Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/87

Rh tiou when serious illness required that he should leave Rome for change of climate. By way of Switzerland, he travelled to the Netherlands, and made a short stay at Tournay, to which he returned to teach humanity after a period of study at the university of Douai, where he distinguished himself in poetical and philosophical competitions, and took the degree of M.A. As his prospects in Tournay were discouraging, he went back to Paris, graduated as doctor of canon law, and became a regent in the college of Navarre, while yet, as he himself states, in his seventeenth year. Destined to be a wanderer through life, he soon quitted Paris to settle in Toulouse, where his stay was shortened by certain influential individuals, whose resentment he had excited by his advocacy of university rights. At Nimes, his next resting- place, he was, by twenty-three of the twenty-four judges, chosen to the professorship of eloquence in the Protestant university or academy, which circumstance colours in some degree the conjecture of Bayle, that his zeal for the Romish faith had somewhat cooled. Having retained his chair for little more than the two years of litigation into which he had been dragged by one of the unsuccessful candidates who had libellously assailed him, and against whom the Parliament of Toulouse decided, Dempster made a journey into Spain, whence, after a brief engagement as preceptor to a son of the famous Saint-Luc, he departed for his native land. As he did not experience a favourable recep tion either from his relatives or from the clergy, he remained but a short time, and again betook himself to Paris, There he spent seven years with advantage to his reputation and purse, as regent in different colleges. His connection with that of Beauvais, over which he presided for a time, was brought to a close by a high-handed procedure illustrative of his fierce courage, and suggestive of his fitness for other than literary contests. In the year 1615 he accepted the invitation of King James to come to London, and was honoured and rewarded by that sovereign. But dis appointed of preferment, which clerical and episcopal pre judices influenced the king to withhold, he again left England for Italy. On his arrival in Rome he was at first suspected of being a spy, but when his claims were ascertained, he was so fortunate as to receive letters of recommendation from the Pope and other influential personages to the duke of Tuscany, which issued in his appointment to the professorship of the Pandects in the university of Pisa. Writings of this date attest his com petency for the chair. After his inaugural lecture his reputation and emoluments increased. In the following year, on a visit to England, his disputatious spirit brought him into collision with an English ecclesiastic, whose representation of the quarrel led the grand duke to re quire that Dempster should either apologize or leave the country. Rather than make the prescribed apology he quitted Florence with the intention of settling in Scotland ; but he was prevailed upon by Cardinal Capponi to stay at Bologna, and in a few days, by the influence of the cardinal, was appointed to the chair of humanity, which he filled with the utmost efficiency and increase of fame. Honours, civil and literary, were bestowed upon him, and it seemed as if his wanderings and reverses had together come to an end. But the crowning calamity of his life then befell him. His light-headed wife (he married her in London in 1615), whose beauty had always been a snare to her, eloped with one of his students ; and the mental distress and bodily fatigue consequent on his pursuit of the fugitives, during the dog days, predisposed him to fever, which attacked him and proved fatal. He died at Bologna in 1625, in his forty-sixth year. Morally his chief defect was the fierceness of his temperament, which involved him in many broils, and made his sword and pen alike formidable. His natural impetuosity, which so easily broke forth in ebul litions of violence, explains in large measure the looseness and recklessness of statement often found in his writings. His intellectual qualifications entitle him to be considered &quot; one of the most learned men whom Scotland has pro duced.&quot; A vast memory, which was the receptacle of many books ; an extraordinary familiarity with Greek and Latin, that enabled him to improvise verses in these tongues with the utmost rapidity ; and a versatility which made versification, philological discussions, classical criticism, juridical expositions, biographical narratives, and historical annals congenial to him, these endowments give him a high place among the learned. The defects of his writings were mainly due to the passionateness which often clouded his judgment, to a patriotic vanity that led to absurd exaggerations on Scotch subjects, and to the disturbing influence of a restless life. For list of his very numerous writings see Irving s Lives of the Scottish Writers.^

 DEMURRAGE, in the law of merchant shipping, is the sum payable by the freighter to the shipowner for detention of the vessel in port beyond the number of days allowed for the purpose of loading or unloading. The contract between the parties generally specifies the amount per day to be paid as demurrage, and the number of days for which the ship may be detained at that rate. If it should be detained longer than the specified time of demurrage, the freighter will be entitled to damages, the measure of which will (in general, but not necessarily) be the sum agreed upon between the parties for demurrage. If no time is specified for unloading a ship, the &quot; usual customary time&quot; will be implied. But when there is positive contract that the goods are to be taken out by a fixed day, any delay beyond that time, not caused by the act of the shipowner himself, will make the freighter liable for demurrage, whether the delay is caused by him or not. So an agree ment to load, nob mentioning time, according to the customary manner, is an agreement to load within a reason able time according to the usage of the port ; and any delay beyond that time, though caused by circumstances beyond the control of the freighters, will make them liable. In calculating the number of lay-days (i.e., the days allowed for loading, &c., and not chargeable with demurrage), Sundays will be taken into account, unless it is otherwise specified or there is a custom to the contrary. The con tract to pay demurrage in a charter-party is between the freighters and the shipowner ; but if demurrage is mentioned in the bill of lading, the consignee will be held to take the goods under an implied obligation to pay the demurrage, and the master may sue for it in his own name. See CHARTER-PARTY.

 DEMURRER, iu English law, is an objection taken to the sufficiency, in point of law, of the pleading or written statement of the other side. In equity pleading a demurrer lay only against the bill, and not against the answer ; at common law any part of the pleading could be demurred to. And now in all cases any party may demur to any pleading of the opposite party, or to any part of a pleading setting up a distinct cause of action, ground of defence, set off, counter-claim, reply, or as the case may be, on the ground that the facts alleged therein do not show any cause of action or ground of defence, &c. (Judicature Act, 1875 Rules of Court, Order 28).

 DENAIN, a town of France, in the department of Nord, and arrondissement of Valenciennes, 14 miles to the east of Douai, on the Scheldt Canal and the railway between Anzin and Somain. A mere village in the beginning of the present century, it has rapidly increased since 1850, and now, according to the census of 1872, possesses about 10,500 inhabitants, who are mainly engaged in coal mines, iron-smelting works, sugar factories, and distilleries. The village was the scene of the decisive victory gained, in 