Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lambert, John (fl.1811)
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.
[Appleton's Amer. Cyclop. iii. 600 ; Biog. Dict. of Living Authors, 1816. p. 194; Allibone's Dict. i. 1052; Lambert's Works.]