be in residence eight months, and the canons three months, in every year. The bishop is visitor of the dean and chapter. 2. The dean of peculiars " hath no chapter, yet is presentative, and hath cure of souls ; he hath a peculiar , and is not subject to the visitation of the bishop." 3. The third dean " hath no cure of souls, but hath a court and a peculiar, in which he holdeth plea and jurisdiction of all such ecclesiastical matters as come within his peculiar. Such is the Dean of the Arches, who is the judge of the court of the arches, the chief court and consistory of the archbishop of Canterbury, so called of Bow Church, where this court was ever wont to be held." The parish of Bow and twelve others are within the peculiar jurisdiction of the archbishop in spiritual causes, and exempted out of the bishop of London s jurisdiction. 4. Rural deans are clergymen whose duty is described as being " to execute the bishop s processes and to inspect the lives and manners of the clergy and people within their jurisdiction" (see Phillimore s Ecclesiastical Law). In the colleges of the English universities one of the fel lows usually holds the office of " dean," and is specially charged with the discipline, as distinguished from the teaching functions of the tutors.
DEBENTURE, a deed by which certain property is
charged with the repayment of money lent at a fixed inte
rest. It is commonly adopted by companies of a public
nature as a means of raising money for carrying on their
undertakings. The creation of debenture stock in such com
panies is regulated in England by the Companies Clauses Act,
18G3, part iii., which makes debenture stock a prior charge
on the undertaking, and gives the interest thereon priority
of payment over all dividends or interest on any shares or
stock of the company, whether ordinary or preference or
guaranteed. Payment of arrears may be enforced by
appointment of a receiver, or (in Scotland) of a judicial
factor.
DEBRECZYN, or Debretzyn, a royal free city of
Hungary, the chief town of the comitat of Hadju, and one
of the largest in the kingdom, is situated in the midst of a
slightly elevated sandy plain 114 miles east of Pesth,
with which it is connected by rail. It is a meanly-built,
straggling town, with irregular suburbs stretching out into
the plain ; its wide roadways are only paved with wood
down, the centre and along the sides ; its houses are with
few exceptions only one story high, and the courtyards or
gardens with which they are usually furnished give the
whole place the appearance of an overgrown village, in
spite of the number of its public buildings. The most
prominent of these is the principal Protestant church,
which ranks as the largest in the country, but has no great
architectural pretensions. In its immediate neighbourhood
is the Protestant Collegium, a large and flourishing institu
tion founded in 1792, and possessed of an extensive
library. The town-house, the Franciscan church, the
Piarist monastery and college, and the theatre are worthy
of mention ; there are also hospitals, two gymnasiums, and
an agricultural academy. The industries of the town are
pretty various, but none of them are of importance enough
to give it the character of a manufacturing centre. Its
tobacco-pipes, of the genuine national style, its sausages,
and its soap are widely known ; and the first of the three
are imported to England and France. Flour and beet-root
sugar are also manufactured. Every three months the
neighbouring plain is covered with the booths and bustle
of a great fair ; but since the opening of the railway there
is hardly so extensive a concourse as before. Between 300
and 400 square miles of territory belong to the municipality,
which derives a large annual revenue from the woods, pas
tures, &c. The inhabitants are, with very few exceptions,
of Magyar origin and Calvinistic creed, and are in bad
repute for their alleged selfishness and inhospitality.
The town is of considerable antiquity, but owes its develop
ment to the refugees who flocked from the villages plundered
by the Turks in the 15th century. In 1552 it adopted the
Protestant faith, and it had to suffer in consequence,
especially when it was captured in 1 686 by the imperial
forces. In 1693 it was made a royal free city. In
1848-9 it formed a refuge for the National Government
and Legislature when Buda-Pesth fell into the hands of the
Austrians ; and it was in the great Calvinist church that
Kossuth read the proclamation that declared the house of
Hapsburg to have forfeited the crown of Stephen. On the
3d of July the town was captured by the Russians.
Population in 1869, 46,111.
DEBT is a sum certain due by one person to another.
It may be created by contract, by statute, or by judgment.
By the Judicature Act, 1873, any absolute assignment
of any debt or other legal chose in action, of which express
notice in writing shall have been given to the debtor,
trustee, or other person from whom the assignor would have
been entitled to receive or claim such debt, shall be
effectual in law. If the debtor receives notice that such
assignment is disputed by the assignor, or any one claiming
under him, he may call upon the parties to interplead con
cerning the same, or he may pay the money into court in
conformity with the Acts for the Relief of Trustees. Order
xlv. of the Rules of Court under the same Act contains the
provisions under which the debts due to a person against
whom a judgment has passed for the payment of money
may be attached by the judgment creditor. See
BANKRUPTCY.
DECALOGUE (in patristic Greek, [Greek], sc.,
[Greek] or [Greek]) is another name for the ten com-
mandments,in.Ilebi:ev?th.etenwords(De.t. iv. 13,x. 4;Exod.
xxxiv. 28), written on the two tables of stone, the so-
called tables of the revelation (E. V., tables of testimony Ex.
xxxiv. 29, comp. ch. xxv. 21), or tables of the covenant
(Deut. ix. 9). In Deuteronomy the inscription on these
tables, which is briefly called the covenant (iv. 13), is
expressly identified with the words spoken by Jehovah out
of the midst of the fire at Mount Sinai in the ears cf the
whole people on the "day of the assembly," and rehearsed in
ch. v. 6-21. In the narrative of Exodus the relation of the
" ten words " of ch. xxxiv. to the words spoken from Sinai,
ch. xx. 2-17, is not so clearly indicated a circumstance
which has given rise to speculations as to the possible
existence of a second decalogue. Before entering on this
question, however, we must examine the decalogue as
usually understood and embodied in the parallel passages
in Exod. xx. and Deut. v.
1. The variations in the parallel texts, so far as they are important for the criticism of the decalogue, are mainly two. (a) The reason assigned for the institution of the Sabbath in Exodus is drawn from the creation, and agrees with Gen. ii. 3. In Deuteronomy the command is based on the duty of humanity to servants and the memory of Egyptian bondage. (V) In the tenth commandment, as given in Exodus, " house " means house and household, including all the particulars which are enumerated in ver. 17. In Deuteronomy, "Thou shalt not covet thy neigh bour s wife " comes first, and "house " following in associa tion with field is to be taken in the literal restricted sense.
2. The construction of the Hebrew text of the second commandment is disputed, but the most natural sense seems to be, " Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image ; [and] to no visible shape in heaven, &c., shalt thou bow down, <fec." The third commandment might be better rendered, " Thou shalt not utter the name of the Lord thy God vainly."
3. Divisions of the Decalogue.—The division current in
