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  was established in 1766, and lasted unimpaired until he left for India. In the ideal university of St. Andrews which Johnson and Boswell founded in their imagination, the chair of English law was assigned to Chambers, and when he sailed to his new country he carried with him a warm letter of introduction from the doctor to Warren Hastings. Sir Philip Francis was long on friendly terms with him, and stood godfather to his son in November 1779; but in Sir Philip's diary, under the date of February 1780, are some severe reflections on Chambers. This temporary difference was soon composed, and on the return of Francis to London he wrote to Chambers a complimentary letter, although he condemned the other members of the supreme court. More letters followed, and in one of them Francis heartily congratulated his friend on his appointment as chief justice. In the much-debated question of the trial of Nuncomar the conduct of Chambers was marked by deplorable weakness. Fox said that Chambers ‘had acted very weakly,’ and Sir Gilbert Elliot spoke of his ‘mild and flexible character;’ but Francis endeavoured to sever his friend from the other judges on the ground that Chambers wished the trial to proceed under a statute of Queen Elizabeth, which did not visit forgery with the penalty of death. ‘A Treatise on Estates and Tenures, by the late Sir Robert Chambers,’ was edited by his nephew, Sir Charles Harcourt Chambers, in 1824, with the statement that it formed part of Sir Robert's Vinerian lectures, and that he had purposed to write, had his health permitted, a commentary on the common law. In 1834 W. H. Smoult, another kinsman, issued ‘A Collection of Orders by the Supreme Court of Judicature at Bengal on the Plea Side of the Court, 1774–1813, with notes from the note-books of Sir Robert Chambers and Mr. Justice Hyde,’ and in 1838 there was privately printed a ‘Catalogue of the Sanskrit Manuscripts collected during his residence in India by the late Sir Robert Chambers. With a brief memoir by Lady Chambers.’ The judge was throughout his life fond of books, and possessed a large library, especially rich in oriental works. His collection of Sanskrit manuscripts was purchased for the Royal Library at Berlin. His nephew, Sir Charles Harcourt Chambers, was a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; he graduated B.A. 1809, M.A. 1814; was appointed judge in Bombay 1823, and died there 13 Oct. 1829 (Gent. Mag. for 1829, i. 566).



CHAMBERS, ROBERT (1802–1871), Edinburgh publisher, author of ‘Vestiges of Creation,’ was born in Peebles 10 July 1802, of a family long settled in that town. His father was connected with the cotton trade. His mother, Jean Gibson, was also a native of Peebles. He has left some graphic pictures, drawn from his own recollection, of the state of a small Scottish burgh in the early years of the century, where nightly readings of Josephus excited the keenest interest and ‘the battle of Corunna and other prevailing news was strangely mingled with disquisitions on the Jewish wars.’ Here at the burgh and grammar schools of the place he got for a few shillings a quarter's instruction in Latin and the ordinary elements of an English education, as then understood. A slight lameness (due to a badly performed surgical operation, but cured in after life by skilful treatment) increased his inclination to study. His father had a copy of the fourth edition of the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica’ in a chest in the attic. Robert unearthed it, and it was to him what the ‘gift of a whole toy-shop would have been to most children.’ ‘I plunged into it,’ he says, ‘I roamed through it like a bee.’ This was in his eleventh year. About this time the father fell into increasing difficulties, and thought it advisable to leave Peebles for Edinburgh, where he filled various small appointments. The succeeding years were afterwards known in the family as the ‘dark ages.’ Robert, who had been left at school in Peebles, soon joined the family in Edinburgh. He had been destined for the church, and it was due to this that he attended ‘a noted classical academy’ for some time, and acquired a fair knowledge of Latin. At this period the family lived a few miles out of town. Robert, who lodged in the West Port with his elder brother (1800–1883) [q. v.], found his chief amusement in wandering through the narrow wynds and among the gloomy, but imposing, houses of old Edinburgh.

In 1816 he left school, and, having taught a little in Portobello, filled two situations as junior clerk. From both of these he was soon discharged, and being now about sixteen, and without employment, his brother suggested to him that he should begin as a bookseller, furnishing a stall with his own school books,