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DEN the temporary rank of brigadier in the army which invaded Affghanistan in 1838, and led the storming party at the capture of Ghuznee, previously considered an impregnable fortress, and was the first man within the walls—an exploit which Sir Robert Peel characterized as the "most brilliant achievement in the history of our arms in Asia." But Colonel Dennie was deprived of the reward to which this gallant exploit justly entitled him, through the paltry jealousy and pique of the commander-in-chief, Sir John, afterwards Lord Keane. On the 18th of September, 1840, Dennie, with a force of less than a thousand men, totally routed the wallee of Khooloom, who had taken the field with an army ten thousand strong, in support of Dost Mahommed. This brilliant victory terminated the campaign, and led to the surrender of the Dost, who was wounded in the battle. On the forcing of the Khoord Cabool Pass in October, 1841, Colonel Dennie took the command of the British troops after Sir Robert Sale was disabled by a wound. They had to cut their way through the hordes of the Affghans who inclosed them on all sides, and at length succeeded in reaching Jellalabad, where for upwards of three months they successfully resisted the desperate assaults of Akbar Khan, son of Dost Mahommed. At the close of the siege Colonel Dennie fell in the battle of the 7th of April, 1842, which terminated in the total defeat of the enemy. The fall of this gallant but ill-used officer was termed by General Sale "a public calamity." (See a series of Colonel Dennie's letters in the twentieth volume of the Dublin University Magazine.)—J. T.  DENNIS,, the son of a saddler of London, was born in that city in 1657. After receiving his education at Harrow and Cambridge, he travelled in France and Italy; and on his return home devoted himself to the support of whig politics, and the cultivation of literary criticism. Having acquired a small fortune by the death of his uncle, he sought the acquaintance of the chief political and literary celebrities of the day, and numbered among his friends Dryden, Congreve, Halifax, and Wycherley. The young critic soon acquired considerable importance, and even Pope is said at first to have regarded his judgment. The professed critic was at that period of English literary history, comparatively a novel character; and hence Dennis occupied the attention of the principal authors of the day more than would be possible for any man of similar endowments in modern times. He was not without ability; but his violent temper, almost approaching insanity, rendered his life far from happy, while the habit of passing judgment upon the first authors cherished his vanity until it became a disease. He constantly quarrelled with his friends, and suspected every acquaintance as a foe. Steele describes him as quick and sudden in his movements, turning on all sides with a suspicion of every object as if he had done or feared some mischief. His criticisms, however, often displayed considerable good sense, as well as erudition. Imagining that some passages in the second and third numbers of the Spectator were personally offensive, he revenged himself upon Addison, who had been his friend, by a criticism on Cato. He wrote a disquisition upon Pope's Essay on Man; and Pope gave him a place in the Dunciad, and also produced, in conjunction with Swift, "The narrative of Dr. E. Norris, concerning the strange and deplorable frenzy of Mr. J. Dennis." A tragedy called "Liberty Asserted," met with some success on account of its violence against the French; and Dennis believed that he was, in consequence, in personal danger from the enmity of the French government. He is said to have besought the duke of Marlborough to get an article inserted in the treaty of Utrecht to protect him from the vengeance of the French king. Marlborough assured him that his case was not so desperate as he imagined. "I think," said the general, "I have done almost as much harm to the French as you have, and yet I have taken no precaution to escape their vengeance." An idea of the personal animosity of the French was indeed a monomania with Dennis. Once he fled from a friend's house, because he thought a vessel he saw approaching was sent to make him prisoner. Having expended his small fortune, the duke of Marlborough procured for him a sinecure at the custom-house, which he soon improvidently sold, reserving only a small annuity for a brief term of years, and had to depend upon his pen for his chief subsistence. He brought out a tragedy, "Appius and Virginia," at Drury Lane, which the actors refused to force on the unwilling town. They retained, however, some excellent thunder which Dennis had introduced, and it rolled one night during the performance of another play, and was applauded, when its inventor was in the pit. Suddenly starting up he cried to the audience with an oath, "They wont act my tragedy, but they steal my thunder." Dennis' thunder is said to be still used at the theatres. In his old age he became blind and very poor, and many of his literary enemies joined his friends in patronizing a benefit play. Pope, to his honour, forgot the critic he had gibbeted in the Dunciad, and only remembering the worn out blind old man, exerted himself on his behalf. Dennis did not long survive the last kindness of a world he blamed for neglecting his merits, and died in 1734.—L. L. P.  DENNISTOUN,, Esq., of Dennistoun and Colgrain, N.B., the author of several valuable works in biography and the fine arts, was born in 1803, and was the representative of the old knightly house of the Dennistouns of Danzielstoun in Renfrewshire. He was educated for the bar; but having inherited a competent fortune, he devoted himself exclusively to literary and artistic pursuits. He was an amateur of art of no mean accomplishments, and took a deep interest in the Bannatyne and other societies instituted for the collection of materials for illustrating the literature and history of Scotland. He edited Moysie's Memoirs of the Affairs of Scotland from 1577 to 1603; The Cartulary of Lennox; The Lochlomond expedition; a volume of the Colness collections; and other works published by the Bannatyne and Maitland clubs. He was also the author of various interesting papers connected with art, which appeared in the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews. Mr. Dennistoun's most important work, however, was the "Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino," in 3 vols.—a publication of great value, as illustrating the state of Italy during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. His last work, which he just lived to complete, was the interesting "Memoirs of Sir Robert Strange," the famous engraver, and of his brother-in-law, Andrew Lumisden, for many years secretary to the Chevalier de St. George and his son Prince Charles Stewart. Mr. Dennistoun died in 1855, in his fifty-second year.—J. T.  DENNY,, a favourite courtier of Henry VIII., who made him a privy councillor, conferred on him the offices of gentleman of the bedchamber, and groom of the stole, together with the honour of knighthood. On the dissolution of the monasteries. Sir Anthony obtained the priory of Hertford, and several valuable grants of land. Henry had such confidence in the integrity of his favourite, that he appointed him one of his executors and one of the counsellors of his youthful successor, and left him a legacy of three hundred pounds. It is to the credit of Sir Anthony that he alone had the courage, when the king was on his deathbed, to exhort him to attend to the momentous concerns of his soul. Sir Anthony died in 1550. His virtues were commemorated in a poem by Sir John Cheke.—J. T.  DENON,, Baron, was born of a noble family at Châlons-sur-Saône, on the 4th January, 1747. From his earliest years he manifested a decided liking for the arts of design. He was sent, however, to Paris to study law—a profession that had no attractions for him; and accordingly we find t hat he began to write for the stage, and produced a comedy entitled "Julie, or le bon Père," which was acted with considerable success at the Theatre Française. His taste and judgment in matters of vertu soon became known; and he was employed by Louis XV. to make a collection of antique gems for Madame Pompadour. Denon, who had been already attached to the Russian embassy, found, on the accession of Louis XVI., a valuable patron in the comte de Vergennes, the minister for foreign affairs. That nobleman sent him on a mission to Switzerland, on which occasion he visited Voltaire at Ferney, and drew his portrait. He afterwards spent seven years at Naples, during which he devoted himself zealously to the study of the arts, especially etching and mezzotint engraving. The death of Vergennes in 1787 put a period to his diplomatic career. Henceforth he became an artist by profession. He was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Arts. During a subsequent visit to Switzerland he learned that his property had been sequestrated, and his name enrolled in the list of emigrants. He ventured back to Paris, however, where, but for the kindness of David the painter, he would have been overwhelmed with utter destitution. That celebrated man got his name erased from the list of emigrants, and procured him a government order to design and engrave a set of republican costumes. In this peaceful employment he was engaged during the horrors 