DELAVIOKK, JEAN-FRANCOIS-CASIMIR. 



DELFICO, MELCHIOURE. 



during the years 1837-41. A very beautiful version of it (in which 

 II. Delaroche had introduced omo alterations) on canvas, of consider- 

 able aiae, but of course small in comparison with the original, formed 

 the chief attraction at the French Exhibition, London, in 1-54. 



M. Delaroehe Is justly regarded by the French as one of their 

 greatest painters. His pictures never reach the highest order of art 

 They an rather melodramatic than epic or tragic. They are suggestive 

 always of a certain kind of stage effect. You see that the painter is 

 aiming at the actor's trick that lie is seeking to ' make a point.' But 

 allowing for this, it must be granted that M. Delaroche is almost all 

 his countrymen pronounce him to be. Ho has undoubted genius, if 

 it be not of the highest order; be is a master of Ma art ; and he is 

 always truthful, conscientious, correct in drawing, on the whole 

 satisfactory as a colourist, and tells his story with admirable 

 perspicuity. 



M. Delaroche was named member of the Institute in 1832, and 

 subsequently professor at the Kcole des Beaux Arts, in which capacity 

 he ban educated a Urge number of pupils, several of whom have 

 already obtained eminence. He was created an officer of the Legion 

 of Honour in 1834. 



DELAVIONE, JEAN-FRANCOIS-CASIMIR, was thd son of a 

 merchant, and was born at Havre on the 4th of April 1793. He was 

 educated at the Lycenni-Napoleon at Paris, and as early as his four- 

 teenth year gave proofs of his addiction to poetry, confiding his 

 attempts however only to his brother, and a fellow-student, Eugene 

 Scribe, with whom hia friendship continued to the close of his life, 

 In 1-11 be composed a poem on the birth of the son of Napoleon I. 

 (the king of Rome as he was styled), which gained the approval of hia 

 tutor, and was presented to Napoleon on his visiting the Lyceum. It 

 also procured him the patronage of the Count de Nantes, who gave 

 him a situation in the excise-office, at which he attended only once a 

 month, his patron advising him to pursue hia poetical labours, and not 

 waste his time at the office. While thus situated he published a poem 

 on the death of Delille in 1813. In 1814 he tried for the prizo given 

 by the Acade'mie Francaise with his 'Charles XII. at Narva,' an 

 episode of a contemplated epic. He failed, but his poem received 

 honourable mention. The next year he again competed for the 

 prize with a poem upon the discovery of vaccination ; he was not suc- 

 cessful, but he was second. On the restoration of the Bourbons in 

 1815, he expressed his feelings in two poems, called ' Meese'niennes,' 

 in which he laments the misfortunes and flatters the vanity of his 

 countrymen. They wore at first circulated in manuscript, but they 

 deserved and obtained popularity, for they contain many striking 

 thoughts in poetical language, and when printed in 1824 they had an 

 immense sale. There was in them considerable bitterness against the 

 Bourbons, but Baron Pasqnier, then minister of Louis XVIII., Bent for 

 the young poet, and appointed him librarian of the chancery, where 

 there was no library. The appointment was very acceptable, as by 

 the change of dynasty he had lost his place in the excise. He did not 

 however change his political opinions, but, choosing for his next sub- 

 ject Joan of Arc, he made constant allusions in the two elegies on her 

 life and death to the evils of a country being subjected to strangers, 

 and to the glory of expelling them. He next turned hi* thoughts to 

 the stage, and produced his ' Veprei Siciliennes,' which, owing in a great 

 degree to similar allusions to the recent events in France, had a great 

 success when produced on the stage in 1819, though its dramatic merit 

 is small, a florid diction scarcely supplying a weakness of characterisa- 

 tion and a paucity of poetic ideas. In 1820 he produced the comedy 

 of ' Les Comddieos,' but with leas success. These were followed by 

 many others. A* a dramatist he takes no high rank either in tragedy 

 or comedy : of the finst class perhaps bis best work is the ' Louis XI.;' 

 of the second, ' L Ecole des Vieilhuds ; ' but there is the like want of 

 dramatic power and of capability of fixing character in all of them. 

 Many of them however had much temporary popularity. In 1825 ho 

 was elected a member of the Academy, and notwithstanding his 

 avowed political opinions, Charles X. offered him a pension of 1200 

 francs, which was firmly but courteously declined. On the occurrence 

 of the revolution of July 1830, he wrote and published his song of 

 ' I .a Parisienne,' which for a time rivalled the famous ' La Marseillaise.' 

 He refused offers of employment however under Louis Philippe, but 

 continued industriously, and, aa far as profit was concerned, success- 

 fully his literary labours. At length his health began to decline, and 

 on th* llth of December 1843 he died at Lyon, whither he had gone 

 for change of air. After his death there was published a collection of 

 poems, come new and some that had appeared at different times, under 

 the title of ' Dornier Chanta,' with a memoir by his brother. The 

 poems are not of a character to increase his poetic reputation greatly : 

 his beat production continues to be the ' Msescnicnnm,' notwithstand- 

 ing th-ir faults, though aome of the shorter piece* occasionally contain 

 nappy thought happily expressed. Various editions of his complete 

 work* have been published, the first in 1846, in 8 Tola. 8vo. A statue 

 in bronze by David d'Aogers ha* been placed in his native town of 



. 



DE'LFICO, MELCHIORRE, born of a nobli family at Teramo, in 

 the Abnuso, August 1, 1744, studied at Naples under Oenoveai, 

 Hasxooohi, and other learne I teacher,., and applied himself particularly 

 to the stiHy of the law and of political economy. After his return 

 to hi* native country he published bis first work, an essay in defence 



of matrimony, against some loose opinions of the time 'Saggio 

 Filosofico nel Matrimonio,' 1774. In 1782 he published a treatise on 

 the advantages of a provincial militia 'Discorso sul Ristabilimento 

 delU Milizia Provinciale.' He next wrote a ' Hemoria nellaColtivaziona 

 del Hiv> Comune in Provincia di Teramo,' in which he recommended 

 the removal of the unhealthy rice grounds from the neighbourhood 

 of towns and villages, a suggestion which was approved of and acted 

 upon by King Ferdinand. He also wrote several memoirs against the 

 laws restrictive of the trade in provisions ' Memorie sul Tribunate 

 della Qrascia e sulle Leggi Economiche nelle Provincie conGnauti del 

 Regno.' These memoirs being addressed to the king, had also the 

 effect of removing the obnoxious restrictions on the sale and exporta- 

 tion of rural produce. The government of Naples was at that time 

 disposed to useful reforms, and much was done to improve the con- 

 dition of the people, until the French revolution broke out, when the 

 Italian governments became suspicious and averse to change. Previous 

 to that however Dolfico continued to assist by his suggestions the 

 progress of social improvement. He wrote in 1787 a memoir against 

 the abuse of the winter transmigration of sheep from the highlands to 

 the maritime districts of the Abruzzo, by which a large tract of fertile 

 land was kept out of cultivation, ' Memorioau i Regii Stucchi, ossia sulla 

 Servitu dei Pascoli Invernali nelle Provincie Maritime degli Abruzzi,' 

 and soon after he published another treatise on the like practice 

 in the plain of Apulia 'Discorso sul Travoliere di Puglia,' Sro, 1788. 

 About the same time he wrote a ' Memoria su i pesi e le niiaure del 

 Regno,' recommending a uniform system of weights and measures 

 throughout the various provinces of the kingdom of Naples. His 

 next work was in favour of the free sale of fiefa which reverted to 

 the crown at the extinction of baronial families 'Rifleoaioni sulla 

 Vendita dei Feudi,' 1790, and ' Lettera al Duca di Cantalupo all i 

 feudi devoluti,' 1795. Here again his recommendation prevailed, and 

 a law was issued for the sale of feudal estates reverted to the crown 

 as allodial property. 



Delnco also addressed to the king a ' Rimostranza,' or ' Memorial,' 

 by which he obtained the establishment of a ' Regia Udienza,' or 

 royal court of justice for the province of Teramo, which till then was 

 dependent on the court of Chieti. King Ferdinand made Delfico a 

 Knight of the Order of Constantino. In 1799 the French invaded 

 the kingdom of Naples, and a few months after they were obliged to 

 evacuate it In the midst of those blood-stained vicissitudes, Delfico 

 thought it prudent to emigrate, and he repaired to San Marino, where 

 he was inscribed among the citizens of that republic, and where he 

 waited for more peaceful times. In gratitude for the hospitality 

 which he there met with, he wrote the history of that little state 

 from the documents which he found in its archives ' Memorie storiclio 

 della repubblica di San Marino raccolte dal Cavaliere Melchiorre 

 Delnco cittadino della medesima,' 4to, Milan, 1804. When Joseph 

 Bonaparte became King of Naples in 1806, Delfico was made coun- 

 cillor of state, and was also for a time intrusted with the manage- 

 ment of the home department. He contributed to the new judiciary 

 organisation of the kingdom and other useful measures, among others 

 to the establishment of the house for the insane at A versa. Ou the 

 restoration of King Ferdinand in 1815, Delfioo was made President of 

 the Commission of the Archives. In 1823 he tendered his resignation 

 on account of his great a,-e, and the king allowed him a handsomo 

 pension for life. He left Naples, and returned to bis native Teramo, 

 where be continued till his death, which occurred on the 21st of 

 June 1885, at the age of ninety-one. A few years before his death, as 

 the new king, the present Ferdinand IL, being on a tour through the 

 provinces, repaired to Teramo, in 1832, Delfico, who in his youth had 

 known his great grandfather King Charles Bourbon, the founder of 

 the Neapolitan dynasty, caused himself to be carried to the presence 

 of his youthful king, who received him with marks of respect, had 

 him seated by his side, and conversed long with him. 



Besides the works mentioned in the course of this article, Delfico 

 wrote the following : 1, ' Ricerche sul voro Carattera della Qiuris- 

 prudenza Romana, e de suoi Cultori,' 8vo, 1791, a work that has been 

 reprinted several times. 2, ' Pensieri su' la Storia e su' la Incertezza 

 ed Inutilita della medesima,' 8vo, Forli, 1806, also reprinted several 

 times. These two works are worthy of notice for a certain boldness 

 and originality of thought which sometimes aaaumes the form of 

 paradox. The author speaks of the ancient Romans and their insti- 

 tutions and manners with great severity ; he anticipates Niebuhr in 

 his scepticism concerning the legend of the early ages of Rome, and 

 be repeats the sentence of his countryman Vico, who said that the 

 Roman people, until the second Punic war, knew no other arts but 

 those of digging the ground and cutting the throats of their neigh- 

 bours. It U worthy of remark, that Neapolitan philosophers and 

 critics have shown less classical veneration for Rome than those of 

 other parts of Italy, and have exhibited more of a Samnite than a 

 Roman feeling in their historical investigations. 3, ' Dell' Autica 

 Numismatica della Citta di Atri nel Piceno con alcuni Opuscoli sulle 

 Origin! Italiche,' foL, Naples, 1823, a work of much antiquarian and 

 historical erudition. 4, ' Memorin sulla Liberia del Commercio, diretta 

 a risolvere il Problema proposto dall' Accodemia di Padova sullo 

 stesio Argomcnto,' inserted in the thirty-ninth volume of Custodi's 

 great collection of the Italian economists. Delfico was an advocate 

 of free trade. 5, ' Sugli Antichi Couftni del Regno,' written for tha 



