sprung from an ancient Ulster sept, a scion of which, Sir Cahir O'Dogherty, earned no small notoriety as chief director of the sack of Derry in 1608. Mr. Doherty was called to the Irish bar in 1808, but some years elapsed ere he distinguished himself in an arena where Plunket, Saurin, Bushe, O'Connell, Burton, Jebb, Joy, O'Loghlen, and Burrowes, occupied prominent positions. During this period he was perhaps better known in the hall of the four courts, where he hourly delighted groups of merry listeners with fanciful prose embellishments, and still more fanciful verse. Mr. Doherty soon found that this mode of life would never fill his brief-bag or pocket; and he forthwith applied all the powers of his mind to the mastery of a profession for which he possessed many natural qualifications. With a vigorous constitution capable of enduring the vast labour of a legal practitioner, a massive frame of commanding height, a character open and generous, manners manly yet fascinating, a ready eloquence with a readier tact—it is not surprising that Mr. Doherty when once his shoulder had been applied to the wheel, should have rattled on briskly and gaily at his profession. In addition to the qualities we have enumerated, he had an understanding which, without subtlety, was peculiarly adapted for dealing with severely abstract principles. His mind was always clear, his apprehension rapid, while his occasional play of fancy imparted grace, variety, and relief to his more sober characteristics. In family connection he had also great advantages. Some of Canning's blood traversed his veins; he was also related to Charles Kendal Bushe; and in joining the Leinster circuit Mr. Doherty's success received an additional impetus from the local influence of the Bushes of Kilkenny. But his attentions were not confined exclusively to the bar. He accepted the office of commissioner of education, and mixed to a considerable extent in polished society, which enlarged his knowledge of the world, and freed him from that technical mannerism and harshness of professional austerity which dimmed the brilliancy of Saurin, Burrowes, and Holmes. Doherty had, indeed, less of this than any of his contemporaries; and Moore in his Diary has noticed Doherty's buoyant and occasionally almost boyish heartiness of frolic. The year 1826 found Mr. Doherty one of the foremost men of the Irish bar, with a reputation for eloquence and tact so high that Mr. Canning urged him to enter the house of commons, with a view to sustain that great statesman's position against the double difficulty of the Grey-whigs and the Peelites. Mr. Doherty canvassed Kilkenny on the principles of a liberal tory, pledged to support catholic emancipation, but hostile to unlimited reform. A member of the house of Mountgarrett, charged with considerable local interest, opposed him; but after a spirited contest Mr. Doherty was returned triumphant. In the senate he at once made a marked impression. He spoke with beauty, pertinence, and fluency. He took a high tone in discussing the state of Ireland, and Mr. Wilberforce was so much struck by the parliamentary talents of Mr. Doherty that we find the impressions of that great statesman on the subject recorded in his Diary. To this favourable opinion of Doherty's powers Brougham and Manners Sutton also cordially subscribed. On the elevation of Plunket to the bench and the peerage, he was succeeded by Mr. Joy in the attorney-generalship, and the office of solicitor-general was offered, after considerable intrigue and resistance, to Mr. Doherty. The chancellor. Lord Manners, had been a most uncompromising opponent of the catholic claims, and he exerted the utmost of his influence in frustrating Mr. Doherty's just claims to promotion. The lord chancellor was at last overruled, and Mr. Doherty was chosen by the government. His abilities as crown prosecutor were soon called into action. At "the Doneraile conspiracy" in 1829 he encountered O'Connell, who was retained on behalf of the prisoners, and Mr. Doherty received a verbal bastinadoing from the great tribune, under which he very obviously winced. O'Connell followed up his advantage, and for some alleged misconduct on the part of the solicitor-general, he threatened to impeach him before the highest tribunal in the empire. But here Mr. Doherty enjoyed the most luxurious revenge. Notwithstanding O'Connell's proficiency in all the arts of rhetorical attack and denunciation, he was rendered utterly powerless by the coolness and tact of Mr. Doherty. Having challenged O'Connell to adduce his proofs, but none being forthcoming, Doherty compelled his assailant to listen for hours to a flow of parliamentary satire so exquisitely pointed, yet so skilfully compressed within the bounds of order, that it was impossible to put a stop to it, or to fall to regard it as of dazzling brilliancy and force. "So much polite venom was, perhaps, never uttered in parliament," writes D. O. Maddyn; "it was certainly the greatest laceration O'Connell ever received." But the solicitor-general employed no language unbecoming the habits of a gentleman, nor was there any visible heat of manner in his bearing. In 1830, when Lord Grey came into office, the viceroy, Lord Anglesey, sacrificed the extraordinary popularity which he had previously enjoyed among O'Connell's party, by sanctioning Mr. Doherty's appointment as chief-justice of the common pleas. The marquis, in a letter to Lord Cloncurry, dated December 19, 1830, contrasts his popularity in 1829 with his unpopularity in 1830, and adds—"The whole change of sentiment to be upon the plea of one solitary law appointment—amazing! "The career of a judge offers few topics of general interest, and the remaining incidents of Doherty's life may be briefly told. In 1834, when Peel was suddenly recalled from Italy to form a cabinet, there was great anxiety manifested by Sir Robert, as well as by others, to induce Doherty to quit the bench, and again resume his brilliant position in the senate. But the chief declared, that when he ascended the bench, he had severed himself from the political world. The chief-justice had declined in spirits for some years, and the cause was matter of general notoriety. He never fairly rallied from the depression induced by the misfortune to which we allude. Disease of the heart sapped his strength, but he continued to discharge his official duties as before. He dropped from his chair suddenly, surrounded by his family, at Beaumaris, North Wales, on Sunday the 18th September, 1850. In appearance, Mr. Doherty strikingly resembled his kinsman Canning—a circumstance which struck the present earl of Carlisle so forcibly, that when Irish secretary, he addressed some lines to the chief, in which the similitude was gracefully indicated.—W. J. F.
DOHM, Christian Wilhelm von, a distinguished German statesman and historian, was born at Lemgo, December 2, 1751, and devoted himself to the study of classical literature and the legal profession in the universities of Leipzig, Berlin, and Göttingen. He commenced his literary career by his "History of the English and French in the East Indies," 1776, and as one of the originators and editors of the then celebrated Deutsche Museum. Some time after he entered the Prussian administrative service, where he gradually rose to the most important situations, and acted a conspicuous part during the Napoleonic wars. In 1797 he was one of the Prussian commissioners at the congress of Rastadt, and in 1807 was appointed by the king of Westphalia ambassador at Dresden. In 1810 he retired into private life, and died at his estate of Pustleben, near Nordhausen, May 29th, 1820. His most important work is his "Denkwürdigkeiten meiner Feit oder Beiträge zur Geschichte von 1778-1806," in 5 vols.—K. E.
DOIG, David, LL.D., was the son of a farmer in Forfarshire, and was born in 1719. During his childhood he was affected with a chronic disease of the eyes, in consequence of which he was prevented from learning to read till he was twelve years old. Such, however, were his diligence and aptitude, that after three years' attendance at school, he competed successfully for a bursary at the university of St. Andrews. His design seems to have been to study for the church; but having conscientious scruples regarding certain articles in the Confession of Faith, he left the university after having passed the curriculum of literature and philosophy, and devoted himself to teaching. Having spent some years as schoolmaster in Fife and Forfarshire, he was appointed rector of the grammar-school of Stirling, where he died in 1800, after having discharged the duties of the rectorship for more than forty years with much ability and success. Dr. Doig had a profound and accurate knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages, and the articles which he wrote for the Encyclopædia Britannica on "Mythology," "Mysteries," and "Philology," as well as his dissertation on the "Ancient Hellenes" published in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, evince his acquaintance also with several Oriental tongues. The most remarkable incident in his literary history was his controversy with Lord Kames; in which he showed with much ingenuity and learning, that history, philosophy, and scripture prove man's original condition to have been one of knowledge and refinement, in opposition to the views set forth in the Essay on Man, which represent the human race as rising gradually from a savage to a civilized state. Lord Kames,
