Page:Imperialdictiona02eadi Brandeis.pdf/74

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
DEL
58
DEL

died in 1835. He was of a noble and wealthy family, and gave himself to the study of political economy. he published a tract on the agriculture of Italy, which attracted the attention of the Italian political economists. In 1798 he was imprisoned in consequence of opinions too liberal for the government, though he was opposed to revolutionary violence. The victories of France restored him to liberty, but he refused to permit himself to be placed on the legislative council of the new republic. He found a refuge at Marino, and wrote the annals of this little republic. He was recalled to Naples by Joseph Bonaparte. He made him conseiller d'etat, and president of the section of the interior. He was also archiviste—an office which he was allowed to retain on the return of the Bourbons. Delfico published several juridical works, many of them of value. He left some manuscripts which have not been published.—J. A. D.

DELFINO, Giovanni, Doge of Venice, belonged to one of the most illustrious families of the republic. He distinguished himself by the defence of Treviso against the Hungarians, and with difficulty escaped from that place, when he was nominated doge in 1356. In the following year the Venetians were obliged to sue for peace, which was granted on humiliating terms. Delfino was deeply mortified at this result, and soon after lost his sight, and died in 1361.—J. T.

DELGADO, Moseh Pinto, better known by his christian name of Juan, a Spanish Jew, who lived in the end of the sixteenth century, and died about 1590. He was baptized, but, returning to the faith of his fathers, was obliged to leave Spain for fear of the inquisition. In his exile, which was passed chiefly in France, he wrote a series of epic poems on biblical subjects, published after his death under the patronage of Cardinal Richelieu, Rouen, 1627. The subjects are Ruth, Esther, and the Lamentations of Jeremiah.—F. M. W.

* DE L'HUYS, Edouard Drouyn, was born at Paris in 1805, of a father who became, under the Restoration, receiver-general at Melun, and left him a considerable fortune. This opulence, and his marriage to a granddaughter of the comte de St. Cricq, minister of commerce under the Restoration (he has been called the "French Huskisson"), are understood to have proved powerful adventitious aids to M. Drouyn de l'Huys in his public career. Entering the diplomatic service when he was twenty-six years of age he was first attaché at Madrid, and in 1833 chargé d'affaires at the Hague, when negotiations were proceeding for the separation of Belgium from Holland. Talleyrand was then ambassador at London, and is said, in the course of the negotiations, to have recognized the diplomatic talents of M. Drouyn de l'Huys, and to have recommended him to his government as a man of mark. From the Hague he returned in 1836 to Madrid, where he was successively secretary of legation and chargé d'affaires. In 1840 he was appointed directeur des affaires commerciales in the foreign office, a post equivalent perhaps to our vice-presidency of the board of trade. Two years later he was elected, by the department of the Seine et Marne, a member of the chamber of deputies. His politics were more liberal and less pacific than those of M. Guizot, but he was trammelled, of course, by his official position. At last in 1845 he voted against Guizot on the "affaire Pritchard," and his consequent dismissal led to a lively protest on his part from the tribune—his real parliamentary début. He now joined the liberal opposition, and was one of those who, after the prohibition of the banquets, adhered to M. Odillon Barrot's proposal for the impeachment of the ministers. After the revolution of 1848 he was re-elected by his old constituents, and was appointed by the new assembly a member of the committee of foreign affairs, taking, at the same time, an active part in the proceedings of the Sociéte Orientale, a private association formed for the study and discussion of the eastern question. In the prince-president's first ministry M. Drouyn de l'Huys was minister of foreign affairs, and after being twice ambassador to London (the Pacifico-complication occurring the while), he was a second time appointed foreign minister by the prince-president. He took no direct part in the coup d'état, but, under the new régime, he reaccepted a third time his old portfolio, and it devolved upon him to negotiate with foreign powers their recognition of the empire. A still severer trial of his abilities was enforced by the discussions on the eastern question which issued in the Russian war. His state-papers on this subject were generally considered masterpieces of lucid logic; but it is hinted that his sympathies had long been Austrian, and that to him is partly to be attributed the prominence given to Austria in the negotiations which preceded the Russian war, and which accompanied its earlier stages. Sent to represent France at the celebrated Vienna conferences of 1855, he gave, with Lord John Russell and the representative of the Porte, his adhesion to the specious proposal which Austria offered to support by war if Russia refused it. The result is well known—M. Drouyn de l'Huys and Lord John Russell fell together. M. Drouyn de l'Huys has not yet, like his English colleague, been restored to high office Appointed vice-president of the senate, he withdrew both from the office and the body after the Emperor Napoleon's public censure of its inactivity, and recent events have not been of a kind to draw M. Drouyn de l'Huys closer to the cabinet of the Tuileries, and its foreign policy.—F. E.

DELIBERATORE, Nicolo, an Italian painter, flourishing during the second half of the fifteenth century, was born at Foligno, and is therefore often merely called Nicolo da Foligno. He is one of the last followers of the school of Giotto, in whose style he has produced a sacred subject at St. Venanzio at Camerino. In 1461 Deliberatore, together with P. Mazzaforte, executed a beautiful picture for the church of St. Francis at Cagli, for which they received the then enormous sum of a hundred and fifteen golden ducats.—R. M.

DELILLE, Jacques, born at Algues-Perse in Auvergne in 1738; died at Paris in 1813. Delille, the illegitimate son of a very poor man, was educated as a poor scholar at the college of Lisseaux, and turned his learning to account as an elementary teacher, first at Beauvais, then at Amiens, and afterwards at Paris. His translation of the Georgics of Virgil—the first work by which he was known—was greatly admired. An original, descriptive, or didactic poem would, towards the latter half of the eighteenth century, have little chance of being read. Every one was then engaged in politics. It was felt to be a daring adventure when Delille announced his forthcoming work. Voltaire was among the first to recognize its merit, and got him elected to the Academy. Louis XVI. would not allow the election to be confirmed, on the pretence that Delille was too young. The humble position of the poor teacher was the true objection. La Harpe got him an appointment as professor at the college of France. He delivered lectures on the Latin poets. Thirteen years passed before Delille reappeared as a poet. Frederick of Prussia had said that Delille's Georgics was the only original poem of the period; Delille now put forth a poem properly his own. It, too, was well received. Careful elaboration gave an appearance of ease, which, if not natural, served the turn as well, or better. The days of patronage had not passed away, and the count D'Artois gave the poet an abbaye, the rents of which were thirty thousand livrés—no bad provision this, while paid. Delille went to Constantinople, and described in amusing letters the delight which he felt in breakfasting each day in Asia and dining in Europe. On his return he delivered lectures on all he had seen. The year 1789 came, and with it the storm which blew down to the ground all that Delille had imagined his own. He was dragged before one of the revolutionary tribunals, but a journeyman mason persuaded the rascals who were playing judge and notary, to spare the poet's life—without poets how shall the victories of the republic be celebrated?—it is useful to keep one of them alive. The hope of fame and the principle of utility prevailed. In 1793 the convention voted the existence of the Supreme Being, and decreed a fête in his honour. Delille was ordered to produce a poem on the occasion. The terrified poet obeyed. The verses came to Robespierre's ears like satire. The recital was cut short. Delille now retired to St. Dié, to work at a translation of the Æneid. One of his critics courteously says, he lends too much and borrows too little from Virgil. He now went to reside at Basle. His next poems were "L'homme des Champs," and "La Pitie," both of them feeble and colourless. He published a translation of Paradise Lost. It would not be safe to say that the work is anti-poetical, for it has graces and beauties of its own; but both in its faults and beauties it is anti-Miltonic. Then came "Imagination," a poem, and "Les trois règnes de la Nature"—the last an extravaganza, monotonous and wearisome. Bonaparte endeavoured to win Delille to his court. The old man shrank from the honour. "I have ceased to live;" said he, "I am but a spectator of life." The emperor had ordained decennial prizes to be awarded by literary juries; Delille's "Imagination." and "Æneid," and "Georgics,"