677 



DUPLEIX, JOSEPH-FRANCOIS. 



DDPUIS, CHARLES-FRANCOIS. 



678 



DUPLEIX, JOSEPH-FRANCOIS, was born towards the end of 

 the 17tU century. His father was a farmer-general of the French 

 revenues and a director of the French East India Company. Intend- 

 ing to form his son for commercial pursuits of the highest kind, he 

 bad him educated in mathematics, engineering, and fortification, and 

 in 1715 sent him to sea, and he made several voyages to America and 

 the Indies. The influence of his father procured him the situation 

 of a member of the council at Pondicherry, then the seat of govern- 

 ment of the French East India Company in Hindustan, and Dupleix 

 landed there in 1720. He remained in this situation about ten years, 

 during which he devoted himself to the business of his office, made 

 himself well acquainted with the commerce of the country, embarked 

 in it on his own account, and realised a large property. Meantime 

 his talents and information pointed him out s the most proper person 

 to superintend the business of the company at their settlement of 

 Chandernagore, on the river Hoogly, about 16 miles above Calcutta. 

 His activity and ent2rprise soon produced a favourable change on the 

 place ; the colonists multiplier), he entered into the country trade, 

 and he and his partners had not less than twelve vessels trading to 

 Surat, the coast of Malabar, the Maldives, the Philippines, and else- 

 where. He increased his own property to a very great amount, at;d 

 during his administration of about ten years, more than 2000 brick- 

 houstt were built at Chandernngore, a new establishment for the 

 French company was formed at Patna, and their commerce in Bengal 

 was greatly extended. 



The reputation which Dupleix had acquired by his administration 

 at Chanderna'.-ore pointed him out as the most suitable person to bo 

 appointed governor at Pondicberry of all the establishments of the 

 French in Hindustan. To this situation he was accordingly appointed 

 in 1742. The French had at this time another governor in the E;ist 

 Indie.', with distinct and independent power, whose seat of govern- 

 ment was in the Isle of France (Mauritius), and included the island 

 of Bourbon. This governor was La Bourdonnais, a naval officer of 

 the greatest skill and courage. War having broken out iu 1741 

 between the French_and English, La Bourdonnais collected a squadron 

 at Mauritius, with which the English ships off the coast of the Car- 

 natic were unable to contend ; he then lauded a body of troop.", 

 September 14, 1746, and compelled Madras, at that time a settlement 

 of the English, to surrender ; but entered into a treaty to restore it 

 on the payment of a stipulated sum. This was in accordance with 

 direct orders from the French government, who did not at that time 

 deem it prudent to extend their territory in Hindustan. Dupleix 

 however was of a directly opposite opinion, and he refused to abide 

 by the terms of the capitulation. This led to violent disputes 

 between Dupleix and La Bourdonnais, the result of which was that 

 La Bourdonnais was recalled home, and Dupleix retained Madras, 

 and plundered it. He afterwards made three or four attempts, but 

 without success, to capture Fort St. David, another English settle- 

 ment on the Coromandcl coast, about twelve miles south from 

 Pondicherry. As it was the main object of Dupleix to expel the 

 English from Hindustan, or at least from its eastern coast, and he 

 was unable to accomplish it by his own troops, he entered into various 

 intrigues with the native princes, especially with the eoubahdar or 

 viceroy of the Deccan, and the nabob of the Carnatic. The conflicts 

 between the French and English, each supported alternately by the 

 native rulirs, continued till 1754. In that year a conference was held 

 in London between agents appointed by the French and English 

 East India Companies, and attended also by a minister from each 

 government. By a decision of this conference Dupleix was recalled 

 to France, and M. Qodheu, who superseded him in the government of 

 all the French possessions in Hindustan, landed at Pondicherry on 

 the 2nd of August. Dupleix, after hia return to Paris, iu vain 

 endeavoured to obtain repayment of vast sums of money which he 

 had expended on account of the East India Company, and after a 

 series of unsuccessful law-suits, died of grief. Voltaire, ' Pre'cis du 

 Siicl'j do Louis XIV.,' ch. 3D, says, "II en uaourut bicutdt do 

 chagrin." 



DUPONCEAU, PETER S., LL.D., was born in the He de Rh<S, in 

 France, about 1760. He went early to the United States of North 

 America, served in the army, and afterwards iu the office of the 

 secretary of state. He subsequently practised for some years at tho 

 bar, but quitted the law for literature. Ho was a member of several 

 literary societies, an 1 iu 1828 became president of the American 

 Philosophical Society. In 1835 he gained the Volney prize at the 

 Institute of France bj a 'Mdmoire sur le Systeme Grammatical des 

 Langues de rjuelques Nations Indienues de 1'Amdrique du Nord,' 

 which was printed in Svo at Paris, in 1833, under the care of M. J. B. 

 )'.. Eyries. This ' Mdmoiro' contains an account and examination of 

 the languages of what the author denominates the Algonquin races, or 

 the tribes calling themselves the Chippeways, or Ojibbeways. Among 

 the other works of Duponceau are: 'A Dissertation on the Nature 

 and Extent of the Jurisdiction of the Courts of the United States,' 

 8 TO, Philadelphia, 1834; 'A Brief View of the Constitution of the 

 l/nited States,' Svo, Philadelphia, 1834 ; and ' A Dissertation ou the 

 Nature and Character of the Chinese System of Writing,' Svo, Phil- 

 adelphia, 1838. The object of this last work is to refute the common 

 notion that the Chinese written characters do not in any sense repre- 

 sent words, but only ideas, and the inference thence deduced, that they 



may be read and made use of by other nations who do not understand 

 the Chinese spoken language as for instance by the Japanese and 

 Coreans. This able man, whose works are all, as far as we have 

 examined them, marked by careful research and sound information, 

 as well as by just and independent thinking, died at Philadelphia on 

 the 2nd of Api-ill844. 



DUPONT DE L'EURE, JACQUES-CHARLES, was born at 

 Neubourg, department de 1'Eure, on the 27th of February 1767. 

 He was an advocate, practising in Normandy, when the revolution 

 began in 1789, and was made a judge in one of the law courts of 

 Louviers iu 1792. In 1798 he was a member of the Council of Five 

 Hundred, and on the 18th Brumaire was driven out by the bayouets 

 of Murat. He belonged to the Corps Legislatif in 1813, and the 

 following year was elected a deputy of the new Chamber. During 

 the governments of Louis XVIII., of Charles X., and of Louis Philippe, 

 he attached himself without deviation to the cause he had first adopted 

 of constitutional reform, and on more than one critical occasion took 

 the lead of the liberal party. After the revolution of July 1830, 

 Dupout de 1'Eure became a commissioner of the law in the provisional 

 government in his own department, and soon after, yielding to the 

 entreaties of Lafitte, he accepted the office of Minister of Justice; but 

 his principles and want of flexibility were suited ueither to his col- 

 leagues nor to his sovereign, so that he resigned his portfolio on the 

 27th of December 1830, and resumed his place in the ranks of the 

 opposition. After the fall of Louis Philippe in February 1848, Dupont 

 de 1'Eure became, against his own wish, a member of the provisional 

 government He died in 1855, at the age of eighty-eight. A firm but 

 by no means a violent republican, he was generally respected as a 

 consistent and honest politician. 



DUPONT, PIERRE, was born at Lyon, in France, April 21, 1821, 

 the son of labouring people. He was educated by his godfather, a 

 priest, and very early began to write songs, which ho also sang. He 

 attracted notice, and in 1844 a volume of poems was published by 

 subscription, entitled ' The Two Angels.' He then went to Paris, and 

 obtained a place in the office of the secretary of the Institute. He 

 continued to pour forth songs, most of them vividly descriptive of the 

 scenes and feelings of country life, with a freshness, a strength, and a 

 simplicity, that remind us of some of the best of our English lyrical 

 peasant poets. He did not however confine himself to rural subject.". 

 He wrote many political songs iu favour of republicanism, which 

 became extremely popular : one was ' The Song of Bread," written in 

 1848; another was 'The Song of the Workers.' On tha coup-d'dtat 

 (December, 1851) taking place he was arrested, but was released in 

 consequence of the strong intercessions iu his favour. 



DUPUIS, CHARLES-FRANCOIS, was born of poor parents, at 

 FrycS-Chateau, between Gisors and Chaumont, ou the 26th of October 

 1742. His early instructions were due to his father, who, though in 

 very humble circumstances, appears to have been a mau of some 

 learning and considerable intelligence ; aud the early turn of mind in 

 young Dupuis was very decidedly to mathematics and astronomy. 

 It was his good fortune to become known while yet a boy to the 

 Due de Rochefoucault, who procured him an exhibition to the college 

 of Harcourt. His studies here took a new direction, and he made 

 such rapid progri-ss iu them as to secure the highest opinion of the 

 professors of the college, and give promise of distinction in future life. 



Before the age of twenty-four, ho was appointed professor of rhetoric 

 in the college of Lisieux ; and having sufficient leisure allowed him 

 by his duties, he completed his course of law studies, and in 1770 

 was admitted an advocate of the parliament. Being directed by the 

 rector of his university to pronounce the discourse on the distribu- 

 tion of the prizes, this led also to his being nominated to deliver the 

 funeral oration, in tha name of the university, on the queen Marie- 

 Therese. With thesa his literary reputation commenced, and they 

 are considered good specimens of purity and eleganco iu Latin 

 composition. 



The nature of his literary pursuits again led him into contact with 

 the subjects of his early study ; and profiting by the lessons and the 

 friendship of Lalaude, he entered upon the study of astronomical 

 history with a zeal which never abated to the close of his life. His 

 attention was especially directed in the first place to the probable 

 signification of the astronomical symbols which constituted the signs 

 of the zodiac; and thence to all the other ancient constellations. 

 His active mind however even in the midst of these deeply interesting 

 speculations, waa alive to other objects ; and among his amusements 

 was the construction of a telegraph, founded on the suggestions of 

 Amontons, by means of which, from 1778 to the commencement of 

 the Revolution, he carried ou a correspondence with his friend M. 

 Fortin, who was resident at Bagneux, he himself being located at 

 Belleville. This mode of correspondence he however very prudently 

 laid aside, lest it should lay him open to suspicion from tha factions 

 that then governed France. 



In 1777 and 1778 he published in the 'Journal des Savans' the 

 first sketches of the theory at which he had arrived ; and shortly 

 after, both in the astronomy of his friend Lalande, and iu a separate 

 4to volume under the title of ' MtSmoire eur 1'Origiue des Constella- 

 tious et sur 1'explication de la Fable par 1'Astronomie,' 1781. The 

 sceptical tendency of the views entertained by Dupuis led Condorcet 

 to recommend him to Frederick the Great, as professor of literature 



