DORB. 4oa DORSIVENTRALITY. needed reforms. A foiistitutioii.il convention, calK'd l>v lliis party, met in Dctolirr. ami I'ninii'ii a coustitution which, in December, was accepted by a larj;e majority of the |H'ople. Meanwhile another constitutional convention, called by the Legislature, also adopted a constitution (in February, 1S42), which, thoujjh liberal in char- acter, was promptly rejected at the polls. In April the 'Suffragists' elected Dorr Governor, while the opposinjLl party, or "Landholders." chose .Samuel V. Kini;, both of whom were formally inaugurated. Excitement on both sides soon ran high; and. in answer to a 'SulTragist' attempt to seize the arsenal at Providence, Governor King, on May IS, proclaimed martial law. Dorr made an etl'ort to secure the support of the Federal authorities at Washington, but failed, and returned to Khode Island, where his sup- port soon collapsed, lie then (led to Connecticut, but again returned, and was arrested, convicted of high treason, and, in June, 1844, sentenced to imprisonment for life. In 1847, however, he was released. Though the methods of Dorr were revolutionary and unwise, they served to at- tract general attention to the archaic and in- equitable provisions of the State Constitution, and led to the adoption in November, 1842, of the present Constitution. By its provisions, and by amendments passed in 1888 and lS!t.3, the suffrage has, at last, been made virtually uni- versal. Consult: King, The Life and Times of Thomas W. Dorr (lioston, 18.50); and a paper, "The Constitutional Controversy in Rhode Isl- and in 1841." in the Report of the Americnii His- toriciil Assoriation for JfcSV*} (Washington. IS'J.5). DOR'RIFORTH. A character in Mrs. Inch- bald's Simple litory: originally a Roman Catho- lic priest, he wins the love of the heroine. Miss Milner. falls heir to a title, is al).solved from his religious vows and marries her. DORTIIT, Amy. The unselfish heroine of Dickens's novel. Little Dorrit. She is the daugh- ter of William Dorrit, an egotist lacking in moral fibre, whose long confinement for debt in Marshalsea Prison has gained him the sobriquet of 'the Father of the Marshalsea.' She was called Little Dorrit on account of her diminutive stature. DORR'S REBELLION. See Doer. D'ORSAY, dc'irsik'. Alfred Grii.L.rME Ga- briel, Count (1801-1852). A French gentleman, famous chietly as a leader of society in London and Paris. Through a morganatic marriage he was a grandson of the King of Wurttemberg. and belonged to a family prominent for its devotion to the Bonapartists. In December. 1827, he mar- ried Lady Harriet Gardiner, then fifteen yeara of age, the daughter of the English Earl of Bles- sington. The union was not happy, and was dis- solved soon after Blessington's death, in 1829. From that time until his death, D'Orsay lived near the Countess of Blessington, and made her residence at Gore House the centre of the fashion- able, artistic, and literary society of London. In 1849 the change of Government brought about their return to Paris, where D'Orsay painted a portrait of ex-King .Jerome, executed busts of Lamartine and Prince Napoleon, and just before his death was appointed dire<-tor of fine arts. lie was tall and well built, was strikingly handsome, and was an excellent conversationalist, and for many years was regarded as an arbiter elegan- tiariim ami the beau ideal ot the fashionable gentleman. An accurate description of him is given by Disraeli in his novel Ihiinella 'J'emple, where D'Orsay appears as 'Count Mirabel.' Con- sult Madden, Life of Lady Blessington (London, 1855 J. DORSE (Ger. Dorsch, haddock, Dan. torsk, Engl, also torsk, tusk). The Baltic cod {Uadus ealiarias), a variety of the common cod, found in the Baltic and the neighboring seas. DOR'SET or DOR'SETSHIRE (from AS. Dorswie, from dor, water, from OWelsh dubr, Welsh dicfr. Corn, dofer, dour, Ir. dobar. Gall. dubron, water -f AS. sale, settlers + scire, scyre, shire). A maritime county in the south of Eng- land, on the English Channel, between Devon- shire and llampslure (Map: England. DO). It is an agricultural and stoek-raising county, with an area of !KS8 square miles. Population, in ISill, 194,487; in 1001, 203,000. The county contains a number of valuable prehistoric ruins, the most noted of which is Maiden Castle, near Dorchester, which was probably erected many years before the Roman invasion. Many interesting relics of the Roman occupation have also been discovered. Capital. Dorchester. DORSET, Eakl of. See Sackville. DOR'SEY, Jame.s Owe.X (184S0.5). A dis- tinguished American anthropologist, born in Bal- timore, Md. After a course at the Theological Seminary of ^"irginia he was ordained a deacon in the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1 87 1, and assigned to missionary work among the Ponca and Omaha Indians of South Dakota and Ne- braska. Through his linguistic and sociologic studies among these trilies he was led to form a connection with the Bureau of American Eth- nology, of which he continued an active and use- ful member imlil his death, devoting si>ecial at- tention to the Siouan tribes. His most impor- tant work is that upon the Dhegiha language, publishe<l under the auspices of the bureau, be- sides which he is the author of numerous con- tributions in bureau reiiorts and other scientific publications. DORSET, Stephen- Wallace (1842—). An American politician. He was born in Vermont, and removed in early life to Obcrlin. Ohio. He served in the Union Army during the Civil War, rising- to the rank of colonel of volunteers. In 18(50. having been elected president of the Arkan- sas Central Railway, he removed to Arkansas, where he became prominent in reconstruction pol- itics, and was chosen chairman of the Republican State Committee. In 187.3. at the age of thirty- two, he was elected to the I'nited States Senate by the almost unanimous vote of both the Demo- cratic and Republicanic members nf the State Legislature. He was a member of the Republican National Committee in 1872, 1870. and 1880. in the latter year serving as its secretarj-, and tak- ing a prominent part in the campaign. He was implicated in the 'Star Route' frauds, but though indicted for conspiracy, escaped conviction. He attributed his indictment to persecution on the ))art of his political enemies. After ISSO he re- tired from politics. DORSIVENTRALITY (from Lat. dorsum, back — rrnlir. belly). In plants, a term of sym- metry, indicating that a structure has two dis- similar (dorsal and ventral) faces, which are dif-
