fire insurance company and the first discount bank in France. Young Delessert was travelling in England when the Revolution broke out in France, but he hastened back to join the Paris National Guard in 1790, becoming an officer of artillery in 1793. His father bought him out of the army, however, in 1795 in order to entrust him with the management of his bank. Gifted with remarkable energy, he started many commercial enterprises, founding the first cotton factory at Passy in 1801, and a sugar factory in 1802, for which he was created a baron of the empire. He sat in the chamber of deputies for many years, and was a strong advocate for many humane measures, notably the suppression of the “Tours” or revolving box at the foundling hospital, the suppression of the death penalty, and the improvement of the penitentiary system. He was made regent of the Bank of France in 1802, and was also member of, and, indeed, founder of many, learned and philanthropic societies. He founded the first savings bank in France, and maintained a keen interest in it until his death in 1847. He was also an ardent botanist and conchologist; his botanical library embraced 30,000 volumes, of which he published a catalogue—Musée botanique de M. Delessert (1845). He also wrote Des avantages de la caisse d’épargne et de prévoyance (1835), Mémoire sur un projet de bibliothéque royale (1836), Le Guide de bonheur (1839), and Recueil de coquilles décrites par Lamarck (1841–1842).
DELFICO, MELCHIORRE (1744–1835), Italian economist, was
born at Teramo in the Abruzzi on the 1st of August 1744, and
was educated at Naples. He devoted himself specially to the
study of jurisprudence and political economy, and his numerous
publications exercised great practical influence in the correction
and extinction of many abuses. Under Joseph Bonaparte
Delfico was made a councillor of state, an office which he held
until the restoration of Ferdinand IV., when he was appointed
president of the commission of archives, from which he retired
in 1825. He died at Teramo on the 21st of June 1835. His more
important works were: Saggio filosofico sul matrimonio (1774);
Memoria sul Tribunale della Grascia e sulle leggi economiche nelle
provincie confinanti del regno (1785), which led to the abolition
in Naples of the most vexatious and absurd restrictions on the
sale and exportation of agricultural produce; Riflessioni su la
vendita dei feudi (1790) and Lettera a Sua Ecc. il sig. Duca di
Cantalupo (1795), which brought about the abolition of feudal
rights over landed property and their sale; Ricerche sul vero
carattere della giurisprudenza Romana e dei suoi cultori (1791);
Pensieri su la storia e su l’ incertezza ed inutilità della medesima
(1806), both on the early history of Rome.
See F. Mozzetti, Degli studii, delle opere e delle virtù di Melchiorre Delfico; Tipaldo’s Biographia degli Italiani illustri (vol. ii.).
DELFT, a town of Holland in the province of South Holland,
on the Schie, 5 m. by rail S.E. by S. of the Hague, with which
it is also connected by steam-tramway. Pop. (1900) 31,582.
It is a quiet, typically Dutch town, with its old brick houses and
tree-bordered canals. The Prinsenhof, previously a monastery,
was converted into a residence for the counts of Orange in 1575;
it was here that William the Silent was assassinated. It is now
used as a William of Orange Museum. The New Church,
formerly the church of St Ursula (14th century), is the burial place
of the princes of Orange. It is remarkable for its fine tower and
chime of bells, and contains the splendid allegorical monument
of William the Silent, executed by Hendrik de Keyser and his
son Pieter about 1621, and the tomb of Hugo Grotius, born in
Delft in 1583, whose statue, erected in 1886, stands in the
market-place outside the church. The Old Church, founded
in the 11th century, but in its present form dating from 1476,
contains the monuments of two famous admirals of the 17th
century, Martin van Tromp and Piet Hein, as well as the tomb
of the naturalist Leeuwenhoek, born at Delft in 1632. In
the town hall (1618) are some corporation pictures, portraits
of the counts of Orange and Nassau, including several by Michiel
van Mierevelt (1567–1641), one of the earliest Dutch portrait
painters, and with his son Pieter (1595–1623), a native of Delft.
There are also a Roman Catholic church (1882) and a synagogue.
Two important educational establishments are the Indian
Institute for the education of civil service students for the
colonies, to which is attached an ethnographical museum;
and the Royal Polytechnic school, which almost ranks as a
university, and teaches, among other sciences, that of diking.
A fine collection of mechanical models is connected with the
polytechnic school. Among other buildings are the modern
“Phoenix” club-house of the students; the hospital, containing
some anatomical pictures, including one by the two Mierevelts
(1617); a lunatic asylum; the Van Renswoude orphanage, the
theatre, a school of design, the powder magazine and the state
arsenal, originally a warehouse of the East India Company, and
now used as a manufactory of artillery stores.
The name of Delft is most intimately associated with the manufacture of the beautiful faience pottery for which it was once famous. (See Ceramics.) This industry was imported from Haarlem towards the end of the 16th century, and achieved an unrivalled position in the second half of the following century; but it did not survive the French occupation at the end of the 18th century. It has, however, been revived in modern times under the name of “New Delft.” Other branches of industry are carpet-weaving, distilling, oil and oil-cake manufacture, dyeing, cooperage and the manufacture of arms and bullets. There is also an important butter and cheese market.
Delft was founded in 1075 by Godfrey III., duke of Lower Lorraine, after his conquest of Holland, and came subsequently into the hands of the counts of Holland. In 1246 it received a charter from Count William II. (see C. Hegel, Städte und Gilden, ii. 251). In 1536 it was almost totally destroyed by fire, and in 1654 largely ruined by the explosion of a powder magazine.
DELHI, Dehli or Dilli, the ancient capital of the Mogul
empire in India, and a modern city which gives its name to a
district and division of British India. The city of Delhi is situated
in 28° 38′ N., 77° 13′ E., very nearly due north of Cape
Comorin, and practically in a latitudinal line with the more
ancient cities of Cairo and Canton. It lies in the south-east
corner of the province of the Punjab, to which it was added in
1858, and abuts on the right bank of the river Jumna. Though
Lahore, the more ancient city, remains the official capital of the
Punjab, Delhi is historically more famous, and is now more
important as a commercial and railway centre.
Though the remains of earlier cities are scattered round Delhi over an area estimated to cover some 45 sq. m., modern Delhi dates only from the middle of the 17th century, when Shah Jahan rebuilt the city on its present site, adding the title Shah-jahanabad from his own name. It extends for nearly 214 m. along the right bank of the Jumna from the Water bastion to the Wellesley bastion in the south-east corner, nearly one-third of the frontage being occupied by the river wall of the palace. The northern wall, famous in the siege of Delhi in 1857, extends three-quarters of a mile from the Water bastion to the Shah, commonly known as the Mori, bastion; the length of the west wall from this bastion to the Ajmere gate is 114 m. and of the south wall to the Wellesley bastion again almost exactly the same distance, the whole land circuit being thus 314 m. The complete circuit of Delhi is 512 m. In the north wall is situated the famous Kashmir gate, while the Mori or Drain gate, which was built by a Mahratta governor, has now been removed. In the west wall are the Farash Khana and Ajmere gates, while the Kabul and Lahore gates have been removed. In the south wall are the Turkman and Delhi gates. The gates on the river side of the city included the Khairati and Rajghat, the Calcutta and Nigambod—both removed; the Kela gate, and the Badar Rao gate, now closed. The great wall of Delhi, which was constructed by Shah Jahan, was strengthened by the English by the addition of a ditch and glacis, after Delhi was captured by Lord Lake in 1803; and its strength was turned against the British at the time of the Mutiny. The imperial palace (1638–1648), now known as the “Fort,” is situated on the east of the city, and abuts directly on the river. It consists at present of bare and ugly British barracks, among which are scattered exquisite gems of oriental architecture. The
