Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 32.djvu/24

 Calton described by his friend Thoresby as a great scholar and virtuoso, and 'a most exact limner' (Diary, i. 131). He died in 1701, and the Lambert property passed to his daughter Frances, the wife of Sir John Middleton of Belsay Castle. Northumberland (, p. 256). Lambert's second daughter married Captain John Blackwell, who was appointed in 1688 governor of Pennsylvania (Massachusetts Historical Collections, . i. 61;, Narrative and Critical History of America, v. 207).  LAMBERT, JOHN (fl. 1811), traveller, born about 1775, visited the North American continent in 1806, under the sanction of the board of trade, with a view to fostering the cultivation of hemp in Canada, and so rendering Great Britain independent of the supplier from Northern Europe, which had been endangered by Napoleon's Berlin decree. Failing in his immediate object, Lambert determined to remain in America and explore 'those ports rendered interesting by the glories of a Wolfe and a Washington? After a year in Lower Canada he proceeded to the United States to 'study the effect of the new government' there. Returning to England in 1809, he published in the following year 'Travels through Lower Canada and the United States of North America, 1806-1808,' 3 vols. London, 1810. The book is singularly free from bias. Mid throws much light upon the social condition of America at the time. It is illustrated by lithographs from drawings by the author, and includes biographical notes on Jefferson, Adams, and other American statesman, in addition to a general statistical view of the country since the declaration of independence. This work rapidly passed through three editions. In the second volume of his travels Lambert had spoken very appreciatively of Washington Irvine's 'Salmagundi,' and in 1811 he issued an English edition of Irving's 'Essays,' 'as a specimen of American literature,' with a long introduction, laudatory of American manners, by himself (2 vols. London, 8vo). 'The American collector,' says Allibone, 'should possess this edition.' Both of Lambert's books are specially interesting as showing the extremely different impressions produced upon Englishmen by Americans of the second and third generations after the revolution respectively. Nothing further is known of Lambert's life.

 LAMBERT, JOHN (1815–1882), civil servant, son of Daniel Lambert, surgeon, of Hindon, and afterwards of Milford Hall, Salisbury, Wiltshire, by Mary Muriel, daughter of Charles Jinks of Oundle, Northamptonshire, was born at Bridzor, Wiltshire, on 4 Feb. 1815. He was a Roman catholic,and in 1823 he entered St. Gregory's College, Downside, Somerset. In 1811 he was articled to a Salisbury solicitor, and practised in Salisbury till 1857. He took a leading part in local politics, was a strong advocate of free trade, and reformed the sanitary condition of the city. In 1854 he was elected mayor of Salisbury, and was the first Roman catholic who was mayor of a cathedral city since the Reformation. In 1857 he was appointed a poor-law inspector. In 1863 Lambert went to London at the request of Mr. C. P. Villiers, then president of the poor-law board, to advise on the measures necessary to meet the poverty due to the American civil war, and the Union Relief Acts and Public Works (Manufacturing Districts) Act of that year were prepared in conformity with his recommendations. After the passing of the Public Works Act Lambert superintended its administration. In 1866 he was engaged in preparing statistics for Earl Russell's Representation of the People Acts, which were introduced in 1866, and gave similar assistance to Disraeli in connection with the Representation of the People Bill of 1867. Prior to the resignation of Lord Russell's administration, he was offered the post of financial minister for the island of Jamaica, which he declined- In 1867 he drew up the scheme for the Metropolitan Poor Act. and under it was appointed receiver of the metropolitan common poor fund. About this time, too, he elaborated schemes for the poor-law dispensary system.

Lambert was a member of the parliamentary boundaries commission of 1867, of the sanitary commission which sat for two or three years. In 1869 and 1870 he went to Ireland at the request of Mr. Gladstone obtained information in connection with the Irish Church and Land Bills, and prepared special records for the cabinet. In 1870 he was nominated C.B., and in 1871, when the local government board was formed, he was appointed its first permanent secretary, and was entrusted with the organisation of the department. As a member of the sanitary commission he compiled in 1872 a digest of the sanitary laws and in the same year was chairman of the commission which drew up the census of landed proprietors in Great