Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/569

Rh Auteurs Ecdesiastiques, the first volume of which appeared in 1686. The liberty with which he there treated the doctrines of the fathers aroused ecclesiastical prejudice, and the arch bishop of Paris condemned the work. Dupin consented to a retractation, but it was suppressed in 1693 ; he was, however, allowed again to continue it on changing its title, to the extent of substituting Nouvetteio? Universelle. He was subsequently exiled to Chatellerault as a Jansenist, but the sentence of banishment was repealed on a new retractation. In 1718 he entered into a correspondence with Wake, archbishop of Canterbury, with a view to a union of the English and Galilean churches ; and, being suspected of projecting a change in the dogmas of the church, his papers were seized in 1719, but nothing was found that could be properly framed into an accusation against him. The same zeal for union is said to have induced lim, during the residence of Peter the Great in France, and it that monarch s request, to draw up a plan for uniting the Greek and Roman churches. He died at Paris on the Cth June 1719.

1em  DUPLEIX,, governor-general of the French establishments in India, was born about the close of the 17th century. The son of a rich farmer-general, he was carefully educated, made several voyages to America and India, arid in 1720 was named a member of the superior council at Ponclicherry. He displayed great business aptitude, and, in addition to his official duties, made large ventures on his own account, and acquired a fortune. In 1730 he was made superintendent of French affairs in Chandernagore, the town prospering under his energetic administration and growing into great importance. His reputation procured him in 1742 the appointment of governor-general of all French establishments in India. His ambition now was to acquire for France vast territories in India ; and for this purpose he entered into relations with the native princes, and adopted a style of Oriental gorgeous- ness in his dress and surroundings. The English took the alarm. But the danger to their settlements and power was partly averted by the bitter mutual jealousy which existed between Dupleix and La Bourdonnais, French governor of the Isle of Bourbon. &quot;When Madras capitulated to the French in 1746, Dupleix opposed the restoration of the town to the English, thus violating the treaty signed by La Bourdonnais. He then sent an expedition against Fort St David (1747), which was defeated on its march by the nabob of Arcot, the ally of the English. Dupleix suc ceeded in gaining over the nabob, and again attempted the capture of Fort St David, but unsuccessfully. A midnight attack on Cuddalore was repulsed with great loss. In 1748 Pondicherry was besieged by the English; but in the course of the operations news arrived of the peace concluded between the French and the English at Aix-la- Chapelle. Dupleix next entered into negotiations which had for their object the subjugation of Southern India, and he sent a large body of troops to the aid of two claimants of the sovereignty of the Carnatic and the Deccan. The English were engaged on the side of their rivals. After temporary successes the scheme failed. The conflicts be tween the French and the English in India continued till 1754, when Dupleix was recalled to France. He had spent immense sums out of his private fortune on account of the French company, but in opposition to their wishes, and vainly attempted to recover them from the Government. He appears to have died in obscurity and want about 1763.  DUPONT, (1821-1871), a French song-writer of great popularity, the son of a workman of Provins, was born at Lyons, his mother s native city, but brought up from childhood under the care of an elderly cousin who occupied the position of priest of Roche-Taille e-sur-Saone. From the seminary of Largentieres, where his education was completed, he passed to the uncongenial drudgery of a lawyer s and banker s office ; in 1839 found his way to Paris, and got some of his poems inserted in the Gazette de France and the Quotidienne ; and two years later was saved from the conscription and enabled to publish his first volume Les deux Anges through the exertions of a Provins kins man and M. Lebrun. The prize founded by M. de Maille La Tour-Landry was awarded to him in 1842, and he was employed for some time in connection with the Academy s great dictionary. The thought of trying his fortune as a writer for the stage was taking shape in his mind, when in 1847 the success of his peasant song J ai deux grands boeufs dans mon etable opened up another prospect of fame ; and from that date to his death he confined himself mainly, though not exclusively, to the cultivation of his lyrical faculty. Accompanied, as they often were, by airs of his own invention, many of his songs became in the widest sense popular, and were equally welcome in the workshop and the drawing-room. His sympathies were much less, however, with the drawing-room than the workshop ; and in 1851 he paid the penalty of having become the poet laureate of the socialistic aspirations of the time by being condemned to seven years of exile from France. The sentence was cancelled, and the poet withdrew for a season from participation in politics. He died at Paris in 1871. His lyrical poems may very fairly be arranged according to his own classification rustic and, as far as the writer is con cerned, objective, legendary and subjective, patriotic and contemporaneous. They have appeared in various forms Chants ct Chansons, 3 vols., with music, 1852-54; Chants et Poesies, 7th edition, 1862 ; &c. Among the best known are Le braconnier, Le tisserand, La. vache blanche, La chanson du ble, but many others might be mentioned of equal merit, natural, bold, delicate, and piquant. Dix eclogues, 1864, Fin de la Pologne, 1847, La legends, du juif errant, 1862, written to accompany Dore&quot; s engravings, and Muse juvenile, 1859, are separate publications.

1em  DUPONT DE L’EURE, (1767-1855), a French lawyer and statesman, was born at Neubourg, in Normandy, on the 27th February 1767. In 1789 he was an advocate at the Parliament of Normandy. During the republic and the empire he filled successively judicial offices at Louviers, Rouen, and Evreux. He had adopted the principles of the Revolution, and in 1798 he commenced his political life as a member of the Council of Five Hundred. In 1813 he became a member of the Corps Legislatif. During the Hundred Days he was vice-president of the Chamber of Deputies, and when the allied armies entered Paris he distinguished himself by the firmness with which he asserted the necessity of maintaining the principles of government that had been established at the Revolution. A resolution to that effect which he moved in the chamber was adopted, and he was chosen one of the commissioners to negotiate with the allied sovereigns. From 1817 till 1849 he was uninterruptedly a member of the Chamber of Deputies, and he acted consistently with the liberal opposi tion, of which at more than one crisis he was the virtual leader. For a f aw months in 1830 he held office as minister of justice, but, finding himself out of harmony with hia colleagues, he resigned before ths close of the year and 