Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Destructors" to "Diameter" / Volume 8, Slice 3
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DEVIZES, a market town and municipal borough in the Devizes parliamentary division of Wiltshire, England, 86 m. W. by S. of London by the Great Western railway. Pop. (1901) 6532. Its castle was built on a tongue of land flanked by two deep ravines, and behind this the town grew up in a semicircle on a stretch of bare and exposed tableland. Its main streets, in which a few ancient timbered houses are left, radiate from the market place, where stands a Gothic cross, the gift of Lord Sidmouth in 1814. The Kennet and Avon Canal skirts the town on the N. , passing over the high ground through a chain of thirty-nine locks. St John's church, one of the most interesting in Wiltshire, is cruciform, with a massive central tower, based upon two round and two pointed arches. It was originally Norman of the 12th century, and the chancel arch and low vaulted chancel, in this style, are very fine. In the interior several ancient monuments of the Suttons and Heathcotes are preserved, besides some beautiful carved stone work, and two rich ceilings of oak over the chapels. St Mary's, a smaller church, is partly Norman, but was rebuilt in the 15th and again in the 19th century. Its lofty clerestoried nave has an elaborately carved timber roof, and the south porch, though repaired in 1612, preserves its Norman mouldings. The woollen industries of Devizes have lost their prosperity; but there is a large grain trade, with engineering works, breweries, and manufactures of silk, snuff, tobacco and agricultural implements. The town is governed by a mayor, six aldermen and eighteen councillors. Area, 906 acres.
Devizes (Divisis, la Devise, De Vies) does not appear in any historical document prior to the reign of Henry I. , when the construction of a castle of exceptional magnificence by Roger, bishop of Salisbury, at once constituted the town an important political centre, and led to its speedy development. After the disgrace of Roger in 1139 the castle was seized by the Crown; in the 14th century it formed part of the dowry of the queens of England, and figured prominently in history until its capture and demolition by Cromwell in the Civil War of the 17th century. Devizes became a borough by prescription, and the first charter from Matilda, confirmed by successive later sovereigns, merely grants exemption from certain tolls and the enjoyment of undisturbed peace. Edward III. added a clause conferring on the town the liberties of Marlborough, and Richard II. instituted a coroner. A gild merchant was granted by Edward I. , Edward II. and Edward III. , and in 1614 was divided into the three companies of drapers, mercers and leathersellers. The present governing charters were issued by James I. and Charles I. , the latter being little more than a confirmation of the former, which instituted a common council consisting of a mayor, a town clerk and thirty-six capital burgesses. These charters were surrendered to Charles II. , and a new one was conferred by James II. , but abandoned three years later in favour of the original grant. Devizes returned two members to parliament from 1295, until deprived of one member by the Representation of the People Act of 1867, and of the other by the Redistribution Act of 1885. The woollen manufacture was the staple industry of the town from the reign of Edward III. until the middle of the 18th century, when complaints as to the decay of trade began to be prevalent. In the reign of Elizabeth the market was held on Monday, and there were two annual fairs at the feasts of the Purification of the Virgin and the Decollation of John the Baptist. The market was transferred to Thursday in the next reign, and the fairs in the 18th century had become seven in number.
See Victoria County History, Wiltshire; History of Devizes (Devizes, 1859).
DEVOLUTION, WAR OF (1667-68), the name applied to the war which arose out of Louis XIV.' s claims to certain Spanish territories in right of his wife Maria Theresa, upon whom the ownership was alleged to have "devolved." (See, for the military operations, Dutch Wars.)The war was ended by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1668.
DEVON, EARLS OF. From the family of De Redvers (De Ripuariis; Riviers), who had been earls of Devon from about 1100, this title passed to Hugh de Courtenay (c. 1275-1340), the representative of a prominent family in the county (see Gibbon's "digression" in chap. lxi. of the Decline and Fall, ed. Bury), but was subsequently forfeited by Thomas Courtenay (1432-1462), a Lancastrian who was beheaded after the battle of Towton. It was revived in 1485 in favour of Edward Courtenay (d. 1509), whose son Sir William (d. 1511) married Catherine, daughter of Edward IV. Too great proximity to the throne led to his attainder, but his son Henry (c. 1498-1539) was restored in blood in 1517 as earl of Devon, and in 1525 was created marquess of Exeter; his second wife was a daughter of William Blount, 4th Lord Mountjoy. The title again suffered forfeiture on Henry's execution, but in 1553 it was recreated for his son Edward (1526-1556). At the latter's death it became dormant in the Courtenay family, till in 1831 a claim by a collateral branch was allowed by the House of Lords, and the earldom of Devon was restored to the peerage, still being held by the head of the Courtenays. The earlier earls of Devon were referred to occasionally as earls of Devonshire, but the former variant has prevailed, and the latter is now solely used for the earldom and dukedom held by the Cavendishes (see Devonshire, Earls and Dukes of, and also the article Courtenay).
DEVONIAN SYSTEM, in geology, the name applied to series of stratified fossiliferous and igneous rocks that were formed during the Devonian period, that is, in the interval of time between the close of the Silurian period and the beginning of the Carboniferous; it includes the marine Devonian and an estuarine Old Red Sandstone series of strata. The name "Devonian" was introduced in 1829 by Sir R. Murchison and A. Sedgwick to describe the older rocks of Cornwall and Devon which W. Lonsdale had shown, from an examination of the fossils, to be intermediate between the Silurian and Carboniferous. The same two workers also carried on further researches upon the same rocks of the European continent, where already several others, F. Roemer, H. E. Beyrich, &c. , were endeavouring to elucidate the succession of strata in this portion of the "Transition Series." The labours of these earlier workers, including in addition to those already mentioned, the brothers F. and G. von Sandberger, A. Dumont, J. Gosselet, E. J. A. d'Archiac, E. P. de Verneuil and H. von Dechen, although somewhat modified by later students, formed the foundation upon which the modern classification of the Devonian rocks is based.
Stratigraphy of the Devonian Facies.
Notwithstanding the fact that it was in Devonshire and Cornwall that the Devonian rocks were first distinguished, it is in central Europe that the succession of strata is most clearly made out, and here, too, their geological position was first indicated by the founders of the system, Sedgwick and Murchison.
Continental Europe.—Devonian rocks occupy a large area in the centre of Europe, extending from the Ardennes through the south of Belgium across Rhenish Prussia to Darmstadt.They are best known from the picturesque gorges which have been cut through them by the Rhine below Bingen and by the Moselle below Treves.They reappear from under younger formations in Brittany, in the Harz and Thuringia, and are exposed in Franconia, Saxony, Silesia, North Moravia and eastern Galicia.The principal subdivisions of the system in the more typical areas are indicated in Table I.
This threefold subdivision, with a central mass of calcareous strata, is traceable westwards through Belgium (where the Calcaire de Givet represents the Stringocephalus limestone of the Eifel) and eastwards into the Harz. The rocks reappear with local petrographical modifications, but with a remarkable persistence of general palaeontological characters, in Eastern Thuringia, Franconia, Saxony, Silesia, the north of Moravia and East Galicia. Devonian rocks have been detected among the crumpled rocks of the Styrian Alps by means of the evidence of abundant corals, cephalopods, gasteropods, lamellibranchs and other organic remains. Perhaps in other tracts of the Alps, as well as in the Carpathian range, similar shales, limestones and dolomites, though as yet unfossiliferous, but containing ores of silver, lead, mercury, zinc, cobalt and other metals, may be referable to the Devonian system.
In the centre of Europe, therefore, the Devonian rocks consist of a vast thickness of dark-grey sandy and shaly rocks, with occasional seams of limestone, and in particular with one thick central calcareous zone.These rocks are characterized in the lower zones by numerous broad-winged spirifers and by peculiar trilobites (Phacops, Homalonotus, &c.)which, though generically like those of the Silurian system, are specifically distinct.The central calcareous zone abounds in corals and crinoids as well as in numerous brachiopods.In the highest bands a profusion of coiled cephalopods (Clymenia) occurs in some of the limestones, while the shales are crowded with a small but characteristic ostracod crustacean (Cypridina). Here and there traces of fishes have been found, more especially in the Eifel, but seldom in such a state of preservation as to warrant their being assigned to any definite place in the zoological scale. Subsequently, however, E. Beyrich has described from Gerolstein in the Eifel an undoubted species of Pterichthys, which, as it cannot be certainly identified with any known form, he names P.Rhenanus. A Coccosteus has been described by F. A. Roemer from the Harz, and still later one has been cited from Bicken near Herborn by V. Koenen; but, as Beyrich points out, there may be some doubt as to whether the latter is not a Pterichthys. A Ctenacanthus, seemingly undistinguishable from the C.Bohemicus of Barrande's Étage G, has also been obtained from the Lower Devonian "Nereitenschichten" of Thuringia. The characteristic Holoptychius nobilissimus has been detected in the Psammite de Condroz, which in Belgium forms a characteristic sandy portion of the Upper Devonian rocks. These are interesting facts, as helping to link the Devonian and Old Red Sandstone types together. But they are as yet too few and unsupported to warrant any large deduction as to the correlations between these types.
It is in the north-east of Europe that the Devonian and Old Red Sandstone appear to be united into one system, where the limestones and marine organisms of the one are interstratified with the fish-bearing sandstones and shales of the other. In Russia, as was shown in the great work Russia and the Ural Mountains by Murchison, De Verneuil and Keyserling, rocks intermediate between the Upper Silurian and Carboniferous Limestone formations cover an extent of surface larger than the British Islands. This wide development arises not from the thickness but from the undisturbed horizontal character of the strata. Like the Silurian formations described elsewhere, they remain to this day nearly as flat and unaltered as they were originally laid down. Judged by mere vertical depth, they present but a meagre representative of the massive Devonian greywacke and limestone of Germany, or of the Old Red Sandstone of Britain. Yet vast though the area is over which they form the surface rock, it is probably only a small portion of their total extent; for they are found turned up from under the newer formations along the flank of the Ural chain. It would thus seem that they spread continuously across the whole breadth of Russia in Europe. Though almost everywhere undisturbed, they afford evidence of some terrestrial oscillation between the time of their formation and that of the Silurian rocks on which they rest, for they are found gradually to overlap Upper and Lower Silurian formations.
Table I.
| Stages. | Ardennes. | Rhineland. | Brittany and Normandy. | Bohemia. | Harz. | |
| Upper Devonian. | Famennienc (Clymenia beds). | Limestone of Etrœungt. Psammites of Condroz (sandy series). Slates of Famenne (shaly series). |
Cypridina slates. Pön sandstone (Sauerland). Crumbly limestone (Kramen- zelkalk) with Clymenia. Neheim slates in Sauerland, and diabases, tuffs, &c. , in Dillmulde, &c. | Slates of Rostellec. |
Cypridina slates. Clymenia limestone and limestone of Altenau. | |
| Frasnien (Intumes- cens beds). | Slates of Matagne. Limestones, marls and shale of Frasne, and red marble of Flanders. | Adorf limestone of Waldeck and shales with Goniatites (Eifel and Aix) = Budesheimer shales. Marls, limestone and dolomite with Rhynchonella cuboides (Flinz in part). Iberg limestone of Dillmulde. | Limestone of Cop- Choux and green slates of Travuliors. | Iberg limestone and Winterberg lime- stone; also Adorf limestone and shales (Budesheim). | ||
| Middle Devonian. | Givérien (Stringo- cephalus beds). | Limestone of Givet. |
Stringocephalus limestone, ironstone of Brilon and Lahnmulde. Upper Lenne shales, crinoidal limestone of Eifel, red sandstones of Aix. Tuffs and diabases of Brilon and Lahnmulde. Red conglomerate of Aix. | Limestones of Chalonnes, Montjean and l'Ecochère. | H2 (of Barrande) dark plant-bearing shales. H1 |
Stringocephalus shales with Flaser and Knollenkalk. Wissenbach slates. |
| Eifélien (Calceola beds). | Calceola slates and limestones of Couvin. Greywacke with Spirifer cultrijugatus |
Calceola beds, Wissenbach slates, Lower Lenne beds, Güntroder limestone and clay slate of Lahnmulde, Dillmulde, Wildungen, Griefenstein limestone, Ballersbach limestone. | Slates of Porsguen, greywacke of Fret. | G3 Cephalopod limestone. G2 Tentaculite limestone. G3 Knollenkalk and mottled Mnenian limestone. |
Calceola beds. Nereite slates, slates of Wieda and lime- stones of Hasselfeld. | |
| Lower Devonian. | Coblentzien | Greywacke of Hierges. Shales and conglomer- ate of Burnot with quartzite, of Bierlé and red slates of Vireux, greywacke of Vireux, greywacke of Montigny, sand- stone of Anor. | Upper Coblentz slates. Red sandstone of Eifel, Coblentz quartzite, lower Coblentz slates. Hunsrück and Siegener greywacke and slates. Taunus quartzite and greywacke. | Limestones of Erbray, Brulon, Viré and Néhou, greywacke of Faou, sandstone of Gahard. | F2 of Barrande. White Konjeprus Limestone with Hercynian fauna. | Haupt quartzite (of Lossen) = Rammelsberg slates, Schallker slates = Kahleberg sandstone. Hercynian slates and limestones. |
| Gédinnien | Slates of St Hubert and and Fooz, slates of Mondrepuits, arkose of Weismes, conglomerate of Fèpin. | Slates of Gédinne. | Slates and quartzites of Plougastel. |
The chief interest of the Russian rocks of this age lies in the fact, first signalized by Murchison and his associates, that they unite within themselves the characters of the Devonian and the Old Red Sandstone types. In some districts they consist largely of limestones, in others of red sandstones and marls. In the former they present molluscs and other marine organisms of known Devonian species; in the latter they afford remains of fishes, some of which are specifically identical with those of the Old Red Sandstone of Scotland. The distribution of these two palaeontological types in Russia is traced by Murchison to the lithological characters of the rocks, and consequent original diversities of physical conditions, rather than to differences of age. Indeed cases occur where in the same band of rock Devonian shells and Old Red Sandstone fishes lie commingled. In the belt of the formation which extends southwards from Archangel and the White Sea, the strata consist of sands and marls, and contain only fish remains. Traced through the Baltic provinces, they are found to pass into red and green marls, clays, thin limestones and sandstones, with beds of gypsum. In some of the calcareous bands such fossils occur as Orthis striatula, Spiriferina prisca, Leptaena productoides, Spirifer calcaratus, Spirorbis omphaloides and Orthoceras subfusiforme. In the higher beds Holoptychius and other well-known fishes of the Old Red Sandstone occur. Followed still farther to the south, as far as the watershed between Orel and Voronezh, the Devonian rocks lose their red colour and sandy character, and become thin-bedded yellow limestones, and dolomites with soft green and blue marls. Traces of salt deposits are indicated by occasional saline springs. It is evident that the geographical conditions of the Russian area during the Devonian period must have closely resembled those of the Rhine basin and central England during the Triassic period. The Russian Devonian rocks have been classified in Table II. There is an unquestionable passage of the uppermost Devonian rocks of Russia into the base of the Carboniferous system.
Table II.
| North-West Russia. | Central Russia. | Petchoraland. | Ural Region. | ||
| Upper. | Red sandstone (Old Red). | Limestones with Spirifer Verneuili and Sp.Archiaci | Limestones with Arca oreliana Limestones with Sp. Verneuili and Sp. Archiaci | Domanik slates and limestones with Sp. Verneuili |
Cypridina slates, Clymenia limestones (Famennien). Limestones with Gephyoceras intumescens and Rhynchonella cuboides (Frasnien). |
| Middle. | Dolomites and limestones with Spirifer Anossofi | Marl with Spirifer Anossofi and corals. | Limestones and slates with Sp. Anossofi (Givétien). Limestones and slates with Pentamerus baschkiricus (Eifélien). | ||
| Lower sandstone (Old Red). | |||||
| Lower. | Absent. | Limestones and slates of the Yuresan and Ufa rivers, slate and quartzite, marble of Byclaya and of Bogoslovsk, phyllitic schists and quartzite. | |||
The Lower Devonian of the Harz contains a fauna which is very different from that of the Rhenish region; to this facies the name "Hercynian" has been applied, and the correlation of the strata has been a source of prolonged discussion among continental geologists.A similar fauna appears in Lower Devonian of Bohemia, in Brittany (limestone of Erbray) and in the Urals.The Upper Devonian of the Harz passes up into the Culm.
In the eastern Thuringian Fichtelgebirge the upper division is represented by Clymenia limestone and Cypridina slates with Adorf limestone, diabase and Planschwitzer tuff in the lower part. The middle division has diabases and tuffs at the top with Tentaculite and Nereite shales and limestones below. The upper part of the Lower Devonian, the sandy shale of Steinach, rests unconformably upon Silurian rocks. In the Carnic Alps are coral reef limestones, the equivalents of the Iberg limestone, which attain an enormous thickness; these are underlain by coral limestones with fossils similar to those of the Konjeprus limestone of Bohemia; below these are shales and nodular limestones with goniatites. The Devonian rocks of Poland are sandy in the lower, and more calcareous in the upper parts. They are of interest because while the upper portions agree closely with the Rhenish facies, from the top of the Coblentzien upwards, in the sandy beds near the base Old Red Sandstone fishes (Coccosteus, &c.)are found.In France Devonian rocks are found well developed in Brittany, as indicated in the table, also in Normandy and Maine; in the Boulonnais district only the middle and upper divisions are known.In south France in the neighbourhood of Cabrières, about Montpellier and in the Montagne Noire, all three divisions are found in a highly calcareous condition.Devonian rocks are recognized, though frequently much metamorphosed, on both the northern and southern flanks of the Pyrenees; while on the Spanish peninsula they are extensively developed.In Asturias they are no less than 3280 ft.thick, all three divisions and most of the central European subdivisions are present.In general, the Lower Devonian fossils of Spain bear a marked resemblance to those of Brittany.
Asia.—From the Ural Mountains eastward, Devonian rocks have been traced from point to point right across Asia.In the Altai Mountains they are represented by limestones of Coblentzien age with a fauna possessing Hercynian features.The same features are observed in the Devonian of the Kougnetsk basin, and in Turkestan.Well-developed quartzites with slates and diabases are found south of Yarkand and Khotan.Middle and Upper Devonian strata are widespread in China.Upper Devonian rocks are recorded from Persia, and from the Hindu Kush on the right bank of the Chitral river.
England.—In England the original Devonian rocks are developed in Devon and Cornwall and west Somerset.In north Devonshire these rocks consist of sandstones, grits and slates, while in south Devon there are, in addition, thick beds of massive limestone, and intercalations of lavas and tuffs.The interpretation of the stratigraphy in this region is a difficult matter, partly on account of the absence of good exposures with fossils, and partly through the disturbed condition of the rocks.The system has been subdivided as shown in Table III.
Table III.
| North Devon and West Somerset. | South Devon. | |
| Upper. | Pilton group. Grits, slates and thin limestones. Baggy group. Sandstones and slates. Pickwell Down group. Dark slates and grits. Morte slates (?) . | Ashburton slates. Livaton slates. Red and green Entomis slates (Famennien). Red and grey slates with tuffs. Chudleigh goniatite limestone Petherwyn beds (Frasnien). |
| Middle. | Ilfracombe slates with lenticles of limestone. Combe Martin grits and slates. | Torquay and Plymouth limestones and Ashprington volcanic series. (Givétien and Eifélien.) Slates and limestones of Hope's Nose. |
| Lower. | Hangman grits and slates. Lynton group, grits and calcareous slates. Foreland grits and slates. | Looe beds (Cornwall). Meadfoot, Cockington and Warberry series of slates and greywackes. (Coblentzien and Gédinnien.) |
The fossil evidence clearly shows the close agreement of the Rhenish and south Devonshire areas.In north Devonshire the Devonian rocks pass upward without break into the Culm.
North America.—In North America the Devonian rocks are extensively developed; they have been studied most closely in the New York region, where they are classified according to Table IV.
The classification below is not capable of application over the states generally and further details are required from many of the regions where Devonian rocks have been recognized, but everywhere the broad threefold division seems to obtain.In Maryland the following arrangement has been adopted—(1) Helderberg = Coeymans; (2) Oriskany; (3) Romney = Erian; (4) Jennings = Genesee and Portage; (5) Hampshire = Catskill in part.In the interior the Helderbergian is missing and the system commences with (1) Oriskany, (2) Onondaga, (3) Hamilton, (4) Portage (and Genesee), (5) Chemung.
The Helderbergian series is mainly confined to the eastern part of the continent; there is a northern development in Maine, and in Canada (Gaspé, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Montreal); an Appalachian belt, and a lower Mississippian region.The series as a whole is mainly calcareous (2000 ft.in Gaspé), and thins out towards the west.The fauna has Hercynian affinities.The Oriskany formation consists largely of coarse sandstones; it is thin in New York, but in Maryland and Virginia it is several hundred feet thick.It is more widespread than the underlying Helderbergian.The Lower Devonian appears to be thick in northern Maine and in Gaspé, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, but neither the palaeontology nor the stratigraphy has been completely worked out.
In the Middle Devonian the thin clastic deposits at the base, Esopus and Schoharie grits, have not been differentiated west of the Appalachian region; but the Onondaga limestones are much more extensive. The Erian series is often described as the Hamilton series outside the New York district, where the Marcellus shales are grouped together with the Hamilton shales, and numerous local subdivisions are included, as in Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. The rocks are mostly shales or slates, but limestones predominate in the western development. In Pennsylvania the Hamilton series is from 1500 ft. to 5000 ft. thick, but in the more calcareous western extension it is much thinner. The Marcellus shales are bituminous in places.
The Senecan series is composed of shallow-water deposits; the Tully limestone, a local bed in New York, thins out in places into a layer of pyrites which contains a remarkable dwarfed fauna.The bituminous Genesee shales are thickest in Pennsylvania (300 ft.); 25 ft.on Lake Erie.The shales and sandstones of the Portage formation reach 1000 ft.to 1400 ft.in western New York.In the Chautauquan series the Chemung formation is not always clearly separable from the Portage beds, it is a sandstone and conglomerate formation which reaches its maximum thickness (8000 ft.)in Pennsylvania, but thins rapidly towards the west.In the Catskill region the Upper Devonian has an Old Red facies—red shales and sandstones with a freshwater and brackish fauna.
Table IV.
| Groups. | Formations. | Probable European Equivalent. | |
| Upper. | Chautauquan. | Chemung beds with Catskill as a local facies. | Famennien. |
| Senecan. | Portage beds (Naples, Ithaca and Oneonta shales as local facies). Genesee shales. Tully limestone. | Frasnien. | |
| Middle. | Erian. | Hamilton shale. Marcellus shale. | Givétien. |
| Ulsterian. | Onondaga (Corniferous) limestone. Schoharie grit. Esopus grit (Caudagalli grit). | Eifélien. | |
| Lower. | Oriskanian. | Oriskany sandstone. | Coblentzien. |
| Helderbergian. | Kingston beds. Becraft limestone. New Scotland beds. Coeymans limestone. | Gédinnien. |
Although the correlation of the strata has only advanced a short distance, there is no doubt as to the presence of undifferentiated Devonian rocks in many parts of the continent.In the Great Plains this system appears to be absent, but it is represented in Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, Montana, California and Arizona; Devonian rocks occur between the Sierras and the Rocky Mountains, in the Arbuckle Mountains of Oklahoma and in Texas.In the western interior limestones predominate; 6000 ft.of limestone are found at Eureka, Nevada, beneath 2000 ft.of shale.On the Pacific coast metamorphism of the rocks is common, and lava-flows and tuffs occur in them.
In Canada, besides the occurrences previously mentioned in the eastern region, Devonian strata are found in considerable force along the course of the Mackenzie river and the Canadian Rockies, whence they stretch out into Alaska.It is probable, however, that much that is now classed as Devonian in Canada will prove on fossil evidence to be Carboniferous.
South America, Africa, Australia, &c.—In South America the Devonian is well developed; in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Peru and the Falkland Islands, the palaeontological horizon is about the junction of the Lower and Middle divisions, and the fauna has affinities with the Hamilton shales of North America.Nearly allied to the South American Devonian is that of South Africa, where they are represented by the Bokkeveld beds in the Cape system.In Australia we find Lower Devonian consisting of coarse littoral deposits with volcanic rocks; and a Middle division with coral limestones in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland; an Upper division has also been observed.In New Zealand the Devonian is well exposed in the Reefton mining field; and it has been suggested that much of the highly metamorphosed rock may belong to this system.
Stratigraphy of the Old Red Sandstone Facies.
The Old Red Sandstone of Britain, according to Sir Archibald Geikie, "consists of two subdivisions, the lower of which passes down conformably into the Upper Silurian deposits, the upper shading off in the same manner into the base of the Carboniferous system, while they are separated from each other by an unconformability."The Old Red strata appear to have been deposited in a number of elongated lakes or lagoons, approximately parallel to one another, with a general alignment in a N.E.-S.W.direction.To these areas of deposit Sir A.Geikie has assigned convenient distinctive names.
In Scotland the two divisions of the system are sharply separated by a pronounced unconformability which is probably indicative of a prolonged interval of erosion.In the central valley between the base of the Highlands and the southern uplands lay "Lake Caledonia."Here the lower division is made up of some 20,000 ft.of shallow-water deposits, reddish-brown, yellow and grey sandstones and conglomerates, with occasional "cornstones," and thin limestones.The grey flagstones with shales are almost confined to Forfarshire, and are known as the "Arbroath flags."Interbedded volcanic rocks, andesites, dacites, diabases, with agglomerates and tuffs constitute an important feature, and attain a thickness of 6000 ft.in the Pentland and Ochil hills.A line of old volcanic vents may be traced in a direction roughly parallel to the trend of the great central valley.On the northern side of the Highlands was "Lake Orcadie," presumably much larger than the foregoing lake, though its boundaries are not determinable.It lay over Moray Firth and the east of Ross and Sutherland, and extended from Caithness to the Orkney Islands and S.Shetlands.It may even have stretched across to Norway, where similar rocks are found in Sognefjord and Dalsfjord, and may have had communications with some parts of northern Russia.Very characteristic of this area are the Caithness flags, dark grey and bituminous, which, with the red sandstones and conglomerates at their base, probably attain a thickness of 16,000 ft.The somewhat peculiar fauna of this series led Murchison to class the flags as Middle Devonian.In the Shetland Islands contemporaneous volcanic rocks have been observed.Over the west of Argyllshire lay "Lake Lorne"; here the volcanic rocks predominate, they are intercalated with shallow-water deposits.A similar set of rocks occupy the Cheviot district.
The upper division of the Old Red Sandstone is represented in Shropshire and South Wales by a great series of red rocks, shales, sandstones and marls, some 10,000 ft.thick.They contain few fossils, and no break has yet been found in the series.In Scotland this series was deposited in basins which correspond only partially with those of the earlier period.They are well developed in central Scotland over the lowlands bordering the Moray Firth.Interbedded lavas and tuffs are found in the island of Hoy.An interesting feature of this series is the occurrence of great crowds of fossil fishes in some localities, notably at Dura Den in Fife.In the north of England this series rests unconformably upon the Lower Old Red and the Silurian.
Flanking the Silurian high ground of Cumberland and Westmorland, and also in the Lammermuir hills and in Flint and Anglesey, a brecciated conglomerate, presenting many of the characters of a glacial deposit in places, has often been classed with the Old Red Sandstone, but in parts, at least, it is more likely to belong to the base of the Carboniferous system.In Ireland the lower division appears to be represented by the Dingle beds and Glengariff grits, while the Kerry rocks and the Kiltorcan beds of Cork are the equivalents of the upper division.Rocks of Old Red type, both lower and upper, are found in Spitzbergen and in Bear Island.In New Brunswick and Nova Scotia the Old Red facies is extensively developed.The Gaspé sandstones have been estimated at 7036 ft.thick.In parts of western Russia Old Red Sandstone fossils are found in beds intercalated with others containing marine fauna of the Devonian facies.
Devonian and Old Red Sandstone Faunas.
The two types of sediment formed during this period—the marine Devonian and the lagoonal Old Red Sandstone—representing as they do two different but essentially contemporaneous phases of physical condition, are occupied by two strikingly dissimilar faunas. Doubtless at all times there were regions of the earth that were marked off no less clearly from the normal marine conditions of which we have records; but this period is the earliest in which these variations of environment are made obvious. In some respects the faunal break between the older Silurian below and the younger Carboniferous above is not strongly marked; and in certain areas a very close relationship can be shown to exist between the older Devonian and the former, and the younger Devonian and the latter. Nevertheless, taken as a whole, the life of this period bears a distinct stamp of individuality.
The two most prominent features of the Devonian seas are presented by corals and brachiopods.The corals were abundant individually and varied in form; and they are so distinctive of the period that no Devonian species has yet been found either in the Silurian or in the Carboniferous.They built reefs, as in the present day, and contributed to the formation of limestone masses in Devonshire, on the continent of Europe and in North America.Rugose and tabulate forms prevailed; among the former the cyathophyllids (Cyathophyllum) were important, Phillipsastraea, Zaphrentis, Acervularia and the curious Calceola (sandalina), an operculate genus which has given palaeontologists much trouble in its diagnosis, for it has been regarded as a pelecypod (hippurite) and a brachiopod. The tabulate corals were represented by Favosites, Michelinia, Pleurodictyum, Fistulipora, Pachypora and others. Heliolites and Plasmopora represent the alcyonarians. Stromatoporoids were important reef builders. A well-known fossil is Receptaculites, a genus to which it has been difficult to assign a definite place; it has been thought to be a sponge, it may be a calcareous alga, or a curious representative of the foraminifera.
In the Devonian period the brachiopods reached the climax of their development: they compose three-quarters of the known fauna, and more than 1100 species have been described. Changes were taking place from the beginning of the period in the relative importance of genera; several Silurian forms dropped out, and new types were coming in. A noticeable feature was the development of broad-winged shells in the genus Spirifer, other spiriferids were Ambocoelia, Uncites, VerneuiliaOrthids and pentamerids were waning in importance, while the productids (Productella, Chonetes, Strophalosia) were increasing. The strophomenids were still flourishing, represented by the genera Leptaena, Stropheodonta, Kayserella, and others. The ancient Lingula, along with Crania and Orbiculoidea, occur among the inarticulate forms. Another long-lived and wide-ranging species is Atrypa reticularisThe athyrids were very numerous (Athyris, Retzia, Merista, Meristella, Kayserina, &c.) ; and the rhynchonellids were well represented by Pugnax, Hypothyris, and several other genera. The important group of terebratulids appears in this system; amongst them Stringocephalus is an eminently characteristic Devonian brachiopod; others are Dielasma, Cryptonella, Rensselaeria and Oriskania
The pelecypod molluscs were represented by Pterinea, abundant in the lower members along with other large-winged forms, and by Cucullella, Buchiola and Curtonotus in the upper members of the system. Other genera are Actinodesma, Cardiola, Nucula, Megalodon, Aviculopecten, &c. Gasteropods were becoming more important, but the simple capulid forms prevailed: Platyceras (Capulus), Straparollus, Pleurotomaria, Murchisonia, Macrocheilina, Euomphalus. Among the pteropods, Tentaculites was very abundant in some quarters; others were Conularia and Styliolina. In the Devonian period the cephalopods began to make a distinct advance in numbers, and in development. The goniatites appear with the genera Anarcestes, Agoniatites, Tornoceras, Bactrites and others; and in the upper strata the clymenoids, forerunners of the later ammonoids, began to take definite shape. While several new nautiloids (Homaloceras, Ryticeras, &c.)made their appearance several of the older genera still lived on (Orthoceras, Poterioceras, Actinoceras).
Crinoids were very abundant in some parts of the Devonian sea, though they were relatively scarce in others; they include the genera Melocrinus, Haplocrinus, Cupressocrinus, Calceocrinus and EleuthrocrinusThe cystideans were falling off (Proteocystis, Tiaracrinus), but blastoids were in the ascendant (Nucleocrinus, Codaster, &c.) . Both brittle-stars, Ophiura, Palaeophiura, Eugaster, and true starfishes, Palaeaster, Aspidosoma, were present, as well as urchins (Lepidocentrus).
When we turn to the crustaceans we have to deal with two distinct assemblages, one purely marine, trilobitic, the other mainly lacustrine or lagoonal with a eurypteridian facies. The trilobites had already begun to decline in importance, and as happens not infrequently with degenerating races of beasts and men, they began to develop strange eccentricities of ornamentation in some of their genera. A number of Silurian genera lived on into the Devonian period, and some gradually developed into new and distinctive forms; such were Proëtus, Harpes, Cheirurus, Bronteus and others. Distinct species of Phacops mark the Lower and Upper Devonian respectively, while the genus Dalmania (Odontochile) was represented by species with an almost world-wide range. The Ostracod Entomis (Cypridina) was extremely abundant in places—Cypridinen-Schiefer—while the true Cypridina was also present along with Beyrichia, Leperditia, &c. The Phyllocarids, Echinocaris, Eleuthrocaris, Tropidocaris, are common in the United States. It is in the Old Red Sandstone that the eurypterids are best preserved; foremost among these was Pterygotus; P.anglicus has been found in Scotland with a length of nearly 6 ft. ; Eurypterus, Slimonia, Stylonurus were other genera.
Insects appear well developed, including both orthopterous and neuropterous forms, in the New Brunswick rocks. Mr Scudder believed he had obtained a specimen of Orthoptera in which a stridulating organ was present. A species of Ephemera, allied to the modern may-fly, had a spread of wing extending to 5 in. In the Scottish Old Red Sandstone myriapods, Kampecaris and Archidesmus, have been described; they are somewhat simpler than more recent forms, each segment being separate, and supplied with only one pair of walking legs.Spiders and scorpions also lived upon the land.
The great number of fish remains in the Devonian and Old Red strata, coupled with the truly remarkable characters possessed by some of the forms, has caused the period to be described as the "age of fishes." As in the case of the crustaceans, referred to above, we find one assemblage more or less peculiar to the freshwater or brackish conditions of the Old Red, and another characteristic of the marine Devonian; on the whole the former is the richer in variety, but there seems little doubt that quite a number of genera were capable of living in either environment, whatever may have been the real condition of the Old Red waters. Foremost in interest are the curious ostracoderms, a remarkable group of creatures possessing many of the characteristics of fishes, but more probably belonging to a distinct class of organisms, which appears to link the vertebrates with the arthropods. They had come into existence late in Silurian times; but it is in the Old Red strata that their remains are most fully preserved. They were abundant in the fresh or brackish waters of Scotland, England, Wales, Russia and Canada, and are represented by such forms as Pteraspis, Cephalaspis, Cyathaspis, Tremataspis, Bothriolepis and Pterichthys
In the lower members of the Old Red series Dipterus, and in the upper members Phaneropleuron, represented the dipnoid lung-fishes; and it is of extreme interest to note that a few of these curious forms still survive in the African Protopterus, the Australian Ceratodus and the South American Lepidosiren,—all freshwater fishes. Distantly related to the lung-fishes were the singular arthrodirans, a group possessing the unusual faculty of moving the head in a vertical plane. These comprise the wide-ranging Coccosteus with Homosteus and Dinichthys, the largest fish of the period. The latter probably reached 20 ft. in length; it was armed with exceedingly powerful jaws provided with turtle-like beaks. Sharks were fairly prominent denizens of the sea; some were armed with cutting teeth, others with crushing dental plates; and although they were on the whole marine fishes, they were evidently able to live in fresher waters, like some of their modern representatives, for their remains, mostly teeth and large dermal spines, are found both in the Devonian and Old Red rocks. Mesacanthus, Diplacanthus, Climatius, Cheiracanthus are characteristic genera. The crossopterygians, ganoids with a scaly lobe in the centre of the fins, were represented by Holoptychius and Glyptopomus in the Upper Old Red, and by such genera as Diplopterus, Osteolepis, Gyroptychius in the lower division. The Polypterus of the Nile and Calamoichthys of South Africa are the modern exemplars of this group. Cheirolepis, found in the Old Red of Scotland and Canada, is the only Devonian representative of the actinopterygian fishes. The cyclostome fishes have, so far, been discovered only in Scotland, in the tiny PalaeospondylusAmphibian remains have been found in the Devonian of Belgium; and footprints supposed to belong to a creature of the same class (Thinopus antiquus) have been described by Professor Marsh from the Chemung formation of Pennsylvania.
Plant Life.—In the lacustrine deposits of the Old Red Sandstone we find the earliest well-defined assemblage of terrestrial plants. In some regions so abundant are the vegetable remains that in places they form thin seams of veritable coal. These plants evidently flourished around the shores of the lakes and lagoons in which their remains were buried along with the other forms of life. Lycopods and ferns were the predominant types; and it is important to notice that both groups were already highly developed. The ferns include the genera Sphenopteris, Megalopteris, Archaeopteris, Neuropteris. Among the Lycopods are Lycopodites, Psilophyton, Lepidodendron. Modern horsetails are represented by Calamocladus, Asterocalamites, Annularia. Of great interest are the genera Cordaites, Araucarioxylon, &c. , which were synthetic types, uniting in some degree the Coniferae and the Cycadofilicales. With the exception of obscure markings, aquatic plants are not so well represented as might have been expected; Parka, a common fossil, has been regarded as a water plant with a creeping stem and two kinds of sporangia in sessile sporocarps.
Physical Conditions, &c.—Perhaps the most striking fact that is brought out by a study of the Devonian rocks and their fossils is the gradual transgression of the sea over the land, which took place quietly in every quarter of the globe shortly after the beginning of the period.While in most places the Lower Devonian sediments succeed the Silurian formations in a perfectly conformable manner, the Middle and Upper divisions, on account of this encroachment of the sea, rest unconformably upon the older rocks, the Lower division being unrepresented.This is true over the greater part of South America, so far as our limited knowledge goes, in much of the western side of North America, in western Russia, in Thuringia and other parts of central Europe.Of the distribution of land and sea and the position of the coast lines in Devonian times we can state nothing with precision.The known deposits all point to shallow waters of epicontinental seas; no abyssal formations have been recognized.E.Kayser has pointed out the probability of a Eurasian sea province extending through Europe towards the east, across north and central Asia towards Manitoba in Canada, and an American sea province embracing the United States, South America and South Africa.At the same time there existed a great North Atlantic land area caused partly by the uplift of the Caledonian range just before the beginning of the period, which stretched across north Europe to eastern Canada; on the fringe of this land the Old Red Sandstone was formed.
In the European area C. Barrois has indicated the existence of three zones of deposition: (1) A northern, Old Red, region, including Great Britain, Scandinavia, European Russia and Spitzbergen; here the land was close at hand; great brackish lagoons prevailed, which communicated more or less directly with the open sea. In European Russia, during its general advance, the sea occasionally gained access to wide areas, only to be driven off again, during pauses in the relative subsidence of the land, when the continued terrigenous sedimentation once more established the lagoonal conditions. These alternating phases were frequently repeated. (2) A middle region, covering Devonshire and Cornwall, the Ardennes, the northern part of the lower Rhenish mountains, and the upper Harz to the Polish Mittelgebirge; here we find evidence of a shallow sea, clastic deposits and a sublittoral fauna. (3) A southern region reaching from Brittany to the south of the Rhenish mountains, lower Harz, Thuringia and Bohemia; here was a deeper sea with a more pelagic fauna. It must be borne in mind that the above-mentioned regions are intended to refer to the time when the extension of the Devonian sea was near its maximum. In the case of North America it has been shown that in early and middle Devonian time more or less distinct faunas invaded the continent from five different centres, viz. the Helderberg, the Oriskany, the Onondaga, the southern Hamilton and the north-western Hamilton; these reached the interior approximately in the order given.
Towards the close of the period, when the various local faunas had mingled one with another and a more generalized life assemblage had been evolved, we find many forms with a very wide range, indicating great uniformity of conditions. Thus we find identical species of brachiopods inhabiting the Devonian seas of England, France, Belgium, Germany, Russia, southern Asia and China; such are, Hypothyris (Rhynchonella) cuboides, Spirifer disjunctus and others. The fauna of the Calceola shales can be traced from western Europe to Armenia and Siberia; the Stringocephalus limestones are represented in Belgium, England, the Urals and Canada; and the (Gephyroceras) intumescens shales are found in western Europe and in Manitoba.
The Devonian period was one of comparative quietude; no violent crustal movements seem to have taken place, and while some changes of level occurred towards its close in Great Britain, Bohemia and Russia, generally the passage from Devonian to Carboniferous conditions was quite gradual. In later periods these rocks have suffered considerable movement and metamorphism, as in the Harz, Devonshire and Cornwall, and in the Belgian coalfields, where they have frequently been thrust over the younger Carboniferous rocks. Volcanic activity was fairly widespread, particularly during the middle portion of the period. In the Old Red rocks of Scotland there is a great thickness (6000 ft.) of igneous rocks, including diabases and andesitic lavas with agglomerates and tuffs. In Devonshire diabases and tuffs are found in the middle division. In west central Europe volcanic rocks are found at many horizons, the most common rocks are diabases and diabase tuffs, schalsteinFelsitic lavas and tuffs occur in the Middle Devonian of Australia.Contemporaneous igneous rocks are generally absent in the American Devonian, but in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick there appear to be some.
There is little evidence as to the climate of this period, but it is interesting to observe that local glacial conditions may have existed in places, as is suggested by the coarse conglomerate with striated boulders in the upper Old Red of Scotland. On the other hand, the prevalence of reef-building corals points to moderately warm temperatures in the Middle Devonian seas.
The economic products of Devonian rocks are of some importance: in many of the metamorphosed regions veins of tin, lead, copper, iron are exploited, as in Cornwall, Devon, the Harz; in New Zealand, gold veins occur.Anthracite of Devonian age is found in China and a little coal in Germany, while the Upper Devonian is the chief source of oil and gas of western Pennsylvania and south-western New York.In Ontario the middle division is oil-bearing.Black phosphates are worked in central Tennessee, and in England the marls of the "Old Red" are employed for brick-making.
References.—The literature of the Devonian rocks and fossils is very extensive; important papers have been contributed by the following geologists: J. Barrande, C. Barrois, F. Béclard, E. W. Benecke, L. Beushausen, A. Champernowne, J. M. Clarke, Sir J. W. Dawson, A. Denckmann, J. S. Diller, E. Dupont, F. Frech, J. Fournet, Sir A. Geikie, G. Gürich, R. Hoernes, E. Kayser, C. and M. Koch, A. von Koenen, Hugh Miller, D. P. Oehlert, C. S. Prosser, P. de Rouville, C. Schuchert, T. Tschernyschew, E. O. Ulrich, W. A. E. Ussher, P. N. Wenjukoff, G. F. Whidborne, J. F. Whiteaves and H. S. Williams. Sedgwick and Murchison's original description appeared in the Trans.Geol.Soc. (2nd series, vol. v. , 1839). Good general accounts will be found in Sir A. Geikie's Text-Book of Geology (vol. ii. , 4th ed. , 1903), in E. Kayser's Lehrbuch der Geologie (vol. ii. , 2nd ed. , 1902), and, for North America, in Chamberlin and Salisbury's Geology (vol. ii. , 1906). See the Index to the Geological Magazine (1864-1903), and in subsequent annual volumes; Geological Literature added to the Geological Society's Library (London), annually since 1893; and the Neues Jahrbuch für Min., Geologie und Paläontologie (Stuttgart, 2 annual volumes). The U. S. Geological Survey publishes at intervals a Bibliography and Index of North American Geology, &c., and this (e.g. Bulletin 301,—the Bibliog.and Index for 1901-1905) contains numerous references for the Devonian system in North America.
DEVONPORT, a municipal, county and parliamentary borough of Devonshire, England, contiguous to East Stonehouse and Plymouth, the seat of one of the royal dockyards, and an important naval and military station. Pop. (1901) 70,437. It is situated immediately above the N. W. angle of Plymouth Sound, occupying a triangular peninsula formed by Stonehouse Pool on the E. and the Hamoaze on the W. It is served by the Great Western and the London & South Western railways. The town proper was formerly enclosed by a line of ramparts and a ditch excavated out of the limestone, but these are in great part demolished. Adjoining Devonport are East Stonehouse (an urban district, pop. 15,111), Stoke and Morice Town, the two last being suburbs of Devonport. The town hall, erected in 1821-1822 partly after the design of the Parthenon, is distinguished by a Doric portico; while near it are the public library, in Egyptian style, and a conspicuous Doric column built of Devonshire granite. This monument, which is 100 ft. high, was raised in commemoration of the naming of the town in 1824. Other institutions are the Naval Engineering College, Keyham (1880); the municipal technical schools, opened in 1899, the majority of the students being connected with the dockyard; the naval barracks, Keyham (1885); the Raglan barracks and the naval and military hospitals. On Mount Wise, which was formerly defended by a battery (now a naval signalling station), stands the military residence, or Government House, occupied by the commander of the Plymouth Coast Defences; and near at hand is the principal naval residence, the naval commander-in-chief's house. The prospect from Mount Wise over the Hamoaze to Mount Edgecumbe on the opposite shore is one of the finest in the south of England. The most noteworthy feature of Devonport, however, is the royal dockyard, originally established by William III. in 1689 and until 1824 known as Plymouth Dock. It is situated within the old town boundary and contains four docks. To this in 1853 was added Keyham steamyard, situated higher up the Hamoaze beyond the old boundary and connected with the Devonport yard by a tunnel. In 1896 further extensions were begun at the Keyham yard, which became known as Devonport North yard. Before these were begun the yard comprised two basins, the northern one being 9 acres and the southern 7 acres in area, and three docks, having floor-lengths of 295, 347 and 413 ft. , together with iron and brass foundries, machinery shops, engineer students' shop, &c. The new extensions, opened by the Prince of Wales on the 21st of February 1907, cover a total area of 118 acres lying to the northward in front of the Naval Barracks, and involved the reclamation of 77 acres of mudflats lying below high-water mark. The scheme presented three leading features—a tidal basin, a group of three graving docks with entrance lock, and a large enclosed basin with a coaling depôt at the north end. The tidal basin, close to the old Keyham north basin, is 740 ft. long with a mean width of 590 ft. , and has an area of 10 acres, the depth being 32 ft. at low water of spring tides. It affords access to two graving docks, one with a floor-length of 745 ft. and 20½ ft. of water over the sill, and the other with a length of 741 ft. and 32 ft. of water over the sill. Each of these can be subdivided by means of an intermediate caisson, and (when unoccupied) may serve as an entrance to the closed basin. The lock which leads from the tidal to the closed basin is 730 ft. long, and if necessary can be used as a dock. The closed basin, out of which opens a third graving dock, 660 ft. long, measures 1550 ft. by 1000 ft. and has an area of 35½ acres, with a depth of 32 ft. at low-water springs; it has a direct entrance from the Hamoaze, closed by a caisson. The foundations of the walls are carried down to the rock, which in some places lies covered with mud 100 ft. or more below coping level. Compressed air is used to work the sliding caissons which close the entrances of the docks and closed basin. A ropery at Devonport produces half the hempen ropes used in the navy.
By the Reform Act of 1832 Devonport was erected into a parliamentary borough including East Stonehouse and returning two members.The ground on which it stands is for the most part the property of the St Aubyn family (Barons St Levan), whose steward holds a court leet and a court baron annually.The town is governed by a mayor, sixteen aldermen and forty-eight councillors.Area, 3044 acres.
DEVONPORT, EAST and WEST, a town of Devon county, Tasmania, situated on both sides of the mouth of the river Mersey, 193 m.by rail N.W.of Hobart.Pop.(1901), East Devonport, 673, West Devonport, 2101.There is regular communication from this port to Melbourne and Sydney, and it ranks as the third port in Tasmania.A celebrated regatta is held on the Mersey annually on New Year's day.
DEVONSHIRE, EARLS AND DUKES OF. The Devonshire title, now in the Cavendish family, had previously been held by Charles Blount (1563-1606), 8th Lord Mountjoy, great-grandson of the 4th Lord Mountjoy (d. 1534), the pupil of Erasmus; he was created earl of Devonshire in 1603 for his services in Ireland, where he became famous in subduing the rebellion between 1600 and 1603; but the title became extinct at his death. In the Cavendish line the 1st earl of Devonshire was William (d. 1626), second son of Sir William Cavendish (q. v.) , and of Elizabeth Hardwick, who afterwards married the 6th earl of Shrewsbury. He was created earl of Devonshire in 1618 by James I. , and was succeeded by William, 2nd earl (1591-1628), and the latter by his son William (1617-1684), a prominent royalist, and one of the original members of the Royal Society, who married a daughter of the 2nd earl of Salisbury.
William Cavendish, 1st duke of Devonshire (1640-1707), English statesman, eldest son of the earl of Devonshire last mentioned, was born on the 25th of January 1640. After completing his education he made the tour of Europe according to the custom of young men of his rank, being accompanied on his travels by Dr Killigrew. On his return he obtained, in 1661, a seat in parliament for Derbyshire, and soon became conspicuous as one of the most determined and daring opponents of the general policy of the court. In 1678 he was one of the committee appointed to draw up articles of impeachment against the lord treasurer Danby. In 1679 he was re-elected for Derby, and made a privy councillor by Charles II. ; but he soon withdrew from the board with his friend Lord Russell, when he found that the Roman Catholic interest uniformly prevailed. He carried up to the House of Lords the articles of impeachment against Lord Chief-Justice Scroggs, for his arbitrary and illegal proceedings in the court of King's bench; and when the king declared his resolution not to sign the bill for excluding the duke of York, afterwards James II. , he moved in the House of Commons that a bill might be brought in for the association of all his majesty's Protestant subjects. He also openly denounced the king's counsellors, and voted for an address to remove them. He appeared in defence of Lord Russell at his trial, at a time when it was scarcely more criminal to be an accomplice than a witness. After the condemnation he gave the utmost possible proof of his attachment by offering to exchange clothes with Lord Russell in the prison, remain in his place, and so allow him to effect his escape. In November 1684 he succeeded to the earldom on the death of his father. He opposed arbitrary government under James II. with the same consistency and high spirit as during the previous reign. He was withdrawn from public life for a time, however, in consequence of a hasty and imprudent act of which his enemies knew how to avail themselves. Fancying that he had received an insulting look in the presence chamber from Colonel Colepepper, a swaggerer whose attendance at court the king encouraged, he immediately avenged the affront by challenging the colonel, and, on the challenge being refused, striking him with his cane. This offence was punished by a fine of £30,000, which was an enormous sum even to one of the earl's princely fortune. Not being able to pay he was imprisoned in the king's bench, from which he was released only on signing a bond for the whole amount. This was afterwards cancelled by King William. After his discharge the earl went for a time to Chatsworth, where he occupied himself with the erection of a new mansion, designed by William Talman, with decorations by Verrio, Thornhill and Grinling Gibbons. The Revolution again brought him into prominence. He was one of the seven who signed the original paper inviting the prince of Orange from Holland, and was the first nobleman who appeared in arms to receive him at his landing. He received the order of the Garter on the occasion of the coronation, and was made lord high steward of the new court. In 1690 he accompanied King William on his visit to Holland. He was created marquis of Hartington and duke of Devonshire in 1694 by William and Mary, on the same day on which the head of the house of Russell was created duke of Bedford. Thus, to quote Macaulay, "the two great houses of Russell and Cavendish, which had long been closely connected by friendship and by marriage, by common opinions, common sufferings and common triumphs, received on the same day the highest honour which it is in the power of the crown to confer." His last public service was assisting to conclude the union with Scotland, for negotiating which he and his eldest son, the marquis of Hartington, had been appointed among the commissioners by Queen Anne. He died on the 18th of August 1707, and ordered the following inscription to be put on his monument:—
Willielmus Dux Devon,
Bonorum Principum Fidelis Subditus,
Inimicus et Invisus Tyrannis.
He had married in 1661 the daughter of James, duke of Ormonde, and he was succeeded by his eldest son William as 2nd duke, and by the latter's son William as 3rd duke (viceroy of Ireland, 1737-1744).The latter's son William (1720-1764) succeeded in 1755 as 4th duke; he married the daughter and heiress of Richard Boyle, earl of Burlington and Cork, who brought Lismore Castle and the Irish estates into the family; and from November 1756 to May 1757 he was prime minister, mainly in order that Pitt, who would not then serve under the duke of Newcastle, should be in power.His son William (1748-1811), 5th duke, is memorable as the husband of the beautiful Georgiana Spencer, duchess of Devonshire (1757-1806), and of the intellectual Elizabeth Foster, duchess of Devonshire (1758-1824), both of whom Gainsborough painted.His son William, 6th duke (1790-1858), who died unmarried, was sent on a special mission to the coronation of the tsar Nicholas at Moscow in 1826, and became famous for his expenditure on that occasion; and it was he who employed Sir Joseph Paxton at Chatsworth.The title passed in 1858 to his cousin William (1808-1891), 2nd earl of Burlington, as 7th duke, a man who, without playing a prominent part in public affairs, exercised great influence, not only by his position but by his distinguished abilities.At Cambridge in 1829 he was second wrangler, first Smith's prizeman, and eighth classic, and subsequently he became chancellor of the university.
Spencer Compton Cavendish, 8th duke (1833-1908), born on the 23rd of July 1833, was the son of the 7th duke (then earl of Burlington) and his wife Lady Blanche Howard (sister of the earl of Carlisle). In 1854 Lord Cavendish, as he then was, took his degree at Trinity College, Cambridge; in 1856 he was attached to the special mission to Russia for the new tsar's accession; and in 1857 he was returned to parliament as Liberal member for North Lancashire. At the opening of the new parliament of 1859 the marquis of Hartington (as he had now become) moved the amendment to the address which overthrew the government of Lord Derby. In 1863 he became first a lord of the admiralty, and then under-secretary for war, and on the formation of the Russell-Gladstone administration at the death of Lord Palmerston he entered it as war secretary. He retired with his colleagues in July 1866; but upon Mr Gladstone's return to power in 1868 he became postmaster-general, an office which he exchanged in 1871 for that of secretary for Ireland. When Mr Gladstone, after his defeat and resignation in 1874, temporarily withdrew from the leadership of the Liberal party in January 1875, Lord Hartington was chosen Liberal leader in the House of Commons, Lord Granville being leader in the Lords. Mr W. E. Forster, who had taken a much more prominent part in public life, was the only other possible nominee, but he declined to stand. Lord Hartington's rank no doubt told in his favour, and Mr Forster's education bill had offended the Nonconformist members, who would probably have withheld their support. Lord Hartington's prudent management in difficult circumstances laid his followers under great obligations, since not only was the opposite party in the ascendant, but his own former chief was indulging in the freedom of independence. After the complete defeat of the Conservatives in the general election of 1880, a large proportion of the party would have rejoiced if Lord Hartington could have taken the Premiership instead of Mr Gladstone, and the queen, in strict conformity with constitutional usage (though Gladstone himself thought Lord Granville should have had the preference), sent for him as leader of the Opposition. Mr Gladstone, however, was clearly master of the situation: no cabinet could be formed without him, nor could he reasonably be expected to accept a subordinate post. Lord Hartington, therefore, gracefully abdicated the leadership, and became secretary of state for India, from which office, in December 1882, he passed to the war office. His administration was memorable for the expeditions of General Gordon and Lord Wolseley to Khartum, and a considerable number of the Conservative party long held him chiefly responsible for the "betrayal of Gordon." His lethargic manner, apart from his position as war minister, helped to associate him in their minds with a disaster which emphasized the fact that the government acted "too late"; but Gladstone and Lord Granville were no less responsible than he. In June 1885 he resigned along with his colleagues, and in December was elected for the Rossendale Division of Lancashire, created by the new reform bill. Immediately afterwards the great political opportunity of Lord Hartington's life came to him in Mr Gladstone's conversion to home rule for Ireland. Lord Hartington's refusal to follow his leader in this course inevitably made him the chief of the new Liberal Unionist party, composed of a large and influential section of the old Liberals. In this capacity he moved the first resolution at the famous public meeting at the opera house, and also, in the House of Commons, moved the rejection of Mr Gladstone's Bill on the second reading. During the memorable electoral contest which followed, no election excited more interest than Lord Hartington's for the Rossendale division, where he was returned by a majority of nearly 1500 votes. In the new parliament he held a position much resembling that which Sir Robert Peel had occupied after his fall from power, the leader of a small, compact party, the standing and ability of whose members were out of all proportion to their numbers, generally esteemed and trusted beyond any other man in the country, yet in his own opinion forbidden to think of office. Lord Salisbury's offers to serve under him as prime minister (both after the general election, and again when Lord Randolph Churchill resigned) were declined, and Lord Hartington continued to discharge the delicate duties of the leader of a middle party with no less judgment than he had shown when leading the Liberals during the interregnum of 1875-1880. It was not until 1895, when the differences between Conservatives and Liberal Unionists had become almost obliterated by changed circumstances, and the habit of acting together, that the duke of Devonshire, as he had become by the death of his father in 1891, consented to enter Lord Salisbury's third ministry as president of the council. The duke thus was the nominal representative of education in the cabinet at a time when educational questions were rapidly becoming of great importance; and his own technical knowledge of this difficult and intricate question being admittedly superficial, a good deal of criticism from time to time resulted. He had however by this time an established position in public life, and a reputation for weight of character, which procured for him universal respect and confidence, and exempted him from bitter attack, even from his most determined political opponents. Wealth and rank combined with character to place him in a measure above party; and his succession to his father as chancellor of the university of Cambridge in 1892 indicated his eminence in the life of the country. In the same year he had married the widow of the 7th duke of Manchester.
He continued to hold the office of lord president of the council till the 3rd of October 1903, when he resigned on account of differences with Mr Balfour (q. v.) over the latter's attitude towards free trade. As Mr Chamberlain had retired from the cabinet, and the duke had not thought it necessary to join Lord George Hamilton and Mr Ritchie in resigning a fortnight earlier, the defection was unanticipated and was sharply criticized by Mr Balfour, who, in the rearrangement of his ministry, had only just appointed the duke's nephew and heir, Mr Victor Cavendish, to be secretary to the treasury. But the duke had come to the conclusion that while he himself was substantially a free-trader,[1] Mr Balfour did not mean the same thing by the term. He necessarily became the leader of the Free Trade Unionists who were neither Balfourites nor Chamberlainites, and his weight was thrown into the scale against any association of Unionism with the constructive policy of tariff reform, which he identified with sheer Protection. A struggle at once began within the Liberal Unionist organization between those who followed the duke and those who followed Mr Chamberlain (q. v.) ; but the latter were in the majority and a reorganization in the Liberal Unionist Association took place, the Unionist free-traders seceding and becoming a separate body. The duke then became president of the new organizations, the Unionist Free Food League and the Unionist Free Trade Club. In the subsequent developments the duke played a dignified but somewhat silent part, and the Unionist rout in 1906 was not unaffected by his open hostility to any taint of compromise with the tariff reform movement. But in the autumn of 1907 his health gave way, and grave symptoms of cardiac weakness necessitated his abstaining from public effort and spending the winter abroad. He died, rather suddenly, at Cannes on the 24th of March 1908.
The head of an old and powerful family, a wealthy territorial magnate, and an Englishman with thoroughly national tastes for sport, his weighty and disinterested character made him a statesman of the first rank in his time, in spite of the absence of showy or brilliant qualities.He had no self-seeking ambitions, and on three occasions preferred not to become prime minister.Though his speeches were direct and forcible, he was not an orator, nor "clever"; and he lacked all subtlety of intellect; but he was conspicuous for solidity of mind and straightforwardness of action, and for conscientious application as an administrator, whether in his public or private life.The fact that he once yawned in the middle of a speech of his own was commonly quoted as characteristic; but he combined a great fund of common sense and knowledge of the average opinion with a patriotic sense of duty towards the state.Throughout his career he remained an old-fashioned Liberal, or rather Whig, of a type which in his later years was becoming gradually more and more rare.
There was no issue of his marriage, and he was succeeded as 9th duke by his nephew Victor Christian Cavendish (b. 1868), who had been Liberal Unionist member for West Derbyshire since 1891, and was treasurer of the household (1900 to 1903) and financial secretary to the treasury (1903 to 1905); in 1892 he married a daughter of the marquess of Lansdowne, by whom he had two sons.
[1] His own words to Mr Balfour at the time were: "I believe that our present system of free imports is on the whole the most advantageous to the country, though I do not contend that the principles on which it rests possess any such authority or sanctity as to forbid any departure from it, for sufficient reasons."
DEVONSHIRE (Devon), a south-western county of England, bounded N.W.and N.by the Bristol Channel, N.E.by Somerset and Dorset, S.E.and S.by the English Channel, and W.by Cornwall.The area, 2604.9 sq.m., is exceeded only by those of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire among the English counties.Nearly the whole of the surface is uneven and hilly.The county contains the highest land in England south of Derbyshire (excepting points on the south Welsh border); and the scenery, much varied, is in most parts striking and picturesque.The heather-clad uplands of Exmoor, though chiefly within the borders of Somerset, extend into North Devon, and are still the haunt of red deer, and of the small hardy ponies called after the district.Here, as on Dartmoor, the streams are rich in trout.Dartmoor, the principal physical feature of the county, is a broad and lofty expanse of moorland which rises in the southern part.Its highest point, 2039 ft., is found in the north-western portion.Its rough wastes contrast finely with the wild but wooded region which immediately surrounds the granite of which it is composed, and with the rich cultivated country lying beyond.Especially noteworthy in this fertile tract are the South Hams, a fruitful district of apple orchards, lying between the Erme and the Dart; the rich meadow-land around Crediton, in the vale of Exeter; and the red rocks near Sidmouth.Two features which lend a characteristic charm to the Devonshire landscape are the number of picturesque old cottages roofed with thatch; and the deep lanes, sunk below the common level of the ground, bordered by tall hedges, and overshadowed by an arch of boughs.The north and south coasts of the county differ much in character, but both have grand cliff and rock scenery, not surpassed by any in England or Wales, resembling the Mediterranean seaboard in its range of colour.As a rule the long combes or glens down which the rivers flow seaward are densely wooded, and the country immediately inland is of great beauty.Apart from the Tamar, which constitutes the boundary between Devon and Cornwall, and flows into the English Channel, after forming in its estuary the harbours of Devonport and Plymouth, the principal rivers rise on Dartmoor.These include the Teign, Dart, Plym and Tavy, falling into the English Channel, and the Taw flowing north towards Bideford Bay.The river Torridge, also discharging northward, receives part of its waters from Dartmoor through the Okement, but itself rises in the angle of high land near Hartland point on the north coast, and makes a wide sweep southward.The lesser Dartmoor streams are the Avon, the Erme and the Vealm, all running south.The Exe rises on Exmoor in Somersetshire; but the main part of its course is through Devonshire (where it gives name to Exeter), and it is joined on its way to the English Channel by the lesser streams of the Culm, the Creedy and the Clyst.The Otter, rising on the Blackdown Hills, also runs south, and the Axe, for part of its course, divides the counties of Devon and Dorset.These eastern streams are comparatively slow; while the rivers of Dartmoor have a shorter and more rapid course.
Geology.—The greatest area occupied by any one group of rocks in Devonshire is that covered by the Culm, a series of slates, grits and greywackes, with some impure limestones and occasional radiolarian cherts as at Codden Hill; beds of "culm," an impure variety of coal, are found at Bideford and elsewhere. This series of rocks occurs at Bampton, Exeter and Chudleigh and extends thence to the western boundary. North and south of the Culm an older series of slates, grits and limestones appears; it was considered so characteristic of the county that it was called the Devonian system (q. v.) , the marine equivalent of the Old Red Sandstone of Hereford and Scotland. It lies in the form of a trough with its axis running east and west. In the central hollow the Culm reposes, while the northern and southern rims rise to the surface respectively north of the latitude of Barnstaple and South Molton and south of the latitude of Tavistock. These Devonian rocks have been subdivided into upper, middle and lower divisions, but the stratigraphy is difficult to follow as the beds have suffered much crumpling; fine examples of contorted strata may be seen almost anywhere on the north coast, and in the south, at Bolt Head and Start Point they have undergone severe metamorphism. Limestones are only poorly developed in the north, but in the south important masses occur, in the middle and at the base of the upper subdivisions, about Plymouth, Torquay, Brixham and between Newton Abbot and Totnes. Fossil corals abound in these limestones, which are largely quarried and when polished are known as Devonshire marbles.
On the eastern side of the county is found an entirely different set of rocks which cover the older series and dip away from them gently towards the east.The lower and most westerly situated members of the younger rocks is a series of breccias, conglomerates, sandstones and marls which are probably of lower Bunter age, but by some geologists have been classed as Permian.These red rocks are beautifully exposed on the coast by Dawlish and Teignmouth, and they extend inland, producing a red soil, past Exeter and Tiverton.A long narrow strip of the same formation reaches out westward on the top of the Culm as far as Jacobstow.Farther east, the Bunter pebble beds are represented by the well-known pebble deposit of Budleigh Salterton, whence they are traceable inland towards Rockbeare.These are succeeded by the Keuper marls and sandstones, well exposed at Sidmouth, where the upper Greensand plateau is clearly seen to overlie them.The Greensand covers all the high ground northward from Sidmouth as far as the Blackdown Hills.At Beer Head and Axmouth the Chalk is seen, and at the latter place is a famous landslip on the coast, caused by the springs which issue from the Greensand below the Chalk.The Lower Chalk at Beer has been mined for building stone and was formerly in considerable demand.At the extreme east of the county, Rhaetic and Lias beds make their appearance, the former with a "bone" bed bearing the remains of saurians and fish.
Dartmoor is a mass of granite that was intruded into the Culm and Devonian strata in post-Carboniferous times and subsequently exposed by denudation. Evidences of Devonian volcanic activity are abundant in the masses of diabase, dolerite, &c. , at Bradford and Trusham, south of Exeter, around Plymouth and at Ashprington. Perhaps the most interesting is the Carboniferous volcano of Brent Tor near Tavistock. An Eocene deposit, the product of the denudation of the Dartmoor Hills, lies in a small basin at Bovey Tracey (see Bovey Beds); it yields beds of lignite and valuable clays.
Raised beaches occur at Hope's Nose and the Thatcher Stone near Torquay and at other points, and a submerged forest lies in the bay south of the same place.The caves and fissures in the Devonian limestone at Kent's Hole near Torquay, Brixham and Oreston are famous for the remains of extinct mammals; bones of the elephant, rhinoceros, bear and hyaena have been found as well as flint implements of early man.
Minerals.—Silver-lead was formerly worked at Combe Martin near the north coast, and elsewhere.Tin has been worked on Dartmoor (in stream works) from an unknown period.Copper was not much worked before the end of the 18th century.Tin occurs in the granite of Dartmoor, and along its borders, but rather where the Devonian than where the Carboniferous rocks border the granite.It is found most plentifully in the district which surrounds Tavistock, which, for tin and other ores, is in effect the great mining district of the county.Here, about 4 m.from Tavistock, are the Devon Great Consols mines, which from 1843 to 1871 were among the richest copper mines in the world, and by far the largest and most profitable in the kingdom.The divided profits during this period amounted to £1,192,960.But the mining interests of Devonshire are affected by the same causes, and in the same way, as those of Cornwall.The quantity of ore has greatly diminished, and the cost of raising it from the deep mines prevents competition with foreign markets.In many mines tin underlies the general depth of the copper, and is worked when the latter has been exhausted.The mineral products of the Tavistock district are various, and besides tin and copper, ores of zinc and iron are largely distributed.Great quantities of refined arsenic have been produced at the Devon Great Consols mine, by elimination from the iron pyrites contained in the various lodes.Manganese occurs in the neighbourhood of Exeter, in the valley of the Teign and in N.Devon; but the most profitable mines, which are shallow, are, like those of tin and copper, in the Tavistock district.
The other mineral productions of the county consist of marbles, building stones, slates and potters' clay.Among building stones, the granite of Dartmoor holds the foremost place.It is much quarried near Princetown, near Moreton Hampstead on the N.E.of Dartmoor and elsewhere.The annual export is considerable.Hard traps, which occur in many places, are also much used, as are the limestones of Buckfastleigh and of Plymouth.The Roborough stone, used from an early period in Devonshire churches, is found near Tavistock, and is a hard, porphyritic elvan, taking a fine polish.Excellent roofing slates occur in the Devonian series round the southern part of Dartmoor.The chief quarries are near Ashburton and Plymouth (Cann quarry).Potters' clay is worked at King's Teignton, whence it is largely exported; at Bovey Tracey; and at Watcombe near Torquay.The Watcombe clay is of the finest quality.China clay or kaolin is found on the southern side of Dartmoor, at Lee Moor, and near Trowlesworthy.There is a large deposit of umber close to Ashburton.
Climate and Agriculture.—The climate varies greatly in different parts of the county, but everywhere it is more humid than that of the eastern or south-eastern parts of England. The mean annual temperature somewhat exceeds that of the midlands, but the average summer heat is rather less than that of the southern counties to the east. The air of the Dartmoor highlands is sharp and bracing. Mists are frequent, and snow often lies long. On the south coast frost is little known, and many half hardy plants, such as hydrangeas, myrtles, geraniums and heliotropes, live through the winter without protection. The climate of Sidmouth, Teignmouth, Torquay and other watering places on this coast is very equable, the mean temperature in January being 43.6° at Plymouth. The north coast, exposed to the storms and swell of the Atlantic, is more bracing; although there also, in the more sheltered nooks (as at Combe Martin), myrtles of great size and age flower freely, and produce their annual crop of berries.
Rather less than three-quarters of the total area of the county is under cultivation; the cultivated area falling a little below the average of the English counties.There are, however, about 160,000 acres of hill pasture in addition to the area in permanent pasture, which is more than one-half that of the cultivated area.The Devon breed of cattle is well adapted both for fattening and for dairy purposes; while sheep are kept in great numbers on the hill pastures.Devonshire is one of the chief cattle-farming and sheep-farming counties.It is specially famous for two products of the dairy—the clotted cream to which it gives its name, and junket.Of the area under grain crops, oats occupy about three times the acreage under wheat or barley.The bulk of the acreage under green crops is occupied by turnips, swedes and mangold.Orchards occupy a large acreage, and consist chiefly of apple-trees, nearly every farm maintaining one for the manufacture of cider.
Fisheries.—Though the fisheries of Devon are less valuable than those of Cornwall, large quantities of the pilchard and herrings caught in Cornish waters are landed at Plymouth.Much of the fishing is carried on within the three-mile limit; and it may be asserted that trawling is the main feature of the Devonshire industry, whereas seining and driving characterize that of Cornwall.Pilchard, cod, sprats, brill, plaice, soles, turbot, shrimps, lobsters, oysters and mussels are met with, besides herring and mackerel, which are fairly plentiful.After Plymouth, the principal fishing station is at Brixham, but there are lesser stations in every bay and estuary.
Other Industries.—The principal industrial works in the county are the various Government establishments at Plymouth and Devonport.Among other industries may be noted the lace-works at Tiverton; the manufacture of pillow-lace for which Honiton and its neighbourhood has long been famous; and the potteries and terra-cotta works of Bovey Tracey and Watcombe.Woollen goods and serges are made at Buckfastleigh and Ashburton, and boots and shoes at Crediton.Convict labour is employed in the direction of agriculture, quarrying, &c., in the great prison of Dartmoor.
Communications.—The main line of the Great Western railway, entering the county in the east from Taunton, runs to Exeter, skirts the coast as far as Teignmouth, and continues a short distance inland by Newton Abbot to Plymouth, after which it crosses the estuary of the Tamar by a great bridge to Saltash in Cornwall.Branches serve Torquay and other seaside resorts of the south coast; and among other branches are those from Taunton to Barnstaple and from Plymouth northward to Tavistock and Launceston.The main line of the London & South-Western railway between Exeter and Plymouth skirts the north and west of Dartmoor by Okehampton and Tavistock.A branch from Yeoford serves Barnstaple, Ilfracombe, Bideford and Torrington, while the Lynton & Barnstaple and the Bideford, Westward Ho & Appledore lines serve the districts indicated by their names.The branch line to Princetown from the Plymouth-Tavistock line of the Great Western company in part follows the line of a very early railway—that constructed to connect Plymouth with the Dartmoor prison in 1819-1825, which was worked with horse cars.The only waterways of any importance are the Tamar, which is navigable up to Gunnislake (3 m.S.W.of Tavistock), and the Exeter ship canal, noteworthy as one of the oldest in England, for it was originally cut in the reign of Elizabeth.
Population and Administration.—The area of the ancient county is 1,667,154 acres, with a population in 1891 of 631,808, and 1901 of 661,314.The area of the administrative county is 1,671,168 acres.The county contains 33 hundreds.The municipal boroughs are Barnstaple (pop.14,137), Bideford (8754), Dartmouth (6579), Devonport, a county borough (70,437), Exeter, a city and county borough (47,185), Torrington, officially Great Torrington (3241), Honiton (3271), Okehampton (2569), Plymouth, a county borough (107,636), South Molton (2848), Tiverton (10,382), Torquay (33,625), Totnes (4035).The other urban districts are Ashburton (2628), Bampton (1657), Brixham (8092), Buckfastleigh (2520), Budleigh Salterton (1883), Crediton (3974), Dawlish (4003), East Stonehouse (15,111), Exmouth (10,485), Heavitree (7529), Holsworthy (1371), Ilfracombe (8557), Ivybridge (1575), Kingsbridge (3025), Lynton (1641), Newton Abbot (12,517), Northam (5355), Ottery St Mary (3495), Paignton (8385), Salcombe (1710), Seaton (1325), Sidmouth (4201), Tavistock (4728), Teignmouth (8636).The county is in the western circuit, and assizes are held at Exeter.It has one court of quarter sessions, and is divided into twenty-four petty sessional divisions.The boroughs of Barnstaple, Bideford, Devonport, Exeter, Plymouth, South Molton, and Tiverton have separate commissions of the peace and courts of quarter sessions, and those of Dartmouth, Great Torrington, Torquay and Totnes have commissions of the peace only.There are 461 civil parishes.Devonshire is in the diocese of Exeter, with the exception of small parts in those of Salisbury and Truro; and there are 516 ecclesiastical parishes or districts wholly or in part within the county.The parliamentary divisions are the Eastern or Honiton, North-eastern or Tiverton, Northern or South Molton, North-western or Barnstaple, Western or Tavistock, Southern or Totnes, Torquay, and Mid or Ashburton, each returning one member; and the county also contains the parliamentary boroughs of Devonport and Plymouth, each returning two members, and that of Exeter, returning one member.
History.—The Saxon conquest of Devonshire must have begun some time before the 8th century, for in 700 there existed at Exeter a famous Saxon school. By this time, however, the Saxons had become Christians, and established their supremacy, not by destructive inroads, but by a gradual process of colonization, settling among the native Welsh and allowing them to hold lands under equal laws. The final incorporation of the district which is now Devonshire with the kingdom of Wessex must have taken place about 766, but the county, and even Exeter, remained partly Welsh until the time of Æthelstan. At the beginning of the 9th century Wessex was divided into definite pagi, probably corresponding to the later shires, and the Saxon Chronicle mentions Devonshire by name in 823, when a battle was fought between the Welsh in Cornwall and the people of Devonshire at Camelford.During the Danish invasions of the 9th century aldermen of Devon are frequently mentioned.In 851 the invaders were defeated by the fyrd and aldermen of Devon, and in 878, when the Danes under Hubba were harrying the coast with a squadron of twenty-three ships, they were again defeated with great slaughter by the fyrd.The modern hundreds of Devonshire correspond in position very nearly with those given in the Domesday Survey, though the names have in many cases been changed, owing generally to alterations in their places of meeting.The hundred of Bampton formerly included estates west of the Exe, now transferred to the hundred of Witheridge.Ten of the modern hundreds have been formed by the union of two or more Domesday hundreds, while the Domesday hundred of Liston has had the new hundred of Tavistock severed from it since 1114.Many of the hundreds were separated by tracts of waste and forest land, of which Devonshire contained a vast extent, until in 1204 the inhabitants paid 5000 marks to have the county disafforested, with the exception only of Dartmoor and Exmoor.
Devonshire in the 7th century formed part of the vast bishopric of Dorchester-on-Thames. In 705 it was attached to the newly created diocese of Sherborne, and in 910 Archbishop Plegmund constituted Devonshire a separate diocese, and placed the see at Crediton. About 1030 the dioceses of Devonshire and Cornwall were united, and in 1049 the see was fixed at Exeter. The archdeaconries of Exeter, Barnstaple and Totnes are all mentioned in the 12th century and formerly comprised twenty-four deaneries. The deaneries of Three Towns, Collumpton and Ottery have been created since the 16th century, while those of Tamerton, Dunkeswell, Dunsford and Plymptre have been abolished, bringing the present number to twenty-three.
At the time of the Norman invasion Devonshire showed an active hostility to Harold, and the easy submission which it rendered to the Conqueror accounts for the exceptionally large number of Englishmen who are found retaining lands after the Conquest.The many vast fiefs held by Norman barons were known as honours, chief among them being Plympton, Okehampton, Barnstaple, Harberton and Totnes.The honour of Plympton was bestowed in the 12th century on the Redvers family, together with the earldom of Devon; in the 13th century it passed to the Courtenay family, who had already become possessed of the honour of Okehampton, and who in 1335 obtained the earldom.The dukedom of Exeter was bestowed in the 14th century on the Holland family, which became extinct in the reign of Edward IV.The ancestors of Sir Walter Raleigh, who was born at Budleigh, had long held considerable estates in the county.
Devonshire had an independent sheriff, the appointment being at first hereditary, but afterwards held for one year only.In 1320 complaint was made that all the hundreds of Devonshire were in the hands of the great lords, who did not appoint a sufficiency of bailiffs for their proper government.The miners of Devon had independent courts, known as stannary courts, for the regulation of mining affairs, the four stannary towns being Tavistock, Ashburton, Chagford, and Plympton.The ancient miners' parliament was held in the open air at Crockern's Tor.
The castles of Exeter and Plympton were held against Stephen by Baldwin de Redvers, and in the 14th and 15th centuries the French made frequent attacks on the Devonshire coast, being repulsed in 1404 by the people of Dartmouth.In the Wars of the Roses the county was much divided, and frequent skirmishes took place between the earl of Devon and Lord Bonville, the respective champions of the Lancastrian and Yorkist parties.Great disturbances in the county followed the Reformation of the 16th century and in 1549 a priest was compelled to say mass at Sampford Courtney.On the outbreak of the Civil War the county as a whole favoured the parliament, but the prevailing desire was for peace, and in 1643 a treaty for the cessation of hostilities in Devonshire and Cornwall was agreed upon.Skirmishes, however, continued until the capture of Dartmouth and Exeter in 1646 put an end to the struggle.In 1688 the prince of Orange landed at Torbay and was entertained for several days at Ford and at Exeter.
The tin mines of Devon have been worked from time immemorial, and in the 14th century mines of tin, copper, lead, gold and silver are mentioned.Agriculturally the county was always poor, and before the disafforestation rendered especially so through the ravages committed by the herds of wild deer.At the time of the Domesday Survey the salt industry was important, and there were ninety-nine mills in the county and thirteen fisheries.From an early period the chief manufacture was that of woollen cloth, and a statute 4 Ed.IV.permitted the manufacture of cloths of a distinct make in certain parts of Devonshire.About 1505 Anthony Bonvis, an Italian, introduced an improved method of spinning into the county, and cider-making is mentioned in the 16th century.In 1680 the lace industry was already flourishing at Colyton and Ottery St Mary, and flax, hemp and malt were largely produced in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Devonshire returned two members to parliament in 1290, and in 1295 Barnstaple, Exeter, Plympton, Tavistock, Torrington and Totnes were also represented.In 1831 the county with its boroughs returned a total of twenty-six members, but under the Reform Act of 1832 it returned four members in two divisions, and with ten boroughs was represented by a total of eighteen members.Under the act of 1868 the county returned six members in three divisions, and four of the boroughs were disfranchised, making a total of seventeen members.
Antiquities.—In primeval antiquities Devonshire is not so rich as Cornwall; but Dartmoor abounds in remains of the highest interest, the most peculiar of which are the long parallel alignments of upright stones, which, on a small scale, resemble those of Carnac in Brittany.On Dartmoor the lines are invariably straight, and are found in direct connexion with cairns, and with circles which are probably sepulchral.These stone avenues are very numerous.Of the so-called sacred circles the best examples are the "Longstones" on Scorhill Down, and the "Grey Wethers" under Sittaford Tor.By far the finest cromlech is the "Spinster's Rock" at Drewsteignton, a three-pillared cromlech which may well be compared with those of Cornwall.There are numerous menhirs or single upright stones; a large dolmen or holed stone lies in the bed of the Teign, near the Scorhill circle; and rock basins occur on the summit of nearly every tor on Dartmoor (the largest are on Kestor, and on Heltor, above the Teign).It is, however, tolerably evident that these have been produced by the gradual disintegration of the granite, and that the dolmen in the Teign is due to the action of the river.Clusters of hut foundations, circular, and formed of rude granite blocks, are frequent; the best example of such a primitive village is at Batworthy, near Chagford; the type resembles that of East Cornwall.Walled enclosures, or pounds, occur in many places; Grimspound is the most remarkable.Boundary lines, also called trackways, run across Dartmoor in many directions; and the rude bridges, formed of great slabs of granite, deserve notice.All these remains are on Dartmoor.Scattered over the county are numerous large hill castles and camps,—all earthworks, and all apparently of the British period.Roman relics have been found from time to time at Exeter (Isca Damnoniorum), the only large Roman station in the county.
The churches are for the most part of the Perpendicular period, dating from the middle of the 14th to the end of the 15th century.Exeter cathedral is of course an exception, the whole (except the Norman towers) being very beautiful Decorated work.The special features of Devonshire churches, however, are the richly carved pulpits and chancel screens of wood, in which this county exceeded every other in England, with the exception of Norfolk and Suffolk.The designs are rich and varied, and the skill displayed often very great.Granite crosses are frequent, the finest and earliest being that of Coplestone, near Crediton.Monastic remains are scanty; the principal are those at Tor, Buckfast, Tavistock and Buckland Abbeys.Among domestic buildings the houses of Wear Gilford, Bradley and Dartington of the 15th century; Bradfield and Holcombe Rogus (Elizabethan), and Forde (Jacobean), deserve notice.The ruined castles of Okehampton (Edward I.), Exeter, with its vast British earthworks, Berry Pomeroy (Henry III., with ruins of a large Tudor mansion), Totnes (Henry III.)and Compton (early 15th century), are all interesting and picturesque.
Authorities.—T. Westcote, Survey of Devon, written about 1630, and first printed in 1845; J. Prince, Worthies of Devon (Exeter, 1701); Sir W. Pole, Collections towards a History of the County of Devon (London, 1791); R. Polwhele, History of Devonshire (3 vols. Exeter, 1797, 1798-1800); T. Moore, History of Devon from the Earliest Period to the Present Time (vols, i. , ii. , London, 1829-1831); G. Oliver, Historic Collections relating to the Monasteries in Devon (Exeter, 1820); D. and S. Lysons, Magna Britannia (vol. vi. , London, 1822); Ecclesiastical Antiquities in Devon (Exeter, 1844); Mrs Bray, Traditions of Devonshire, in a series of letters to Robert Southey (London, 1838); G. C. Boase, Devonshire Bibliography (London, 1883); Sir W. R. Drake, Devonshire Notes and Notelets (London, 1888); S. Hewett, Peasant Speech of Devon (London, 1892); R. N. Worth, History of Devonshire (London, 1886, new edition, 1895); C. Worthy, Devonshire Parishes (Exeter, 1887); Devonshire Wills (London, 1896); Victoria County History, Devonshire
DEVRIENT, the name of a family of German actors.
Ludwig Devrient (1784-1832), born in Berlin on the 15th of December 1784, was the son of a silk merchant. He was apprenticed to an upholsterer, but, suddenly leaving his employment, joined a travelling theatrical company, and made his first appearance on the stage at Gera in 1804 as the messenger in Schiller's Braut von Messina. By the interest of Count Brühl, he appeared at Rudolstadt as Franz Moor in Schiller's Räuber, so successfully that he obtained a permanent engagement at the ducal theatre in Dessau, where he played until 1809. He then received a call to Breslau, where he remained for six years. So brilliant was his success in the title-parts of several of Shakespeare's plays, that Iffland began to fear for his own reputation; yet that great artist was generous enough to recommend the young actor as his only possible successor. On Iffland's death Devrient was summoned to Berlin, where he was for fifteen years the popular idol. He died there on the 30th of December 1832. Ludwig Devrient was equally great in comedy and tragedy. Falstaff, Franz Moor, Shylock, King Lear and Richard II. were among his best parts. Karl von Holtei in his Reminiscences has given a graphic picture of him and the "demoniac fascination" of his acting.
See Z. Funck, Aus dem Leben zweier Schauspieler, Ifflands und Devrients (Leipzig, 1838); H. Smidt in Devrient-Novellen (3rd ed. , Berlin, 1882); R. Springer in the novel Devrient und Hoffmann (Berlin, 1873), and Eduard Devrient's Geschichte der deutschen Schauspielkunst (Leipzig, 1861).
Three of the nephews of Ludwig Devrient, sons of his brother, a merchant, were also connected with the stage. Karl August Devrient (1797-1872) was born at Berlin on the 5th of April 1797. After being for a short time in business, he entered a cavalry regiment as volunteer and fought at Waterloo. He then joined the stage, making his first appearance on the stage in 1819 at Brunswick. In 1821 he received an engagement at the court theatre in Dresden, where, in 1823, he married Wilhelmine Schröder (see Schröder-Devrient). In 1835 he joined the company at Karlsruhe, and in 1839 that at Hanover. His best parts were Wallenstein and King Lear. He died on the 5th of April 1872. His brother Philipp Eduard Devrient (1801-1877), born at Berlin on the 11th of August 1801, was for a time an opera singer. Turning his attention to theatrical management, he was from 1844 to 1846 director of the court theatre in Dresden. Appointed to Karlsruhe in 1852, he began a thorough reorganization of the theatre, and in the course of seventeen years of assiduous labour, not only raised it to a high position, but enriched its repertory by many noteworthy librettos, among which Die Gunst des Augenblicks and Verirrungen are the best known. But his chief work is his history of the German stage—Geschichte der deutschen Schauspielkunst (Leipzig, 1848-1874). He died on the 4th of October 1877. A complete edition of his works—Dramatische und dramaturgische Schriften—was published in ten volumes (Leipzig, 1846-1873).
The youngest and the most famous of the three nephews of Ludwig Devrient was Gustav Emil Devrient (1803-1872), born in Berlin on the 4th of September 1803. He made his first appearance on the stage in 1821, at Brunswick, as Raoul in Schiller's Jungfrau von Orleans. After a short engagement in Leipzig, he received in 1829 a call to Hamburg, but after two years accepted a permanent appointment at the court theatre in Dresden, to which he belonged until his retirement in 1868. His chief characters were Hamlet, Uriel Acosta (in Karl Gutzkow's play), Marquis Posa (in Schiller's Don Carlos), and Goethe's Torquato Tasso.He acted several times in London, where his Hamlet was considered finer than Kemble's or Edmund Kean's.He died on the 7th of August 1872.
Otto Devrient (1838-1894), another actor, born in Berlin on the 3rd of October 1838, was the son of Philipp Eduard Devrient. He joined the stage in 1856 at Karlsruhe, and acted successively in Stuttgart, Berlin and Leipzig, until he received a fixed appointment at Karlsruhe, in 1863. In 1873 he became stage manager at Weimar, where he gained great praise for his mise en scène of Goethe's FaustAfter being manager of the theatres in Mannheim and Frankfort he retired to Jena, where in 1883 he was given the honorary degree of doctor of philosophy.In 1884 he was appointed director of the court theatre in Oldenburg, and in 1889 director of dramatic plays in Berlin.He died at Stettin on the 23rd of June 1894.
DEW. The word "dew" (O. E. deaw; cf. Ger. Tau) is a very ancient one and its meaning must therefore be defined on historical principles. According to the New English Dictionary, it means "the moisture deposited in minute drops upon any cool surface by condensation of the vapour of the atmosphere; formed after a hot day, during or towards night and plentiful in the early morning." Huxley in his Physiography makes the addition "without production of mist." The formation of mist is not necessary for the formation of dew, nor does it necessarily prevent it. If the deposit of moisture is in the form of ice instead of water it is called hoarfrost. The researches of Aitken suggest that the words "by condensation of the vapour in the atmosphere" might be omitted from the definition. He has given reasons for believing that the large dewdrops on the leaves of plants, the most characteristic of all the phenomena of dew, are to be accounted for, in large measure at least, by the exuding of drops of water from the plant through the pores of the leaves themselves. The formation of dewdrops in such cases is the continuation of the irrigation process of the plant for supplying the leaves with water from the soil. The process is set up in full vigour in the daytime to maintain tolerable thermal conditions at the surface of the leaf in the hot sun, and continued after the sun has gone.
On the other hand, the most typical physical experiment illustrating the formation of dew is the production of a deposit of moisture, in minute drops, upon the exterior surface of a glass or polished metal vessel by the cooling of a liquid contained in the vessel.If the liquid is water, it can be cooled by pieces of ice; if volatile like ether, by bubbling air through it.No deposit is formed by this process until the temperature is reduced to a point which, from that circumstance, has received a special name, although it depends upon the state of the air round the vessel.So generally accepted is the physical analogy between the natural formation of dew and its artificial production in the manner described, that the point below which the temperature of a surface must be reduced in order to obtain the deposit is known as the "dew-point."
In the view of physicists the dew-point is the temperature at which, by being cooled without change of pressure, the air becomes saturated with water vapour, not on account of any increase of supply of that compound, but by the diminution of the capacity of the air for holding it in the gaseous condition.Thus, when the dew-point temperature has been determined, the pressure of water vapour in the atmosphere at the time of the deposit is given by reference to a table of saturation pressures of water vapour at different temperatures.As it is a well-established proposition that the pressure of the water vapour in the air does not vary while the air is being cooled without change of its total external pressure, the saturation pressure at the dew-point gives the pressure of water vapour in the air when the cooling commenced.Thus the artificial formation of dew and consequent determination of the dew-point is a recognized method of measuring the pressure, and thence the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere.The dew-point method is indeed in some ways a fundamental method of hygrometry.
The dew-point is a matter of really vital consequence in the question of the oppressiveness of the atmosphere or its reverse.So long as the dew-point is low, high temperature does not matter, but when the dew-point begins to approach the normal temperature of the human body the atmosphere becomes insupportable.
The physical explanation of the formation of dew consists practically in determining the process or processes by which leaves, blades of grass, stones, and other objects in the open air upon which dew may be observed, become cooled "below the dew-point."
Formerly, from the time of Aristotle at least, dew was supposed to "fall." That view of the process was not extinct at the time of Wordsworth and poets might even now use the figure without reproach. To Dr Charles Wells of London belongs the credit of bringing to a focus the ideas which originated with the study of radiation at the beginning of the 19th century, and which are expressed by saying that the cooling necessary to produce dew on exposed surfaces is to be attributed to the radiation from the surfaces to a clear sky. He gave an account of the theory of automatic cooling by radiation, which has found a place in all text-books of physics, in his first Essay on Dew published in 1818. The theory is supported in that and in a second essay by a number of well-planned observations, and the essays are indeed models of scientific method. The process of the formation of dew as represented by Wells is a simple one. It starts from the point of view that all bodies are constantly radiating heat, and cool automatically unless they receive a corresponding amount of heat from other bodies by radiation or conduction. Good radiators, which are at the same time bad conductors of heat, such as blades of grass, lose heat rapidly on a clear night by radiation to the sky and become cooled below the dew-point of the atmosphere.
The question was very fully studied by Melloni and others, but little more was added to the explanation given by Wells until 1885, when John Aitken of Falkirk called attention to the question whether the water of dewdrops on plants or stones came from the air or the earth, and described a number of experiments to show that under the conditions of observation in Scotland, it was the earth from which the moisture was probably obtained, either by the operation of the vascular system of plants in the formation of exuded dewdrops, or by evaporation and subsequent condensation in the lowest layer of the atmosphere.Some controversy was excited by the publication of Aitken's views, and it is interesting to revert to it because it illustrates a proposition which is of general application in meteorological questions, namely, that the physical processes operative in the evolution of meteorological phenomena are generally complex.It is not radiation alone that is necessary to produce dew, nor even radiation from a body which does not conduct heat.The body must be surrounded by an atmosphere so fully supplied with moisture that the dew-point can be passed by the cooling due to radiation.Thus the conditions favourable for the formation of dew are (1) a good radiating surface, (2) a still atmosphere, (3) a clear sky, (4) thermal insulation of the radiating surface, (5) warm moist ground or some other provision to produce a supply of moisture in the surface layers of air.
Aitken's contribution to the theory of dew shows that in considering the supply of moisture we must take into consideration the ground as well as the air and concern ourselves with the temperature of both.Of the five conditions mentioned, the first four may be considered necessary, but the fifth is very important for securing a copious deposit.It can hardly be maintained that no dew could form unless there were a supply of water by evaporation from warm ground, but, when such a supply is forthcoming, it is evident that in place of the limited process of condensation which deprives the air of its moisture and is therefore soon terminable, we have the process of distillation which goes on as long as conditions are maintained.This distinction is of some practical importance for it indicates the protecting power of wet soil in favour of young plants as against night frost.If distillation between the ground and the leaves is set up, the temperature of the leaves cannot fall much below the original dew-point because the supply of water for condensation is kept up; but if the compensation for loss of heat by radiation is dependent simply on the condensation of water from the atmosphere, without renewal of the supply, the dew-point will gradually get lower as the moisture is deposited and the process of cooling will go on.
In these questions we have to deal with comparatively large changes taking place within a small range of level.It is with the layer a few inches thick on either side of the surface that we are principally concerned, and for an adequate comprehension of the conditions close consideration is required.To illustrate this point reference may be made to figs.1 and 2, which represent the condition of affairs at 10.40 P.M.on about the 20th of October 1885, according to observations by Aitken.Vertical distances represent heights in feet, while the temperatures of the air and the dew-point are represented by horizontal distances and their variations with height by the curved lines of the diagram.The line marked 0 is the ground level itself, a rather indefinite quantity when the surface is grass.The whole vertical distance represented is from 4 ft.above ground to 1 ft.below ground, and the special phenomena which we are considering take place in the layer which represents the rapid transition between the temperature of the ground 3 in.below the surface and that of the air a few inches above ground.
| Fig. 1. | Fig. 2. |
The point of interest is to determine where the dew-point curve and dry-bulb curve will cut.If they cut above the surface, mist will result; if they cut at the surface, dew will be formed.Below the surface, it may be assumed that the air is saturated with moisture and any difference in temperature of the dew-point is accompanied by distillation.It may be remarked, by the way, that such distillation between soil layers of different temperatures must be productive of the transference of large quantities of water between different levels in the soil either upward or downward according to the time of year.
These diagrams illustrate the importance of the warmth and moisture of the ground in the phenomena which have been considered.From the surface there is a continual loss of heat going on by radiation and a continual supply of warmth and moisture from below.But while the heat can escape, the moisture cannot.Thus the dry-bulb line is deflected to the left as it approaches the surface, the dew-point line to the right.Thus the effect of the moisture of the ground is to cause the lines to approach.In the case of grass, fig.2, the deviation of the dry-bulb line to the left to form a sharp minimum of temperature at the surface is well shown.The dew-point line is also shown diverted to the left to the same point as the dry-bulb; but that could only happen if there were so copious a condensation from the atmosphere as actually to make the air drier at the surface than up above.In diagram 1, for soil, the effect on air temperature and moisture is shown; the two lines converge to cut at the surface where a dew deposit will be formed.Along the underground line there must be a gradual creeping of heat and moisture towards the surface by distillation, the more rapid the greater the temperature gradient.
The amount of dew deposited is considerable, and, in tropical countries, is sometimes sufficiently heavy to be collected by gutters and spouts, but it is not generally regarded as a large percentage of the total rainfall.Loesche estimates the amount of dew for a single night on the Loango coast at 3 mm., but the estimate seems a high one.Measurements go to show that the depth of water corresponding with the aggregate annual deposit of dew is 1 in.to 1.5 in.near London (G.Dines), 1.2 in.at Munich (Wollny), 0.3 in.at Montpellier (Crova), 1.6 in.at Tenbury, Worcestershire (Badgley).
With the question of the amount of water collected as dew, that of the maintenance of "dew ponds" is intimately associated. The name is given to certain isolated ponds on the upper levels of the chalk downs of the south of England and elsewhere. Some of these ponds are very ancient, as the title of a work on Neolithic Dewponds by A. J. and G. Hubbard indicates. Their name seems to imply the hypothesis that they depend upon dew and not entirely upon rain for their maintenance as a source of water supply for cattle, for which they are used. The question has been discussed a good deal, but not settled; the balance of evidence seems to be against the view that dew deposits make any important contribution to the supply of water. The construction of dew ponds is, however, still practised on traditional lines, and it is said that a new dew pond has first to be filled artificially. It does not come into existence by the gradual accumulation of water in an impervious basin.
Authorities.—For Dew, see the two essays by Dr Charles Wells (London, 1818), also "An Essay on Dew," edited by Casella (London, 1866), Longmans', with additions by Strachan; Melloni, Pogg.Ann. lxxi. pp. 416, 424 and lxxiii. p. 467; Jamin, "Compléments à la théorie de la rosée," Journal de physique, viii. p. 41; J. Aitken, on "Dew," Trans.Roy.Soc.of Edinburgh, xxxiii. , part i. 2, and "Nature," vol. xxxiii. p. 256; C. Tomlinson, "Remarks on a new Theory of Dew," Phil.Mag. (1886), 5th series, vol. 21, p. 483 and vol. 22, p. 270; Russell, Nature, vol 47, p. 210; also Met.Zeit. (1893), p. 390; Homén, Bodenphysikalische und meteorologische Beobachtungen (Berlin, 1894), iii. ; Taubildung, p. 88, &c. ; Rubenson, "Die Temperatur-und Feuchtigkeitsverhältnisse in den unteren Luftschichten bei der Taubildung," Met.Zeit. xi. (1876), p. 65; H. E. Hamberg, "Température et humidité de l'air à différentes hauteurs à Upsal," Soc.R.des sciences d'Upsal (1876); review in Met.Zeit. xii. (1877), p. 105.
For Dew Ponds, see Stephen Hales, Statical Essays, vol. i. , experiment xix. , pp. 52-57 (2nd ed. , London, 1731); Gilbert White, Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, letter xxix. (London, 1789); Dr C. Wells, An Essay on Dew (London, 1818, 1821 and 1866); Rev. J. C. Clutterbuck, "Prize Essay on Water Supply," Journ.Roy.Agric.Soc., 2nd series, vol. i. pp. 271-287 (1865); Field and Symons, "Evaporation from the Surface of Water," Brit.Assoc.Rep. (1869), sect. , pp. 25, 26; J. Lucas, "Hydrogeology: One of the Developments of Modern Practical Geology," Trans.Inst.Surveyors, vol. ix. pp. 153-232 (1877); H. P. Slade, "A Short Practical Treatise on Dew Ponds" (London, 1877); Clement Reid, "The Natural History of Isolated Ponds," Trans.Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society, vol. v. pp. 272-286 (1892); Professor G. S. Brady, On the Nature and Origin of Freshwater Faunas (1899); Professor L. C. Miall, "Dew Ponds," Reports of the British Association (Bradford Meeting, 1900), pp. 579-585; A. J. and G. Hubbard, "Neolithic Dewponds and Cattle-Ways" (London, 1904, 1907).
DEWAN or Diwan, an Oriental term for finance minister. The word is derived from the Arabian diwan, and is commonly used in India to denote a minister of the Mogul government, or in modern days the prime minister of a native state. It was in the former sense that the grant of the dewanny to the East India Company in 1765 became the foundation of the British empire in India.
DEWAR, SIR JAMES (1842- ), British chemist and physicist, was born at Kincardine-on-Forth, Scotland, on the 20th of September 1842. He was educated at Dollar Academy and Edinburgh University, being at the latter first a pupil, and afterwards the assistant, of Lord Playfair, then professor of chemistry; he also studied under Kekulé at Ghent. In 1875 he was elected Jacksonian professor of natural experimental philosophy at Cambridge, becoming a fellow of Peterhouse, and in 1877 he succeeded Dr J. H. Gladstone as Fullerian professor of chemistry in the Royal Institution, London. He was president of the Chemical Society in 1897, and of the British Association in 1902, served on the Balfour Commission on London Water Supply (1893-1894), and as a member of the Committee on Explosives (1888-1891) invented cordite jointly with Sir Frederick Abel. His scientific work covers a wide field. Of his earlier papers, some deal with questions of organic chemistry, others with Graham's hydrogenium and its physical constants, others with high temperatures, e.g. the temperature of the sun and of the electric spark, others again with electro-photometry and the chemistry of the electric arc. With Professor J. G. M'Kendrick, of Glasgow, he investigated the physiological action of light, and examined the changes which take place in the electrical condition of the retina under its influence. With Professor G. D. Liveing, one of his colleagues at Cambridge, he began in 1878 a long series of spectroscopic observations, the later of which were devoted to the spectroscopic examination of various gaseous constituents separated from atmospheric air by the aid of low temperatures; and he was joined by Professor J. A. Fleming, of University College, London, in the investigation of the electrical behaviour of substances cooled to very low temperatures. His name is most widely known in connexion with his work on the liquefaction of the so-called permanent gases and his researches at temperatures approaching the zero of absolute temperature. His interest in this branch of inquiry dates back at least as far as 1874, when he discussed the "Latent Heat of Liquid Gases" before the British Association. In 1878 he devoted a Friday evening lecture at the Royal Institution to the then recent work of L. P. Cailletet and R. P. Pictet, and exhibited for the first time in Great Britain the working of the Cailletet apparatus. Six years later, in the same place, he described the researches of Z. F. Wroblewski and K. S. Olszewski, and illustrated for the first time in public the liquefaction of oxygen and air, by means of apparatus specially designed for optical projection so that the actions taking place might be visible to the audience. Soon afterwards he constructed a machine from which the liquefied gas could be drawn off through a valve for use as a cooling agent, and he showed its employment for this purpose in connexion with some researches on meteorites; about the same time he also obtained oxygen in the solid state. By 1891 he had designed and erected at the Royal Institution an apparatus which yielded liquid oxygen by the pint, and towards the end of that year he showed that both liquid oxygen and liquid ozone are strongly attracted by a magnet. About 1892 the idea occurred to him of using vacuum-jacketed vessels for the storage of liquid gases, and so efficient did this device prove in preventing the influx of external heat that it is found possible not only to preserve the liquids for comparatively long periods, but also to keep them so free from ebullition that examination of their optical properties becomes possible. He next experimented with a high-pressure hydrogen jet by which low temperatures were realized through the Thomson-Joule effect, and the successful results thus obtained led him to build at the Royal Institution the large refrigerating machine by which in 1898 hydrogen was for the first time collected in the liquid state, its solidification following in 1899. Later he investigated the gas-absorbing powers of charcoal when cooled to low temperatures, and applied them to the production of high vacua and to gas analysis (see Liquid Gases).The Royal Society in 1894 bestowed the Rumford medal upon him for his work in the production of low temperatures, and in 1899 he became the first recipient of the Hodgkins gold medal of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, for his contributions to our knowledge of the nature and properties of atmospheric air.In 1904 he was the first British subject to receive the Lavoisier medal of the French Academy of Sciences, and in 1906 he was the first to be awarded the Matteucci medal of the Italian Society of Sciences.He was knighted in 1904, and in 1908 he was awarded the Albert medal of the Society of Arts.
DEWAS, two native states of India, in the Malwa Political Charge of Central India, founded in the first half of the 18th century by two brothers, Punwar Mahrattas, who came into Malwa with the peshwa, Baji Rao, in 1728. Their descendants are known as the senior and junior branches of the family, and since 1841 each has ruled his own portion as a separate state, though the lands belonging to each are so intimately entangled, that even in Dewas, the capital town, the two sides of the main street are under different administrations and have different arrangements for water supply and lighting. The senior branch has an area of 446 sq. m. and a population of 62,312, while the area of the junior branch is 440 sq. m. and its population 54,904.
DEWBERRY, Rubus caesius, a trailing plant, allied to the bramble, of the natural order Rosaceae.It is common in woods, hedges and the borders of fields in England and other countries of Europe.The leaves have three leaflets, are hairy beneath, and of a dusky green; the flowers which appear in June and July are white, or pale rose-coloured.The fruit is large, and closely embraced by the calyx, and consists of a few drupules, which are black, with a glaucous bloom; it has an agreeable acid taste.
DEW-CLAW, the rudimentary toes, two in number, or the "false hoof" of the deer, sometimes also called the "nails." In dogs the dew-claw is the rudimentary toe or hallux (corresponding to the big toe in man) hanging loosely attached to the skin, low down on the hinder part of the leg. The origin of the word is unknown, but it has been fancifully suggested that, while the other toes touch the ground in walking, the dew-claw merely brushes the dew from the grass.
D'EWES, SIR SIMONDS, Bart. (1602-1650), English antiquarian, eldest son of Paul D'Ewes of Milden, Suffolk, and of Cecilia, daughter and heir of Richard Simonds, of Coaxdon or Coxden, Dorsetshire, was born on the 18th of December 1602, and educated at the grammar school of Bury St Edmunds, and at St John's College, Cambridge. He had been admitted to the Middle Temple in 1611, and was called to the bar in 1623, when he immediately began his collections of material and his studies in history and antiquities. In 1626 he married Anne, daughter and heir of Sir William Clopton, of Luton's Hall in Suffolk, through whom he obtained a large addition to his already considerable fortune. On the 6th of December he was knighted. He took an active part as a strong Puritan and member of the moderate party in the opposition to the king's arbitrary government in the Long Parliament of 1640, in which he sat as member for Sudbury. On the 15th of July he was created a baronet by the king, but nevertheless adhered to the parliamentary party when war broke out, and in 1643 took the Covenant. He was one of the members expelled by Pride's Purge in 1648, and died on the 18th of April 1650. He had married secondly Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Henry Willoughby, Bart. , of Risley in Derbyshire, by whom he had a son, who succeeded to his estates and title, the latter becoming extinct on the failure of male issue in 1731. D'Ewes appears to have projected a work of very ambitious scope, no less than the whole history of England based on original documents. But though excelling as a collector of materials, and as a laborious, conscientious and accurate transcriber, he had little power of generalization or construction, and died without publishing anything except an uninteresting tract, The Primitive Practice for Preserving Truth (1645), and some speeches. His Journals of all the Parliaments during the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, however, a valuable work, was published in 1682.His large collections, including transcripts from ancient records, many of the originals of which are now dispersed or destroyed, are in the Harleian collection in the British Museum.His unprinted Diaries from 1621-1624 and from 1643-1647, the latter valuable for the notes of proceedings in parliament, are often the only authority for incidents and speeches during that period, and are amusing from the glimpses the diarist affords of his own character, his good estimation of himself and his little jealousies; some are in a cipher and some in Latin.
Extracts from his Autobiography and Correspondence from the MSS. in the British Museum were published by J. O. Halliwell-Phillips in 1845, by Hearne in the appendix to his Historia vitae et regni Ricardi II. (1729), and in the Bibliotheca topographica Britannica, No. xv. vol. vi. (1783); and from a Diary of later date, College Life in the Time of James I. (1851). His Diaries have been extensively drawn upon by Forster, Gardiner, and by Sanford in his Studies of the Great RebellionSome of his speeches have been reprinted in the Harleian Miscellany and in the Somers Tracts.
DE WET, CHRISTIAN (1854- ), Boer general and politician, was born on the 7th of October 1854 at Leeuwkop, Smithfield district (Orange Free State), and later resided at Dewetsdorp. He served in the first Anglo-Boer War of 1880-81 as a field cornet, and from 1881 to 1896 he lived on his farm, becoming in 1897 member of the Volksraad. He took part in the earlier battles of the Boer War of 1899 in Natal as a commandant and later, as a general, he went to serve under Cronje in the west. His first successful action was the surprise of Sanna's Post near Bloemfontein, which was followed by the victory of Reddersburg a little later. Thenceforward he came to be regarded more and more as the most formidable leader of the Boers in their guerrilla warfare. Sometimes severely handled by the British, sometimes escaping only by the narrowest margin of safety from the columns which attempted to surround him, and falling upon and annihilating isolated British posts, De Wet continued to the end of the war his successful career, striking heavily where he could do so and skilfully evading every attempt to bring him to bay. He took an active part in the peace negotiations of 1902, and at the conclusion of the war he visited Europe with the other Boer generals. While in England the generals sought, unavailingly, a modification of the terms of peace concluded at Pretoria. De Wet wrote an account of his campaigns, an English version of which appeared in November 1902 under the title Three Years' WarIn November, 1907 he was elected a member of the first parliament of the Orange River Colony and was appointed minister of agriculture.In 1908-9 he was a delegate to the Closer Union Convention.
DE WETTE, WILHELM MARTIN LEBERECHT (1780-1849), German theologian, was born on the 12th of January 1780, at Ulla, near Weimar, where his father was pastor. He was sent to the gymnasium at Weimar, then at the height of its literary glory. Here he was much influenced by intercourse with Johann Gottfried Herder, who frequently examined at the school. In 1799 he entered on his theological studies at Jena, his principal teachers being J. J. Griesbach and H. E. G. Paulus, from the latter of whom he derived his tendency to free critical inquiry. Both in methods and in results, however, he occupied an almost solitary position among German theologians. Having taken his doctor's degree, he became privat-docent at Jena; in 1807 professor of theology at Heidelberg, where he came under the influence of J. F. Fries (1773-1843); and in 1810 was transferred to a similar chair in the newly founded university of Berlin, where he enjoyed the friendship of Schleiermacher. He was, however, dismissed from Berlin in 1819 on account of his having written a letter of consolation to the mother of Karl Ludwig Sand, the murderer of Kotzebue. A petition in his favour presented by the senate of the university was unsuccessful, and a decree was issued not only depriving him of the chair, but banishing him from the Prussian kingdom. He retired for a time to Weimar, where he occupied his leisure in the preparation of his edition of Luther, and in writing the romance Theodor oder die Weihe des Zweiflers (Berlin, 1822), in which he describes the education of an evangelical pastor. During this period he made his first essay in preaching, and proved himself to be possessed of very popular gifts. But in 1822 he accepted the chair of theology in the university of Basel, which had been reorganized four years before. Though his appointment had been strongly opposed by the orthodox party, De Wette soon won for himself great influence both in the university and among the people generally. He was admitted a citizen, and became rector of the university, which owed to him much of its recovered strength, particularly in the theological faculty. He died on the 16th of June 1849.
De Wette has been described by Julius Wellhausen as "the epoch-making opener of the historical criticism of the Pentateuch." He prepared the way for the Supplement-theory. But he also made valuable contributions to other branches of theology. He had, moreover, considerable poetic faculty, and wrote a drama in three acts, entitled Die Entsagung (Berlin, 1823). He had an intelligent interest in art, and studied ecclesiastical music and architecture. As a Biblical critic he is sometimes classed with the destructive school, but, as Otto Pfleiderer says (Development of Theology, p.102), he "occupied as free a position as the Rationalists with regard to the literal authority of the creeds of the church, but that he sought to give their due value to the religious feelings, which the Rationalists had not done, and, with a more unfettered mind towards history, to maintain the connexion of the present life of the church with the past."His works are marked by exegetical skill, unusual power of condensation and uniform fairness.Accordingly they possess value which is little affected by the progress of criticism.
The most important of his works are:—Beiträge zur Einleitung in das Alte Testament (2 vols. , 1806-1807); Kommentar über die Psalmen (1811), which has passed through several editions, and is still regarded as of high authority; Lehrbuch der hebräisch-jüdischen Archäologie (1814); Über Religion und Theologie (1815); a work of great importance as showing its author's general theological position; Lehrbuch der christlichen Dogmatik (1813-1816); Lehrbuch der historisch-kritischen Einleitung in die Bibel (1817); Christliche Sittenlehre (1819-1821); Einleitung in das Neue Testament (1826); Religion, ihr Wesen, ihre Erscheinungsform, und ihr Einfluss auf das Leben (1827); Das Wesen des christlichen Glaubens (1846); and Kurzgefasstes exegetisches Handbuch zum Neuen Testament (1836-1848). De Wette also edited Luther's works (5 vols. , 1825-1828).
See K. R. Hagenbach in Herzog's Realencyklopädie; G. C. F. Lücke's W.M.L.De Wette, zur freundschaftlicher Erinnerung (1850); and D. Schenkel's W.M.L.De Wette und die Bedeutung seiner Theologie für unsere Zeit (1849). Rudolf Stähelin, De Wette nach seiner theol.Wirksamkeit und Bedeutung (1880); F. Lichtenberger, History of German Theology in the Nineteenth Century (1889); Otto Pfleiderer, Development of Theology (1890), pp. 97 ff. ; T. K. Cheyne, Founders of the Old Testament Criticism, pp.31 ff.
DEWEY, DAVIS RICH (1858- ), American economist and statistician, was born at Burlington, Vermont, U. S. A. , on the 7th of April 1858. He was educated at the university of Vermont and at Johns Hopkins University, and afterwards became professor of economics and statistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was chairman of the state board on the question of the unemployed (1895), member of the Massachusetts commission on public, charitable and reformatory interests (1897), special expert agent on wages for the 12th census, and member of a state commission (1904) on industrial relations. He wrote an excellent Syllabus on Political History since 1815 (1887), a Financial History of the U.S. (1902), and National Problems (1907).
DEWEY, GEORGE (1837- ), American naval officer, was born at Montpelier, Vermont, on the 26th of December 1837. He studied at Norwich University, then at Norwich, Vermont, and graduated at the United States Naval Academy in 1858. He was commissioned lieutenant in April 1861, and in the Civil War served on the steamsloop "Mississippi" (1861-1863) during Farragut's passage of the forts below New Orleans in April 1862, and at Port Hudson in March 1863; took part in the fighting below Donaldsonville, Louisiana, in July 1863; and in 1864-1865 served on the steam-gunboat "Agawam" with the North Atlantic blockading squadron and took part in the attacks on Fort Fisher in December 1864 and January 1865. In March 1865 he became a lieutenant-commander. He was with the European squadron in 1866-1867; was an instructor in the United States Naval Academy in 1868-1869; was in command of the "Narragansett" in 1870-1871 and 1872-1875, being commissioned commander in 1872; was light-house inspector in 1876-1877; and was secretary of the light-house board in 1877-1882. In 1884 he became a captain; in 1889-1893 was chief of the bureau of equipment and recruiting; in 1893-1895 was a member of the light-house board; and in 1895-1897 was president of the board of inspection and survey, being promoted to the rank of commodore in February 1896. In November 1897 he was assigned, at his own request, to sea service, and sent to Asiatic waters. In April 1898, while with his fleet at Hong Kong, he was notified by cable that war had begun between the United States and Spain, and was ordered to "capture or destroy the Spanish fleet" then in Philippine waters. On the 1st of May he overwhelmingly defeated the Spanish fleet under Admiral Montojo in Manila Bay, a victory won without the loss of a man on the American ships (see Spanish-American War).Congress, in a joint resolution, tendered its thanks to Commodore Dewey, and to the officers and men under his command, and authorized "the secretary of the navy to present a sword of honor to Commodore George Dewey, and cause to be struck bronze medals commemorating the battle of Manila Bay, and to distribute such medals to the officers and men of the ships of the Asiatic squadron of the United States."He was promoted rear-admiral on the 10th of May 1898.On the 18th of August his squadron assisted in the capture of the city of Manila.After remaining in the Philippines under orders from his government to maintain control, Dewey received the rank of admiral (March 3, 1899)—that title, formerly borne only by Farragut and Porter, having been revived by act of Congress (March 2, 1899),—and returned home, arriving in New York City, where, on the 3rd of October 1899, he received a great ovation.He was a member (1899) of the Schurman Philippine Commission, and in 1899 and 1900 was spoken of as a possible Democratic candidate for the presidency.He acted as president of the Schley court of inquiry in 1901, and submitted a minority report on a few details.
DEWEY, MELVIL (1851- ), American librarian, was born at Adams Center, New York, on the 10th of December 1851. He graduated in 1874 at Amherst College, where he was assistant librarian from 1874 to 1877. In 1877 he removed to Boston, where he founded and became editor of The Library Journal, which became an influential factor in the development of libraries in America, and in the reform of their administration.He was also one of the founders of the American Library Association, of which he was secretary from 1876 to 1891, and president in 1891 and 1893.In 1883 he became librarian of Columbia College, and in the following year founded there the School of Library Economy, the first institution for the instruction of librarians ever organized.This school, which was very successful, was removed to Albany in 1890, where it was re-established as the State Library School under his direction; from 1888 to 1906 he was director of the New York State Library and from 1888 to 1900 was secretary of the University of the State of New York, completely reorganizing the state library, which he made one of the most efficient in America, and establishing the system of state travelling libraries and picture collections.His "Decimal System of Classification" for library cataloguing, first proposed in 1876, is extensively used.
DEWING, THOMAS WILMER (1851- ), American figure painter, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on the 4th of May 1851. He was a pupil of Jules Lefebvre in Paris from 1876 to 1879; was elected a full member of the National Academy of Design in 1888; was a member of the society of Ten American Painters, New York; and received medals at the Paris Exhibition (1889), at Chicago (1893), at Buffalo (1901) and at St Louis (1904). His decorative genre pictures are notable for delicacy and finish. Among his portraits are those of Mrs Stanford White and of his own wife. Mrs Dewing (b, 1855), née Maria Oakey, a figure and flower painter, was a pupil of John La Farge in New York, and of Couture in Paris.
DE WINT, PETER (1784-1849), English landscape painter, of Dutch extraction, son of an English physician, was born at Stone, Staffordshire, on the 21st of January 1784. He studied art in London, and in 1809 entered the Academy schools. In 1812 he became a member of the Society of Painters in Watercolours, where he exhibited largely for many years, as well as at the Academy. He married in 1810 the sister of William Hilton, R. A. He died in London on the 30th of January 1849. De Wint's life was devoted to art; he painted admirably in oils, and he ranks as one of the chief English water-colourists. A number of his pictures are in the National Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
DE WINTER, JAN WILLEM (1750-1812), Dutch admiral, was born at Kampen, and in 1761 entered the naval service at the age of twelve years. He distinguished himself by his zeal and courage, and at the revolution of 1787 he had reached the rank of lieutenant. The overthrow of the "patriot" party forced him to fly for his safety to France. Here he threw himself heart and soul into the cause of the Revolution, and took part under Dumouriez and Pichegru in the campaigns of 1792 and 1793, and was soon promoted to the rank of brigadier-general. When Pichegru in 1795 overran Holland, De Winter returned with the French army to his native country. The states-general now utilized the experience he had gained as a naval officer by giving him the post of adjunct-general for the reorganization of the Dutch navy. In 1796 he was appointed vice-admiral and commander-in-chief of the fleet. He spared no efforts to strengthen it and improve its condition, and on the 11th of October 1797 he ventured upon an encounter off Camperdown with the British fleet under Admiral Duncan. After an obstinate struggle the Dutch were defeated, and De Winter himself was taken prisoner. He remained in England until December, when he was liberated by exchange. His conduct in the battle of Camperdown was declared by a court-martial to have nobly maintained the honour of the Dutch flag.
From 1798 to 1802 De Winter filled the post of ambassador to the French republic, and was then once more appointed commander of the fleet. He was sent with a strong squadron to the Mediterranean to repress the Tripoli piracies, and negotiated a treaty of peace with the Tripolitan government. He enjoyed the confidence of Louis Bonaparte, when king of Holland, and, after the incorporation of the Netherlands in the French empire, in an equal degree of the emperor Napoleon. By the former he was created marshal and count of Huessen, and given the command of the armed forces both by sea and land. Napoleon gave him the grand cross of the Legion of Honour and appointed him inspector-general of the northern coasts, and in 1811 he placed him at the head of the fleet he had collected at the Texel. Soon afterwards De Winter was seized with illness and compelled to betake himself to Paris, where he died on the 2nd of June 1812. He had a splendid public funeral and was buried in the Pantheon. His heart was enclosed in an urn and placed in the Nicolaas Kerk at Kampen.
DE WITT, CORNELIUS (1623-1672), brother of John de Witt (q. v.) , was born at Dort in 1623. In 1650 he became burgomaster of Dort and member of the states of Holland and West Friesland. He was afterwards appointed to the important post of ruwaard or governor of the land of Putten and bailiff of Beierland. He associated himself closely with his greater brother, the grand pensionary, and supported him throughout his career with great ability and vigour. In 1667 he was the deputy chosen by the states of Holland to accompany Admiral de Ruyter in his famous expedition to Chatham. Cornelius de Witt on this occasion distinguished himself greatly by his coolness and intrepidity. He again accompanied De Ruyter in 1672 and took an honourable part in the great naval fight at Sole Bay against the united English and French fleets. Compelled by illness to leave the fleet, he found on his return to Dort that the Orange party were in the ascendant, and he and his brother were the objects of popular suspicion and hatred. An account of his imprisonment, trial and death, is given below.
DE WITT, JOHN (1625-1672), Dutch statesman, was born at Dort, on the 24th of September 1625. He was a member of one of the old burgher-regent families of his native town. His father, Jacob de Witt, was six times burgomaster of Dort, and for many years sat as a representative of the town in the states of Holland. He was a strenuous adherent of the republican or oligarchical states-right party in opposition to the princes of the house of Orange, who represented the federal principle and had the support of the masses of the people. John was educated at Leiden, and early displayed remarkable talents, more especially in mathematics and jurisprudence. In 1645 he and his elder brother Cornelius visited France, Italy, Switzerland and England, and on his return he took up his residence at the Hague, as an advocate. In 1650 he was appointed pensionary of Dort, an office which made him the leader and spokesman of the town's deputation in the state of Holland. In this same year the states of Holland found themselves engaged in a struggle for provincial supremacy, on the question of the disbanding of troops, with the youthful prince of Orange, William II. William, with the support of the states-general and the army, seized five of the leaders of the states-right party and imprisoned them in Loevestein castle; among these was Jacob de Witt. The sudden death of William, at the moment when he had crushed opposition, led to a reaction. He left only a posthumous child, afterwards William III. of Orange, and the principles advocated by Jacob de Witt triumphed, and the authority of the states of Holland became predominant in the republic.
At this time of constitutional crisis such were the eloquence, sagacity and business talents exhibited by the youthful pensionary of Dort that on the 23rd of July 1653 he was appointed to the office of grand pensionary (Raadpensionaris) of Holland at the age of twenty-eight.He was re-elected in 1658, 1663 and 1668, and held office until his death in 1672.During this period of nineteen years the general conduct of public affairs and administration, and especially of foreign affairs, such was the confidence inspired by his talents and industry, was largely placed in his hands.He found in 1653 his country brought to the brink of ruin through the war with England, which had been caused by the keen commercial rivalry of the two maritime states.The Dutch were unprepared, and suffered severely through the loss of their carrying trade, and De Witt resolved to bring about peace as soon as possible.The first demands of Cromwell were impossible, for they aimed at the absorption of the two republics into a single state, but at last in the autumn of 1654 peace was concluded, by which the Dutch made large concessions and agreed to the striking of the flag to English ships in the narrow seas.The treaty included a secret article, which the states-general refused to entertain, but which De Witt succeeded in inducing the states of Holland to accept, by which the provinces of Holland pledged themselves not to elect a stadtholder or a captain-general of the union.This Act of Seclusion, as it was called, was aimed at the young prince of Orange, whose close relationship to the Stuarts made him an object of suspicion to the Protector.De Witt was personally favourable to this exclusion of William III.from his ancestral dignities, but there is no truth in the suggestion that he prompted the action of Cromwell in this matter.
The policy of De Witt after the peace of 1654 was eminently successful. He restored the finances of the state, and extended its commercial supremacy in the East Indies. In 1658-59 he sustained Denmark against Sweden, and in 1662 concluded an advantageous peace with Portugal. The accession of Charles II. to the English throne led to the rescinding of the Act of Seclusion; nevertheless De Witt steadily refused to allow the prince of Orange to be appointed stadtholder or captain-general. This led to ill-will between the English and Dutch governments, and to a renewal of the old grievances about maritime and commercial rights, and war broke out in 1665. The zeal, industry and courage displayed by the grand pensionary during the course of this fiercely contested naval struggle could scarcely have been surpassed. He himself on more than one occasion went to sea with the fleet, and inspired all with whom he came in contact by the example he set of calmness in danger, energy in action and inflexible strength of will. It was due to his exertions as an organizer and a diplomatist quite as much as to the brilliant seamanship of Admiral de Ruyter, that the terms of the treaty of peace signed at Breda (July 31, 1667), on the principle of uti possidetis, were so honourable to the United Provinces.A still greater triumph of diplomatic skill was the conclusion of the Triple Alliance (January 17, 1668) between the Dutch Republic, England and Sweden, which checked the attempt of Louis XIV.to take possession of the Spanish Netherlands in the name of his wife, the infanta Maria Theresa.The check, however, was but temporary, and the French king only bided his time to take vengeance for the rebuff he had suffered.Meanwhile William III.was growing to manhood, and his numerous adherents throughout the country spared no efforts to undermine the authority of De Witt, and secure for the young prince of Orange the dignities and authority of his ancestors.
In 1672 Louis XIV.suddenly declared war, and invaded the United Provinces at the head of a splendid army.Practically no resistance was possible.The unanimous voice of the people called William III.to the head of affairs, and there were violent demonstrations against John de Witt.His brother Cornelius was (July 24) arrested on a charge of conspiring against the prince.On the 4th of August John de Witt resigned the post of grand pensionary that he had held so long and with such distinction.Cornelius was put to the torture, and on the 19th of August he was sentenced to deprivation of his offices and banishment.He was confined in the Gevangenpoort, and his brother came to visit him in the prison.A vast crowd on hearing this collected outside, and finally burst into the prison, seized the two brothers and literally tore them to pieces.Their mangled remains were hung up by the feet to a lamp-post.Thus perished, by the savage act of an infuriated mob, one of the greatest statesmen of his age.
John de Witt married Wendela Bicker, daughter of an influential burgomaster of Amsterdam, in 1655, by whom he had two sons and three daughters.