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Court of Chaucery in England, and pending the trial the
"three lower counties" were not sure to whom they
belonged, and so paid no land rents. In 1768 the suit
was decided, and commissioners appointed, who defined
the boundary line of Maryland as it now stands. It was
in the year 1776 that the first constitution of the State of
Delaware was framed, whereby "the three lower counties
on the Delaware" lost their awkward name, and again
had a new form of government. In the same year
Delaware, as one of the thirteen colonies, signed the
Declaration of Independence; and in 1787 the State, in
convention, adopted the constitution of the United States.
In 1792 a new State constitution was enacted, and again
in 1831, which is now in force. Under it, the governor is
elected for four years, and the legislature meets biennially
at Dover, the State capital. Delaware was one of the
original thirteen States, and, though slave-holding, remained
loyal to the Union at the secession of the Southern States
in 1861.
DELAWARE, a city of the United States, capital of
a county of the same name in Ohio, is situated on the
west bank of the Olentangy, nearly in the centre of the
State, 24 miles north of Columbus. Its principal public
institutions are the Ohio Wesleyan university and a female
college belonging to the same body. The manufactures
consist of oil, cordage, hempen cloth, and iron work. A
medicinal spring in the neighbourhood is resorted to for
the benefit of its waters. Population (1870), 5641..

DEL CREDERE AGENT is one who, selling goods for his principal on credit, undertakes for an additional commission to guarantee the solvency of the purchaser.

DELFICO, MELCHIORRE (1744-1835), an eminent Italian writer on political economy, was born at Teramo in the Abruzzi on the 1st August 1744, and was educated at Naples. He devoted himself specially to the study of jurisprudence and political economy, and thus qualified himself for the valuable service he was to render to his native country by his writings on legal and economic subjects. His first publication, Saggio filosofico nel matrimonio (1774), was an eloquent vindication of marriage against the loose views that were prevalent. To his Memorie sul Tribunale della Grascia e sulle Legge Economiche nelle Provincie confinante del Regno, addressed to the king, the Neapolitans owed the abolition of the most vexatious and absurd restrictions on the sale and exportation of agricultural produce. Other Memorie on kindred subjects followed, and did much to promote reform in the direction of free trade. Equally beneficial was the adoption of the principles developed in his Riflessioni sulla Vendita dei Feudi Devoluti, in 1790, and his Lettera al Duca di Cantalupo sú i Feudi Devoluti, in 1795, which were so powerfully reasoned that a law was promulgated for the sale of all feudalities reverting to the crown as free estates. During the short reign of Joseph Bonaparte at Naples, Delfico was made a councillor of state, and employed in the formation of the new judicial organization of Naples. He was employed in a similar manner under Murat; and, when Ferdinand was restored in 1815, Delfico was made president of the commission of the archives, an office which he filled until 1823, when he tendered his resignation on account of his advanced age. His sovereign acknowledged his eminently patriotic services by the grant of a large pension for life. Soon after, he retired to his native town, where he died on the 21st June 1835, at the advanced age of ninety-one. Besides the works we have noticed, on which his Neapolitan fame may be said chiefly to rest, we owe to him several general works of no mean reputation, especially Ricerche sul vero Carattere della Giurisprudenza Romana, e di sue Cultore, 1790, and Pensieri sulla Storia, e sull' Incertetza ed Inutilită

della Medesima, 1806, which have both been several times reprinted. In the latter he has anticipated the scepticism of Niebuhr on the early history of Rome, which he treats as fabulous; and he denies to the Romans before the second Punic war all arts but that of agriculture, and of making war on their neighbours.

See Gregoire de Filippis Delfico's Della Vita e delle Opere di Melchiorre Delfico (Teramo, 1886), and Tipaldo's Biografia degli Haliani illustri (vol. ii.)

DELFT, a town of Holland, in the province of South Holland, on the Schie, nearly ten miles from Rotterdam, and in the line of the canal between that city and the Hague. It is well and regularly built in the form of a square, but has a rather gloomy appearance from its streets being traversed by narrow stagnant canals. The public buildings comprise the Prinsenhof, or palace, where William of Orange was assassinated' in 1584; the town-house, erected in 1618, with antiquarian and artistic collections; the Old Church, dating from the 11th century, and containing monuments to Van Tromp and Piet Hein, and the tomb of Leeuwenhoek, the naturalist; the New Church, founded in 1381, and interesting both for its chime of 500 bells, and as the burial-place of the princes of the house of Orange from the days of the Liberator down to the present century; the arsenal, originally erected as a warehouse for the East India Company; and the polytechnic school, with the fine collection of mechanical models formerly preserved in the dockyard at Amsterdam. It is sufficient to mention the powder-magazine, the school of military engineering, the theatre, the municipal school for the education of civil service students for the colonies, the school of design, the lunatic asylum, and Madame Renswonde's orphanage. For a long time the name of Delft was associated, not only in Holland, but even abroad, with the manufacture of excellent earthenware; but this industry, as well as the beer-brewing which was of great importance last century, has become almost extinct. The present branches are carpet-weaving, cooperage, dyeing, and distilling. The town was founded about 1075 by Duke Geoffrey of Lorraine after his conquest of Holland from Count Thierry. It was almost totally ravaged by fire in 1536; and in 1654 it lost about 1200 of its population by the explosion of a powdermagazine. In 1797 the Christo Sacrum Society was founded by Onder van Vyngaard-Ceanzius, the burgomaster of the city, for the utopian purpose of uniting in one community all the various branches of the Christian church. Of the celebrities of the town the most famous is Grotius, whose tomb is shown in the New Church. Popula tion in 1874, 23,900.

DELHI, a district of British India under the jurisdiction of the lieutenant-governor of the Punjab, situated between 28° 13′ and 29° 13′ N. lat. and 76° 53′ and 77 34" E. long. It consists of a strip of territory on the right or west bank of the River Jumna, 75 miles in length, and varying from 15 to 23 miles in breadth, bounded on the N. by the district of Karnal, on the E. by the Jumna river separating it from Meerut (Mirat) and Bulandshahr districts, on the S. by Rohtak, and on the W. by Gurgaon. With the exception of a low-lying alluvial tract in the north, and a narrow fringe of fertile soil along the river bank to the south of Delhi city, the country consists of stony or hard sandy soil, where cultivation mainly depends upon artificial irrigation. This is supplied by the Western Jumna canal, which has a course of 51 miles in the district; by the Ali Murdán canal, constructed by a celebrated Persian nobleman of that name; by the new Agra canal;

1 The name is also applied to a Division or Commissionership, com. prising the districts of Delhi, Gurgaon, and Karnál, containing a total area of 5557 square miles, with a population of 1,920,912.

An

and by the Jumna river, and a few hill streams. offshoot of the Mewát hills runs in a north-easterly direction nearly across the district. This offshoot forms a sterile, rocky table-land, from two to three miles in breadth, but nowhere exceeding 500 feet above the level of the surrounding country.

The district population, according to a census taken in 1868, numbered 608,850 souls, scattered over an area of 1227 square miles, showing a density per square mile of 496 persons. According to their religious beliefs the inhabitants are thus classified :-Hindus, 438,886, or 72-08 per cent.; Mahometans, 130,645, or 21:46 per cent.: Sikhs, 580, or 09 per cent.; others, 38,739, or 6.36 per cent. Four towns contain a population exceeding 5000,-viz., Delhi city, population 154,417; Sonipát, 12,176; Faridábád, 7990; and Balabgarh, 6281.

The principal agricultural products of the district are wheat, barley, sugar-cane, and cotton. In the lands of the northern part, commanded by the irrigation canals, cotton and sugar cane are the most lucrative staples of the autumn harvest, while jár (great millet), bájrá (spiked millet), and makai (Indían corn) are grown for local consumption. The spring crops consist of the better kinds of grain, such as wheat and barley, and of gram and tobacco. In some irrigated villages a superior kind of rice is grown, but it nowhere forms a staple product. Cotton cultivation is extending, and a ready market for the fibre exists in Delhi city. The total area of the district is returned at 814,672 acres, of which 525,255 are cultivated, viz., 206,853 irrigated and 318,402 unirrigated. A tract of 1147 acres, set apart by the native rulers as a hunting ground, is now inclosed by Government as a timber preserve; and other plantations along the banks of the river have recently been formed and placed under the Forest Department. The hills produce good building stone, and a fair kind of marble of two colours, black and grey. A white clay, supposed to be kaolin, is found at Arangpur, Muradpur, and Kasmpur, and has been employed with success at the Gov.rnment foundry at Rurki for making crucibles. At the first named village is a crystal mine, no longer worked. The East India Railway and the Punjab Railway run trains into Delhi from their junction at Ghaziábád, about twelve miles distant, while the Rajputana State Railway traverses the district for about twelve miles in the direction of Gurgaon. The Government revenue of Delhi district in 1872-78 amounted to £383.082,-of which £89.036 was derived from the land, £264.909 from salt and custom duties, and £14,086 from stamps. The land settlement is not a permanent one, but for a term of years. For the education of the people Government in 1872-73 maintained in whole or in part 72 schools, attended by 3645 pupils, at an outlay to the state of £7760. There were also 32 unaided indigenous schools, attended by 529 pupils in 1872-73. Three Government dispensaries gave gratuitous relief to 18.303 patients, at a cost of £925. 8s. (1872-73). For administrative purposes, the district is subdivided into three tahsils of Delhi, Larsauli, and Balabgarh. The staff consists of a deputy commissioner, with two assistants and two extra assistant commissioners. a judge of the small cause court. 3 tahsildárs and 3 nib or assistant tahsildars, a superintendent and an assistant superintendent of police. aud a civil surgeon.

The early history of the district will be found noticed below. In the last century, the Delhi empire fell under the Marhattas. and the emperor Shah Alam became a pensioner of the Maharaja Sindhia. In 1803 Lord Lake broke the Marhatta power. The Mughul emperor was taken under the protection of the Company, and a considerable tract of country, cousisting of nearly all the present districts of Delhi and Hissar, was assigued for

the maintenance of the royal family. This tract was placed under charge of a British officer as Resident. and the revenue was collected and justice administered in the Dame of the emperor. The annual allowance to the royal family paid from this assigned territory was originally £100,000; it was afterwards increased to £120,000, and subsequently to £150,000, exclusive of certain crown lands which yielded about £15,000 a year. The emperor received the homage of royalty; and throughout the assigned territory all judicial decrees were pronounced in his name, and sentences of death were referred to him for approval. The fiscal arrangements were under the entire control of the resident. This continued till 1832, when the office of resident was al lished, the tract being anexed to the North-Western Provinces, and a British Commissioner appointed to administer it. On the outbreak of the sepoy mutiny in 1857, the whole of the district was for a time lost to British rule, and the southern part was not subdued until after the fall of Delhi city in September 1857. In 1858 Delhi district was separated from the North-Western Provinces, and annexed to the then newly constituted lieutenant-governorship of the Punjab.

DELHI, the chief city of the district and division of the same namic, and the capital of the Mughul empire, is situated in 28° 39' 40" N. lat. and 77° 17′ 45′′ E. long. I abuts on the right bank of the River Jumua, and is inclosed on three sides by a lofty wall of solid stone constructed by the Emperor Shah Jahan, and subsequently strengthened by the English at the beginning of the present century by a ditch and glacis. The castern side, where the city extends to the river bank, has no wall; but the high bank is faced with masoury, and bears from the outside the appearance of one. The circuit of the wall is 5 miles. It has ten gates, of which the principal are the Kashmir and Mori gates on the north; the Cabul and Lahore gates on the west; and the Ajmir and Delhi gates on the west. The imperial palace, now known as "the fort," is situated in the east of the city, and abuts directly on the river. It is surrounded on three sides by au imposing wall ot red granite, with small round towers, and a gateway on the west and south. Since the mutiny of 1857 a great portion of the palace has been demolished in order to make room for English barracks. The more beautiful buildings in the palace, viz., the entrance hall. the naubát kháná or music hall, the diwán-¡-ám or hall of public audience, the diváni-khás or ball of private audience, the rang mahul, and some pavilions, have been preserved intact. As Mi Fergusson well says, in his History of Architecture, however, these buildings "without the courts and corridors conuecting them lose all their meaning, and more than half their beauty." South of the fort, in the Dariaganj quarter of the city, is a cantonment for a regiment of native infantry, which, with one wing of a Europeau regiment stationed within the fort. makes up the garrison usually stationed at Delhi. On the opposite side of the river is the fortress of Salímgarh. erected in the 16th century by Sam Shah, and now in ruins. At this point the East India Railway enters the city by a magnificent bridge across the Junina, passing over Salimghar and through a corner of the fort, to the railway station within the city walls. Thence the line proceeds as the Rajputana State Railway, and, after traversing the city, emerges through the wall on the northwest. In the north-eastern corner of the city. within the walls, and close to the Kashmir gate. are situated the treasury and other public offices. Dariaganj, the fort. the public offices. and the railway form an almost continuous line along the eastern and northern faces of the city,-the angle between them being devoted to public gardens. The area thus occupied amounts to nearly half of that of the entire city; it presents a comparatively open appear

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ance, and forms a marked contrast to the south-west quarter | of the town, which is densely occupied by the shops and dwellings of the native population.

The buildings in the native town are chiefly of brick, well-built and substantial. The smaller streets are narrow and tortuous, and in many cases end in culs de sac. On the other hand, no city in India has finer streets than the main thoroughfares of Delhi, ten in number, thoroughly drained, metalled, and lighted. The principal thoroughfare, the Chándni Chauk, or Street of Silver, leads eastwards from the fort to the Lahore gate, and is threequarters of a mile long by 74 feet broad. Throughout the greater part of its length, a double row of ním and pipál trees runs down its centre on both sides of a raised path, which has taken the place of the masonry aqueduct that in former days conducted water from the canal into the palace. A little to the south of the Chándni Chauk is the Jámá Masjid, or great mosque, standing out boldly from a small rocky rising ground. Begun by Shah Jahan in the fourth year of his reign, and completed in the tenth, it still remains one of the finest buildings of its kind in India. Its front court-yard, 450 feet square, and surrounded by a cloister open on both sides, is paved with granite inlaid with marble, and commands a view of the whole city. The mosque itself, a splendid structure forming an oblong 261 feet in length, is approached by a magnificent flight of stone steps. Three domes of white marble rise from its roof, with two tall and graceful minarets at the corners in front. The interior of the mosque is paved throughout with white marble, and the walls and roof are lined with the same material. Two other mosques in Delhi deserve a passing notice,-the Kálá Masjid, or black mosque, so called from the dark colour given to it by time, and supposed to have been built by one of the early Afghan sovereigns, and the mosque of Roshan-ud-daula. Among the more modern buildings of Delhi may be mentioned the Government College, founded in 1792, the Residency, and the Protestant church, built at a cost £10,000, by Colonel Skinner, an officer wellknown in the history of the East India Company. About half-way down the Chándni Chauk is a high clock-tower, with the institute and museum opposite. Behind the Chándni Chauk, to the north, lie the Queen's Gardens; beyond them the "city lines" stretch away as far as the well-known rocky ridge, about a mile outside the town. From the summit of this ridge the view of the station and city is very picturesque. To the west and north-west, considerable suburbs cluster beyond the walls, containing the tombs of the imperial family. That of Humayun, the second of the Mughul dynasty, is a noble building of granite inlaid with marble. It lies about two miles from the city, amid a large garden of terraces and fountains, the whole surrounded by an embattled wall, with towers and four gateways. In the centre stands a platform about 20 feet high by 200 feet square, supported by cloisters, and ascended by four great flights of granite steps. Above, rises the Mausoleum, also a square, with a great dome of white marble in the centre. About a mile to the westward is another burying ground, or collection of tombs and small mosques, some of them very beautiful. The most remarkable is perhaps the little chapel in honour of a celebrated Mussulman saint, Nizám-ud-dín, near whose shrine the members of the late imperial family, up to the time of the mutiny, lie buried, each in his own little inclosure, surrounded by very elegant lattice-work of white marble. The Kutab Minár, or Pillar, is situated about nine miles south of the city.

The palaces of the nobles, which formerly gave an air of grandeur to the city, have for the most part disappeared. Their sites are occupied by structures of less pretension, but

still of some elegance of architectural design. The city is now amply supplied with water; and much attention has of late been paid to its cleanliness and its sanitary condition generally. The principal local institution was, until 1877, the Delhi College, founded in 1792. It was at first exclusively an Oriental school, supported by the voluntary contributions of Mahometan gentlemen, and managed by a committee of the subscribers. In 1829 an English department was added to it; and in 1855 the institution was placed under the control of the Educational Department. In the mutiny of 1857 the old college was plundered of a very valuable Oriental library, and the building completely destroyed. A new college was founded in 1858, and was affiliated to the university of Calcutta in 1864. The old college attained to great celebrity as an educational institution, and produced many excellent scholars. Under orders of the Government of the Punjab (February 1877), the collegiate staff of teachers was to be withdrawn, in order to concentrate the grant available for higher-class education upon the central and more useful institution at Lahore, the present capital of the province.

The population of Delhi in 1853 was returned at 152, 424, viz., 76,390 Hindus and 76,034 Mahometans. In 1868, the census showed that since the Mutiny the Mahometan population had greatly diminished, while on the other hand the Hindus had In that year, the population was ascer considerably increased. tained to be made up as follows:-Hindus, 85,087 (males 46,541 and females 38,546); Mahometans, 61,720 (males 32,361 and females 29,359); Sikhs, 357 males 267 and females 90); other denominations, 7253 (males 4177 and females 3076): total of Delhi municipality, which also embraces the suburbs, contains a all religions, 154,417 (males 83,346 and females 71,071). The population of 184,840. The total income (mainly derived from octroi duties) in 1871-72 amounted to £25,610, or an average of 2s. 94d. per head.

History. From the earliest period of Indian history, Delhi or its immediate neighbourhood has been the site of a capital city. Within the circuit of a very few miles from modern Delhi, city after city has risen upon the ruins of its predecessors, and the debris of ancient buildings is now estimated to cover an area of 45 square miles. The first of these fallen capitals, Indraprastha, is supposed to date from the 15th century B.C., when the Aryan colonists of India were beginning to feel their way down the Jumna. The Sanskrit epic, the Mahábhárata, relates how the city was founded by Yudhisthira and his brothers, the five Pándavas. It lay upon the banks of the Jumna, near Humayun's tomb, about two miles south of the modern city; and the Migambod ghát, near the old Calcutta gate of Delhi, is believed to be its one surviving relic. A list of monarchs brings the history of Indraprastha down to the middle of the 1st century B.C., when the name of Dilli, or Delhi, is first met with. By this time the city had spread or been removed some miles to the south, as far as the site now occupied by the Kutab Miñár. Another blank of several centuries occurs until the 3d or 4th century A.D. To this latter period belongs the carved iron pillar near Delhi, one of the most curious monuments in India. It consists of a solid shaft of wrought iron, upwards of 16 inches in diameter, and more than 50 feet in length, of which 22 feet are above ground. The pillar bears a Sanskrit inscription in six lines, recording the history of one Rájá Dháva, who "obtained by his own arm an undivided sovereignty on the earth for a long period." Delhi next makes its appearance in history at the time of the foundation of the Tomára or Tuár dynasty by Anang Pal in 736 A.D. This ruler is said to have restored the city, and during his dynasty the capital alternated between Delhi and Kanauj. About 1151 A.D. the Tomára dynasty was overthrown by Visala Deva, the Chohan king of Ajmir, but a marriage of the daughter of the vanquished monarch to the son of the conqueror united the two families. The son of this union, the famous

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