Chapter XIV: Part II: "The Precursors of the Violin Family" (1908-1909) (2)

In Congress, though one of the youngest members, he at once sprang into prominence by his clever defence of Jackson during the consideration by the House of a bill remitting the fine imposed on Jackson for contempt of court in New Orleans. He was soon recognized as one of the ablest and most energetic of the Democratic leaders. An enthusiastic believer in the destiny of his country and more especially of the West, and a thoroughgoing expansionist, he heartily favoured in Congress the measures which resulted in the annexation of Texas and in the Mexican War--in the discussion of the annexation of Texas he suggested as early as 1845 that the states to be admitted should come in slave or free, as their people should vote when they applied to Congress for admission, thus foreshadowing his doctrine of "Popular Sovereignty." He took an active share in the Oregon controversy, asserting his unalterable determination, in spite of President Polk's faltering from the declaration of his party's platform, not to "yield up one inch" of the territory to Great Britain, and advocating its occupation by a military force; indeed he consistently regarded Great Britain as the natural and foremost rival of the United States, the interests of the two nations, he thought, being always opposed, and few senators fought more vigorously the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty or Great Britain's reassertion of the right of search on the high seas. He ardently supported the policy of making Federal appropriations (of land, but not of money) for internal improvements of a national character, being a prominent advocate of the construction, by government aid, of a trans-continental railway, and the chief promoter (1850) of the Illinois Central; in 1854 he suggested that Congress should impose tonnage duties from which towns and cities might themselves pay for harbour improvement, &c. To him as chairman of the committee on territories, at first in the House, and then in the Senate, of which he became a member in December 1847, it fell to introduce the bills for admitting Texas, Florida, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, California and Oregon into the Union, and for organizing the territories of Minnesota, Oregon, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, Kansas and Nebraska. In 1848 he introduced a bill proposing that all the territory acquired from Mexico should be admitted into the Union as a single state, and upon the defeat of this bill proposed others providing for the immediate admission of parts of this territory.

In the bitter debates concerning the keenly disputed question of the permission of slavery in the territories, Douglas was particularly prominent. Against slavery itself he seems never to have had any moral antipathy; he married (1847) the daughter[1] of a slaveholder, Colonel Robert Martin of North Carolina, and a cousin of Douglas's colleague in Congress, D. S. Reid; and his wife and children were by inheritance the owners of slaves, though he himself never was. He did more probably than any other one man, except Henry Clay, to secure the adoption of the Compromise Measures of 1850. In 1849 the Illinois legislature demanded that its representatives and senators should vote for the prohibition of slavery in the Mexican cession, but next year this sentiment in Illinois had grown much weaker, and, both there and in Congress, Douglas's name was soon to become identified with the so-called "popular sovereignty" or "squatter sovereignty" theory, previously enunciated by Lewis Cass, by which each territory was to be left to decide for itself whether it should or should not have slavery. In 1850 his power of specious argument won back to him his Chicago constituents who had violently attacked him for not opposing the Fugitive Slave Law.

The bill for organizing the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, which Douglas reported in January 1854 and which in amended form was signed by the president on the 30th of May, reopened the whole slavery dispute--wantonly, his enemies charged, for the purpose of securing Southern support,--and caused great popular excitement, as it repealed the Missouri Compromise, and declared the people of "any state or territory" "free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States." The passage of this Kansas-Nebraska Bill, one of the most momentous in its consequences ever passed by the Federal Congress, was largely a personal triumph for Douglas, who showed marvellous energy, adroitness and resourcefulness, and a genius for leadership. There was great indignation throughout the free states; and even in Chicago Douglas was unable to win for himself a hearing before a public meeting. In 1852, and again in 1856, he was a candidate for the presidential nomination in the national Democratic convention, and though on both occasions he was unsuccessful, he received strong support. In 1857 he broke with President Buchanan and the "administration" Democrats and lost much of his prestige in the South, but partially restored himself to favour in the North, and especially in Illinois, by his vigorous opposition to the method of voting on the Lecompton constitution, which he maintained to be fraudulent, and (in 1858) to the admission of Kansas into the Union under this constitution. In 1858, when the Supreme Court, after the vote of Kansas against the Lecompton constitution, had decided that Kansas was a "slave" territory, thus quashing Douglas's theory of "popular sovereignty," he engaged in Illinois in a close and very exciting contest for the senatorship with Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate, whom he met in a series of debates (at Ottawa, Freeport, Jonesboro, Charleston, Galesburg, Quincy and Alton), in one of which, that at Freeport, Douglas was led to declare that any territory, by "unfriendly legislation," could exclude slavery, no matter what the action of the Supreme Court. This, the famous "Freeport Doctrine," lost to Douglas the support of a large element of his party in the South, and in Illinois his followers did not poll so large a vote as Lincoln's. Douglas, however, won the senatorship by a vote in the legislature of 54 to 46. In the Senate he was not reappointed chairman of the committee on territories. In 1860 in the Democratic national convention in Charleston the adoption of Douglas's platform brought about the withdrawal from the convention of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina, Florida, Texas and Arkansas. The convention adjourned to Baltimore, where the Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and Maryland delegations left it, and where Douglas was nominated for the presidency by the Northern Democrats; he campaigned vigorously but hopelessly, boldly attacking disunion, and in the election, though he received a popular vote of 1,376,957, he received an electoral vote of only 12--Lincoln receiving 180. Douglas urged the South to acquiesce in Lincoln's election. On the outbreak of the Civil War, he denounced secession as criminal, and was one of the strongest advocates of maintaining the integrity of the Union at all hazards. At Lincoln's request he undertook a mission to the border states and the North-west to rouse the spirit of Unionism; he spoke in West Virginia, Ohio and Illinois. He died on the 3rd of June 1861 at Chicago, where he was buried on the shore of Lake Michigan; the site was afterwards bought by the state, and an imposing monument with a statue by Leonard Volk now stands over his grave.

In person Douglas was conspicuously small, being hardly five feet in height, but his large head and massive chest and shoulders gave him the popular sobriquet "The Little Giant." His voice was strong and carried far, he had little grace of delivery, and his gestures were often violent. As a resourceful political leader, and an adroit, ready, skilful tactician in debate, he has had few equals in American history.

See Allen Johnson's _Stephen A. Douglas: A Study in American Politics_
(New York, 1908), W. G. Brown's _Stephen Arnold Douglas_ (Boston,
1902), and an excellent review of his later life in James Ford
Rhodes's _History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850_
(New York, 1893-1906); also P. O. Ray, _Repeal of the Missouri
Compromise_ (Cleveland, Ohio, 1909), and E. C. Carr, _Stephen A.
Douglas_ (Chicago, 1909).

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Her death in 1853 was a great blow to him and embittered him. in
November 1856 he married Adele Cutts, a Maryland belle, a grandniece
of Dolly Madison, and a Roman Catholic, who became the leader of
Washington society, especially in the winter of 1857-1858, when
Douglas was in revolt against Buchanan.

DOUGLAS, the capital of the Isle of Man, a municipal borough and a favourite watering-place. Pop. (1901) 19,223. It stands on a fine semicircular bay on the east coast of the island, at the common mouth of two streams, the Awin-Dhoo and Awin-Glass, 62 m. W.N.W. of Fleetwood and 80 m. N.W. of Liverpool. The older streets are irregular and narrow, but the town has greatly extended in modern times, with numerous terraces of good dwelling-houses. A fine parade sweeps round the bay, which, from Derby Castle on the north to Douglas Head on the south, has a circuit exceeding 2 m. Low hills, penetrated by the valleys of the Dhoo and Glass, encircle the town on the north, west and south, the southern spur projecting seaward in the promontory of Douglas Head. The harbour, in the river mouth, lies immediately north of this; vessels drawing 9 ft. may enter it during neap tides, and those drawing 13 ft. during spring tides. A castellated building, called the Tower of Refuge, erected in 1832, marks the dangerous Conister rocks, north of the harbour entrance. The Battery pier protects the entrance on the south-west, and there is a short pier (the Red pier) within the harbour, while the Victoria pier on the north, at which passengers can land and embark at all heights of the tide, was erected in 1872. There is regular daily communication with Liverpool by the steamers of the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, and during the season there are connexions with Fleetwood, Barrow, Dublin, Belfast and Glasgow. Douglas is connected by electric tramway northward with Laxey, the summit of the mountain of Snaefell and Ramsey, and southward with Port Soderick, while the Isle of Man railway runs to Peel in the west, and Castletown and Port Erin in the south-west. The town has services of cable and horse trams. The various popular attractions of Douglas include theatres, dancing halls, a race-course and two golf links Howstrake and Quarter Bridge. The shore of the bay is of firm sand (covered at high tide), and the sea-bathing is good. Among buildings and institutions in Douglas may be mentioned the legislative buildings (1893), the town hall (1899), the large free library, the court house and the Isle of Man hospital. Castle Mona, erected in 1804 by John, 4th duke of Arrol and lord of Man, is transformed into an hotel. St George's church, the oldest remaining in Douglas, dates from 1780. Douglas was incorporated in 1895, and is governed by a mayor, six aldermen and eighteen councillors.

DOUGLAS, a village of Lanarkshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901) 1206. It is situated on Douglas water, 3 m. from Douglas station on the branch line from Carstairs to Ayr, 11 m. by road S.S.W. of Lanark. It is a place of ancient aspect, bearing evident signs of decay, but possesses peculiar interest as the original home of the great Douglas family. Of the old castle, Scott's _Castle Dangerous_, only a tower exists. The stronghold repeatedly changed hands during the wars waged against Edward I. for the independence of Scotland. The modern castle is the seat of the earl of Home. Only the choir and spire remain of the 12th-century church of St Bride, the patron saint of the Douglases. The vault beneath the choir was, until 1761, the burial-place of the family, and it contains a silver case said to hold the ashes of the heart of the "good Sir James" (1286-1330). In 1879 the choir was restored and the tombs (including that of Sir James Douglas) repaired. David Hackston of Rathillet, the Covenanter, is stated to have been captured in the village (in a house still standing) after the battle of Aird's Moss in 1680. On the hill of Auchensaugh (1286 ft.), 2-1/2 m. S.E., the Cameronians assembled in 1712 to renew the Solemn League and Covenant. This gathering, the "Auchensaugh Wark," as it was called, led up to the secession of the Reformed Presbyterians from the Kirk.

DOUGLASS, FREDERICK (1817-1895), American orator and journalist, was born in Tuckahoe, Talbot county, Maryland, probably in February 1817. His mother was a negro slave of exceptional intelligence, and his father was a white man. Until nearly eight years of age, he was under the care of his grandmother; then he lived for a year on the plantation of Colonel Edward Lloyd, of whose vast estate his master, Captain Aaron Anthony, was manager. After a year he was sent to Baltimore, where he lived in the family of Hugh Auld, whose brother, Thomas, had married the daughter of Captain Anthony; Mrs Auld treated him with marked kindness and without her husband's knowledge began teaching him to read. With money secretly earned by blacking boots he purchased his first book, the _Columbian Orator_; he soon learned to write "free passes" for runaway slaves. Upon the death of Captain Anthony in 1833, he was sent back to the plantation to serve Thomas Auld, who hired him out for a year to one Edward Covey, who had a wide reputation for disciplining slaves, but who did not break Frederick's spirit. Although a new master, William Freeland, who owned a large plantation near St Michael's, Md., treated him with much kindness, he attempted to escape in 1836, but his plans were suspected, and he was put in jail. From lack of evidence he was soon released, and was then sent to Hugh Auld in Baltimore, where he was apprenticed as a ship caulker. He learned his trade in one year, and in September 1838, masquerading as a sailor, he escaped by railway train from Baltimore to New York city. For the sake of greater safety he soon removed to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he changed his name from Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey to Frederick Douglass, "Douglass" being adopted at the suggestion of a friend who greatly admired Scott's _Lady of the Lake_. For three years he worked as a day labourer in New Bedford. An extempore speech made by him before an anti-slavery meeting at Nantucket, Mass., in August 1841 led to his being appointed one of the agents of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, and in this capacity he delivered during the next four years numerous addresses against slavery, chiefly in the New England and middle states. To quiet the suspicion that he was an impostor, in 1845 he published the _Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave_. Fearing his recapture, his friends persuaded him to go to England, and from August 1845 to April 1847 he lectured in Ireland, Scotland and England, and did much to enlist the sympathy of the British public with the Abolitionists in America. Before his return a sum of L150 was raised by subscription to secure his legal manumission, thus relieving him from the fear of being returned to slavery in pursuance of the Fugitive Slave Law. From 1847 to 1860 he conducted an anti-slavery weekly journal, known as _The North Star_, and later as _Frederick Douglass's Paper_, at Rochester, New York, and, during this time, also was a frequent speaker at anti-slavery meetings. At first a follower of Garrison and a disunionist, he allied himself after 1851 with the more conservative political abolitionists, who, under the leadership of James G. Birney, adhered to the national Constitution and endeavoured to make slavery a dominant political issue. He disapproved of John Brown's attack upon Harper's Ferry in 1859, and declined to take any part in it. During the Civil War he was among the first to suggest the employment of negro troops by the United States government, and two of his sons served in the Union army. After the war he was for several years a popular public lecturer; in September 1866 he was a delegate to the national Loyalist convention at Philadelphia; and in 1869 he became the editor, at Washington, of a short-lived weekly paper, _The New National Era_, devoted to the interests of the negro race. In 1871 he was assistant secretary of the Santo Domingo commission, appointed by President Grant. He was marshal of the District of Columbia from 1877 to 1881, was recorder of deeds for the district from 1881 to 1886, and from 1889 to 1891 was the American minister resident and consul-general in the Republic of Haiti. He died in Anacostia Heights, District of Columbia, on the 20th of February 1895. He was widely known for his eloquence, and was one of the most effective orators whom the negro race has produced in America.

His autobiography appeared, after two revisions, as _The Life and
Times of Frederick Douglass_ (London, 1882). See F. M. Holland,
_Frederick Douglass, The Colored Orator_ (New York, 1891); C. W.
Chesnutt, _Frederick Douglass_, (Boston, 1899); and Booker T.
Washington, _Frederick Douglass_ (Philadelphia, 1907), in the series
of American Crisis Biographies.

DOUKHOBORS, a name given by the Russian Orthodox clergy to a community of nonconformist peasants. The word etymologically signifies "spirit-fighters," being originally intended by the priesthood to convey that they fight against the Spirit of God; but the Doukhobors themselves accepted the term as signifying that they fight, not against, but for and with the Spirit. Of late, however, they have decided to give up this name and call themselves "Christians of the Universal Brotherhood." This religious community was first heard of in the middle of the 18th century. By the end of that century or the beginning of the 19th their doctrine had become so clearly defined, and the number of their members had so greatly increased, that the Russian government and Church, considering this sect to be peculiarly obnoxious, started an energetic campaign against it. The foundation of the Doukhobors' teaching consists in the belief that the Spirit of God is present in the soul of man, and directs him by its word within him. They understand the coming of Christ in the flesh, his works, teaching and sufferings, in a spiritual sense. The object of the sufferings of Christ, in their view, was to give an example of suffering for truth. Christ continues to suffer in us even now when we do not live in accordance with the behests and spirit of his teaching. The whole teaching of the Doukhobors is penetrated with the Gospel spirit of love. Worshipping God in the spirit, they affirm that the outward Church and all that is performed in it and concerns it has no importance for them. The Church is where two or three are gathered together, i.e. united in the name of Christ. They pray inwardly at all times; on fixed days they assemble for prayer-meetings, at which they greet each other fraternally with low bows, thereby acknowledging every man as a bearer of the Divine Spirit. Their teaching is founded on tradition, which is called among them the "Book of Life," because it lives in their memory and hearts. It consists of sacred songs or chants, partly composed independently, partly formed out of the contents of the Bible, which, however, has evidently been gathered by them orally, as until quite lately they were almost entirely illiterate and did not possess any written book. They found alike their mutual relations and their relations to other people--and not only to people, but to all living creatures--exclusively on love, and therefore they hold all people equal and brethren. They extend this idea of equality also to the government authorities, obedience to whom they do not consider binding upon them in those cases when the demands of these authorities are in conflict with their conscience; while in all that does not infringe what they regard as the will of God they willingly fulfil the desire of the authorities. They consider killing, violence, and in general all relations to living beings not based on love as opposed to their conscience and to the will of God. They are industrious and abstemious in their lives, and when living up to the standard of their faith they present one of the nearest approaches to the realization of the Christian ideal which have ever been attained. In many ways they have thus a close resemblance to the Quakers or Society of Friends. For these beliefs and practices the Doukhobors long endured cruel persecution. Under Nicholas I., in the years 1840 and 1850, the Doukhobors, who on religious grounds refused to participate in military service, were all banished from the government of Tauris--whither they had been previously transported from various parts of Russia by Alexander I.--to Transcaucasia, near the Turkish frontier. But neither the severe climate nor the neighbourhood of wild and warlike hillmen shook their faith, and in the course of half a century, in one of the most unhealthy and unfertile localities in the Caucasus, they transformed this wilderness into flourishing colonies, and continued to live a Christian and laborious life, making friends with, instead of fighting, the hillmen. But the wealth to which they attained in the Caucasus weakened for a time their moral fervour, and little by little they began to depart somewhat from the requirements of their belief. As soon, however, as events happened among them which disturbed their outward tranquillity, the religious spirit which had guided their fathers immediately revived within them. In 1887, in the reign of the tsar Alexander III., universal military service was introduced in the Caucasus; and even those for whom, as in the case of the Doukhobors, it had formerly been replaced with banishment, were called upon to serve. This measure took the Doukhobors unawares, and at first they outwardly submitted to it. About the same time, by the decision of certain government officials, the right to the possession of the public property of the Doukhobors (valued at about L50,000) passed from the community to one of their members, who had formed out of the more demoralized Doukhobors a group of his own personal adherents, which was henceforth called the "Small Party." Soon afterwards several of the most respected representatives of the community were banished to the government of Archangel. This series of calamities was accepted by the Doukhobors as a punishment from God, and a spiritual awakening of a most energetic character ensued. The majority (about 12,000 in number) resolved to revive in practice the traditions left them by their fathers, which they had departed from during the period of opulence. They again renounced tobacco, wine, meat and every kind of excess, many of them dividing up all their property in order to supply the needs of those who were in want, and they collected a new public fund. They also renounced all participation in acts of violence, and therefore refused military service. In confirmation of their sincerity, in the summer of 1895 the Doukhobors of the "Great Party," as they were called in distinction from the "Small Party," burnt all the arms which they, like other inhabitants of the Caucasus, had taken up for their protection from wild animals, and those who were in the army refused to continue service. At the commencement of the reign of the tsar Nicholas II., in 1895, the Doukhobors became the victims of a series of persecutions, Cossack soldiers plundering, insulting, beating and maltreating both men and women in every way. More than 400 families of Doukhobors who were living in the province of Tiflis were ruined and banished to Georgian villages. Of 4000 thus exiled, more than 1000 died in the course of the first two years from exhaustion and disease; and more would have perished had not information reached Count Leo Tolstoy and his friends, and through them the Society of Friends in England. Funds were immediately raised by sympathizers for alleviating the sufferings of the starving victims. At the same time an appeal, written by Tolstoy and some of his friends, requesting the help of public opinion in favour of the oppressed Doukhobors, was circulated in St Petersburg and sent to the emperor and higher government officials. The Doukhobors themselves asked for permission to leave Russia, and the Society of Friends petitioned the emperor to the same effect. In March 1898 the desired permission was granted, and the first party of Doukhobors, 1126 in number, were able in the summer of 1898 to sail from Batum for Cyprus, which was originally chosen for their settlement because at that time funds were not sufficient for transferring them to any other British territory. But as contributions accumulated, it was found possible to send a number of Doukhobor emigrants to Canada, whither they arrived in two parties, numbering above 4000, in January 1899. They were joined in the spring of the same year by the Cyprus party, and another party of about 2000 arrived from the Caucasus. In all about 7500 Doukhobor immigrants arrived in Canada. The Canadian government did their best to facilitate the immigration, and allotted land to the Doukhobors in the provinces of Assiniboia near Yorktown and of Saskatchewan near Thunder Hill and Prince Albert. They were very cordially received by the population of the Canadian port towns. In April 1901, in the Canadian House of Commons, the minister of justice made a statement about them in which he said that "not a single offence had been committed by the Doukhobors; they were law-abiding, and if good conduct was a recommendation, they were good immigrants.... The large tracts of land demanded population, and if they were not given to crime, the conclusion was that they would make good citizens." About eighteen months after they arrived in Canada the Doukhobors sent the Society of Friends a collective letter in which they sincerely thanked the English and American Friends for all the generous help of every kind they had received at their hands, but begged the Quakers to cease sending them any more pecuniary support, as they were now able to stand on their own feet, and therefore felt it right that any further help should be directed to others who were more in need of it. At Yorktown in the summer of 1907 the Doukhobors established one of the largest and best brick-making plants in Canada, a significant testimony to the way in which the leaders of the community were working in the interests of the whole. Now and again small bodies broke off from the main community and adopted a semi-nomadic life, but these formed a very small percentage of the total number, which in 1908 was over 8000.

See also _Christian Martyrdom in Russia_, by V. Tchertkoff (The Free
Age Press, Christchurch, Hants); Aylmer Maude, _A Peculiar People, the
Doukhobors_. (V. T.)

DOULLENS, a town of northern France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Somme, on the Authie, 27 m. N. of Amiens by rail. Pop. (1906) 4495. It has a citadel of the 15th and 16th centuries which has often served as a state prison and is now used as a reformatory for girls. There are also a belfry of the 17th century and two old churches. The town is the seat of a sub-prefect and has a tribunal of first instance; it has trade in phosphates, of which there are workings in the vicinity, and carries on cotton-spinning and the manufacture of leather, paper and sugar. Doullens, the ancient _Dulincum_, was seat of a viscountship and an important stronghold in the middle ages. In 1475 it was burnt by Louis XI. for openly siding with the house of Burgundy. In 1595 it was besieged and occupied by the Spaniards, but was restored to France by the treaty of Vervins (1598).

DOULTON, SIR HENRY (1820-1897), English inventor and manufacturer of pottery, born in Vauxhall on the 25th of July 1820, was from the age of fifteen actively employed in the pottery works of his father, John Doulton, at Lambeth. One of the first results of his many experiments was the production of good enamel glazes. In 1846 he initiated in Lambeth the pipe works, in which he superintended the manufacture of the drainage and sanitary appliances which have helped to make the firm of Doulton famous. In 1870 the manufacture of "Art pottery" was begun at Lambeth, and in 1877 works were opened at Burslem, where almost every variety of china and porcelain, as well as artistic earthenware, has been produced. Works have since been opened at Rowley Regis, Smethwick, St Helens, Paisley and Paris. After the Paris exhibition of 1878 Henry Doulton was made a chevalier of the Legion of Honour. In 1872 the "Art department" was instituted in the Doulton works, giving employment to both male and female artists, amongst whom such workers as George Tinworth and the Misses Barlow have obtained a reputation outside their immediate sphere. In 1887 Doulton received the honour of knighthood, and a few years later was awarded the Albert medal by the Society of Arts. He married in 1849 the daughter of Mr J. L. Kennaby; she died in 1888. Sir Henry Doulton took an active interest, as almoner, in St Thomas's hospital. He died in London on the 18th of November 1897.

DOUMER, PAUL (1857- ), French politician, was born at Aurillac. He studied law and made his debut in politics as _chef de cabinet_ to Floquet, when president of the chamber in 1885. In 1888 he was elected Radical deputy for the department of the Aisne. Defeated in the general elections of September 1889, he was elected again in 1890 by the arrondissement of Auxerre. As minister of finance in the Bourgeois cabinet (from the 3rd of November 1895 to the 21st of April 1896) he tried without success to introduce an income-tax. In January 1897 he became governor of Indo-China, where he carried out important public works. In 1902 he returned to France and was elected by Laon to the chamber as a Radical. He refused, however, to support the Combes ministry, and formed a Radical dissident group, which grew in strength and eventually caused the fall of the ministry. Doumer became a prominent personage in Paris and was elected president of the chamber in January 1905, being re-elected in January 1906. At the presidential election of the 17th of January 1906 he was a candidate in opposition to M. Fallieres and obtained only 371 votes against 449; and the new chamber passed him over as its new president in favour of Henri Brisson. As an author he is known by his _L'Indo-Chine francaise_ (1904), and _Le Livre de mes fils_ (1906).

DOUMIC, RENE (1860- ), French critic and man of letters, was born in Paris, and after a distinguished career at the Ecole Normale began to teach rhetoric at the College Stanislas. He was a contributor to the _Moniteur_, the _Journal des Debats_ and the _Revue bleue_, but was best known as the independent and uncompromising literary critic of the _Revue des Deux Mondes_. His works include: _Elements d'histoire litteraire_ (1888); _Portraits d'ecrivains_ (1892); _De Scribe a Ibsen_ (1893); _Ecrivains d'aujour-d'hui_ (1894); _Etudes sur la litterature francaise_ (5 vols., 1896-1905); _Les Jeunes_ (1896); _Essais sur le theatre contemporain_ (1897); _Les Hommes et les idees du XIX^e siecle_ (1903); and an edition of the _Lettres d'Elvire a Lamartine_ (1905).

DOUNE, a police burgh of Perthshire, Scotland, 8-3/4 m. N.W. of Stirling by the Caledonian railway. Pop. (1901) 930. It is situated on the left bank of the Teith, here crossed by the bridge built in 1535 by Robert Spittal, tailor to James IV. The town was once famous for its pistols and sporrans (as the purses worn with the kilt are called), which were in great request by the clansmen of the Highlands. Doune Castle, now in ruins, occupies a commanding position on the Teith, at the point where it is joined by the Ardoch. It is believed to have been built by Murdoch, 2nd duke of Albany (d. 1425), and was sometimes a residence of the sovereigns, among them James V. and Queen Mary. A nephew of Rob Roy held it for Prince Charlie, and it figures in Scott's _Waverley_. It belongs to the earl of Moray (Murray), who derives from it his title of Lord Doune, and was the home of James Stewart, the "bonnie earl" of Moray, murdered at Donibristle in Fife by the earl of Huntly (1592). The braes of Doune lie to the north-west of the town and extend towards Uam Var. Deanston (pop. 652), 1 m. S.W. of Doune, on the right bank of the Teith, was the scene of the labours of James Smith (1789-1850), the agricultural engineer, who was also manager of the cotton mills established there in 1785. On his farm Smith carried out his experiments in deep and thorough draining, and also invented a reaping machine, the subsoil plough and numerous other valuable appliances.

DOURO (Span. _Duero_, Port. _Douro_, anc. _Durius_), a river of the Iberian Peninsula. The Douro rises south of the Sierra de la Demanda, in the Pico de Urbion, an isolated mountain mass 7389 ft. high. It describes a wide curve eastwards past Soria, then flows westward across the Castilian table-land, passing south of Valladolid, with Toro and Zamora on its right bank; then from a point 3 m. E. of Paradella to Barca d'Alva it flows south-west and forms the frontier between Spain and Portugal for 65 m. It crosses Portugal in a westerly direction through a narrow and tortuous bed, and enters the Atlantic 3 m. below Oporto at Sao Joao da Foz. The length of the Douro, which is greater than that of any other Iberian river except the Tagus and Guadiana, is probably about 485 m.; but competent authorities differ widely in their estimates, the extremes given being 420 and 507 m. In Spain the Douro receives from the right the rivers Pisuerga, Valderaduey and Esla, and from the left several small streams which drain the Sierra Guadarrama, besides the more important rivers Adaja, Tormes and Yeltes; in Portugal it receives the Agueda, Coa and Paiva from the left, and the Sabor, Tua and Tamega from the right. The area drained by the Douro and its tributaries is upwards of 37,500 sq. m., and includes the greater part of the vast plateau of Old Castile, between the watersheds of the Cantabrian Mountains, on the north, and the Guadarrama, Gredos, Gata and Estrella ranges, on the south. The lower stream is beset with numerous rapids, called _pontos_, and is subject to swift and violent inundations. On this account navigation is attended with difficulties and risks between its mouth and Barca d'Alva; but a railway, running for the most part along the right bank, skirts the river during the greater part of its course through Portugal. The mouth of the river is partly blocked by a sandy bar; only ships of light draught can enter, while those of greater burden are accommodated at the harbour of Leixoes, an artificial basin constructed about 3 m. N. On its way through Portugal the Douro traverses the Paiz do Vinho, one of the richest wine-producing territories in the world; large quantities of wine are conveyed to Oporto in sailing boats. The Douro yields an abundance of fish, especially trout, shad and lampreys.

DOUROUCOULI, apparently the native name (perhaps derived from their cries) of a small group of American monkeys ranging from Nicaragua to Amazonia and eastern Peru, and forming the genus _Nyctipithecus_. In addition to the absence of prehensile power in their tails, douroucoulis, also known as night-apes, are distinguished by their large eyes, the sockets of which occupy nearly the whole front of the upper part of the skull, the partition between the nostrils being in consequence narrower than usual. The ears are short, and the hair round the eyes forms a disk. Douroucoulis live in parties, and are purely nocturnal, sleeping during the day in hollow trees, and coming out at night to feed on insects and fruits, when they utter piercing cat-like screams.

DOUSA, JANUS [Jan van der Does], lord of Noordwyck (1545-1604), Dutch statesman, historian, poet and philologist, and the heroic defender of Leiden, was born at Noordwyck, in the province of Holland, on the 6th of December 1545. He began his studies at Lier in Brabant, became a pupil of Henry Junius at Delft in 1560, and then passed on in succession to Louvain, Douai and Paris. Here he studied Greek under Pierre Dorat, professor at the College Royal, and became acquainted with the chancellor L'Hopital, Turnebus, Ronsard and other eminent men. On his return in 1565 he married Elizabeth van Zuylen. His name stands in the list of nobles who in that year formed a league against Philip II. of Spain, but he does not appear to have taken any active part in public affairs till 1572, when he was sent as a member of an embassy to England. He was not, however, at first very eager to commit himself to the fortunes of William the Silent, prince of Orange, but having once chosen his side, he threw himself heart and soul into the struggle for freedom from the Spanish yoke. Fortunately for Leiden he was residing in the town at the time of the famous siege. He held no post in the government, but in the hour of need he, though not trained to arms, took the command of a company of troops. His fearlessness and unshaken resolution had no small influence in encouraging the regents and the citizens to prolong the defence. On the foundation of the university of Leiden by William the Silent, Dousa was appointed first curator, and he held this office for nearly thirty years. Through his friendships with foreign scholars he drew to Leiden many illustrious teachers and professors. After the assassination of the prince of Orange in 1584, Dousa undertook a private journey to England to try and persuade Queen Elizabeth to support the cause of the states, and in 1585 he went at the head of a formal embassy for the same purpose. About the same time he was appointed keeper of the archives of Holland (_registermeester van Holland_), and the opportunities thus afforded him of historical research he turned to good account. He had three sons and five daughters. All his sons acquired a reputation for learning, but two of them died before their father. Dousa was author of several volumes of Latin verse and of philological commentaries on Horace, Plautus, Catullus and other Latin poets. His principal work is the _Annals of Holland_, which first appeared in a metrical form in 1599, and was published in prose under the title of _Bataviae Hollandiaeque annales_ in 1601. Dousa also took part as editor or contributor in various other publications. He died at Noordwyck on the 8th of October 1604, and was interred at the Hague; but no monument was erected to his memory till 1792, when one of his descendants placed a tomb to his honour in the church of Noordwyck. There are good portraits of the Great Dousa, as he is often called, by Visscher and Houbraken.

DOUVILLE, JEAN BAPTISTE (1794?-1837), French traveller, was born at Hambye, in the department of Manche. Having at an early age inherited a fortune, he decided to gratify his taste for foreign travel. According to his own profession he visited India, Kashmir, Khorasan, Persia, Asia Minor and many parts of Europe. In 1826 he went to South America, and in 1827 left Brazil for the Portuguese possessions on the west coast of Africa, where his presence in March 1828 is proved by the mention made of him in letters of Castillo Branco, the governor-general of Loanda. In May 1831 he reappeared in France, claiming to have pushed his explorations into the very heart of central Africa. His story was readily accepted by the Societe de Geographie of Paris, which hastened to recognize his services by assigning him the great gold medal, and appointing him their secretary for the year 1832. On the publication of his narrative, _Voyage au Congo et dans l'interieur de l'Afrique equinoxiale_, which occupied three volumes and was accompanied by an elaborate atlas, public enthusiasm ran high. Before the year 1832 was out, however, it was established that Douville's _Voyage_ was romance and not verity. He had probably been inspired by the appearance of Rene Caillie's account of his journey to Timbuktu, and wished to obtain a share of the fame attaching to African explorers. Douville tried vainly to establish the truth of his story in _Ma Defense_ (1832), and _Trente mois de ma vie, ou quinze mois avant et quinze mois apres mon voyage au Congo_ (1833). Mlle Audrun, a lady to whom he was about to be married, committed suicide from grief at the disgrace; and the adventurer withdrew in 1833 to Brazil, and proceeded to make explorations in the valley of the Amazon. According to Dr G. Gardner, in his _Travels in the Interior of Brazil_ (1846), he was murdered in 1837 on the banks of the Sao Francisco for charging too high for his medical assistance. Douville may well have explored part of the province of Angola, and Sir Richard Burton maintained that the Frenchman's descriptions of the country of the Congo were lifelike; that his observations on the anthropology, ceremonies, customs and maladies of the people were remarkably accurate; and that even the native words used in his narrative were "for the most part given with unusual correctness." It has been shown, however, that the chief source of Douville's inspiration was a number of unpublished Portuguese manuscripts to which he had access.

DOUW (or DOW), GERHARD (1613-1680), Dutch painter, was born at Leiden on the 7th of April 1613. His first instructor in drawing and design was Bartholomew Dolendo, an engraver; and he afterwards learned the art of glass-painting under Peter Kouwhoorn. At the age of fifteen he became a pupil of Rembrandt, with whom he continued for three years. From the great master of the Flemish school he acquired his skill in colouring, and in the more subtle effects of chiaroscuro; and the style of Rembrandt is reflected in several of his earlier pictures, notably in a portrait of himself at the age of twenty-two, in the Bridgewater House gallery, and in the "Blind Tobit going to meet his Son," at Wardour Castle. At a comparatively early point in his career, however, he had formed a manner of his own distinct from, and indeed in some respects antagonistic to, that of his master. Gifted with unusual clearness of vision and precision of manipulation, he cultivated a minute and elaborate style of treatment; and probably few painters ever spent more time and pains on all the details of their pictures down to the most trivial. He is said to have spent five days in painting a hand; and his work was so fine that he found it necessary to manufacture his own brushes. Notwithstanding the minuteness of his touch, however, the general effect was harmonious and free from stiffness, and his colour was always admirably fresh and transparent. He was fond of representing subjects in lantern or candle light, the effects of which he reproduced with a fidelity and skill which no other master has equalled. He frequently painted by the aid of a concave mirror, and to obtain exactness looked at his subject through a frame crossed with squares of silk thread. His practice as a portrait painter, which was at first considerable, gradually declined, sitters being unwilling to give him the time that he deemed necessary. His pictures were always small in size, and represented chiefly subjects in still life. Upwards of 200 are attributed to him, and specimens are to be found in most of the great public collections of Europe. His _chef-d'oeuvre_ is generally considered to be the "Woman sick of the Dropsy," in the Louvre. The "Evening School," in the Amsterdam gallery, is the best example of the candlelight scenes in which he excelled. In the National Gallery, London, favourable specimens are to be seen in the "Poulterer's Shop," and a portrait of himself. Douw's pictures brought high prices, and it is said that President Van Spiring of the Hague paid him 1000 florins a year simply for the right of pre-emption. Douw died in 1680. His most celebrated pupil was Francis Mieris.

DOVE, a river of England, tributary to the Trent, rising in Axe Edge, Derbyshire, and through almost its entire course forming the boundary of that county with Staffordshire. In its upper course it traverses a fine narrow valley, where the limestone hills exhibit many picturesque cliffs, gullies and caves. Dovedale, that part of the valley which lies between Dove Holes and Thorpe Cloud (or with a wider significance between the towns of Hartington and Ashbourne), is especially famous. Below Thorpe Cloud the Dove receives on the west the waters of the Manifold, which, like its tributary the Hamps, and other streams in the limestone district, has part of its course below ground. Near the village of Rocester the Churnet joins the Dove on the west, and then the course of the main stream, hitherto southerly, bends nearly easterly on passing Uttoxeter, and, winding through a widening valley, joins the Trent at Newton Solney, a short distance below Burton-on-Trent. The length of the valley is about 40 m. and the total fall of the river about 1450 ft. The Dove is well known for its trout-fishing, and the portion of the upper valley called Beresford Dale, below Hartington, has a special interest for fishermen through its associations with Izaak Walton and his friend Charles Cotton, whose fishing-house stands near the Pike Pool, a reach of the river with a lofty rock rising from its centre.

DOVE (Dutch _duyve_, Dan. _due_, Ice. _dufa_, Ger. _Taube_), a name most commonly applied by ornithologists to the smaller members of the group of birds usually called pigeons (_Columbae_); but no sharp distinction can be drawn between pigeons and doves, and in general literature the two words are used almost indifferently, while no one species can be pointed out to which the word dove, taken alone, seems to be absolutely proper. The largest of the group to which the name is applicable is perhaps the ring-dove, or wood-pigeon, also called in many parts of Britain cushat and queest (_Columba palumbus_, Linn.), a very common bird throughout the British Islands and most parts of Europe. It associates in winter in large flocks, the numbers of which (owing partly to the destruction of predaceous animals, but still more to the modern system of agriculture, and the growth of plantations in many districts that were before treeless) have increased enormously. In former days, when the breadth of land in Britain under green crops was comparatively small, these birds found little food in the dead season, and this scarcity was a natural check on their superabundance. But since the extended cultivation of turnips and plants of similar use the case is altered, and perhaps at no time of the year has provender become more plentiful than in winter. The ring-dove may be easily distinguished from other European species by its larger size, and especially by the white spot on either side of its neck, forming a nearly continuous "ring," whence the bird takes its name, and the large white patches in its wings, which are very conspicuous in flight. It breeds several times in the year, making for its nest a slight platform of sticks on the horizontal bough of a tree, and laying therein two eggs--which, as in all the _Columbae_, are white. It is semi-domestic in the London parks.

PLATE I. (After the coloured drawings by Mme. Knip (Pauline de
Courcelles), painter to the Empress Marie Louise, in _Les Pigeons_.
Text by C. J. Themminck, Paris, 1811.)

PLATE II. By permission of the proprietors of the _Racing Pigeon_.

The stock-dove (_C. aenas_ of most authors) is a smaller species, with many of the habits of the former, but breeding by preference in the stocks of hollow trees or in rabbit-holes. It is darker in colour than the ring-dove, without any white on its neck or wings, and is much less common and more locally distributed.

The rock-dove (_C. livia_, Temm.) much resembles the stock-dove, but is of a lighter colour, with two black bars on its wings, and a white rump. In its wild state it haunts most of the rocky parts of the coast of Europe, from the Faeroes to the Cyclades, and, seldom going inland, is comparatively rare. Yet, as it is without contradiction the parent-stem of all British domestic pigeons, its numbers must far exceed those of both the former put together. In Egypt and various parts of Asia it is represented by what Charles Darwin has called "wild races," which are commonly accounted good "species" (_C. schimperi_, _C. affinis_, _C. intermedia_, _C. leuconota_, and so forth), though they differ from one another far less than do nearly all the domestic forms, of which more than 150 kinds that "breed true," and have been separately named, are known to exist. Very many of these, if found wild, would have unquestionably been ranked by the best ornithologists as distinct "species" and several of them would as undoubtedly have been placed in different genera. These various breeds are classified by Darwin[1] in _four_ groups as follows:--

GROUP I., composed of a _single_ Race, that of the "Pouters," having
the gullet of great size, barely separated from the crop, and often
inflated, the body and legs elongated, and a moderate bill. The most
strongly marked sub-race, the _Improved English Pouter_, is considered
to be the most distinct of all domesticated pigeons.

GROUP II. includes _three_ Races:--(1) "Carriers," with a long pointed
bill, the eyes surrounded by much bare skin, and the neck and body
much elongated; (2) "Runts," with a long, massive bill, and the body
of great size; and (3) "Barbs," with a short, broad bill, much bare
skin round the eyes, and the skin over the nostrils swollen. Of the
first four and of the second five sub-races are distinguished.

GROUP III. is confessedly artificial, and to it are assigned _five_
Races:--(1) "Fan-tails," remarkable for the extraordinary development
of their tails, which may consist of as many as forty-two rectrices in
place of the ordinary twelve; (2) "Turbits" and "Owls," with the
feathers of the throat diverging, and a short thick bill; (3)
"Tumblers," possessing the marvellous habit of tumbling backwards
during flight, or, in some breeds, even on the ground, and having a
short, conical bill; (4) "Frill-backs," in which the feathers are
reversed; and (5) "Jacobins," with the feathers of the neck forming a
hood, and the wings and tail long.

GROUP IV. greatly resembles the normal form, and comprises _two_
Races:--(1) "Trumpeters," with a tuft of feathers at the base of the
neck curling forward, the face much feathered, and a very peculiar
voice, and (2) Pigeons scarcely differing in structure from the wild
stock.

Besides these some three or four other little-known breeds exist, and the whole number of breeds and sub-breeds almost defies computation. The difference between them is in many cases far from being superficial, for Darwin has shown that there is scarcely any part of the skeleton which is constant, and the modifications that have been effected in the proportions of the head and sternal apparatus are very remarkable. Yet the proof that all these different birds have descended from one common stock is nearly certain. Here there is no need to point out its bearing upon the theory of natural selection. The antiquity of some of these breeds is not the least interesting part of the subject, nor is the use to which one at least of them has long been applied. The dove from the earliest period in history has been associated with the idea of a messenger (Genesis viii. 8-12), and the employment of pigeons in that capacity, developed successively by Greeks, Romans, Mussulmans and Christians, has come down to modern times.

The various foreign species, if not truly belonging to the genus _Columba_, are barely separable therefrom. Of these examples may be found in the Indian, Ethiopian and Neotropical regions. Innumerable other forms entitled to the name of "dove" are to be found in almost every part of the world, and nowhere more abundantly than in the Australian Region. A. R. Wallace (_Ibis_, 1865, pp. 365-400) considers that they attain their maximum development in the Papuan Subregion, where, though the land area is less than one-sixth that of Europe, more than a quarter of all the species (some 300 in number) known to exist are found--owing, he suggests, to the absence of forest-haunting and fruit-eating mammals, which are in most cases destructive to eggs also.