Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/164

Rh The Orange party so profited by these disasters that the Perpetual Edict was revoked, and Prince William assumed the office of stadtholder. De Witt s policy was thus finally defeated, and he himself became an object of general and intense hatred. All sorts of monstrous charges were brought against him, and believed ; and his brother Cornelius was falsely accused of conspiring against the life of the stadtholder. Brought to the Hague, Cornelius was there, on July 24, 1672, tortured and condemned to per petual banishment. In the same town De Witt was assaulted by a band of assassins, who left him lying on the ground under the impression that he was dead. Sum moned by a pretended message from Cornelius, De Witt went to visit him in prison, when a mob assembled and murdered the brothers amid circumstances of revolting cruelty. De Witt is one of the greatest figures of Dutch history. His action in connection with the Triple Alliance proves that he thoroughly understood the central tendencies of European politics ; and, whether he is to be praised or blamed for his life-long opposition to the house of Orange, there can be no doubt as to the greatness and purity of his motives. As an administrator he displayed extraordinary energy and resource ; and personally he was a man of steady, upright character, loyal and fearless. His Memoirs were published at the Hague in 1667 ; and in 1725, at Amsterdam, appeared Lettres et Negotiations entre Jean De Witt et les Plenipotentiaires des Provinces Unies aux Cours de France, &amp;lt;kc., depuis Van 1652 jusqiCa 1669.&quot; A Life of the two brothers, by Madame Zoutelande, was published at Utrecht in 1709. (j. si.)

 DEWSBURY, a market-town in the West Riding of Yorkshire, situated at the foot of a hill, on the left bank of the Calder, eight miles S. by W. of Leeds, on the Manchester and Leeds railway. The chief industries are the making of blankets, carpets, druggets, and worsted yarn. A mile from the town is Batley, the centre of the shoddy manufacture. Coal is worked in the neighbour hood of Dewsbury. The parish church of All Saints was for the most part rebuilt in the latter half of the 18th century ; the portions still preserved of the original structure are of great antiquity. Paulinus, first archbishop of York, about the year 627 preached in the district of Dewsbury, where Edwin, king of Northumbria, whom he converted to Christianity, had a royal mansion. Dewsbury is said to have been originally called Duis burgh, or the town of Dui, the tutelar god of the Brigantes. At Kirklees, in the parish of Dewsbury, is the tomb of Robin Hood. The population of the municipal borough of Dews- bury in 1851 was 14,019; in 1871 it was 24,764, while that of the parliamentary borough, which has an extended area, was 54,940. The municipal charter of the town was granted in 1862. It returns one member to Parliament.

 DEXTRIN, or British gum, C 6 H 10 O 5, is a substance produced from starch by the action of dilute acids, alkalies, and diastase or malt extract, and by roasting it at a temperature between 140 and 160 C. (284-320 Fahr.) till it is of a light brown colour, and smells like over-baked bread. Its name has reference to its powerful dextro-rotatory action on polarized light. The purest dextrin is prepared by boiling 25 parts of sulphuric acid with 125 of water, and adding by degrees a mixture of 100 parts of starch and 125 of cold water. The liquid is then lowered in temperature to 60 or 70 C. (H0-158 Fahr.), at which it is kept for some time ; it is next neutralized with chalk, filtsred, and evaporated. Dextrin is an uncrystallizable, insipid, odourless, yellowish-white, translucent substance, brit^e and friable when thoroughly dried. It dissolves in water and dilute alcohol ; by strong alcohol it is pre cipitated from its solutions as the hydrated compound, pe^io^s-HpO. Unlike starch it is not coloured blue by iodine. Diastase converts it eventually into maltose, C 12 H 22 U ; and by boiling with dilute acids and alkalies it is transformed into dextrose, or ordinary glucose, C 6 H 12 0,5. It does not ferment in contact with yeast, 1 and in the pure state has probably no reducing action on an alkaline copper solution. If heated with strong nitric acid it gives oxalic, and not mucic acid. Limpricht has shown that dextrin is present in the flesh-juice of the horse. Dextrin much resembles gum arabic, instead of which it is generally substituted for a great variety of purposes. It is employed for sizing paper, for stiffening cotton goods, and for thickening colours in calico printing, also in the making of lozenges, adhesive stamps and labels, and surgical bandages. In most technical operations the crude solution only is used.

 DHAR, a small native state of Malwa, in Central India, under the political superintendence of the British Govern ment. Area, 1*500 square miles ; population, 150,000 souls. The state contains much fertile ground, the prin cipal agricultural products being wheat, opium, gram, sugar cane, Indian corn, and cotton. The Raja- is a Puar or Pramar Rajput, who claims descent from the famous King Vikramaditya ; but the family only received possession of Dhar in 1749, by gift from the MarhattA Peshwa, BAji Rao. Towards the close of the last, and in the early part of the present century, the state was subject to a series of spoliations by Sindhia and Holkar, and was only preserved from, destruction by the talents and courage of the adoptive mother of the fifth Raja. By a treaty in 1819, Dhar passed under British protection, and bound itself to act in subordinate co-operation. The state was confiscated for rebellion in 1857, but subsequently restored to RAji Anand Rao Puar, then a minor, with the exception of the detached district of Bairusia, which was granted to the Begam of Bhopal. The revenue of the state is estimated at 80,000 per annum, inclusive of jagirs. The military force consists of 276 cavalry, with 800 infantry (including police), 2 guns, and 21 artillery. Road-making is being pushed on. Fifteen schools were attended in 1874 by 550 scholars. Two charitable dispensaries afford gratuitous medical relief. The town of Dhar, situated on the road from Mau (Mhow) to Baroda, extends 3 miles in length by half a mile in breadth, and is surrounded by a mud wall. The fort, built of red stone, forms a conspicuous object outside the city, and contains the Raja s palace.

 DHÁRWÁR, a district of British India in the presidency of Bombay, situated between 14 6 and 15 53 N. lat., and 74 50 and 75 58 E. long. It contains a total area of 4536 square miles, and a population of 988,037 inhabi tants. The district is about 116 miles long, with an average width of 77 miles. It is bounded on the N. by the Belgaum and Kaladgi districts, on the E. by the Nizam s territory and Bellari district, on the S. by Mysore, and on the W. by Belgaum and North Kanara districts. The western portions of the district, in the neighbourhood of the Sabyadri range, are rugged and hilly ; but towards the east, the land falls away into plains of black soil in many parts very fertile and well suited to the growth of cotton, with occasionally a detached peak or group of hills. The chief rivers are the Malprabhd on the north and the TungbhadrA on the south. The hills are principally com posed of hornblende and chloritic schists, gneiss, and mica slate, large interstratified beds of silicious and ferruginous schists (as at and near Dharwar) often forming their ridges. Seams and beds of a crystalline white marble occur, which, near their junction with the hornblende slate, are often coloured green. Gold is found sparingly in the Dumbal hills, and chick mulgund, and also iron pyrites. Iron ore is worked to a small extent at Teyur, where there was once 