CHAMISSO, Adelbert von, a German naturalist and poet of French extraction, was born at the castle of Boncourt, near Sainte-Menehould, on 27th January, 1781, and died at Berlin on 21st August, 1838. He was of a noble family, that was obliged to emigrate to Berlin at the commencement of the first French revolution. There young Chamisso became one of the queen's pages, and in 1798 he entered the Prussian army, in which he served until after the peace of Tilsit. He was a self-taught botanist in the first instance. He commenced the study of plants at Copet, situated near the lake of Geneva, where madame de Staël had a beautiful residence. Her son, the Baron Augusta von Staël Holstein, was much attached to Chamisso, who was his first instructor in botany, and the earliest companion of his botanical excursions, which, having exhausted the immediate vicinity, were extended to St. Gothard and the country round Mont Blanc. Here he laid the foundation of his excellent herbarium. In 1812 he went to Berlin, where he attended lectures on natural science, and became acquainted with Schlechtendal, who accompanied him in his rambles. Chamisso organized a party of working botanists, of whom he was the foremost. His dress during their trip consisted of an antique garb, once the state dress of a South Sea chief, much worn, mended and stained, and a black cap of cloth or velvet. About this time he frequently visited the estate of Count Von Itzenplitz, near the Oder; and here he composed his well-known romance, "Peter Schlemihl, or the Man without a Shadow." He did not neglect his botanical studies, and published, with the assistance of the count's gardener, "Annotations on Kunth's Flora of Berlin." He devoted much attention to potamogetous and other aquatic plants. In 1818 he engaged to accompany, as naturalist, the expedition fitted out by Count Romanzoff, and he embarked at Copenhagen on board the ship Rurick. He was engaged in the voyage for three years, and made large collections of plants. He visited Teneriffe, Brazil, Chili, Kamtschatka, the islands which divide America and Asia, California, Sandwich islands, Unalaschka, Guajan, Manilla, and the Cape of Good Hope. Returning to Prussia, his adopted country, he presented his zoological and mineralogical collections to the university museum at Berlin, and commenced arranging his plants according to their places of growth, and their natural families. He was aided in the description of his plants by Schlechtendal, Nees von Esenbeck, Kaulfuss, Trinius, and others. In 1819 the university of Berlin conferred on him the honorary title of doctor of philosophy, and he was appointed professor in the Berlin botanical institution, including the botanic garden. He now prepared a familiar grammar of botany, also thirty herbaria for schools, with descriptive letterpress. He became one of the editors of the botanical journal called Linnæa. He presented a specimen of everything which he had collected to the royal herbarium at Berlin. Exposure to weather brought on a bad cough in 1833, from which he never entirely recovered, and which finally caused his death. A plant among the amarantaceæ, described by his friend Kunth, bears his name. He will be long remembered as an enterprising traveller and a zealous botanist. He was a member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. Among his published works are the following—"Account of Kotzebue's expedition;" "One of the Animals described by Linnæus;" "On the Useful and Deleterious Plants of the North of Germany;" "On the Hawaiian Language;" besides poetical works, and the romance already noticed.—J. H. B.
CHAMOUSSET, Claude Humbert Piarron de, a French gentleman, distinguished for his remarkable philanthropy and benevolence, was born in 1717, and was the son of a judge in the parliament of Paris. He devoted his time and fortune to the alleviation of the sufferings of the poor, transformed his house into an hospital for the diseased indigent, and by his wise and zealous efforts succeeded in effecting a great reform in the hospitals of Paris. He was appointed surveyor-general of the military hospitals of France, and took extraordinary pains in promoting their efficiency. Among many other useful schemes he suggested the establishment of a penny post in Paris, the bringing of good water into the city, the institution of fire insurance companies, and of societies among the workmen for their mutual support in sickness, and the adoption of a measure for the suppression of begging. He died in 1773. His complete works were published in 1783, in two vols., 8vo.—J. T.
CHAMPAGNE, the Dukes of, will be found under their respective names.
CHAMPAGNE, Philip de: this painter was born at Brussels in 1602, and studied under Bouillon, Michel Bourdeaux, and Fouquier. At the age of nineteen he set out for Italy. Taking Paris in his way, he proceeded no further on his journey, but took up his abode in the college of Laon, and commenced an acquaintance with a fellow-lodger, Niccolo Poussin. Du Chesne, painter to Mary de Medicis, engaged the two artists to assist him in decorating the Luxembourg. Poussin executed some portions of the ceiling; Champagne painted the pictures for the queen's apartments. The queen was so much pleased that Du Chesne grew jealous, and Champagne, who preferred a quiet life among his paints and brushes to success amidst brawls and jealousy, made his escape from Paris and returned to his native Brussels. He came back again to Paris on the death of Du Chesne, was made director of the queen's painting, had a pension of 1200 livres settled on him, with rooms in the palace. In this clover Champagne was eminently happy, for there was only one thing he liked better than work, and that was the money that work brought him. He lacked neither. He painted for the chapter house of Notre Dame, for the Carmelite convent, for the king's apartments at Vincennes. He was made director of the Royal Academy of Paintings. He was a calm, industrious, painstaking man, and he went constantly to nature, and was noted for his fidelity to her. But he was cold in his correctness, he could not appreciate fire and movement, he possessed no intensity. He loved art, but he could not feel thoroughly the subjects which elevate and give life to art. Expression was a sealed book to him, passion an unknown language. He was an honest plodding man, and had a good eye for correct drawing and correct colour, and so no wonder his portraits are highly esteemed. One of Colbert has been ranked with Vandyck. He painted also faithful portraits of Richelieu, and Louis XIII. praying to the Virgin. He died at Paris in 1674.—W. T.
CHAMPAGNY, John Baptist Nompere de, Duc de Cadore, a French minister, was born in 1756. He served with distinction in early life in the navy; was appointed deputy to the states-general by the noblesse of Forez; and on the establishment of the consulate, became a zealous partisan of Bonaparte. He was sent in 1801 as ambassador to Vienna; in 1804 was appointed minister of the interior in the room of Chaptal; in 1807 succeeded Talleyrand as minister for foreign affairs, and the following year was created Duc de Cadore. He accompanied Napoleon throughout the campaign of 1809, and assisted in framing the treaty of Vienna, and in bringing about the marriage of the emperor to the Archduchess Maria Louisa. In spite of his services and his subserviency the duke lost the favour of Napoleon, and was deprived of his office in 1811. During the critical campaigns of 1814 and 1815, Champagny seems to have followed a trimming course, and on the restoration of the Bourbons he retired into private life. He died in 1834.—J. T.
CHAMPEAUX (in Latin, Campellensis), Guillaume de, a scholastic philosopher and divine, was born near Melun, and died in 1121. Ordained archdeacon of Paris, he lectured on logic for some time with great success in the school of the Notre Dame cathedral; but latterly retired to a suburb of the city near the chapel of St. Victor, where he founded in 1113 the abbey of that name. In the same year he became bishop of Chalons-sur-Marne. The name of Champeaux is known in connection with that of Abelard, who was first his disciple and then his adversary. He took the side of Realism, and is supposed to have been the first public professor of scholastic divinity.—R. M., A.
CHAMPEIN, Stanislas, a musician, was born of Greek parents at Marseilles in 1753; he died at Paris, September 19, 1830. His precocious talent for music was confided to the instruction of two incompetent masters, which accounts in some degree for the want of technical acquirement shown in his writings. In 1766 he was appointed music master at the college of Pignon in Provence, for which establishment, extremely young as he was, he composed a mass, and several other pieces of church music. He went in 1770 to Paris, where, after a short residence, he had some of his sacred compositions performed before Louis XV. He commenced his career as a dramatic composer, in which he made his reputation, with the comic opera of "Le Soldat Français." This was followed by nearly fifty other works of the same class, the most esteemed of which, and the only one that has been performed out of France, is "La Mélomanie," in one act, produced in 1781. The extreme lightness of his style gained instant popularity for his music, but
