemes of beneficence were once so novel that few did not deem them visionary. Territorial missions and volunteer agencies for raising the helpless and reforming the vicious, were so little dreamed of in the days of our fathers, that we who see them carried out in reformatories and ragged schools and city missions, can hardly conceive how transcendental and impracticable they once appeared. But happily their first propounder was no mere poet; as soon as the plan was clear before him, he was impatient to put forth his hand and commence the great experiment. And he was happy in finding or creating coadjutors. Like all men of overmastering energy—like all men of clear conception and valiant purpose—like Nelson and Napoleon, and others born to be commanders—over and above the assurance achieved by success, there was a spell in his audacity, a fascination in his sanguine chivalry. Many were drawn after him, carried irresistibly along by his fervid spirit and his force of character; and though at first some felt that it needed faith to follow, like the great genius of modern warfare, experience showed that, for moral as well as military conquests, there may be the truest wisdom in dazzling projects and rapid movements and unprecedented daring. At the same time it must be remembered that it was owing to the width of his field, the extent of his future, and the greatness of his faith, that the most venturesome of philanthropists has proved the most victorious. The width of his field—for, whilst operating on St. John's he had an eye to Scotland; in seeking an optimism for his own church or country, he had an eye to Christendom. The extent of his future—for it is only by overtopping his coevals that a man can be the vaticination of some age to come, and Chalmers was the giant who struggled evermore to speed his generation onward, and bring it abreast of that wiser kinder epoch of which he himself was the precocious denizen. The greatness of his faith—for it was his belief that whatsoever things are scriptural are politic. Whatsoever is in the bible, he believed shall yet be in the world. And he believed that nothing is too great to hope for which Divine goodness has promised, and that nothing is impossible which God has asked his church to perform.—(See Memoirs of Dr. Chalmers, an ample and delightful biography by his son-in-law. Dr. Hanna; North British Review, vol. vii.)—J. H.
CHALON, John James, R.A., was born of Swiss parents in this country about the year 1785; he was the elder brother of Alfred Edward Chalon, the royal academician. John Chalon painted figures, animals, landscapes, and marine pieces, but is best known as a genre painter. His pictures are painted with great skill and much humour; his taste is shown in some "Sketches of Parisian Manners," which he published in 1820. Of his landscapes the "Castle of Chillon" is spoken of as a noble work. Chalon was a member of the Sketching Society from its commencement, and he displayed remarkable skill in some of the sketches he produced at the evening meetings of that society. He was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1827, together with Sir Charles Eastlake, but he did not attain to the full honours of membership until 1840. He died on the 14th of November, 1854.—R. N. W.
CHALONER: the name of a family distinguished in politics and literature in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Sir Thomas, the elder, was born in London about 1515. After distinguishing himself at Cambridge, he was received at the court of Henry VIII., and sent on an embassy to Charles V., whom he followed in the fatal expedition against Algiers. On his return to England he was appointed first clerk of the council. During the reigns of Edward and Mary, his fortunes were somewhat variable, but when Elizabeth came to the throne he rose into high favour, and was the first ambassador appointed by the queen. His was sent to Ferdinand I., and was eminently successful in his mission. He was next despatched to the court of Spain in 1561, where he remained till 1564. During his
