decided contrasts of colour and of light and shade. His subjects embraced an unusually wide range. He availed himself of his travels in the East in dealing with scenes from scripture history, which he was probably the first of European painters to represent with their true and natural local background. Of this class were his Joseph sold by his Brethren, Moses taken from the Nile, and his scenes from the life of Samson, nine vigorous sketches in charcoal and white. Perhaps the most impressive of his historical pictures is his Defeat of the Cimbri, representing with wonderful skill the conflict between a horde of barbarians and a disciplined army. Decamps produced a number of genre pictures, chiefly of scenes from French and Algerine domestic life, the most marked feature of which is humour. The same characteristic attaches to most of his numerous animal paintings. He painted dogs, horses, &c., with great fidelity and sympathy; but his favourite subject was monkeys, which he depicted in various studies and sketches with a grotesque humour that could scarcely be surpassed. Probably the best known of all his works is The Monkey Connoisseurs, a clever satire of the jury of the French Academy of Painting, which had rejected several of his earlier works on account of their divergence from any known standard. The pictures and sketches of Decamps were first made familiar to the English public through the lithographs of Eugène la Roux. See Moreau's Decamps et son Euvre (Paris, 1869).

DE CANDOLLE, AUGUSTIN PYRAMUS (1778-1841), a celebrated botanist, was born at Geneva, February 4, 1778. He was descended from one of the most ancient families of Provence, and his ancestors had been expatriated for their religion in the middle of the 16th century. His father was a famous printer, and syndic of the university and republic. Though a weakly boy he showed great aptitude for study, and distinguished himself at school by his rapid attainments in classical and general literature, and specially by a faculty for writing elegant verse, which led Florian to anticipate that he might become famous as a poet. He showed remarkable powers of memory, which proved of the greatest service to him in the science to which he ultimately devoted himself. His interest in plants was first roused while he was residing with his mother at a remote country village during the siege of Geneva in 1792. He began his scientific studies at the college of Geneva, by attending the courses of Saussure and Vaucher, the latter of whom first inspired him with the determination to make botanical sciefice the chief pursuit of his life. In 1796 he removed to Paris, where he resided with Dolomieu, attended various courses of lectures on natural science, and gained the friendship of Jussieu and Desfontaines. His first productions, Historia Plantarum Succulentarum (4 vols., 1799) and Astragalogia (1802), introduced him to the notice of Cuvier (whose chair in the College de France he supplied in 1802), Humboldt, Biot, and Lamarck, who afterwards confided to him the publication of the third edition of the Flore Française (1803-15). The introduction to this work contained the first exposition of his principle of classification according to the natural as opposed to the Linnean or artificial method. Having been elected (1804) doctor of medicine by the medical faculty of Paris, he wrote, as an inaugural work, the Essai sur les propriétés médicinales des plantes com parées avec leurs formes extérieures et leur classification naturelle, and soon after, in 1806, his Synopsis plantarum in flora Gallica descriptarum. At the desire of the French Government he spent the summers of the following six years in making a botanical and agricultural survey of the whole kingdom, the results of which he published in 1813. In 1807 he was appointed professor of botany in the medical faculty of the university of Montpellier, and in 1810 he was transferred to the newly founded chair of

The

botany of the faculty of sciences in the same university. He was an admirable lecturer, and the gardens under his charge were much improved during his occupancy of the chair. From Montpellier he removed to Geneva in 1816, having been invited by the now independent republic to fill the newly created chair of natural history. The rest of his life was spent in an attempt to elaborate and complete his "natural” system of botanical classification. results of his labours in this department are to be found in his Regni vegetabilis systema naturale, of which two volumes only were completed (1821) when he found that it would be impossible for him to execute the whole work on so extensive a scale. He accordingly commenced in 1824 a less extensive work in the same direction-his Prodromus systematis regni vegetabilis,—but even of this he was able to finish only seven volumes, or two-thirds of the whole. It was carried on after his death by his son Alphonse, who in 1834 had succeeded him in his professorship. He had been for several years in delicate health when he died on the 9th September 1841 at Turin, whither he had gone to attend a scientific reunion. De Candolle received diplomas or the honour of membership from most of the learned societies of Europe, and was a very frequent contributor to their Transactions. Louis Philippe decorated him with the cross of the Legion of Honour. He was highly esteemed in his native city, where he was for a long period rector of the academy and a member of the legislature. For an estimate of his place as a botanist see Botany, vol. iv. p. 80.

See Flourens's Eloge de Candolle (1842), and De la Rive's Candolle, sa Vie et ses Travaux (1851).

DECAPOLIS, a district of Palestine, or perhaps rather a confederation of districts, situated, with the exception of a small portion, on the eastern side of the Upper Jordan and the Sea of Tiberias. Its boundaries are not accurately known, and probably were never precisely defined. It evidently takes its name from the fact that it included ten cities (déka Tóλes), but the ancient geographers do not agree as to which these ten cities were. This difference of statement may be explained by the supposition that, like the Cinque Ports of England, Decapolis preserved its original designation after new members were received into the confederation, and perhaps some of the old members had lost their connection. Pliny recognizes the uncertainty, but gives the following list :-Damascus, Philadelphia, Raphana, Scythopolis (on the west side of the Jordan), Gadara, Hippo, Dion, Pella, Galasa (Gerasa), and Canatha. Damascus is the only one that retains its importance; Scythopolis, or Beth-Shean, which seems to have been anciently the next in size, is represented by the village of Beisan; and Gerasa, Canatha or Kenath, and Pella are of interest only for their ruins. Decapolis was placed by the Romans under the jurisdiction of the Syrian governor, and seems to have enjoyed special privileges. Regarding the rise and decay of the confederation we have no precise information, but it was at the height of its prosperity in the time of Christ.

DECATUR, a flourishing city of the United States, capital of Macon county, Illinois, situated in the midst of a rich agricultural district to the right of the Sangamon river, at a railway junction about 38 miles east of Springfield. It is well built, and has 15 churches and 24 public schools; but none of its edifices are individually remarkable. Among its industrial establishments is a large rolling mill. Population in 1870, 7161.

DECCAN (DAKSHIN, the Country of the South), in India, includes, according to Hindu geographers, the whole of the territories situated to the south of the Nerbudda. In its more modern acceptation, however, it is sometimes understood as comprising only the

siderably to preponderate, and the introduction of it to be merely a question of time.

The coinage of the United States, which was made decimal in 1786, consists of the eagle 10 dollars, the dollar 10 dimes, the dime = 10 cents, but of these denominations dollars and cents are the only ones commonly used. In France, shortly after the great Revolution, a decimal system not only of money, but also of weights and measures, was introduced. The standard of value is the franc = 100 centimes; but though the only coins are francs, centimes, and multiples of these, the word sou, a term belonging to the superseded coinage, is often used to denote the 20th part of the franc, or 5 centimes. The Belgian and the Swiss monetary systems were assimilated to that of France in 1833 and 1851; and in 1865 France, Italy, Belgium, and Switzerland, became parties to a treaty for the maintenance of a common system. Germany, within the last few years, has effected a reform of her currency, the mark, which corresponds closely to our shilling, being -10 groschen 100 pfennige. A decimal coinage exists also in Russia, where the ruble = 100 kopecks; in Holland, where the guilder = 10 dubbeltjes = 100 cents; and in Portugal, where the milrei = 1000 reis.

See Observations on the Expediency and Practicability of Simplifying and Improving the Measures, Weights, and Money, &c., by General Sir Charles Pasley, 8vo, 1834; the Report of the Select Committee on a Decimal System of Coinage, August 1853; and, the publications of the "Decimal Association." (J. S. M.)

DECIUS MUS. See Mus.

DECLARATION in an action at law was the first step in pleading the formal statement of the matter in respect of which the defendant sued. It was divided into counts, in each of which a specific cause of action was alleged, but the language used was cautious and general, and the same matter might be the subject of several counts. By the simpler form of pleading established by the Judicature Act, 1873, the declaration is replaced by a statement of claim setting forth the simple facts on which the plaintiff replies. Statutory declaration.-By 5 and 6 Will. IV. c. 62 (which was an Act to make provisions for the abolition of unnecessary oaths, and to repeal a previous Act of the same session on the same subject) various cases are specified

in which a declaration shall be substituted for an affidavit

on oath. There is a general clause empowering any justice of the peace, notary public, or other officer now by law authorized to administer an oath, to take and receive the declaration of any person voluntarily making the same before him in the form in the schedule to the Act annexed; and if any declaration so made shall be false or untrue in any material particular, the person wilfully making such false declaration shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanour.

DECLARATION OF PARIS, a diplomatic instrument or protocol signed by the representatives of all the powers present at the Congress of Paris in 1856, and subsequently accepted as a binding engagement of public law by all the other powers (except the United States of America, Spain, and Mexico), for the purpose of settling and defining certain rules of maritime law, in time of war, on points of great moment to belligerent and neutral states-points, it must be added, upon which the ancient law of nations had gradually undergone some change, and on which great differences of opinion and practice prevailed. The four propositions agreed to by the plenipotentiaries were embodied in the following terms :

1. Privateering is and remains abolished.

2. The neutral flag covers enemy's goods, with the exception of

contraband of war.

3. Neutral goods, with the exception of contraband of war, are not liable to capture under an enemy's flag.

4. Blockades, in order to be binding, must be effective,-that is to say, maintained by a force sufficient readily to prevent access to the oast of the enemy.

By most of the modern writers on international law these principles are regarded as a distinct gain to the cause of civilization, international justice, commerce, and peace. But a feeble and ineffectual attempt has been made to repudiate these new rules of maritime law, though they received the tacit assent of Parliament, and have bee acted upon by all nations in the six wars which have occurred since 1856, including the American civil war, although the United States had not concurred in the Declaration. The American Government withheld its assent, not because it objected to these principles, but because it held that they did not go far enough, and that they ought to be extended to secure from capture all private property at sea. It is argued by the opponents of the Declaration that the British envoy at Paris exceeded his powers; that the form of the instrument itself is declaratory, but not binding either as a contract or a legislative act; that it is not competent to a congress to change the rights of belligerents founded on ancient law and usage; and that Great Britain committed a fatal error in renouncing the right to seize enemy's goods in neutral ships and to equip privateers.

To these arguments it is said in reply that the British envoy at Paris had full powers to pledge the faith of the Crown, with the concurrence of the Cabinet, and that if Parliament disapproved his conduct, it ought to have been pressed to a division at the time, and not when Great Britain has enjoyed the benefit of the Declaration, as a of the Crown to fix our international relations, and to neutral, for twenty years. It is a part of the prerogative determine the conditions of maritime warfare. The most fitting and binding expression of international law (which cannot assume the form of positive law by sovereign enactment) is to be found in instruments recording in solemn form the consent of ali civilized nations. On the ground of expediency, it is contended by the supporters of the Declaration of Paris, that Great Britain is, of all countries in the world, that which has most to gain by it, because she is not only the greatest naval power, but the power which has the largest number of merchant vessels and the largest amount of property afloat on the seas, and liable to attack.

The primary advantage of the Declaration no doubt trade in time of war, and exempts them from the seizure of accrues to neutrals, as it secures to them a larger carrying enemy's goods in neutral ships. Hence, if a belligerent were now to violate the rules of the Declaration, he would would speedily find them arrayed on the side of the enemy. have to encounter the opposition of all neutral states, and

But in the event of war, Great Britain is the state most

exposed, by reason of the magnitude of her maritime trade, to the depredations of hostile cruisers; the injury done is to be measured by the amount of the shipping and property exposed to it; and a single cruiser of a small state may cause enormous losses to the commerce of a great power, as was seen in the American civil war. Since the establishment of a general system of railroads, the greater part of the trade of all the states of continental Europe can be carried on by land, either by direct communication or through neutral ports. The power of a naval state to inflict serious injury on an enemy by the interruption of her trade is therefore by the nature of things greatly diminished, and the same remark applies to commercial blockades. To England all foreign commodities must be brought by sea, and England is more dependent than any other country on foreign trade for the raw material of her manufactures, and even for the food of her inhabitants. It is therefore the paramount interest of England to keep open all the channels of trade, as much as possible, both in peace and war; and injuries done to the trade of an enemy are often equally prejudicial to the state which

which have been advanced in defence of the Declaration of Paris, and which no doubt actuated the authors of it. A full account of the controversy will be found in the third volume of Sir Robert Phillimore's Commentaries on International Law, where the learned author supports and advocates the old traditions of the Court of Admiralty, and also in Hall's Rights and Duties of Neutrals (1874). The principles on which the Declaration of Paris is based are explained and defended in an article in the Edinburgh Review, No. 296. (H. R.) DECLARATOR, in Scotch law, is a form of action by which some right of property, or of servitude, or of status, or some inferior right or interest, is sought to be judicially declared (see Bell's Dictionary and Digest of the Law of Scotland.)

DECREE, DECREET, the judgment of a court of justice, and, in English law, more particularly the judgment of a court of equity. A decree nisi is the conditional order for a dissolution of marriage made by the court for divorce and matrimonial causes, which will be made absolute after six months, in the absence of sufficient cause shown to the contrary.

DECRETALS, in canon law, are the answers sent by the Pope to applications made to him as head of the church, chiefly by bishops, but also by synods, and even private individuals, for guidance in cases involving points of doctrine or discipline. In the early days of the church these replies came to be circulated throughout the various dioceses, and furnished precedents to be observed in analogous circumstances. From the 4th century onwards they formed the most prolific source of canon law. Decretals (decreta constituta decretalia, epistola decretales, or shortly decretalia, or decretales) ought, properly speaking, to be distinguished, on the one hand from constitutions (constitutiones pontificia), or general laws enacted by the Pope sua sponte without reference to any particular case, and on the other hand from rescripts (rescripta), which apply only to special circumstances or individuals, and constitute no general precedent. But this nomenclature is not strictly observed.

For futher information see art. CANON LAW, in which will also

be found an account of the Pseudo-Isidorian or False Decretals. DECURIO, an officer in the Roman cavalry, commanding a decuria, which was a body consisting of ten men. There were certain provincial magistrates called decuriones municipales, who had the same position and powers in free and corporate towns as the senate had in Rome. As the name implies, they consisted at first of ten, but in later times the number was often as many as a hundred; their duty was to watch over the interests of their fellow-citizens, and to increase the revenues of the commonwealth. Their court was called curia decurionum, and minor senatus; and their decrees, called decreta decurionum, were marked with D. D. at the top. They generally styled themselves civitatum patres curiales, and honorati municipiorum senatores. They were elected with the same ceremonies as the Roman senators, and they required to be at least twentyfive years of age, and to be possessed of a certain fixed income. The election took place on the kalends of March. DEE, JOHN (1527-1608), a mathematician and astrologer, was born in July 1527, in London, where his father was a wealthy vintner. In 1542 he was sent to St John's College, Cambridge. After five years' close application to mathematical studies, particularly astronomy, he went to Holland, in order to visit several eminent Continental mathematicians. Having remained abroad nearly a year, he returned to Cambridge, and was elected a fellow of Trinity College, then first erected by King Henry VIII. In 1548 he took the degree of master of arts; but in the same year he found it necessary to leave England on account of the suspicions entertained of his being a conjuror,

Irene of,Aristophanes, he exhibited to the university, representing the scarabæus flying up to Jupiter, with a man and a basket of victuals on its back. On leaving England he went first to the university of Louvain, where he resided about two years, and then to the college of Rheims, where he read lectures on Euclid's Elements with great applause. On his return to England in 1551 King Edward assigned him a pension of 100 crowns, which he afterwards exchanged for the rectory of Upton-upon-Severn. Soon after the accession of Mary, he was accused of using enchantments against the queen's life; but after a tedious confinement, he obtained his liberty in 1555, by an order of council.

When Elizabeth ascended the throne, Dee was asked by Lord Dudley to name a propitious day for the coronation. On this occasion he was introduced to the queen, who took lessons in the mystical interpretation of his writings, and made him great promises, which, however, were never fulfilled. In 1564 he again visited the Continent, in order to present a book which he had dedicated to the Emperor Maximilian. He returned to England in the same year; but in 1571 we find him in Lorraine, whither two physicians were sent by the queen to his relief in a dangerous illness. Having once more returned to his native country, he settled at Mortlake, in Surrey, where he continued his studies with unremitting ardour, and made a collection of curious books and manuscripts, and a variety of instruments, most of which were destroyed by the mob during his absence, on account of his supposed familiarity with the devil. In 1578 Dee was sent abroad to consult with German physicians and astrologers in regard to the illness of the queen. On his return to England, he was employed in investigating the title of the Crown to the countries recently discovered by British subjects, and in furnishing geographical descriptions. Two large rolls containing the desired information, which he presented to the queen, are still preserved in the Cottonian Library. A learned treatise on the reformation of the calendar, written by him about the same time, is still preserved in the Ashmolean Library at Oxford.

From this period the philosophical researches of Dee were concerned entirely with the pseudo-science of necromancy. In 1581 he became acquainted with Edward Kelly, an apothecary who professed to have discovered the philosopher's stone, and by whose assistance he performed various incantations, and maintained a frequent imaginary intercourse with spirits. Shortly after, Kelly and Dee were introduced to a Polish nobleman, Albert Laski, palatine of Siradia (Sieradz), devoted to the same pursuits, who persuaded the two friends to accompany him to his native country. They embarked for Holland in September 1583, and arrived at Laski's place of residence in February following. They lived for some years in Poland and Bohemia in alternate wealth and poverty, according to the credulity or scepticism of those before whom they exhibited. They professed to raise spirits by incantation. Kelly dictated their utterances to Dee, who wrote them down and interpreted them.

Dee, having at length quarrelled with his companion, quitted Bohemia and returned to England, where he was male chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral in 1594, and warden of Manchester College in 1595. He afterwards returned to his house at Mortlake, where he died in 1608, at the age of eighty-one.

His principal works are-Propadeumata Aphoristica, Lond. 1558; Monas Hieroglyphica, Antwerp, 1564; Epistola ad Fredericum Commandinum, Pesaro, 1570; Preface Mathematical to the English Euclid, 1570; Divers Annotations and Inventions added after the tenth book of English Euclid, 1570; Epistola præfixa Ephemeridibus Joannis Feldi, a 1557; Parallatica Comonentationis Praxeos