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DEL transferred to the tribunal de Versailles. In 1827 he retired from public life. His publications were very numerous; the best have been reproduced in the Spectateur Français.—J. A., D.  DE LALANDE. See.  DELAMBRE,, the illustrious mathematician and historian of astronomy, was born at Amiens in September, 1749, and died at Paris, August, 1822. Entering upon his studies at the gymnasium of his native town, he early attracted, by his talents and industry, the attention of his teacher, the celebrated Abbé Delisle, who became his first benefactor, and remained through life his constant friend. It was through his influence that he obtained an exhibition to the college of Plessis, where he was enabled for a time to prosecute under favourable circumstances his favourite pursuits. On the expiration of this bursary, Delambre was thrown upon his own resources, and gave the most decisive indications of that dauntless energy and perseverance which marked his whole career. He passed more than a year in a humble situation, surmounting and even forgetting his privations, in the ardour of his classical and historical researches. Subsequently he supported himself by taking private pupils, and engaged in a series of translations from the various languages—Latin, Greek, Italian, and English—with which he had become familiar. During the main part of those years he lived alone with the passion for study, obscure and necessarily frugal, but free to develope in his own way the genius which was nurtured by solitude. His zeal, resolution, and power at length began to attract attention. He accepted a situation as tutor at Compiegne; and when afterwards he returned to Paris to teach the sons of M. D'Assy, one of the officers of finance, he felt himself drawn to the pursuit of science, and, without altogether resigning literature, resolved to devote his attention more especially to the study of mathematics and astronomy. He entered the college of France, and, commending himself to the notice of Lalande by the comments he had made on his works, and the intimate acquaintance he displayed with the authorities for astronomical history, was adopted as his friend and coadjutor. Lalande had a private observatory fitted up for Delambre's use, and profited by his assistance in some of his most complicated calculations. When, on the discovery of the planet Uranus in 1781, a prize was offered for the best tables of its motion, it was awarded to Delambre. From this point his progress is registered by a rapid series of distinctions. He contributed to successive sessions of the Academy other sets of tables recording the movements of the Sun, of Jupiter, and of Saturn, with his peculiar accuracy and precision; and on again obtaining the prize for his elliptical tables in the year 1792, he was formally chosen a member of that illustrious body. He was employed about the same period, along with Mechain, in the gigantic task of determining the arc from Dunkirk to Barcelona, a task undertaken conjointly by the French and English governments with a view to fixing a standard for measurements of length. This enterprise, protracted over eight years, was, on the death of his colleague, brought to a conclusion in 1799 by Delambre alone. He has himself written the history of the work, which is characterized by Fourier as one of equal usefulness and grandeur, and the materials accumulated during its progress served as a basis for his "metrical system." In 1795 Delambre was placed among the astronomers of the bureau of longitudes, and in 1803 he was elected perpetual secretary of the Institute of France. In the same year he was named by Napoleon, then first consul, general inspector of studies, and in that capacity organized the lyceums of Moulins and of Lyons. In 1807 he succeeded, on the death of Lalande, to the vacant chair in the college of France. In 1808 he was named treasurer of the imperial university, an office which he retained till its suppression in 1815. In 1814 he published a treatise on theoretical and practical astronomy, at once marked by all his scientific exactitude and enlivened by all the graces of his style. His last and greatest work was a history of astronomy. Cuvier has paid an eloquent tribute to its truthfulness and originality,—"Before him the history of astronomy had its fabulous times as with the history of peoples; superficial spirits did not know how to disentangle it from its mythology; they had, on the contrary, mixed it up with fantastic conceptions of their own. Delambre appeared, and without effort dissipated those clouds: reading all languages, penetrating to all the sources of history, he at once apprehended and represented each fact in its severe reality, he had no need of supplementing his knowledge by conjecture or imagination." Delambre's labours were subject to frequent interruptions from the storms through which he lived. He pursued his arduous measurements at the close of the century amid the terrors of the Revolution. We have an account of his writing calmly in his study at Paris during the cannonade of 1814, which recalls a similar incident recorded of Archimedes. More happily than the Greek astronomer, he survived the dangers of the siege to receive fresh tributes of admiration and respect. After the Restoration he was enrolled in the legion of honour, and presented with a pension and the title of hereditary chevalier. His death was dignified by the stern patience which had so ennobled his life.—J. N.  DELAMET,, an eminent French theologian and casuist, was born in Picardy in 1621; became a member of the Sorbonne Society in 1646; shared the adventures of his relative, cardinal de Retz; and died in 1691. He wrote a work entitled—"A Resolution of Numerous Cases of Conscience," &c.—T. J.  DE LANCEY,, chief-justice, lieutenant-governor, and acting governor of New York in colonial times, was the son of Etienne de Lancey, a French gentleman of rank and wealth, who, to avoid religious persecution, emigrated to New York in 1686, married there, and died in 1741. James was born in 1702, and educated in England at the university of Cambridge. He returned to New York in 1729, was appointed one of the governor's council, became chief-justice in 1733, lieutenant-governor in 1753, and had long a commanding influence in the province. He was the acting head of the government in 1753-55, and again from 1757 till his death in 1760.—F. B.  DELANDINE,, born at Lyons in 1756; died in 1820. He was admitted avocat of Dijon in 1775, and in 1777 passed in the same character to the parliament of Paris. But the demon of literature seized him, and he published what he called "Monologue, Dialogue, Prologue," a piece of sportive badinage having for its subject some proceedings of the French Academy. In 1784 a more important publication, "L'Enfer des peuples anciens," procured him the honour of being made a member of the Royal Antiquarian Society of London. In 1789 he published "L'histoire des assemblées nationales de France," which led to his being elected to the états généreaux, where his vote was always given against the democratic party. Some antiquarian dissertations of his led to his being appointed librarian to the academy of Lyons. The political distractions of France soon deprived him of this office. We next find him editing, in conjunction with J. B. Dumas, the Journal de Lyon et du Midi. After an interval of some years he resumed his librarianship.—J. A., D.  DELANY,, the second wife of Dr. Patrick Delany, was born at Coulton in Wiltshire, May 14, 1700. Her father, Bernard Granville (who subsequently came to the title of Lansdowne), was an accomplished man, and the friend and patron of most of the literary persons of his day; and with such advantages Mary's natural abilities received high cultivation. When seventeen years of age she married Alexander Pendarves; the union was one in which her heart was not engaged, and did not yield her happiness. Thrown upon her own resources for enjoyment, she cultivated her intellect and tastes. Released by the death of her husband in 1724, she left Cornwall for London, where she lived in intercourse with the learned society there. Amongst other intimates was Swift, with whom she maintained a correspondence for some years, and through him she formed the acquaintance of Dr. Delany. The impression which he made upon her may be collected from her letters to the dean. In one of them she writes—"The cold weather, I suppose, has gathered together Dr. Delany's set; the next time you meet, may I beg the favour to make my compliments acceptable? I recollect no entertainment with so much pleasure as what I received from that company; it has made me very sincerely lament the many hours of my life that I have lost in insignificant conversation:" while in other letters, "in true woman's fashion," she reserves all notice of the doctor to—"I beg my particular compliments to Dr. Delany," in the postscript. At length, in 1743, their union took place, which, in its perfect happiness, made amends to her for her former infelicity. After his death she passed much of her time with her friend the duchess of Portland, where she attracted the favourable notice of George III., who, after the decease of the duchess, conferred on her a house at Windsor, and a yearly pension of £300. She died after a brief illness in 