aracter. however, is not easily controlled by civil institutions; for which reason it may be questioned whether any human regulations can be contrived of sufficient force to suppress or change that false rule of honor, which stigmatises all scruples about duelling with the reproach of cowardice. The inadequate redress which the law of the land affords, for those injuries which chiefly affect a man in his sensibility and reputation, tempts many to redress themselves; and prosecutions for such offences, by the trifling damages that are recovered, serve only to make the sufferer ridiculous. This ought to be remedied. A court of honor might be established, especially for the army, where the point of honor is cultivated with exquisite attention and refinement, with a power of awarding those submissions and acknowledgments, which it is generally the object of a challenge to obtain; and it might grow into a fashion with person of rank of all professions, to refer their quarrels to the same tribunal. fact, as the law now stands, duelling can seldom be overtaken by legal punishment. The challenge, appointment, and other previous circumstances, which indicate the intention with which the combatants met, being suppressed, nothing appears to a court of justice but the actual rencounter; and if a person be slain when actually fighting with his adversary, the law deems his death nothing more than manslaughter. In DUE'NNA, n. s. Spanish. An old woman kept to guard a younger. I felt the ardour of my passion increase as the season advanced, till in the month of July I could no the bath, saw her undressed, and the wonder displayed. Arbuthnot and Pope. longer contain: I bribed her duenna, was admitted to triforth consider him not only as a base violator of public faith, but as a stranger to the honor and by integrity of a gentleman. Francis, too highspirited to bear such an imputation, had recourse to an uncommon expedient to vindicate his chaHe instantly sent back the herald with a by, cartel of defiance, in which he gave the emperor the lie in form, challenging him to single combat, requiring him to name the time and place of encounter, and the weapons with which he chose to fight. Charles, as he was not inferior to his rival in spirit or bravery, readily accepted the challenge; but after several messages, concerning the arrangement of all the circumstances relative to the combat, accompanied with mutual reproaches bordering on the most indecent scurrility, all thoughts of this duel, more becoming the heroes of romance than the two greatest monarchs of their age, were entirely laid aside. The example of two persons so illustrious, drew such general attention, and carried with it so much for authority, that it had considerable influence in introduciug an important change in manners all over Europe. Duels had been long permitted by the laws of all European nations; and, formdabing a part of their jurisprudence, were authorised by the magistrate on many occasions, as the most proper method of terminating questions with regard to property, or of deciding in those which regarded crimes. But single combats being considered as solemn appeals to the omniscience and justice of the Supreme Being, they were allowed only in public causes, according to the prescription of law, and carried on in a judicial form. See BATTEL. Men accustomed to this manner of B decision in courts of justice, were naturally led to apply it to personal and private quarrels. Duels, which at first could only be appointed by the civil judge, were fought without the interposition of his authority, and in cases to which the laws did not extend. Upon every affront or injury, which seemed to touch his honor, a gentleman thought himself entitled to draw his sword, and to call on his adversary to make reparation. Such an opinion, introduced among men of fierce courage and high spirit, and of rude manners, where offence was often given, and revenge was always prompt, produced most fatal consequences. Much blood was shed; many useful lives were lost; and, at some periods, war itself has hardly been more destructive than these contests of honor. So powerful, however, is the dominion of fashion, that neither the terror of penal laws, nor reverence for religion, nor the fear of a future state, has yet been able entirely to abolish a practice unknown among the ancients, and not justifiable by any principle of reason. Its best defence only seals the greater disgrace on the parties who have recourse to it; i. e. that we must ascribe to it, in some degree, the extraordinary gentleness and complaisance of modern manners in high life, and that respectful attention of one man to another, which at present renders the social intercourse of life far more agreeable and decent than among civilised nations of antiquity. In other words, that gentlemen can only be governed by the weapons of fear and force by which, in fact, the vilest ruffians are at last restrained. Public opinion, DUETT, duetto, in music, a composition expressly written for two voices or instruments, with or without a bass and accompaniments. In good duets the execution is pretty equally distributed between the two parts, and the melodies so dependent on each other, as to lose every effect when separated, but to be perfectly related and concinnous when heard together. DUFF'S ISLANDS, or DUFF'S GROUP, a range of islands in the South Pacific Ocean, discovered by captain Wilson, in the course of his missionary voyage in the Duff. They are about eleven in number, and extend fourteen or fifteen miles in a north-west to south-east direction. They are of different sizes; the smallest is apparently barren, but the largest two, which are about six miles in circumference, and situated in the middle of the others, are well wooded. Between these two there is a small islet; and at the end of one on the north-west part of the group rises a remarkable rock in the shape of a pillar. The natives, who are stout and well made, were shy and apprehensive of strangers. A village was seen on the south-west side of Disappointment Island, the largest of this group. They have ornamented canoes about twelve or fourteen feet long, and about fifteen inches broad, which seemed to be made of a single tree. Long. 167° E., lat. 9° 57′ S. DUFRESNE, or DU FRESNE (Charles), lord of Cange, hence often called Ducange; a man of letters, who did much for the history of the DUGDALE (Sir William), an eminent Eng- DUGOMMIER (M.), a French republican general, a native of Martinique in the West Indies, where, at the beginning of the revolution, he defended Fort St. Pierre against a body of troops sent from France. He was at this time a considerable proprietor, and colonel of the national guards of the island. He afterwards went to France to procure succours for the patriots. In 1793 he rapidly rose to be general of brigade; and then commander in chief of the army in Italy, where he gained many advantages with inferior force. He took Toulon a very December 19th, 1793, as commander in chief of the army of the Eastern Pyrenees, and prosecuted the war against the Spaniards with great success. On the 1st of May, 1794, he gained the battle of Albeides, and seized Montesquieu, taking 200 pieces of cannon, and 2000 prisoners, In August, 1794, he defeated an army of nearly 50,000 men at St. Laurence de la Mouga, and was killed November 17th, in an engagement at St. Sebastian. The convention decreed that his name should be inscribed on a column of the Pantheon. DUILLIA LEX, the Duillian law, a Roman law, enacted by M. Duillius, a tribune, A. U.C. 304. It made it a capital crime to leave the Roman people without its tribunes, or to create any new magistrate without a sufficient cause. There was another Duillian law in 392, regulating the interest to be paid for money lent. DUILLIUS NEPOS (Caius), a Roman consul, the first who obtained a victory over the naval power of Carthage, A. U. C. 492. He took y ships, and was honored with a naval triump the first that ever appeared at Rome. senate rewarded his valor by permitting him have music playing, and torches lighted, at the public expense, every day while he was at sup per. There were some medals struck in ememoration of this victory; and there still exists a column at Rome, which was erected on de occasion. DUISBURG, a town of Prussia, in the circle of Westphalia, and that part of the former duty of Cleves which lies on the east, or right bak of the Rhine. It has two churches, three con vents. The university founded here for Protes tants, in 1635, was removed to Dusseldorf 1806. Its chief manufactures are in cloth and iron. It is seated on the Roer, a little below where it falls into the Rhine. Inhabitants about 4600. It lies fourteen miles north of Dussel dorf, and thirty-five north-west of Cologne. DUKE, n.s. Fr. duc; Span. and Port DUKE DOM. duque; Ital. duca, from Lat dur, ducis, à duco, to lead. See the article. And thou Bethleem, the lond of Juda, for of the a duyk schal go out that schal gouerne my puple Israel. Wilf The duke of Cornwall, and Regan his dutches, will be here with him this knight. Shakspeare. King La Dan. Ciril Wan The cardinal never resigned his purple for the prospect of giving an heir to the dukedom of Tuscany. A prince can mak a belted knight, of DUKE, dux, was originally a Romau dignity, denominated à ducendo, leading or commanding. Accordingly, the first dukes, duces, were ductores exercituum, commanders of armies. Under the later emperors, the governors provinces during war were entitled duces. In after times the same denomination was also given to the governors of provinces, in time of peace. The first governor under this name was a duke of the Marchia Rhætica, or Grisons, of whom mention is made in Cassiodorus; there were afterwards thirteen dukes in the eastern empire, and twelve in the western. The Goths and Vandals, upon their overrunning the provinces of the western empire, abolished the Roman digni ties wherever they settled. But the Franks, & to please the Gauls, who had long been used to that form of government, made it a point of politics not to change any thing therein: and accordingly they divided all Gaul into duchies and counties; and gave the names, sometimes of dukes, and sometimes of counts, comites, to the governors of them. In England, during the time of the Saxons, Camden observes, the offcers and commanders of armies were called dukes, duces, after the ancient Roman manner, without any addition. After the Conqueror came in, the title lay dormant till the reign of Edward III., who created his son Edward, first alled the Black Prince, duke of Cornwall; which has ever since been the peculiar inheriance of the king's eldest son during the life of is father; so that he is dux natus, non creatus. After him there were more made, in such manher as that their titles descended to their poserity. They were created with much solemnity, per cincturam gladii, cappæque, et circuli aurei in capite impositionem. However, in the reign of queen Elizabeth, A. D. 1572, the whole order became utterly extinct; but it was revived about fifty years afterwards by her successor, in the person of George Villiers, duke of Buckingham. Though the French retained the names and form of the ducal government, yet under their second race of kings there were scarcely any dukes but all the great lords were counts, peers, or barons; excepting, however, the dukes of Burgundy and Aquitain, and the duke of France, which was a dignity Hugh Capet himself held, corresponding to that of maire de palais, or king's lieutenant. By the weakness of the kings, the dukes or governors sometimes made themselves sovereigns of the provinces trusted to their administration. This change happened chiefly about the time of Hugh Capet, when the lords began to dismember the kingdom, so that that prince found more competitors among them than subjects. It was even with a great deal of difficulty they could be brought to own him their superior, or to hold of him by faith and homage. By degrees those provinces, both duchies and counties, which had been rent from the crown, were again united to it. But the title duke was no longer given to the governors of provinces. From that time it became a mere title of dignity, annexed to a person and his heirs male, without giving him any domain, territory, or jurisdiction over the place whereof he was duke. All the advantages therefore now consist in the name, and the precedence it gives. Modern dukes retain nothing of their ancient splendor but the coronet on their escutcheon. It is composed of a rim of gold, lined with ermine, and surmounted with eight strawberry leaves, in contradistinction from that of a marquis, which has only four strawberry leaves and four pearls. See the annexed diagram. They are created by patent, cincture of the sword, mantle of state, imposition of a cape, and coronet of gold upon the head, and a verge of gold in their hand. The eldest sons of dukes are by the courtesy of England styled rarquisses, though they are usually distinguished by their father's second title, whether it be marquis or earl; and the younger sons lords, with the addition of their Christian name, as lord James, lord Thomas, &c., and they take place of viscounts, though not so privileged by law. A duke has the title of grace; and he is styled, in heraldic language, most high, potent, and noble prince. Dukes of the blood royal are styled most high, most mighty, and illustrious princes. There are also sovereigns who bear the title of duke. The title of GREAT DUKE belongs to the heir-apparent of Russia; that of ARCH-DUKE to all the sons of the house of Austria, and that of AROH-DUCHESS to all the daughters. See these articles. DUKE, among Hebrew grammarians, is a appellation given to a species of accents answering to our comma. DUKE (Richard), a clergyman and inferior poet of the last century. Dr. Johnson says, His poems are not below mediocrity, nor have I found much in them to be praised.' He was a native of Otterton in Devonshire, and educated at Westminster school, and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he obtained a fellowship. He was presented to the living of Blaby in Leicestershire in 1688, and was soon after made a prebend of Gloucester. Just previous to his death, which took place in 1710, he became possessed of the valuable benefice of Witney in Oxfordshire. He was the author of Translations of some of the Odes of Horace, and some detached poems. DUKE-DUKE, a title given in Spain to a grandee of the house of Sylva, on account of his having several duchies, from the uniting of two considerable houses in his person. Don Roderigo de Sylva, eldest son of Don Ruy Gomez de Sylva, and heir of his duchies and principalities, married the eldest daughter of the duke de l'Infantado; by which marriage the present duke de Pastrana, who is descended therefrom, and is grandson of Don Roderigo de Sylva, has added to other titles that of duke-duke, to distinguish himself from the other dukes; some whereof may enjoy several duchies, but none so considerable ones, nor the titles of such eminent families. DUKE'S COUNTY, a county on the south-east coast of the state of Massachusetts, comprehending Martha's Vineyard Island, Chabaquiddick Island, Norman's Island, and the Elizabeth Islands. The chief town is Edganton. Popu latior. 3290, DUKE OF CLARENCE'S STRAIT is a channel on the east coast of North America, bounded on the east by the Duke of York's Islands, part of the continent, and the isles of Gravina. To the west the shore is an extensive tract of land, forming an archipelago, to which Vancouver gave the name of the Prince of Wales's Archipelago. The DUKE OF GLOUCESTER'S ISLANDS are two woody islands of the South Pacific Ocean, about five or six leagues asunder. They were visited in 1767 by captain Carteret. The most southern is of a half-moon shape, low, flat, and sandy, with a reef projecting half a mile from the south end, where the sea breaks violently: its appearance is agreeable, but it affords neither vegetables nor water. There seemed also no traces of inhabitants. Many birds were seen on it, however, and they were so tame, that they readily allowed themselves to be taken. Captain Carteret thought these islands were seen by Quiros, the Spanish navigator, in 1606. One lies in lat. |