Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/57

 DESSOLLES DESTUTT DE TRACY 49 An important wool market is held here, and a flourishing trade in grain and other produce is carried on. Its environs are adorned with beautiful gardens, which have been reclaimed from sandy wastes. Dessau was noted as early as 1213, and in 1313 had a school independent of the church. It was destroyed by fire in 1 467. In the German revolution of 1848 it was one of the most democratic cities of Germany. DESSOLLES, or Dcssolle, Jean Joseph Panl Angnstin, marquis, a French soldier and states- man, born at Auch, Oct. 3, 1767, died near Paris, Nov. 4, 1828. He early entered the army, was captain in the mountain legion in 1792, provisional adjutant on the staff of the army of the western Pyrenees in June, 1793, and 'chief of staff in October, and served in the Italian campaign under Bonaparte. He was appointed brigadier general May 31, 1797, com- manded successfully against the Austrians in the Valtellina in 1799, and was promoted April 13 to the rank of division general. He took part in the battles of Novi, Moskirch, Biberach, Neuburg, and Hohenlinden. After the peace of Lun6ville in 1801 he was made councillor of state and became provisional commander of the army of Hanover. In 1805 he was made governor of the chateau of Versailles. He be- came commander of a division of the army in Spain in 1808, occupied Cordova in January, 1810, and was made military governor of the city. On April 2, 1814, he received from the provisional government the command of the national guard of Paris, and contributed largely to the decision of the allies in favor of the Bour- bons. On the arrival of the count d'Artois at Paris Dessolles was made a member of the provisional council of state, and upon the organization of the government he was ap- pointed minister of state and major general of the national guards, and a peer of France. Upon the return of Napoleon he took the most energetic measures against him. During the hundred days he remained in retirement, and upon the return of the Bourbons resumed command of the national guards, but soon re- signed. He was afterward minister of foreign affairs, and was elected president of the coun- cil of ministers Dec. 28, 1818. At the same time he was made a marquis. He opposed in the council the proposed change in the law of elections in 1819, and in November resigned, with the two ministers who shared his views. DESTERRO, Nossa Senhora do Desterro, or Santa Catharina, a city of Brazil, capital of the prov- ince of Santa Catharina, on the W. coast of the island of that name, in lat. 27 30' S., Ion. 48 30' W., 465 m. S. S. W. of Rio de Janeiro ; pop. about 8,000. The city is on a tongue of land projecting into the bay, and is defended by two forts. It has many well built residences, but the streets are very irregular and badly paved. The public buildings are nearly all ill con- structed and unsightly. Next to that of Rio de Janeiro, the harbor is the best on the coast ; but its situation on an island is a serious disadvan- tage. A thunder storm and water spout in 1838 destroyed a considerable portion of the town. DESTOUCHES, Philippe Nericault, a French dra- matist, born in Tours in 1680, died July 4, 1754. After leading an adventurous life with a com- pany of strolling players, he was entertained at Lausanne by M. de Puisieux, the French en- voy to Switzerland. His first comedy, Le cu- rieux impertinent, was performed there with great applause in 1710, and was scarcely less successful when it appeared at Paris. Some other plays of his, among them L 'Irresolu, attracted the attention of the regent duke of Orleans, who employed him in several for- eign missions. After his return from London in 1723, on the death of the regent, he retired to his country seat near Melun, where he wrote a number of comedies, the best of which are LephilosopJie marie and Le glorieux, performed with great success in 1727 and 1732. In his later years he devoted himself to theology, and published several essays against infidelity. His collected works were published in 1750, in 4 vols. 4to. DESTCTT DE TRACY. I. Antoine Louis Claude, count de Tracy, a French philosopher, born at Paray-le-Fr6sil, near Moulins, Bourbonnais, July 20, 1754, died at Auteuil, March 9, 1836. At the desire of his father, who was a general, he entered the army, and was a colonel at the outbreak of the revolution. He was a member of the provincial assembly of Bourbonnais, and was elected as delegate of the nobility to the states general, Jan. 24, 1789. Here he was a leader in reform measures, attacking the mon- archy and the privileges of the nobility. Upon the dissolution of the assembly he retired to his estate at Auteuil ; but in 1792 he was ap- pointed marechal de camp and joined the army under Lafayette, with whose moderate views he fully sympathized. After the events of Aug. 10 he followed him beyond the frontier, but soon returned privately to France, where he was arrested Nov. 2, 1793, and imprisoned till some time after the death of Robespierre. During this time he developed a taste for metaphysics, and became known as a philos- opher. He was a member of the national in- stitute from its formation, and as secretary of the committee of public instruction helped reorganize the public schools. After the 18th Brumaire he was made one of the first sena- tors. In 1814 he voted for the fall of the em- pire, and entered the royalist chamber of peers ; he protested against the reactionary measures of 1815. The departure of the national policy from his views, together with bereavement and personal sickness, brought upon him in old age a profound melancholy, and he became almost blind. He was a disciple of Condillac, and with clear and earnest convictions carried his materialism to its last extreme. His Gram- maire generale (Paris, 1803) applies his phi- losophy to the analysis of language ; his Lo- gique (1805) applies it to the rules of reason- ing, and has been considered a masterpiece;