wrote several geometrical works, treating of descriptive geometry after the manner of Monge, and of the theory of curves.
DU PIN, LOUIS ELLIES (1657–1719), French ecclesiastical historian, came of a noble family of Normandy, and was born a]]Dt Paris on the 17th of June 1657. When ten years old he entered the college of Harcourt, where he graduated M.A. in 1672. He afterwards became a pupil of the Sorbonne, and received the degree of B.D. in 1680 and that of D.D. in 1684. About this time he conceived the idea of his Bibliothèque universelle de tous les auteurs ecclésiastiques, the first volume of which appeared in 1686. The liberty with which he there treated the doctrines of the Fathers aroused ecclesiastical prejudice, and the archbishop of Paris condemned the work. Although Du Pin consented to a retractation, the book was suppressed in 1693; he was, however, allowed again to continue it on changing its title by substituting nouvelle for universelle. He was subsequently exiled to Châtellerault as a Jansenist, but the sentence of banishment was repealed on a new retractation. In 1718 he entered into a correspondence with William Wake, archbishop of Canterbury, with a view to a union of the English and Gallican churches; being suspected of projecting a change in the dogmas of the church, his papers were seized in February 1719, but nothing incriminating was found. The same zeal for union induced him, during the residence of Peter the Great in France, and at that monarch’s request, to draw up a plan for uniting the Greek and Roman churches. He died at Paris on the 6th of June 1719.
Du Pin was a voluminous author. Besides his great work (Paris, 1686–1704, 58 vols. 8vo; Amsterdam, 19 vols. 4to; in the last of which he gives much autobiographical information), mention may be made of Bibliothèque universelle des historiens (2 vols., 1707); L’Histoire de l’église en abrégé (1712); and L’Histoire profane depuis le commencement du monde jusqu’à présent (4 vols., 1712).
DUPLEIX, JOSEPH FRANÇOIS (1697–1763), governor-general of the French establishment in India, the great rival of Clive (q.v.), was born at Landrecies, France, on the 1st of January 1697. His father, François Dupleix, a wealthy farmer-general, wished to bring him up as a merchant, and, in order to distract him from his taste for science, sent him on a voyage to India in 1715 on one of the French East India Company’s vessels. He made several voyages to America and India, and in 1720 was named a member of the superior council at Pondicherry. He displayed great business aptitude, and, in addition to his official duties, made large ventures on his own account, and acquired a fortune. In 1730 he was made superintendent of French affairs in Chandernagore, the town prospering under his energetic administration and growing into great importance. His reputation procured him in 1742 the appointment of governor-general of all French establishments in India. His ambition now was to acquire for France vast territories in India; and for this purpose he entered into relations with the native princes, and adopted a style of oriental splendour in his dress and surroundings. The British took the alarm. But the danger to their settlements and power was partly averted by the bitter mutual jealousy which existed between Dupleix and La Bourdonnais, French governor of the isle of Bourbon. When Madras capitulated to the French in 1764, Dupleix opposed the restoration of the town to the British, thus violating the treaty signed by La Bourdonnais. He then sent an expedition against Fort St David (1747), which was defeated on its march by the nawab of Arcot, the ally of the British. Dupleix succeeded in gaining over the nawab, and again attempted the capture of Fort St David, but unsuccessfully. A midnight attack on Cuddalore was repulsed with great loss. In 1748 Pondicherry was besieged by the British; but in the course of the operations news arrived of the peace concluded between the French and the British at Aix-la-Chapelle. Dupleix next entered into negotiations which had for their object the subjugation of southern India, and he sent a large body of troops to the aid of two claimants of the sovereignty of the Carnatic and the Deccan. The British were engaged on the side of their rivals. After temporary successes the scheme failed. Dupleix was a great organizer, but did not possess the genius for command in the field that was shown by Clive. The conflicts between the French and the British in India continued till 1754, when the French government, anxious to make peace, sent out to India a special commissioner with orders to supersede Dupleix and, if necessary, to arrest him. These orders were carried out with needless harshness, what survived of Dupleix’s work was ruined at a blow, and he himself was compelled to embark for France on the 12th of October 1754. He had spent his private fortune in the prosecution of his public policy; the company refused to acknowledge the obligation; and the government would do nothing for a man whom they persisted in regarding as an ambitious and greedy adventurer. The greatest of French colonial governors died in obscurity and want on the 10th of November 1763. In 1741 he had married Jeanne Albert, widow of one of the councillors of the company, a woman of strong character and intellect, known to the Hindus as Joanna Begum, who proved of great use to her husband in his negotiations with the native princes. She died in 1756, and two years later he married again.
See Tibulle Hamont, Dupleix, d’après sa correspondance inédite (Paris, 1881); H. Castonnet, Dupleix, ses expéditions et ses projets (Paris, 1888) and La Chute de Dupleix (Angers, 1888); G. B. Malleson, Dupleix (Rulers of India series, 1890); and E. Guérin, Dupleix (1908).
DUPONT, PIERRE (1821–1870), French song-writer, the son of a blacksmith, was born at Lyons on the 23rd of April 1821. His parents both died before he was five years old, and he was brought up in the country by his godfather, a village priest. He was educated at the seminary of L’Argentière, and was afterwards apprenticed to a notary at Lyons. In 1839 he found his way to Paris, and some of his poems were inserted in the Gazette de France and the Quotidienne. Two years later he was saved from the conscription and enabled to publish his first volume—Les Deux Anges—through the exertions of a kinsman and of Pierre Lebrun. In 1842 he received a prize from the Academy, and worked for some time on the official dictionary. Gounod’s appreciation of his peasant song, J’ai deux grands bœufs dans mon étable (1846), settled his vocation as a song-writer. He had no theoretical knowledge of music, but he composed both the words and the melodies of his songs, the two processes being generally simultaneous. He himself remained so innocent of musical knowledge that he had to engage Ernest Reyer to write down his airs. He sang his own songs, as they were composed, at the workmen’s concerts in the Salle de la Fraternité du Faubourg Saint-Denis; the public performance of his famous Le Pain was forbidden; Le Chant des ouvriers was even more popular; and in 1851 he paid the penalty of having become the poet laureate of the socialistic aspirations of the time by being condemned to seven years of exile from France. The sentence was cancelled, and the poet withdrew for a time from participation in politics. He died at Lyons, where his later years were spent, on the 24th of July 1870. His songs have appeared in various forms—Chants et chansons (3 vols., with music, 1852–1854), Chants et poésies (7th edition, 1862), &c. Among the best-known are Le Braconnier, Le Tisserand, La Vache blanche, La Chanson du blé, but many others might be mentioned of equal spontaneity and charm. His later works have not the same merit.
See also Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi, iv.; Ch. Baudelaire, Notice sur P. Dupont (1849); Déchaut, Biographie de Pierre Dupont (1871); and Ch. Lenient, Poésie patriotique en France (1889), ii. 352 et seq.
DUPONT DE L’ÉTANG, PIERRE ANTOINE, Count (1765–1840), French general, first saw active service as a member of Maillebois’ legion in Holland, and in 1791 was on the staff of the Army of the North under Dillon. He distinguished himself at Valmy, and in the fighting around Menin in 1793 he forced an Austrian regiment to surrender. Promoted general of brigade for this feat, he soon received further advancement from Carnot, who recognized his abilities. In 1797 he became general of division. The rise of Napoleon, whom he warmly supported in the coup d’état of 18th Brumaire, brought him further opportunities. In the campaign of 1800 he was chief of the staff to Berthier, the nominal commander of the “Army of Reserve of the Alps”,
