VOLUME VIII SLICE IV Diameter to Dinarchus (continued 12)

See the articles in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopädie, and the Allgemeine deutsche Biographie; F. Lichtenberger, History of German Theology in the Nineteenth Century (1889); Wolf Baudissin, A. Dillmann (Leipzig, 1895).

DILLON, ARTHUR RICHARD (1721-1807), French archbishop, was the son of Arthur Dillon (1670-1733), an Irish gentleman who became general in the French service. He was born at St Germain, entered the priesthood and was successively curé of Elan near Mezières, vicar-general of Pontoise (1747), bishop of Evreux (1753) and archbishop of Toulouse (1758), archbishop of Narbonne in 1763, and in that capacity, president of the estates of Languedoc. He devoted himself much less to the spiritual direction of his diocese than to its temporal welfare, carrying out many works of public utility, bridges, canals, roads, harbours, &c.; had chairs of chemistry and of physics created at Montpellier and at Toulouse, and tried to reduce the poverty, especially in Narbonne. In 1787 and in 1788 he was a member of the Assembly of Notables called together by Louis XVI., and in 1788 presided over the assembly of the clergy. Having refused to accept the civil constitution of the clergy, Dillon had to leave Narbonne in 1790, then to emigrate to Coblenz in 1791. Soon afterwards he went to London, where he lived until his death in 1807, never accepting the Concordat, which had suppressed his archiepiscopal see.

See L. Audibret, Le Dernier Président des États du Languedoc, Mgr. Arthur Richard Dillon, archevêque de Narbonne (Bordeaux, 1868); L. de Lavergne, Les Assemblées provinciales sous Louis XVI (Paris, 1864).

DILLON, JOHN (1851- ), Irish nationalist politician, was the son of John Blake Dillon (1816-1866), who sat in parliament for Tipperary, and was one of the leaders of “Young Ireland.” John Dillon was educated at the Roman Catholic university of Dublin, and afterwards studied medicine. He entered parliament in 1880 as member for Tipperary, and was at first an ardent supporter of C. S. Parnell. In August he delivered a speech on the Land League at Kildare which was characterized as “wicked and cowardly” by W. E. Forster; he advocated boycotting, and was arrested in May 1881 under the Coercion Act, and again after two months of freedom in October. In 1883 he resigned his seat for reasons of health, but was returned unopposed in 1885 for East Mayo, which he continued to represent. He was one of the prime movers in the famous “plan of campaign,” which provided that the tenant should pay his rent to the National League instead of the landlord, and in case of eviction be supported by the general fund. Mr Dillon was compelled by the court of queen’s bench on the 14th of December 1886 to find securities for good behaviour, but two days later he was arrested while receiving rents on Lord Clanricarde’s estates. In this instance the jury disagreed, but in June 1888 under the provisions of the new Criminal Law Procedure Bill he was condemned to six months’ imprisonment. He was, however, released in September, and in the spring of 1889 sailed for Australia and New Zealand, where he collected funds for the Nationalist party. On his return to Ireland he was again arrested, but, being allowed bail, sailed to America, and failed to appear at the trial. He returned to Ireland by way of Boulogne, where he and Mr W. O’Brien held long and indecisive conferences with Parnell. They surrendered to the police in February, and on their release from Galway gaol in July declared their opposition to Parnell. After the expulsion of Mr T. M. Healy and others from the Irish National Federation, Mr Dillon became the chairman (February 1896). His early friendship with Mr O’Brien gave place to considerable hostility, but the various sections of the party were ostensibly reconciled in 1900 under the leadership of Mr Redmond. In the autumn of 1896 he arranged a convention of the Irish race, which included 2000 delegates from various parts of the world. In 1897 Mr Dillon opposed in the House the Address to Queen Victoria on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee, on the ground that her reign had not been a blessing to Ireland, and he showed the same uncompromising attitude in 1901 when a grant to Lord Roberts was under discussion, accusing him of “systematized inhumanity.” He was suspended on the 20th of March for violent language addressed to Mr Chamberlain. He married in 1895 Elizabeth (d. 1907), daughter of Lord justice J. C. Mathew.

DILUVIUM (Lat. for “deluge,” from diluere, to wash away), a term in geology for superficial deposits formed by flood-like operations of water, and so contrasted with alluvium (q.v.) or alluvial deposits formed by slow and steady aqueous agencies. The term was formerly given to the “boulder clay” deposits, supposed to have been caused by the Noachian deluge.

DIME (from the Lat. decima, a tenth, through the O. Fr. disme), the tenth part, the tithe paid as church dues, or as tribute to a temporal power. In this sense it is obsolete, but is found in Wycliffe’s translation of the Bible—“He gave him dymes of alle thingis” (Gen. xiv. 20). A dime is a silver coin of the United States, in value 10 cents (English equivalent about 5d.) or one-tenth of a dollar; hence “dime-novel,” a cheap sensational novel, a “penny dreadful”; also “dime-museum.”

DIMENSION (from Lat. dimensio, a measuring), in geometry, a magnitude measured in a specified direction, i.e. length, breadth and thickness; thus a line has only length and is said to be of one dimension, a surface has length and breadth, and has two dimensions, a solid has length, breadth and thickness, and has three dimensions. This concept is extended to algebra: since a line, surface and solid are represented by linear, quadratic and cubic equations, and are of one, two and three dimensions; a biquadratic equation has its highest terms of four dimensions, and, in general, an equation in any number of variables which has the greatest sum of the indices of any term equal to n is said to have n dimensions. The “fourth dimension” is a type of non-Euclidean geometry, in which it is conceived that a “solid” has one dimension more than the solids of experience. For the dimensions of units see Units, Dimensions of.

DIMITY, derived from the Gr. δίμιτος “double thread,” through the Ital. dimito, “a kind of course linzie-wolzie” (Florio, 1611); a cloth commonly employed for bed upholstery and curtains, and usually white, though sometimes a pattern is printed on it in colours. It is stout in texture, and woven in raised patterns.

DINAJPUR, a town (with a population in 1901 of 13,430) and district of British India, in the Rajshahi division of Eastern Bengal and Assam. The earthquake of the 12th of June 1897 caused serious damage to most of the public buildings of the town. There is a railway station and a government high school. The district comprises an area of 3946 sq. m. It is traversed in every direction by a network of channels and water courses. Along the banks of the Kulik river, the undulating ridges and long lines of mango-trees give the landscape a beauty which is not found elsewhere. Dinajpur forms part of the rich arable tract lying between the Ganges and the southern slopes of the Himalayas. Although essentially a fluvial district, it does not possess any river navigable throughout the year by boats of 4 tons burden. Rice forms the staple agricultural product. The climate of the district, although cooler than that of Calcutta, is very unhealthy, and the people have a sickly appearance. The worst part of the year is at the close of the rains in September and October, during which months few of the natives escape fever. The average maximum temperature is 92.3° F., and the minimum 74.8°. The average rainfall is 85.54 in. In 1901 the population was 1,567,080, showing an increase of 6% in the decade. The district is partly traversed by the main line of the Eastern Bengal railway and by two branch lines. Save between 1404 and 1442, when it was the seat of an independent raj, founded by Raja Ganesh, a Hindu turned Mussulman, Dinajpur has no separate history. Pillars and copper-plate inscriptions have yielded numerous records of the Pal kings who ruled the country from the 9th century onwards, and the district is famous for many other antiquities, some of which are connected by legend with an immemorial past (see Reports, Arch. Survey of India, xv.; Epigraphia Indica, ii.).

DINAN, a town of north-western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Côtes-du-Nord, 37 m. E. of St Brieuc on the Western railway. Pop. (1906) 8588. Dinan is situated on a height on the left bank of the Ranee (here canalized), some 17 m. above its mouth at St Malo, with which it communicates by means of small steamers. It is united to the village of Lanvallay on the right bank of the river by a granite viaduct 130 ft. in height. The town is almost entirely encircled by the ramparts of the middle ages, strengthened at intervals by towers and defended on the south by a castle of the late 14th century, which now serves as prison. Three old gateways are also preserved. Dinan has two interesting churches; that of St Malo, of late Gothic architecture, and St Sauveur, in which the Romanesque and Gothic styles are intermingled. In the latter church a granite monument contains the heart of Bertrand Du Guesclin, whose connexion with the town is also commemorated by an equestrian statue. The quaint winding streets of Dinan are often bordered by medieval houses. Its picturesqueness attracts large numbers of visitors and there are many English residents in the town and its vicinity. About three-quarters of a mile from the town are the ruins of the château and the Benedictine abbey at Léhon; near the neighbouring village of St Esprit stands the large lunatic asylum of Les Bas Foins, founded in 1836; and at no great distance is the now dismantled château of La Garaye, which was rendered famous in the 18th century by the philanthropic devotion of the count and countess whose story is told in Mrs Norton’s Lady of La Garaye. Dinan is the seat of a subprefect and has a tribunal of first instance, and a communal college. There is trade in grain, cider, wax, butter and other agricultural products. The industries include the manufacture of leather, farm-implements and canvas.

The principal event in the history of Dinan, which was a stronghold of the dukes of Brittany, is the siege by the English under the duke of Lancaster in 1359, during which Du Guesclin and an English knight called Thomas of Canterbury engaged in single combat.

DINANT, an ancient town on the right bank of the Meuse in the province of Namur, Belgium, connected by a bridge with the left bank, on which are the station and the suburb of St Medard. Pop. (1904) 7674. The name is supposed to be derived from Diana, and as early as the 7th century it was named as one of the dependencies of the bishopric of Tongres. In the 10th century it passed under the titular sway of Liége, and remained the fief of the prince-bishopric till the French revolution put an end to that survival of feudalism. In the middle of the 15th century Dinant reached the height of its prosperity. With a population of 60,000, and 8000 workers in copper, it was one of the most flourishing cities in Walloon Belgium, until it incurred the wrath of Charles the Bold. Belief in the strength of its walls and of the castle that occupied the centre bridge, thus effectually commanding navigation by the river, engendered arrogance and overconfidence, and the people of Dinant thought they could defy the full power of Burgundy. Perhaps they also expected aid from France or Liége. In 1466 Charles, in his father’s name, laid siege to Dinant, and on the 27th of August carried the place by storm. He razed the walls and allowed the women, children and priests to retire in safety to Liége, but the male prisoners he either hanged or drowned in the river by causing them to be cast from the projecting cliff of Bouvignes. In 1675 the capture of Dinant formed one of the early military achievements of Louis XIV., and it remained in the hands of the French for nearly thirty years after that date. The citadel on the cliff, 300 ft. or 408 steps above the town, was fortified by the Dutch in 1818. It is now dismantled, but forms the chief curiosity of the place. The views of the river valley from this eminence are exceedingly fine. Half way up the cliff, but some distance south of the citadel, is the grotto of Montfat, alleged to be the site of Diana’s shrine. The church of Notre Dame, dating from the 13th century, stands immediately under the citadel and flanking the bridge. It has been restored, and is considered by some authorities, although others make the same claim on behalf of Huy, the most complete specimen in Belgium of pointed Gothic architecture. The baptismal fonts date from the 12th century, and the curious spire in the form of an elongated pumpkin and covered with slates gives a fantastic and original appearance to the whole edifice. The present prosperity of Dinant is chiefly derived from its being a favourite summer resort for Belgians as well as foreigners. It has facilities for beating and bathing as well as for trips by steamer up and down the river Meuse. It is also a convenient central point for excursions into the Ardennes. Although there are some indications of increased industrial activity in recent years, the population of Dinant is not one-eighth of what it was at the time of the Burgundians.

DINAPUR, a town and military station of British India, in the Patna district of Bengal, on the right bank of the Ganges, 12 m. W. of Patna city by rail. Pop. (1901) 33,699. It is the largest military cantonment in Bengal, with accommodation for two batteries of artillery, a European and a native infantry regiment. In 1857 the sepoy garrison of the place initiated the mutiny of that year in Patna district, but after a conflict with the European troops were forced to retire from the town, and subsequently laid siege to Arrah.

DINARCHUS, last of the “ten” Attic orators, son of Sostratus (or, according to Suidas, Socrates), born at Corinth about 361 b.c. He settled at Athens early in life, and when not more than twenty-five was already active as a writer of speeches for the law courts. As an alien, he was unable to take part in the debates. He had been the pupil both of Theophrastus and of Demetrius Phalereus, and had early acquired a certain fluency and versatility of style. In 324 the Areopagus, after inquiry, reported that nine men had taken bribes from Harpalus, the fugitive treasurer of Alexander. Ten public prosecutors were appointed. Dinarchus wrote, for one or more of these prosecutors, the three speeches which are still extant—Against Demosthenes, Against Aristogeiton, Against Philocles. The sympathies of Dinarchus were in favour of an Athenian oligarchy under Macedonian control; but it should be remembered that he was not an Athenian citizen. Aeschines and Demades had no such excuse. In the Harpalus affair, Demosthenes was doubtless innocent, and so, probably, were others of the accused. Yet Hypereides, the most fiery of the patriots, was on the same side as Dinarchus.

Under the regency of his old master, Demetrius Phalereus, Dinarchus exercised much political influence. The years 317-307 were the most prosperous of his life. On the fall of Demetrius Phalereus and the restoration of the democracy by Demetrius Poliorcetes, Dinarchus was condemned to death and withdrew into exile at Chalcis in Euboea. About 292, thanks to his friend Theophrastus, he was able to return to Attica, and took up his abode in the country with a former associate, Proxenus. He afterwards brought an action against Proxenus on the ground that he had robbed him of some money and plate. Dinarchus died at Athens about 291.

According to Suidas, Dinarchus wrote 160 speeches; and Dionysius held that, out of 85 extant speeches bearing his name, 58 were genuine,—28 relating to public, 30 to private causes. Although the authenticity of the three speeches mentioned above is generally admitted, Demetrius of Magnesia doubted that of the speech Against Demosthenes, while A. Westermann rejected all three. Dinarchus had little individual style and imitated by turns Lysias, Hypereides and Demosthenes. He is called by Hermogenes ὁ κριθινὸς Δημοσθένης, a metaphor taken from barley compared with wheat, or beer compared with wine,—a Demosthenes whose strength is rougher, without flavour or sparkle.

Editions: (text and exhaustive commentary) E. Mätzner (1842); (text) T. Thalheim (1887), F. Blass (1888); see L.L. Forman, Index Andocideus, Lycurgeus, Dinarcheus (1897); and, in general, F. Blass, Attische Beredsamkeit, iii. There is a valuable treatise on the life and speeches of Dinarchus by Dionysius of Halicarnassus.