had corresponded with Swift and Young, and left an interesting picture of the polite but commonplace English society of the 18th century in her six volumes of Autobiography and Letters. Burke calls her “a real fine lady”—“the model of an accomplished woman of former times.” She died on the 15th of April 1788.
DE LA REY, JACOBUS HERCULES (1847– ), Boer soldier,
was born in the Lichtenburg district, and in his youth and early
manhood saw much service in savage warfare. In 1893 he
entered the Volksraad of the South African Republic, and was
an active supporter of the policy of General Joubert. At the
outbreak of the war with Great Britain in 1899 De La Rey was
made a general, and he was engaged in the western campaign
against Lord Methuen and Lord Roberts. He won his first great
success at Nitral’s Nek on the 11th of July 1900, where he
compelled the surrender of a strong English detachment. In
the second or guerrilla stage of the war De La Rey became one of
the most conspicuously successful of the Boer leaders. He was
assistant to General Louis Botha and a member of the government,
with charge of operations in the western Transvaal. The
principal actions in which he was successful (see also Transvaal:
History) were Nooitgedacht, Vlakfontein and the defeat and
capture of Lord Methuen at Klerksdorp (March 7, 1902). The
British general was severely wounded in the action, and De La
Rey released him at once, being unable to afford him proper
medical assistance. This humanity and courtesy marked De La
Rey’s conduct throughout the war, and even more than his
military skill and daring earned for him the esteem of his enemies.
After the conclusion of peace De La Rey, who had borne a
prominent part in the negotiations, visited Europe with the
other generals, with the intention of raising funds to enable the
Boers to resettle their country. In December 1903 he went on a
mission to India, and induced the whole of the Boer prisoners of
war detained at Ahmednagar to accept the new order of things
and to take the oath of allegiance. In February 1907 General
De La Rey was returned unopposed as member for Ventersdorp
in the legislative assembly of the first Transvaal parliament under
self-government.
DE LA RIVE, AUGUSTE ARTHUR (1801–1873), Swiss
physicist, was born at Geneva on the 9th of October 1801. He
was the son of Charles Gaspard de la Rive (1770–1834), who
studied medicine at Edinburgh, and after practising for a few
years in London, became professor of pharmaceutical chemistry
at the academy of Geneva in 1802 and rector in 1823. After
a brilliant career as a student, he was appointed at the age of
twenty-two to the chair of natural philosophy in the academy
of Geneva. For some years after his appointment he devoted
himself specially, with François Marcet (1803–1883), to the
investigation of the specific heat of gases, and to observations
for determining the temperature of the earth’s crust. Electrical
studies, however, engaged most of his attention, especially in
connexion with the theory of the voltaic cell and the electric
discharge in rarefied gases. His researches on the last-mentioned
subject led him to form a new theory of the aurora borealis.
In 1840 he described a process for the electro-gilding of silver and
brass, for which in the following year he received a prize of 3000
francs from the French Academy of Sciences. Between 1854
and 1858 he published a Traité de l’électricité théorique et appliquée,
which was translated into several languages. De la Rive’s birth
and fortune gave him considerable social and political influence.
He was distinguished for his hospitality to literary and scientific
men, and for his interest in the welfare and independence of his
native country. In 1860, when the annexation of Savoy and Nice
had led the Genevese to fear French aggression, de la Rive was
sent by his fellow-citizens on a special embassy to England, and
succeeded in securing a declaration from the English government,
which was communicated privately to that of France, that any
attack upon Geneva would be regarded as a casus belli. On the
occasion of this visit the university of Oxford conferred upon de
la Rive the honorary degree of D.C.L. When on his way to pass
the winter at Cannes he died suddenly at Marseilles on the 27th
of November 1873.
His son, Lucien de la Rive, born at Geneva on the 3rd of April 1834, published papers on various mathematical and physical subjects, and with Édouard Sarasin carried out investigations on the propagation of electric waves.
DELAROCHE, HIPPOLYTE, commonly known as Paul
(1797–1856), French painter, was born in Paris on the 17th of July
1797. His father was an expert who had made a fortune, to some
extent, by negotiating and cataloguing, buying and selling. He
was proud of his son’s talent, and able to forward his artistic
education. The master selected was Gros, then painting life-size
histories, and surrounded by many pupils. In no haste to make
an appearance in the Salon, his first exhibited picture was a large
one, “Josabeth saving Joas” (1822). This picture led to his acquaintance
with Géricault and Delacroix, with whom he remained
on the most friendly terms, the three forming the central group
of a numerous body of historical painters, such as perhaps never
before lived in one locality and at one time.
From 1822 the record of his life is to be found in the successive works coming from his hand. He visited Italy in 1838 and 1843, when his father-in-law, Horace Vernet, was director of the French Academy. His studio in Paris was in the rue Mazarine, where he never spent a day without some good result, his hand being sure and his knowledge great. His subjects, definitely expressed and popular in their manner of treatment, illustrating certain views of history dear to partisans, yet romantic in their general interest, were painted with a firm, solid, smooth surface, which gave an appearance of the highest finish. This solidity, found also on the canvas of Vernet, Scheffer, Leopold Robert and Ingres, was the manner of the day. It repudiates the technical charm of texture and variety of handling which the English school inherited as a tradition from the time of Reynolds; but it is more easily understood by the world at large, since a picture so executed depends for its interest rather on the history, scene in nature or object depicted, than on the executive skill, which may or may not be critically appreciated. We may add that his point of view of the historical characters which he treated is not always just. “Cromwell lifting the Coffin-lid and looking at the Body of Charles” is an incident only to be excused by an improbable tradition; but “The King in the Guard-Room,” with villainous roundhead soldiers blowing tobacco smoke in his patient face, is a libel on the Puritans; and “Queen Elizabeth dying on the Ground,” like a she-dragon no one dares to touch, is sensational; while the “Execution of Lady Jane Grey” is represented as taking place in a dungeon. Nothing can be more incorrect than this last as a reading of English history, yet we forget the inaccuracy in admiration of the treatment which represents Lady Jane, with bandaged sight, feeling for the block, her maids covering their faces, and none with their eyes visible among the many figures. On the other hand, “Strafford led to Execution,” when Laud stretches his lawn-covered arms out of the small high window of his cell to give him a blessing as he passes along the corridor, is perfect; and the splendid scene of Richelieu in his gorgeous barge, preceding the boat containing Cinq-Mars and De Thou carried to execution by their guards, is perhaps the most dramatic semi-historical work ever done. “The Princes in the Tower” must also be mentioned as a very complete creation; and the “Young female Martyr floating dead on the Tiber” is so pathetic that criticism feels hard-hearted and ashamed before it. As a realization of a page of authentic history, again, no picture can surpass the “Assassination of the duc de Guise at Blois.” The expression of the murdered man stretched out by the side of the bed, the conspirators all massed together towards the door and far from the body, show exact study as well as insight into human nature. This work was exhibited in his meridian time, 1835; and in the same year he exhibited the “Head of an Angel,” a study from Horace Vernet’s young daughter Louise, his love for whom was the absorbing passion of his life, and from the shock of whose death, in 1845, it is said he never quite recovered. By far his finest productions after her death are of the most serious character, a sequence of small elaborate pictures of incidents in the Passion. Two of these, the Virgin and the other Maries, with the apostles Peter and John, within a nearly dark apartment,
