DAHLGREN, JOHN ADOLPH, a U.S. naval officer and commander;
invented a small heavy gun named after him; commanded
the blockading squadron at Charleston (1809-1870).
DAHLMANN, FRIEDRICH CHRISTOPH, a German historian
and politician, born at Wismar; was in favour of constitutional
government; wrote a “History of Denmark,”
“Histories of the French Revolution and of the
English Revolution”; left an unfinished “History
of Frederick the Great” (1785-1860).
DAHN, FELIX, a German jurist, historian, novelist,
and poet, born in Hamburg; a man of versatile ability
and extensive learning; became professor of German
jurisprudence at Koenigsberg; b. 1834.
DAHNA DESERT, the central division of the Arabian
Desert.
DAHOMEY (150), a negro kingdom of undefined limits,
and under French protectorate, in W. Africa, N. of
the Slave Coast; the religious rites of the natives
are sanguinary, they offer human victims in sacrifice;
is an agricultural country, yields palm-oil and gold
dust, and once a great centre of the slave-trade.
DAIRI, the Mikado’s palace or his court, and
sometimes the Mikado himself.
DAKO`TA, NORTH and SOUTH (400), three times as large
as England, forming two States of the American Union;
consist of prairie land, and extend N. from Nebraska
as far as Canada, traversed by the Missouri; yield
cereals, especially wheat, and raise cattle.
DALAI-LAMA, chief priest of Lamaism, reverenced as
a living incarnation of deity, always present on earth
in him. See LAMAISM.
DALAYRAC, celebrated French composer; author of a
number of comic operas (1753-1809).
DALBERG, BARON DE, an eminent member of a noble German
family; trained for the Church; was a prince-bishop;
a highly cultured man, held in high esteem in the
Weimar Court circles, and a friend of Goethe and Schiller;
an ecclesiastic, as one might suppose, only in name
(1744-1817).
DALBERG, DUC DE, nephew of the preceding; contributed
to political changes in France in 1814, and accompanied
Talleyrand to the Congress of Vienna (1773-1833).
D’ALBRET, JEANNE, queen of Navarre, and mother
of Henry IV. of France; came to Paris to treat about
the marriage of her son to Charles IX.’s sister;
died suddenly, not without suspicion of foul-play,
after signing the treaty; she was a Protestant (1528-1572).
D’ALEMBERT, a French philosopher, devoted to
science, and especially to mathematics; along with
Diderot established the celebrated “Encyclopedie,”
wrote the Preliminary Discourse, and contributed largely
to its columns, editing the mathematical portion of
it; trained to quiet and frugality, was indifferent
to wealth and honour, and a very saint of science;
no earthly bribe could tear him away from his chosen
path of life (1717-1783).
DALGARNO, LORD, a heartless profligate in the “Fortunes
of Nigel.”
DALGETTY, DUGALD, a swaggering soldier of fortune
in the “Legend of Montrose,” who let out
his services to the highest bidder.
