"Further Facts connected with the West Indies." Soon afterwards Lord Stanley proceeded to the East, to investigate and study the condition of the India question. During his absence his father, the earl of Derby, became prime minister (1852), and appointed Lord Stanley under-secretary of state for foreign affairs, an office the duties of which he returned home to discharge. After the fall of the first Derby ministry. Lord Stanley distinguished himself in parliament and out of it as a social reformer, even associating his name with the support of such measures as the repeal of the newspaper stamp duty, the admission of Jews to parliament, and the exemption of dissenters from church rates. In November, 1855, on the death of the late Sir William Molesworth, he was offered by Lord Palmerston the seals of the colonial office, which, however, he declined. This office he accepted in the second administration of his father, the earl of Derby, in February, 1858; and on the resignation of Lord Ellenborough in the following May, he passed over to the India office, becoming in August of the same year, under the new Anglo-Indian constitution, secretary of state for India and president of its council. In 1866, he accepted the office of secretary of state for foreign affairs, and distinguished himself by his exertions for the settlement of differences between England and the United States. His conduct in assenting to a guarantee of the neutrality of Luxemburg was not so generally approved. In 1868 he retired from office with the rest of Mr. Disraeli's ministry; and not many months afterwards, by the death of his father in 1869, he was removed from the house of commons to the house of lords. That same year he was elected lord rector of Glasgow university. In 1870 Lord Derby married Mary Catherine, daughter of the fifth Earl De la Warr and widow of the second marquis of Salisbury.
DERHAM, Rev. William, D.D., a celebrated English divine and natural philosopher, born at Stenton, near Worcester, in 1657. He received his early education at Blockley, Worcestershire, and was sent to Oxford, where he was admitted a member of Trinity college in 1675. In 1711-14 he was appointed Boyle's lecturer, and preached sermons which he afterwards collected together and published under the name of "Physico-Theology and Astro-Theology," a work devoted to an argument on the being and attributes of God as demonstrated in the works of creation. He also edited several of Ray's works. He found his way to the affections of the people among whom he lived, and was their comforter in trouble, their physician in sickness, and their helper in pecuniary difficulties. He died in 1735.—E. L.
DERING, Edward, a noted Elizabethan puritan, was a native of Kent, and educated at Christ's college, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow in 1568. Entering the church, he received various pieces of preferment, and was patronized by the duke of Norfolk, and at one time by Queen Elizabeth. The position, however, which gave him greatest prominence was his lectureship at St. Paul's, where, being, says Strype, "a preacher of a ready utterance and of great confidence," he gained many and admiring auditors. Adhering to the puritan doctrines and practices of Cartwright (see Thomas Cartwright), Dering drew on himself the displeasure of the authorities, was suspended from his lectureship at St. Paul's in 1573, and died on the 26th of June. 1576.—F. E.
DERING, Sir Edward, an English statesman, a native of Kent, who took a prominent part in public affairs during the troublous times of Charles I. He was elected a member of the Long Parliament, and was at first a zealous adherent of the liberal party. It was he who introduced a bill for the abolition of the English hierarchy, and he brought forward various measures of reform both in church and state. Ultimately, however, he became convinced that the parliamentary party were subverting the constitution of the country. He therefore espoused the cause of the king; and when an appeal was at last made to arms, he repaired to the royal standard with a troop of horse, which he had raised and equipped at his own expense. He underwent severe persecution at the hands of the dominant party, and died before the Restoration. A collection of his speeches in parliament was published in one volume 4to.—J. T.
DERMOD, Macmurragh, King of Leinster, is of political importance in connection with the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Ireland, of which he was the principal instrument. Dermod ascended the throne in 1150. He was cruel, violent, ambitious, and treacherous, and yet not without the influence that attaches to personal bravery, strength, stature, and comeliness. From an early period hostility existed between him and O'Rourc, prince of Brefnie, which was intensified by Dermod's seduction of O'Rourc's beautiful wife, Devorgoil, in 1153. It is said that the mutual attachment of the lovers was of earlier date than the lady's marriage, and that the violence of Dermod, and the resistance of Devorgoil, were but feigned to palliate the guilt of the erring wife. The incident has been the theme of the poet and romancer, and has obtained a greater fame by being put forward as the origin of Dermod's treachery to his country, and the English conquest of Ireland. Truth compels us to reject this assertion. The insult, however, was avenged. O'Rourc induced Turlough O'Connor, king of Ireland, to espouse his cause, who entering the territories of Dermod with a powerful army, restored Devorgoil to her husband's house, where she is said to have thenceforth lived blamelessly. Dermod meanwhile allied himself to O'Loughlin, who, on the death of O'Connor in 1156, seized on the throne, which he occupied till he was slain in battle. With the accession of Roderic, the son of Turlough, in 1167, the fortunes of Dermod waned again. In his despair he set fire to his palace and town at Ferns upon the approach of the king; and being deserted by his own chieftains, he fled to Bristol, and thence to France, where, throwing himself at the feet of Henry, he proffered his allegiance, on condition of obtaining redress and aid in regaining his kingdom. Henry accepted his offer, and Dermod returned to England with the king's letter; and the offer of his daughter in marriage to Strongbow engaged that noble to promise a descent on Ireland with a large force the following spring: he made alliance also with Maurice Fitzgerald and Robert Fitzstephen. Dermod now returned secretly to Ireland, and concealed himself in the monastery at Ferns; but he was soon discovered, and then acting on the offensive, he retook part of his territories. But he again fled before Roderic and his old enemy O'Rourc, and finally offered abject terms of submission, which were accepted by the monarch. No sooner did Fitzgerald and Fitzstephen effect a landing on the coast of Wexford in May, 1170, than Dermod, in violation of his treaty with Roderic, joined the invaders in their assault on Wexford, which town, after a vigorous resistance, ultimately capitulated, and returned to its allegiance to Dermod. After feasting at Ferns, Dermod marched with his allies into Ossory, which he subdued after a terrible struggle and fearful carnage. Meantime Roderic assembled a large army to expel the invaders; but before the hostile forces came to a deadly encounter, the clergy interfered, and a treaty was mediated, by which Dermod's right to the sovereignty of Leinster was acknowledged, on condition of his giving his allegiance to Roderic as supreme lord. Dermod now attacked Dublin, which submitted upon terms; but his success so inflamed him, that he sought to gratify at once his ambition and vengeance by deposing Roderic, and usurping the sovereignty of Ireland. In furtherance of this object he renewed his overtures to Strongbow, who at length landed on St. Bartholomew's day, 1170, on the coast of Waterford, and was received with great honour by Dermod, who immediately gave him his daughter Eva in marriage. But Dublin began to show symptoms of revolt, and thither Dermod and Strongbow marched. They were intercepted by Roderic with a force of thirty thousand men. The Anglo-Irish army, however, evaded Roderic's troops by crossing the mountains, and ultimately succeeded in taking the city. Dermod thence led his allies into Meath, devastating his native land with fire and sword. To the reproaches of Roderic, Dermod haughtily answered that he would not desist till he became monarch of Ireland. The progress of the Anglo-Irish troops it is not our business to follow, when unconnected with Dermod. Immoderately elated with his successes, he entered the territory of his old foe O'Rourc, and was twice defeated; and he died in May, 1171, at Ferns. The Irish annalists attribute his death to divine retribution for his crimes to his country, and the memory of Dermod is ever associated in the mind of the Irish people with political treachery, baseness, and dishonour.—J. F. W.
DERMODY, Thomas, a poet of great and precocious genius, was the son of Nicholas Dermody, a schoolmaster at Ennis in the county of Clare in Ireland, where the former was born on the 17th of January, 1775. Nicholas was himself a man of considerable ability and learning, but he was unfortunately addicted to drinking; and thus, while he stored the young mind of the boy with classical learning, he afforded him the baleful
