His grandfather, Donald Cameron, was the younger son of Dr. Archibald Cameron [q. v.] Charles Hay Cameron erected a monument to his great-grandfather in the Savoy Chapel. It was injured by a fire in 1864, when Mr. C L. Norman, Cameron's son-in-law, replaced it by a painted window. Cameron was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1830. He was a disciple, and ultimately perhaps the last surviving disciple, of Jeremy Bentham. He was employed upon various commissions. His report upon 'judicial establishments and procedure in Ceylon,' the result of a mission with Colonel Colebrooke, is dated 31 Jan. 1832. He was also a commissioner for inquiring into charities, and prepared a report upon the operation of the poor laws in April 1833. By the act of 1833 a fourth member was added to the Supreme Council of India (previously the Council of Bengal), and a law commission was constituted, one member of which was to be appointed from England. Cameron was the first member so appointed, and went to India in the beginning of 1835. In 1843 he was appointed fourth member of council, and became president of the Council of Education for Bengal, of which he had been a member from his arrival in India. Cameron took an important part in the work of codification begun by Macaulay, and was Macaulay's chief adviser and co-operator in the preparation of the penal code (Trevelyan, Macaulay, i. 427. 443, 463). He took a great interest in the introduction of English education among the natives of India. A public meeting of natives was held at Calcutta on 22 Feb. 1848, upon his departure for England, to thank him for his exertions, and request him to sit for his portrait. His views are explained in an 'Address to Parliament on the duties of Great Britain to India in respect of the education of the natives and their official employment, by C. H. Cameron' (1863), in which he advocates a more liberal treatment of the Hindoo population.
Cameron took no further part in active life after his return to England. He lived successively in London, Putney, and at Freshwater in the Isle of Wight. In 1875 he went to Ceylon, where his sons were established. After a visit to England in 1878, be died in Ceylon on 8 May 1880.
Cameron was a man of cultivated intellect, well read in classical and modern literature, and intimate with many distinguished men of his day, especially Sir Henry Taylor, Lord Tennyson, and H. T. Prinsep. He married, in 1838, Julia Margaret Pattle [see Cameron, Julia Margaret], by whom he had five sons and a daughter, Julia (d. 1873), married to Charles Lloyd Norman.
[Academy, 26 June 1880; Sir H. Taylor's Autobiography, ii. 48-55, 184; Mackenzie's History of the Camerons, 1884; information from the family.]
CAMERON, DONALD (1693?–1748), generally known as Gentle Lochiel, of mature age at the time of the rebellion of 1745. He waa born at Achnacarrie, Lochiel, Inverness-shire, but the date of his birth is not known. His father, Colonel John Cameron of Lochiel, who was attainted and forfeited for his share in Mar's rebellion of 1715, and had retired to the continent, was son of Sir Ewen [q. v.] On the death of his grandfather in 1719, and during his father's exile, Donald succeeded as chief of the clan Cameron, and like his ancestors was loyal to the Stuarts. His mother was Isabel, daughter of Alexander Campbell of Lochnell.
Early in 1745 James Stuart (the elder Pretender) opened up negotiations with Cameron. The young Pretender, Charles Stuart, landed at Borodale, Lochnanuagh, and threw himself on the loyalty of the highlanders on 28 July 1745. The undertaking was apparently so desperate that Cameron sent his brother Archibald, the physician [q. v.], to reason with the prince. At a subsequent conference Cameron advised the prince to hide in the highlands until supplies arrived from the French court. 'Stay at home and learn from the newspapers the fate of your prince!' was the taunt that stung Cameron beyond endurance. 'No!' was the answer, 'I will share the fate of my prince, and so shall every man over whom nature or fortune has given me power.' Had Cameron held back, no other highland chief would have declared for the Pretender. The mustering of the clans was to be at Glenfinnan on 19 Aug.; Cameron arrived with eight hundred clansmen. Charles Stuart at once declared war against the elector of Hanover, and was proclaimed sovereign of the empire, 'James VIII.' The prince stayed a few days at Cameron's house at Achnacarrie, where an agreement was formally drawn up and signed by all concerned.
The prince commenced his daring march at the head of twelve hundred men, two-thirds being Camerons. On crossing the Forth the highlanders were intent on plunder, but a summary act of justice by Cameron on a marauder, coupled with his just and humane orders as to discipline, gave his miscellaneous army an honourable character for forbearance. The insurgents were unopposed in their march to Edinburgh. Some leading citizens were returning from a mission to the prince, and as they were entering the West Port in a coach,
