DELFT DELILLE. 



In the civil law, delegation is tlmt act by which a 

 debtor transfers to another per>ou the duty to pay, 

 or a creditor transfers to another person the right to 

 receive paymrnt. 



DELFT; the name of some celebrated Dutch 

 painters, jiartieularly of James (born 1619, died 1661) 

 ami William Delft (towards the end of the sixteenth 

 rrntury). Both were born at Delft, were portrait 

 painters, and relations to the celebrated Mirevelt, 

 also a native of this town. 



DELFT ; a considerable town of South Holland, 

 Iietween Rotterdam and Leyden, traversed by a 

 canal which communicates with the Maese. Delft 

 is tolerably well built, but dark ; most of the streets 

 are divided by narrow, stagnant canals, except in 

 the centre of the town, where there are two spacious 

 streets, with broad canals bordered with trees. The 

 front of the stadthouse is extensive and curious, and 

 the interior contains some valuable paintings. In 

 the old church are the monuments of the admirals 

 Van Tromp and Tieter Heyn. Not far from it is the 

 building where William I. of Orange was murdered, 

 in 1584. In the new church, which lias a celebrated 

 set of chiming bells, is the splendid monument 

 erected in Ids honour, and, also, the monument of 

 Hugo Grotius, who was born in Delft. The town 

 contains an artillery and engineer school. The 

 manufacture of a kind of earthen ware called Del/t- 

 ware, in this place, is important. Here likewise are 

 made several kinds of fine cloth and carpets. 

 Butter, and, next to it, beer, are the principal objects 

 of the wholesale trade ; tobacco pipes, also, are made 

 in great quantities. Nine miles N. W. Rotterdam. 

 Population about 14,000. 



DELFTSHAVEN; a small, fortified town of 

 Holland, on the Maese ; population 2700 ; two 

 miles S. W. Rotterdam. 



DELFT-WARE is a kind of pottery covered with 

 an enamel or white glazing, which gives it the ap- 

 pearance and neatness of porcelain. Some kinds of 

 this enamelled pottery differ much from others, 

 either in sustaining sudden heat without breaking, 

 or in the beauty and regularity of their forms, 

 of their enamel, and of the painting with which they 

 are ornamented. In general, the fine and beautiful 

 enamelled ware, which approaches the nearest to 

 porcelain in external appearance, is that which least 

 resists a brisk fire. Again, those which sustain a 

 sudden heat are coarse, and resemble common pot- 

 tery. This kind of ware has its name from Delft, 

 in Holland, where it is made in large quantities. 

 See China Ware. 



DELHI ; a province of Hindoslan ; bounded N. 

 W. by Lahore, N. by the Himaleh mountains, which 

 separate it from Thibet, E. by Kemaoon and Oude, 

 S. by Agra, and W. by Agimere and Moultan; ly- 

 ing chiefly between lat. 28 and 31 N. ; about 250 

 mues long, and 180 broad ; population estimated at 

 about 5,000,000 Hindoos, Mohammedans, and 

 Seiks. The chief towns are Delhi, Sehaurunpour, 

 Sirhind, Tanaser, and Anopsheer. The principal 

 rivers are the Ganges and Jumnah. A great part 

 of it is sterile for want of water. It was formerly 

 much more wealthy and populous than at present. 

 Having been the seat of various wars, it has been 

 miserably laid waste, and in some parts almost depo- 

 pulated. The most fertile parts yield good pasture, 

 wheat, barley, and sugar-cane. The part east of the 

 Jumnah, with a considerable district round the city 

 of Delhi, belongs, in fact, to the British; but its 

 revenues are allotted to support the family and esta- 

 blishments of the emperor, or great mogul, now re- 

 duced to the humiliating state of dependence on a 

 foreign power. The southern part is possessed by 

 native chiefs in alliance with the British. The 



country north-west of the Jiimnah, and south of 

 the Setledge, is occupied by a number of petty Seik 

 chiefs. 



DELHI ; a city of Ilindostan ; capital of the pro- 

 vince of Delhi, and for many years of Iliiidestiin ; 

 on the Jumnah; 92 N. N. W. Agra, MO N. W. 

 Allahabad; Ion. 77 9' E. ; lat. 28" 43' N. popula- 

 tion variously estimated, from 100 to 200,000. The 

 ancient name was Indraput, Inderpitt, or ludcrjirest ; 

 the Mohammedan name is Stiulijiinuiuliud. It wns 

 for a long time the capital of Ilindostan, the seat of 

 the great mogul, the boast of India ; and, during the. 

 em of its splendour, is said to have occupied a she 

 twenty miles in length, and the ruins now cover 

 nearly as great a space. It was -taken, in 1193, by 

 the Mohammedans, under Cuttubaddeen Khan, who 

 fixed his residence here ; and, on his succeeding to 

 the throne, it became the capital of Ilindostan. In 

 1398, it was taken, pillaged, and reduced to a heap 

 of ruins, by Tamerlane. It afterwards partially re- 

 covered, till towards the end of the sixteenth century, 

 when Akbar transferred the seat of royalty to Agra. 

 In 1631, the emperor Shah Jehan founded die new 

 city of Delhi, on the west bank of the Jumnah, near 

 the ruins of the old city, and gave it the name 

 of Shahjehanabad. During the reign of Aureng- 

 zebe, the third son of Shah Jehan, the revenue of 

 the city amounted to .3,813,594, and its popula- 

 tion was computed at 2,000,000 probably an ex- 

 aggeration. It continued to increase in splendour 

 and importance till the invasion of Nadir Shah, in 

 1739, when 100,000 inhabitants were massacred, 

 and .62,000,000 sterling of plunder are said to have 

 been collected. It was again pillaged and depopu- 

 lated in 1756, 1759, and 1760, by Ahmed Abdallah. 

 Since 1803, it has been in reality subject to the 

 British government, though still the residence of the 

 emperor or great mogul, who has a nominal autho- 

 rity, but is virtually dependent on the British. 



Modern Delhi contains the remains of many 

 splendid palaces, and is adorned with many beautiful 

 mosques, still in good repair, the most remarkable of 

 which is called Jumnah Musjeed. This mosque is 

 261 feet long, the whole front faced with white 

 marble, surrounded at top with three magnificent 

 domes of white marble, flanked by two minarets. 

 The city has two spacious streets, leading from the 

 palace to the principal gates, and many good houses 

 built of brick. " The inhabited part of Dellii," says 

 bishop Heber, in his Narrative, " is about seven 

 miles in circuit, seated on a rocky range of hills, and 

 surrounded by an embattled wall, which the English 

 government have put into repair. The houses are 

 many of them large and high. There are a great 

 number of mosques, with high minarets and gilded 

 domes, and above all are seen the palace, a very high 

 and extensive cluster of Gothic towers and battle- 

 ments, and the Jumnah Musjeed, the largest and 

 handsomest place of Mussulman worship in India. 

 The chief material of all these fine buildings is red 

 granite, inlaid, in some of the ornamental parts, with 

 white marble ; and the general style of building is 

 of a simple and impressive character." Most of the 

 streets are narrow and irregular, and the houses 

 built without order, of brick, mud, bamboos, and 

 mats, generally covered with thatch, resembling a 

 motley group of villages, rather than an extensive 

 town. The bazars are but indifferently furnished. 

 Cotton cloths and indigo are manufactured in the 

 town and neighbourhood. In the vicinity, on the 

 banks of the Jumnah, corn, rice, millet, and indigo 

 are principally cultivated. The Baptists have a 

 missionary here. 



DELILLE, JAMES, (also Delisle, de Lille} ; the 

 most distinguished of the French didactic poets of 



