DESTRUCTORS 



I.I.I KnlT 



777 



nf i lie older comedians, but the moral tone of bin 



plays cannot he described as high. 



Destructors. See SKWAUB. 

 Desuetude, in Scots law, that re|K>al or r<-\<> 

 cat nut ut' a legal enact mem which is effected not 

 li\ a sul>-i-i|uent contrary enactment, but liy the 

 establishment of a contrary use, sanctioned by the 



lapse of time and tin- >ent if tin- cuinnninity. 



Neither the won! nor the idea attached to it is 

 familiar to the law of England where the corre- 

 sponding term is nmi IISIT. The rule in England is, 

 that a statute once formally enacted by the legisla- 

 ture, remains in force, however unsuited it may lie 

 tot lie altered conditions of society, till it Iw repealed 

 by another statute. The repeal may be by implica- 

 lion, but here the law watches with a jealous eye. 

 Such repeal ' is to be understood,' says Blackstone, 

 'only when the matter of the later statute is so 

 clearly repugnant that it necessarily implies a 

 negative.' So far was this principle carried, 

 that it was formerly the rule, that if a statute 

 repealing another was itself repealed afterwards, 

 the first statute was revived without any formal 

 words for that purpose. But this rule was 

 changed by 13 and 14 Viet. chap. 21. In Scot- 

 land, an opposite principle prevailed, and it is 

 still held that acts of parliament made before the 

 Union may lose their force by disuse, without any 

 express repeal, or 'go into desuetude,' as it is com- 

 monly said. The same may be said of the general 

 orders ( Acts of Sederunt, as they are called ) of the 

 Court of Session. But by desuetude is meant 

 something more than mere non-use for a period of 

 time, however great. There must be contrary use 

 of a positive kind, inconsistent with the statute, 

 and of such a kind as to prove the altered sense of 

 the community ; there must, in short, l>e con- 

 suetudinary law in a negative sense ; and the so- 

 called desuetude thus amounts to a repeal of statute 

 law by consuetudinary law. 



Both rules are liable to objections. The result 

 of that followed in England has l>een that 

 statutes have remained on the statute-book with- 

 out formal repeal after their enforcement had 

 become morally impossible. A curious example 

 of this occurred in the early part of this century, 

 in which one of the parties to an ordinary civil 

 suit challenged his adversary to 'judicial combat,' 

 founding his claim to do so upon an unrepealed 

 statute, and it was held that in point of form 

 his right could not be disputed (see DUEL). But 

 since 1869 the English statutes have been by the 

 Statute Law Revision Acts weeded to a great 

 extent of all obsolete and inconsistent enact- 

 ments, and a new edition of Revised Statutes has 

 been published, containing as far as possible only 

 such enactments as are in force. The rule in 

 Scotland is the same as the English as regards 

 all statutes made since the Union ; but as regard* 

 the older Scotch statutes, the difficulty still exists, 

 in dealing with enactments more or less forgotten 

 or violated, how to determine what constitutes such 

 contrary use as to support the plea of desuetude. 

 The effect of the plea of desuetude has been run 

 ously illustrated in some modern cases, where tin 

 validity of certain old Scots acts agaiatl Babbatl 

 profanation was questioned. In two case-., in 1*71 

 and again in 1887 (when a person was charged will 

 keeping open a pie and lemonade shop in contra 

 vention of the Act of 1061), the plea of desuetude 

 was disregarded. 



Detachment, in its Military sense, is a smal 

 but indefinite number of troops, sent from the mam 

 body of a regiment, brigade, division, or army, as 

 the case may be, to perform some special duty. Ii 

 the Royal Artillery the party of men who work 

 one gun is called a 'gun detachment.' 



Detective. See POLICE, Vol. Mil p. 280. 

 Determinant*, in matiicmatinti Knnl\M, a 



ymlxilicul method by which, inter alin, the mlu- 

 :ion of equation* IM-COIIICM a matter of m> 

 :ion. The development of the method i* due 

 nainly to the 1- rench mathematician Cauchy 

 ;<|.v.). The determinant i the MIIII of all the pro- 

 ducts that can lie funned from a group of quantities 

 arranged as columns and rows in a square block ; 

 each product containing as a factor one from each 

 ioi i/ontal row and one from each column ; the 

 sign being pins or minus, according AM the arrange- 

 ment of rows from which it is taken require* an 

 even or odd number of tasjMpoiftftMM to reduce 

 it to the arrangement in the square. The deter- 



a b c 

 minant of the third order a' b' c' is equal to 



(f v e 



a b' d'-a b" c' + a' b" c-a' b c* + a" 6 tf-cf V c. 

 Determinism. See WILL. 



DC t mold, capital of the German principality of 

 Linpe, on the Werre 47 miles SW. of Hanover by 

 rail. The chief buildings are the old castle, the 

 modern palace, and the theatre. Detmold has also 

 a museum, a public library, a hospital, a gymnasium, 

 and other schools. There are manufactures of to- 

 bacco, cards, and carved work in wood and stone, 

 and breweries. On a hill 2 miles from I "etmold is 

 a colossal statue of Arminius (q.v.). Pop. 9735. 



Detri'tUS applied in Geology to accumulations 

 formed by the disintegration of rocks, may consist 

 of angular and subangular debris, or of more or 

 less water- worn materials, such as gravel, sand, or 

 clay, or an admixture of these. See PLEISTOCKX E. 



Detroit* the chief commercial city and port of 

 entry of Michigan, and seat of justice of Wayne 

 county, is situated on Detroit 

 River, about 125 miles by water, 

 or 178 by land, NW. of Cleve- 

 land, Ohio, with which it is connected by daily 

 steamers and by railway lines. Railways also con- 

 nect with Chicago, 284 miles distant, and by way 

 of Windsor, on the opposite side of the river, the 

 Grand Trunk Railway of Canada affords direct 

 communication with the cities of the Dominion, 

 and a large number of vessels ply between this city 

 and the other ports on the Great Lakes. Its area 

 is aliout 30 square miles. 



Detroit is substantially built, itsstreets are broad, 

 well paved, and shaded, and its 20 public parka 

 cover about 900 acres. Chief among these is Belle 

 Isle Park, an island (area 700 acres) charnmidv 

 situated in Detroit River and handsomely improved, 

 and stretching from the city, with which a i- con- 

 nected by a drawbridge 3134 feet long, to Lake 8 

 Clair. The city is well supplied with water from 

 the river. Its fire and police department* nre ex- 

 cellent, and its 65 public schools with their 7 

 teachers afford accommodation and instruction 

 for about 30,000 pupils, the expenses for which 

 in 1896 were $T>08,781.S7. The principal manufac- 

 tures include iron products, railroad can*, flour, 

 malt liquors, cigars, leather, Units and shoes, stoves. 

 drugs, Ac., with an annual value of $80,000,000. and 

 the "mercantile transactions embrace a large trade 

 in grain ( |-J,(HX),000 bushels annually). Hour, live- 

 stock, lumU-r, wool, pork, cop|*-r. \e. The tonnage 

 of the shipping passing Detroit i> over 38,000,000 

 tons; value of in>|>orts (1896) *3.:is:<. Htt. e M M,,ts 

 $11,228,120. Of its :*H) v, .-U. l.'iO are steamer*. 

 The street-, are lighted with electricity (d*>t of plant 

 $630,141.72). and iminyof them are lined with trees. 

 The public buildings embrace a Qatbotte cathedral 

 and nearly 200 churches of almost all denomina- 

 tions, a city hall erected at a cost of about $600,000. 

 a Board of Trade building, a convent, 3 



CopTrifbt 18W. UK. i 



1900" lu UM C. 8. fcy i. B. 

 Uppiooott Copy. 



