DALGARNO 



DALHOUSIE 



6/59 



physi.-.il science. For the great Encyclopedic 

 planned liy I Milciot he wrote the famous UUcoura 

 innniff, a noble tribute to literature and 

 philosophy, a model of lucid and eloquent exposi- 

 tion, although it- classification of the sciences is 

 open t<> ijiiesiimi. Besides mi men ni- articles in the 

 hm-iii-lnpfdie (the mathematical ]Krtion of which 

 he edited), he published lx>oks on philosophy, 

 literary criticism, the theory of music, and a 

 treatise, Snr In Di-xtrurtinn des Jesuites (17>.~>), 

 which involved him in controversy. He became 

 secretary to the Academy in 1772, and there- 

 after he wrote the lives of all the members 

 deceased letween 1700 ami that year one of the 

 iim-t pleasing of his works. His literary works 

 have been published in a collected form, new 

 edition, by Bossange (Paris, 5 vols. 1821). This 

 edition contains his correspondence with Voltaire 

 and the king of Prussia. His scientific works 

 have never been collected. 



So genuine was D'Alembert's love of independ- 

 ence that wealth and rank had no fascination 

 for him. Frederick II. of Prussia offered him 

 the presidency of the Academy of Berlin in 

 1752, but he declined to leave France, and only 

 accepted a subsequent offer of a pension of 1200 

 francs. The king of France granted him a 

 similar sum. In 1762 Catharine II. of Russia 

 invited him, through her ambassador, to undertake 

 the education of her son, with a salary of 100,000 

 francs ; and when he declined, she wrote him an 

 autograph letter, urging that to refuse to contribute 

 to the education of a whole nation was inconsistent 

 with his own principles ; and inviting him, if he 

 could not reconcile himself to the breaking-off of 

 his pursuits and friendships, to bring all his friends 

 wibh him, and she would provide both for them 

 and for him everything they could desire. But 

 he remained steadfast. D'Alembert never married. 

 He was tenderly attached for many years to 

 Mademoiselle Lespinasse (q.v.), with whom he 

 lived in the same house in Platonic affection for 

 nearly a dozen years, but who was scarce worthy 

 of his devotion. Her death in 1776 was a crushing 

 blow to the philosopher. He died October 29, 1783. 

 See his (Eitvres et Correspondences inedites, editeil 

 by Charles Henry ( Abbeville, 1887 ), and the Life 

 by J. Bertrand ( t'ar. 1889 ). 



Dalgarno, GEORGE, an almost forgotten but 

 very able author, was born at Aberdeen about 

 1626, studied at MarLschal College, and afterwards 

 kept a school in Oxford for thirty years, where he 

 died August 28, 1687. He deserves to be remem- 

 bered for two remarkable works the Am S/i/>t</nti, 

 vulgo Character Universalis et Lingua Phuotophica 

 ( 1661 ), and Didaicalocopkia, or the Deaf and. J)iunl> 

 JHan't Tutor ( 1680). The former is a very ingenious 

 attempt to represent and classify ideas by specific 

 arbitrary characters irrespective of words. It con- 

 tains the germs of Bishop Wilkins's subsequent 

 speculations in his work, A Real Character <nt<l 

 a Philosophical Language (1668). Leibnitz has 

 repeatedly alluded to it in complimentary terms. 

 The latter work has for its design ' to bring the 

 way of teaching a deaf man to read and write as 

 near as possible to that of teaching young ones to 

 speak and understand their mother- tongue.' 



Dalhousie, JAMES ANDREW BROUN-RAMSAY, 

 MARQUIS OF, Governor-general of India, and 

 'greatest of Indian proconsuls,' was the third son 

 of the ninth Earl of Dalhousie, and was Ixirn 

 April 22, 1812, at Dalhousie Castle, Midlothian. He 

 was educated at Harrow, and graduated at Christ 

 Church, Oxford. In 1832, by the death of his only 

 remaining brother, he succeeded to the courtesy title 

 of Lord Ramsay. In 1835 he stood unsuccessfully 

 for Edinburgh in the Conservative interest; in 1837 



was elected for Haddirigtonnhirp. On the death of 

 his father in 1H.'{K he entered the House of Peers 

 as Earl of Dalhoutde. In 1843 Sir Kohert Peel 

 iippninted him Vice-president of the Board of Trade, 

 sun! in 1845 he succeeded Mr Gladstone an Presi- 

 dent of the Board. The ' railway mania' threw an 

 iniiiiciiKe amount of labour and responsibility upon 

 his department ; but the energy, industry, and 

 administrative ability he displayed in his office, no 

 less than his readiness and lluency in parliament, 

 marked him out for the highest olhces in the 

 state. When Peel resigned oHice in 18411, Lord 

 John Russell paid the Karl of Dalhousie the rare 

 compliment of asking him to remain at the Board 

 of Trade, in order to carry out the regulations he 

 had framed for the railway system. In 1847 he 

 was appointed Governor-general of India, as suc- 

 cessor to Lord Hardinge, and arrived in Calcutta, 

 January 12, 1848 the youngest governor-general 

 ever sent to that country. His Indian adminis- 

 tration was not less splendid and successful in 

 regard to the acquisition of territory than in the 

 means he adopted for developing the resources 

 of the country, and improving the administration 

 of the East Indian government. Pegu and the 

 Punjab were conquered ; Nagpur, Oudh, Sattara, 

 Jhansi, and Berar were annexed altogether, four 

 great kingdoms, besides a numl>er of minor prin- 

 cipalities, were added to the dominions of the Queen. 

 Railways on a colossal scale were planned, and partly 

 commenced ; 4000 miles of electric telegraph were 

 spread over India ; 2000 miles of road l>etween 

 Calcutta and Peshawur were bridged and metal led; 

 the Ganges Canal, the largest of the kind in the 

 country, was opened ; important works of irriga- 

 tion all over India were planned and executed ; 

 and the department of public works was reorgan- 

 ised. Among other incidents of his beneficent ad- 

 ministration may be mentioned his energetic action 

 against suttee, thuggee, female infanticide, and the 

 slave-trade ; the organisation of the Legislative 

 Council ; the improved training of the civil service, 

 which was opened to all natural-born subjects of 

 the British crown, black or white ; the successful 

 development of trade, agriculture, forestry, mining; 

 and a great reform in the postal service of India. 

 In a minute which he drew up on resigning office, he 

 reviewed with pardonable pride the events of his 

 eight years' governor-generalship. His constitution 

 had never been strong, and it gave way under the in- 

 cessant labour and responsibility imposed upon him 

 by his noble ambition. Meanwhile, honours had 

 been showered upon him by his Queen and country 

 with no sparing hand : in 1848 he was made a 

 Knight of the Thistle ; in 1849 he received the mar- 

 quisate, the thanks of both Houses of Parliament 

 and of the East India Company for the 'zeal and 

 ability ' displayed in administering the resources of 

 British India in the contest with the Sikhs ; in 

 1852, on the death of Wellington, he was nomin- 

 ated by the then prime-minister, the Earl of Derby, 

 to the office of Constable of Her Majesty's Castle 

 of Dover and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. 

 Dalhousie sailed from Calcutta in March 1856. On 

 his arrival in England he was unable to take his 

 seat in the House of Lords ; and the remainder 

 of his days was spent in much physical suffering 

 and prostration or strength. On 19th Decemlwr 

 1860 lie died at Dalhousie Castle in his 48th year, 

 leaving behind him a name that ranks among the 

 highest in the roll of Indian viceroys for states- 

 manship, administrative vigour, and the faculty 

 of inspiring confidence among the millions sub- 

 jected to his sway. As he died without male 

 i--ne, his title of marquis became extinct, the 

 earldom of Dalhousie and other Scottish honours 

 reverting to his cousin, Baron Panmure. His 

 policy of annexation lias been blamed for the 



