Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/934

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Prague, where he taught rhetoric and philosophy in a newly founded jesuit college. In 1580 he was sent into England, and made himself active, though living in retirement, in disseminating the principles of his faith. He published a work named "Rabsaces Romanus," which attracted considerable attention; and, unfortunately for Campian, came under the notice of Secretary Walsingham. His retreat in Berks was discovered, and he was conveyed to the Tower with this inscription on his hat—"Edmund Campian, a most pernicious jesuit." Suspected of being one of a band of plotters against the life of the queen, he was condemned for high treason, and hanged at Tyburn, 1st Dec, 1581. In addition to his "History of Ireland," he left several works, which, with the testimony of contemporaries, have won for him the reputation of an eloquent and subtle writer.—J. B.

CAMPISTRON, Jean Galbert de, born at Toulouse in 1656; died in 1713. He is said to have found it convenient to leave Toulouse in consequence of a duel in which he was engaged. However this be, he is found in Paris in 1683, writing tragedies, instructed and patronized by Racine. His tragedies are mentioned with the doubtful praise, that the situations in his dramas are tragic, and the style is that of high comedy. Racine did something better for Campistron than encourage him to write dramas; he introduced him to the duke de Vendôme to conduct the representation of a drama at his chateau. The duke took a fancy to him, made him his secretary, and obtained for him some foreign orders, among others that of St. Jago of Spain. In 1701 Campistron became member of the French Academy. He was also member of the Jeux Floraux of Toulouse. In 1723 he died of apoplexy. The fit was brought on by a violent squabble with a chairman, who refused to carry him on account of his size and weight, he being "more fat than bard beseemed." His "Theatre" has been often reprinted.—J. A., D.

CAMPO-BASSO, Nicholas, Count de, a celebrated commander of Italian mercenaries, lived in the latter half of the fifteenth century. He at first supported the interests of the house of Anjou in the kingdom of Naples, but afterwards transferred his services to their opponent, Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy. By accommodating himself to the opinions, and pandering to the prejudices of that headstrong prince, he acquired great influence over his mind; and, in the end, availed himself of the confidence placed in him by the duke to sell him to his enemies, and ultimately to lead him to his ruin. While the duke was engaged in the siege of Nancy in 1477, on the approach of a superior force under Ferrand, duke of Lorraine, to relieve the place, Campo-Basso deserted to the enemy immediately before the armies joined battle. The Burgundians were in consequence defeated with great slaughter, and the duke himself was slain. The treacherous Italian was supposed to be not free from the guilt of his master's death, as the bodies of a number of his men were observed near the spot where the unfortunate prince was found killed and stripped the day after the battle.—(De Comines' Chronicle, book v. chap. 9, and Sir Walter Scott's Anne of Geierstein.)—J. T.

CAMPOMANÈS, Pedro Rodriguez, Count, born in the Asturias in 1723; died in 1802. Campomanès was early known as a profound jurist; and the study of political economy—to which attention had been then called, chiefly through the labours of Turgot—occupied his whole mind. In 1764 Charles III. appointed him fiscal-advocate of the council of Castile, an office similar to that of attorney-general in England. He had already published "Historical Dissertation on the Order of the Knights Templars," and a translation of the Periplus of Hanno, with notes, sustaining the authenticity of the work. This led to his being appointed a corresponding member of the French Academy, and on Franklin's nomination, he was made an honorary member of the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia. He was director of the Royal Academy of History at Madrid. The highest praise is given by Robertson, in his History of America, to two tracts of Campomanès, published in 1774 and 1775—one on the subject of the promotion of industry in Spain, the other on the education of artisans. Robertson speaks of the information to be derived from them on almost every point connected with the police, taxation, agriculture, manufactures, and trade of the country. The incidents of Campomanès' life are few, or have not been recorded. The wisest and best man of Spain during his time is chiefly known through his books. In 1763 and 1764 he published two memorials on the subject of finding employment for gipsies and vagrants; one on free trade in corn in 1764; on provisioning Madrid in 1768; on the education of artisans in 1775; and in the next year, an elaborate appendix to this last work, containing a vast body of statistical information. This appendix was in four octavo volumes. In 1764 he published a valuable book on the nature of church property, and the subject of land held in mortmain, which was translated by order of the council of Venice into Italian. Campomanès was a man of considerable learning. In early life he published one or two tracts on philological subjects, and he translated from the Arabic a work on agriculture. His various essays on economic subjects were, for the most part, official reports, and were the basis of important legislation. The great object which was always present to his mind, and which he wished to inculcate, was, that Spain should place her chief reliance on the resources of the Peninsula itself, and seek to become, in a true sense, a portion of the European system. He sought to counteract the policy which referred everything to her transatlantic possessions. Campomanès was looked on with distrust by the ecclesiastical party. He was instrumental in the expulsion of the jesuits from Spain. Through the reign of Charles III. his power was almost unlimited, but did not long survive that monarch. On Bianca's coming into power early in the reign of Charles IV., Campomanès was dismissed, and lived in such retirement as to be almost wholly forgotten.—J. A., D.

CAMPSON. See Canssuh.

CAMUCCINI, Vicenzo, one of the most distinguished Roman painters of modern times, was born about 1775. He first earned his living by copying the old masters. His earliest original works were historical paintings of prominent scenes in early Roman history, such as the "Infancy of Romulus and Remus;" "Horatius Codes;" "The Death of Cæsar;" and "Death of Virginia." He painted in the classic style, so much in favour among modern Italians, and was rewarded with numerous honours. He was inspector-general of the papal museums, and of the mosaic works, keeper of the collections of the Vatican, director of the academy of St. Luke, and of the Neapolitan academy at Rome. A series of lithographs, by Scudellari, from his pictures, was published at Rome in 1829.—J. B.

CAMUS, Armand Gaston, at one time advocate to the French clergy, was born in 1740. Camus eagerly welcomed the Revolution, and was deputed to the states-general and the convention. He acquired great influence in the latter assembly, and proposed many of its most characteristic measures. It was he who drew up the "civil constitution of the clergy." He voted for the king's death, and was one of the famous deputation sent to Dumouriez whom that general handed over the lines to Cobourg. He lay in Austrian strongholds nearly three years. Camus retained his office of national archivist under Napoleon. Died in 1804.

CAMUS, Charles Etienne Louis, a mathematician and astronomer, was born at Cressy in 1699; died in 1768. He studied at Paris, and first distinguished himself in 1727, by an essay written for the purpose of obtaining a prize offered by the Académie des Sciences. The essay failed to obtain a prize, but nevertheless possessed such merits that it procured his admission as a member of the Académie. In 1736 he was sent with other astronomers to Norway, to determine the flattening of the earth towards the pole; and he was subsequently deputed on a similar work, the determination of the difference between the length of a degree of the meridian at Paris and at Amiens. The appointments of examiner in the schools of artillery, and professor of geometry, were afterwards conferred upon him. He was, for the last eight years of his life, perpetual secretary to the Academy of Architecture, and for the last three a member of the Royal Society of London. He published several works on mechanics, and accounts of the terrestrial observations above described.

CAMUS, François Joseph de, an ingenious mechanician, was born in 1762 at Rechôme in Lorraine, of a noble family. He was admitted a member of the Académie des Sciences in 1716. During his early years he constantly employed his leisure moments in mechanical amusements, and a clock which he constructed with his own hands was long preserved as a memorial of his skill. His genius flowed in the same course to the end of his days, manifesting itself in the invention of a self-adjusting floating-bridge, automaton soldiers, a coach of improved construction, a machine for excavating and embanking, a clock to go for a year without winding up, an instrument for observing the stars, an automaton watch, a self-adjusting ladder, a