[1] Edited by Henry Morley in his _Ireland under Elizabeth and James
I._ (1890).
DAVIES (DAVISIUS), JOHN (1679-1732), English classical scholar and
critic, was born in London on the 22nd of April 1679. He was educated at
Charterhouse and Queens' College, Cambridge, of which society he was
elected fellow (July 7th, 1701). He subsequently became rector of Fen
Ditton, prebendary of Ely, and president of his college. He died on the
7th of March 1731-1732, and was buried in the college chapel. Davies was
considered one of the best commentators on Cicero, his attention being
chiefly devoted to the philosophical works of that author. Amongst these
he edited the _Tusculanae disputationes_ (1709), _De natura deorum_
(1718), _De divinatione_ and _De fato_ (1725), _Academica_ (1725), _De
legibus_ (1727), _De finibus_ (1728). His nearly finished notes on the
_De officiis_ he bequeathed to Dr Richard Mead, with a view to their
publication. Mead, finding himself unable to carry out the undertaking,
transferred the notes to Thomas Bentley (nephew of the famous Richard
Bentley), by whose carelessness they were burnt. Davies's editions,
which were intended to supplement those of Graevius, show great learning
and an extensive knowledge of the history and systems of philosophy, but
he allows himself too much licence in the matter of emendation. He also
edited Maximus of Tyre's _Dissertationes_ (1703); the works of Caesar
(1706); the _Octavius_ of Minucius Felix (1707); the _Epitome divinarum
institutionum_ of Lactantius (1718). Although on intimate terms with
Richard Bentley, he found himself unable to agree with the great scholar
in regard to his dispute with Trinity College.
DAVIES, SIR LOUIS HENRY (1845- ), Canadian politician and jurist, was
born in Prince Edward Island in 1845, of Huguenot descent. From 1869 to
1879 he took part in local politics, and was premier from 1876-1879; in
1882 he entered the Canadian parliament as a Liberal, and from 1896 to
1901 was minister of marine and fisheries. In the latter year he became
one of the judges of the supreme court of Canada. In 1877 he was counsel
for Great Britain before the Anglo-American fisheries arbitration at
Halifax; in 1897 he was a joint delegate to Washington with Sir Wilfrid
Laurier on the Bering Sea seal question; and in 1898-1899 a member of
the Anglo-American joint high commission at Quebec.
DAVIES, RICHARD (c. 1505-1581), Welsh bishop and scholar, was born in
North Wales, and was educated at New Inn Hall, Oxford, becoming vicar of
Burnham, Buckinghamshire, in 1550. Being a reformer he took refuge at
Geneva during the reign of Mary, returning to England and to parochial
work after the accession of Elizabeth in 1558. His connexion with Wales
was renewed almost at once; for, after serving on a commission which
visited the Welsh dioceses, he was, in January 1560, consecrated bishop
of St Asaph, whence he was translated, early in 1561, to the bishopric
of St Davids. As a bishop Davies was an earnest reformer, very
industrious, active and liberal, but not very scrupulous with regard to
the property of the church. He was a member of the council of Wales, was
very friendly with Matthew Parker, archbishop of Canterbury, and was
regarded both by Parker and by William Cecil, Lord Burghley, as a
trustworthy adviser on Welsh concerns. Another of the bishop's friends
was Walter Devereux, first earl of Essex. Assisting William Salisbury,
Davies took part in translating the New Testament into Welsh, and also
did some work on the Welsh translation of the Book of Common Prayer. He
helped to revise the "Bishops' Bible" of 1568, being himself responsible
for the book of Deuteronomy, and the second book of Samuel. He died on
the 7th of November 1581, and was buried in Abergwili church.
DAVILA, ENRICO CATERINO (1576-1631), Italian historian, was descended
from a Spanish noble family. His immediate ancestors had been constables
of the kingdom of Cyprus for the Venetian republic since 1464. But in
1570 the island was taken by the Turks; and Antonio Davila, the father
of the historian, had to leave it, despoiled of all he possessed. He
travelled into Spain and France, and finally returned to Padua, and at
Sacco on the 30th of October 1576 his youngest son, Enrico Caterino, was
born. About 1583 Antonio took this son to France, where he became a page
in the service of Catherine de' Medici, wife of King Henry II. In due
time he entered the military service, and fought through the civil wars
until the peace in 1598. He then returned to Padua, where, and
subsequently at Parma, he led a studious life until, when war broke out,
he entered the service of the republic of Venice and served with
distinction in the field. But during the whole of this active life, many
details of which are very interesting as illustrative of the life and
manners of the time, he never lost sight of a design which he had formed
at a very early period, of writing the history of those civil wars in
France in which he had borne a part, and during which he had had so many
opportunities of closely observing the leading personages and events.
This work was completed about 1630, and was offered in vain by the
author to all the publishers in Venice. At last one Tommaso Baglioni,
who had no work for his presses, undertook to print the manuscript, on
condition that he should be free to leave off if more promising work
offered itself. The printing of the _Istoria delle guerre civili di
Francia_ was, however, completed, and the success and sale of the work
were immediate and enormous. Over two hundred editions followed, of
which perhaps the best is the one published in Paris in 1644. Davila was
murdered, while on his way to take possession of the government of
Cremona for Venice in July 1631, by a ruffian, with whom some dispute
seems to have arisen concerning the furnishing of the relays of horses
ordered for his use by the Venetian government.
The _Istoria_ was translated into French by G. Baudouin (Paris, 1642);
into Spanish by Varen de Soto (Madrid, 1651, and Antwerp, 1686); into
English by W. Aylesbury (London, 1647), and by Charles Cotterel
(London, 1666), and into Latin by Pietro Francesco Cornazzano (Rome,
1745). The best account of the life of Davila is that by Apostolo
Zeno, prefixed to an edition of the history printed at Venice in 2
vols. in 1733. Peter Bayle is severe on certain historical
inaccuracies of Davila, and it is true that Davila must be read with
due remembrance of the fact that he was not only a Catholic but the
especial protege of Catherine de' Medici, but it is not to be
forgotten that Bayle was as strongly Protestant.
DAVIS, ANDREW JACKSON (1826-1910), American spiritualist, was born at
Blooming Grove, Orange county, New York, on the 11th of August 1826. He
had little education, though probably much more than he and his friends
pretended. In 1843 he heard lectures in Poughkeepsie on "animal
magnetism," as the phenomena of hypnotism was then termed, and found
that he had remarkable clairvoyant powers; and in the following year he
had, he said, spiritual messages telling him of his life work. For the
next three years (1844-1847) he practised magnetic healing with much
success; and in 1847 he published _The Principles of Nature_, _Her
Divine Revelations_, and a _Voice to Mankind_, which in 1845 he had
dictated while in a trance to his "scribe," William Fishbough. He
lectured with little success and returned to writing (or "dictating")
books, publishing about thirty in all, including _The Great Harmonia_
(1850-1861), an "encyclopaedia" in six volumes; _The Philosophy of
Special Providences_ (1850), which with its evident rehash of old
arguments against special providences and miracles would seem to show
that Davis's inspiration was literary; _The Magic Staff: an
Autobiography_ (1857), which was supplemented by _Arabula: or the Divine
Guest, Containing a New Collection of New Gospels_ (1867), the gospels
being those "according to" St Confucius, St John (G. Whittier), St
Gabriel (Derzhavin), St Octavius (Frothingham), St Gerrit (Smith), St
Emma (Hardinge), St Ralph (W. Emerson), St Seiden (J. Finney), St
Theodore (Parker), &c.; and _A Stellar Key to the Summer Land_ (1868)
and _Views of Our Heavenly Home_ (1878), each with illustrative
diagrams. Davis was much influenced by Swedenborg and by the Shakers,
who reprinted his panegyric of Ann Lee in an official _Sketch of Shakers
and Shakerism_ (1884).
DAVIS, CHARLES HOWARD (1857- ), American landscape painter, was born at
East Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the 2nd of February 1857. A pupil of
the schools of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, he was sent to Paris in
1880. Having studied at the Academy Julian under Lefebvre and Boulanger,
he went to Barbizon and painted much in the forest of Fontainebleau
under the traditions of the "men of thirty." He became a full member of
the National Academy of Design in 1906, and received many awards,
including a silver medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1889. He is
represented by important works in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York; the Corcoran Art Gallery, Washington; the Pennsylvania Academy,
Philadelphia, and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
DAVIS, CUSHMAN KELLOGG (1838-1900), American political leader and
lawyer, was born in Henderson, New York, on the 16th of June 1838. He
was taken by his parents to Wisconsin Territory in the year of his
birth, and was educated at Carroll College, Waukesha, Wisconsin, and at
the university of Michigan, from which he graduated in 1857. After
studying law in the office of Alexander W. Randall, he was admitted to
the bar in 1860. During the Civil War, as a first lieutenant of Federal
volunteers, he served in the western campaigns of 1862 and 1863, and in
1864 was an aide to General Willis A. Gorman (1814-1876). Resigning his
commission (1864) on account of ill-health, he soon settled in St Paul,
Minnesota, where he practised law in partnership with General Gorman,
and soon became prominent both at the bar and, as a Republican, in
politics. He served in the state House of Representatives in 1867,
1868-1873 was United States district attorney for Minnesota. In
1874-1876 he was governor of the state, and from 1887 until his death
was a member of the United States Senate. In the Senate he was one of
the acknowledged leaders of his party, an able and frequent speaker and
a committee worker of great industry. In March 1897 he became chairman
of the committee on foreign relations at a time when its work was
peculiarly influential in shaping American foreign policy. His extensive
knowledge of international law, and his tact and diplomacy, enabled him
to render services of the utmost importance in connexion with the
Spanish-American War, and he was one of the peace commissioners who
negotiated and signed the treaty of Paris by which the war was
terminated. He died at St Paul on the 27th of November 1900. Few public
men in the United States since the Civil War have combined skill in
diplomacy, constructive statesmanship, talent for political
organization, oratorical ability and broad culture to such a degree as
Senator Davis. In addition to various speeches and public addresses, he
published an essay entitled _The Law of Shakespeare_ (1899).
DAVIS, HENRY WILLIAM BANKS (1833- ), English painter, received his art
training in the Royal Academy schools, where he was awarded two silver
medals. He was elected an associate of the Academy in 1873, and
academician in 1877. He made a considerable reputation as an
accomplished painter of quiet pastoral subjects and carefully elaborated
landscapes with cattle. His pictures, "Returning to the Fold" (1880),
and "Approaching Night" (1899), bought for the Chantrey Fund Collection,
are now in the National Gallery of British Art (Tate Gallery).
DAVIS, HENRY WINTER (1817-1865), American political leader, was born at
Annapolis, Maryland, on the 16th of August 1817. His father, Rev Henry
Lyon Davis (1775-1836), was a prominent Protestant Episcopal clergyman
of Maryland, and for some years president of St John's College at
Annapolis. The son graduated at Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, in 1837,
and from the law department of the university of Virginia in 1841, and
began the practice of law in Alexandria, Virginia, but in 1850 removed
to Baltimore, Maryland, where he won a high position at the bar. Early
becoming imbued with strong anti-slavery views, though by inheritance he
was himself a slave holder, he began political life as a Whig, but when
the Whig party disintegrated, he became an "American" or "Know-Nothing,"
and as such served in the national House of Representatives from 1855 to
1861. By his independent course in Congress he won the respect and
esteem of all political groups. In the contest over the speakership at
the opening of the Thirty-Sixth Congress (1859) he voted with the
Republicans, thereby incurring a vote of censure from the Maryland
legislature, which called upon him to resign. In 1860, not being quite
ready to ally himself wholly with the Republican party, he declined to
be a candidate for the Republican nomination for the vice-presidency,
and supported the Bell and Everett ticket. He was himself defeated in
this year for re-election to Congress. In the winter of 1860-1861 he was
active on behalf of compromise measures. Finally, after President
Lincoln's election, he became a Republican, and as such was re-elected
in 1862 to the national House of Representatives, in which he at once
became one of the most radical and aggressive members, his views
commanding especial attention owing to his being one of the few
representatives from a slave state. From December 1863 to March 1865 he
was chairman of the committee on foreign affairs; as such, in 1864, he
was unwilling to leave the delicate questions concerning the French
occupation of Mexico entirely in the hands of the president and his
secretary of state, and brought in a report very hostile to France,
which was adopted in the House, but fortunately, as it proved later, was
not adopted by the Senate. With other radical Republicans Davis was a
bitter opponent of Lincoln's plan for the reconstruction of the Southern
States, and on the 15th of February 1864 he reported from committee a
bill placing the process of reconstruction under the control of
Congress, and stipulating that the Confederate States, before resuming
their former status in the Union, must disfranchise all important civil
and military officers of the Confederacy, abolish slavery, and repudiate
all debts incurred by or with the sanction of the Confederate
government. In his speech supporting this measure Davis declared that
until Congress should "recognize a government established under its
auspices, there is no government in the rebel states save the authority
of Congress." The bill--the first formal expression by Congress with
regard to Reconstruction--did not pass both Houses until the closing
hours of the session, and failed to receive the approval of the
president, who on the 8th of July issued a proclamation defining his
position. Soon afterwards, on the 5th of August 1864, Davis joined
Benjamin F. Wade of Ohio, who had piloted the bill through the Senate,
in issuing the so-called "Wade-Davis Manifesto," which violently
denounced President Lincoln for encroaching on the domain of Congress
and insinuated that the presidential policy would leave slavery
unimpaired in the reconstructed states. In a debate in Congress some
months later he declared, "When I came into Congress ten years ago this
was a government of law. I have lived to see it a government of personal
will." He was one of the radical leaders who preferred Fremont to
Lincoln in 1864, but subsequently withdrew his opposition and supported
the President for re-election. He early favoured the enlistment of
negroes, and in July 1865 publicly advocated the extension of the
suffrage to them. He was not a candidate for re-election to Congress in
1864, and died in Baltimore, Maryland, on the 30th of December 1865.
Davis was a man of scholarly tastes, an orator of unusual ability and
great eloquence, tireless and fearless in fighting political battles,
but impulsive to the verge of rashness, impractical, tactless and
autocratic. He wrote an elaborate political work entitled _The War of
Ormuzd and Ahriman in the Nineteenth Century_ (1853), in which he
combated the Southern contention that slavery was a divine institution.
See _The Speeches of Henry Winter Davis_ (New York, 1867), to which is
prefixed an oration on his life and character delivered in the House
of Representatives by Senator J. A. J. Creswell of Maryland.
DAVIS, JEFFERSON (1808-1889), American soldier and statesman, president
of the Confederate states in the American Civil War, was born on the 3rd
of June 1808 at what is now the village of Fairview, in that part of
Christian county, Kentucky, which was later organized as Todd county.
His father, Samuel Davis (1756-1824), who served in the War of
Independence, was of Welsh, and his mother, Jane Cook, of Scotch-Irish
descent; during his infancy the family moved to Wilkinson county,
Mississippi. Jefferson Davis was educated at Transylvania University
(Lexington, Kentucky) and at the United States Military Academy at West
Point. From the latter he graduated in July 1828, and became by brevet a
second lieutenant of infantry. He was assigned for duty to Jefferson
Barracks at St Louis, and on reaching this post was ordered to Fort
Crawford, near Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. In 1833 he took part in the
closing scenes of the Black Hawk War, was present at the capture of
Black Hawk, and was sent to Dixon, Illinois, to muster into service some
volunteers from that state. Their captain was Abraham Lincoln, and
Lieutenant Davis is said to have administered to him his first oath of
allegiance. In June 1835 he resigned from the army, married Miss Knox
Taylor, daughter of Colonel (later General) Zachary Taylor, and became a
cotton planter in Warren county, Miss. In September of the same year,
while visiting in Louisiana to escape the fever, his wife died of it and
Davis himself was dangerously ill. For the next few months he travelled
to regain his health; and in the spring of 1836 returned to his cotton
plantation, where for several years he devoted his time largely to
reading political philosophy, political economy, public law and the
English classics, and by careful management of his estate he acquired
considerable wealth. In 1843 Davis entered the field of politics as a
Democrat, and exhibited great power as a public speaker. In 1844 he was
chosen as a presidential elector on the Polk and Dallas ticket; in
February 1845 he married Miss Varina Howell (1826-1906) of Mississippi
(a granddaughter of Governor Richard Howell of New Jersey), and in the
same year became a Democratic representative in Congress. From the
beginning of his political career he advocated a strict construction of
the Federal constitution. He was an ardent admirer of John C. Calhoun,
and eventually became his successor as the leader of the South. In his
rare speeches in the House of Representatives he clearly defined his
position in regard to states rights, which he consistently held ever
afterwards. During his first session, war with Mexico was declared, and
he resigned his seat in June 1846 to take command of the first regiment
raised in his state--the Mississippi Rifles. He served in the Northern
Campaign under his father-in-law, General Taylor, and was greatly
distinguished for gallantry and soldierly conduct at Monterey and
particularly at Buena Vista, where he was severely wounded early in the
engagement, but continued in command of his regiment until victory
crowned the American arms. While still in the field he was appointed
(May 1847) by President Polk to be brigadier-general of volunteers; but
this appointment Davis declined, on the ground, as he afterwards said,
"that volunteers are militia and the Constitution reserves to the state
the appointment of all militia officers." Afterwards, Davis himself, as
president of the Confederate States, was to appoint many volunteer
officers.
Upon his return to his home late in 1847 he was appointed to fill a
vacancy in the United States Senate, and in 1850 he was elected for a
full term of six years. He resigned in 1851, but was again elected in
1857, and continued as a member from that year until the secession of
his State in 1861. As a senator he stood in the front rank in a body
distinguished for ability; his purity of character and courteous manner,
together with his intellectual gifts, won him the esteem of all parties;
and he became more and more the leader of the Southern Democrats. He
was, however, possessed of a logical rather than an intuitive mind. In
his famous speech in the Senate on the 12th of July 1848, on the
question of establishing a government for Oregon Territory, he held that
a slave should be treated by the Federal government on the same basis as
any other property, and therefore that it was the duty of Congress to
protect the owner's right to his slave in whatever state or territory of
the Union that slave might be. In the debates on the Compromise Measures
of 1850 he took an active part, strongly opposing these measures, while
Henry Stuart Foote (1800-1880), the other Mississippi senator, was one
of their leading advocates. But although still holding to the theory
expounded in his July speech of 1848, he was now ready with the proposal
that slavery might be prohibited north of latitude 36 deg. 30' N.
provided it should not be interfered with in any territory south of that
line. He resigned from the Senate in 1851 to become a candidate of the
Democratic States-Rights party for the governorship of his state against
Foote, the candidate of the Union Democrats. In the campaign he held, in
opposition to the wishes of the more radical members of his party, that
although secession might be resorted to as a last alternative the
circumstances were not yet such as to justify it. A temporary loss of
eyesight interfered with his canvass, and he was defeated by a small
majority (1009), the campaign having been watched with the greatest
interest throughout the country. In 1853 he accepted the position of
secretary of war in the cabinet of President Pierce, and for four years
performed the duties of the office with great distinction and with
lasting benefit to the nation. He organized the engineer companies which
explored and reported on the several proposed routes for a railway
connecting the Mississippi valley with the Pacific Ocean; he effected
the enlargement of the army, and made material changes in its equipment
of arms and ammunition, utilizing the latest improvements; he made his
appointments of subordinates on their merits, regardless of party
considerations; he revised the system of tactics, perfected the signal
corps service, and enlarged the coast and frontier defences of the
country. During all this time he was on terms of intimate friendship
with the president, over whom he undoubtedly exerted a powerful, but
probably not, as is often said, a dominating influence; for instance he
is generally supposed to have won the president's support for the
Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854. After the passage of this bill, Davis, who
as secretary of war had control of the United States troops in Kansas,
sympathized strongly with the pro-slavery party there. At the end of his
service in the cabinet, he was returned to the Senate. To his insistence
in 1860 that the Democratic party should support his claim to the
protection of slavery in the territories by the Federal government, the
disruption of that party was in large measure due. At the same time he
practically told the Senate that the South would secede in the event of
the election of a radical Republican to the presidency; and on the 10th
of January 1861, not long after the election of Lincoln, he argued
before that body the constitutional right of secession and declared that
the treatment of the South had become such that it could no longer
remain in the Union without being degraded. When his state had passed
the ordinance of secession he resigned his seat, and his speech on the
21st of January was a clear and able statement of the position taken by
his state, and a most pathetic farewell to his associates.
On the 25th of January 1861 Davis was commissioned major-general of the
forces Mississippi was raising in view of the threatened conflict. On
the 9th of February he received the unanimous vote of the Provisional
Congress of the seceded states as president of the "Confederate States
of America." He was inaugurated on the 18th of February, was
subsequently, after the adoption of the permanent constitution,
regularly elected by popular vote, for a term of six years, and on the
22nd of February 1862 was again inaugurated. He had not sought the
office, preferring service in the field. His brilliant career, both as a
civilian and as a soldier, drew all eyes to him as best fitted to guide
the fortunes of the new Confederacy, and with a deep sense of the
responsibility he obeyed the call. He heartily approved of the peace
conference, which attempted to draw up a plan of reconciliation between
the two sections, but whose failure made war inevitable. Montgomery, in
Alabama, was the first Confederate capital, but after Virginia joined
her sister states, the seat of government was removed to Richmond, on
the 29th of May 1861. How Davis--of whom W. E. Gladstone, in the early
days of English sympathy with the South, said that he had "made a
nation"--bore himself in his most responsible position during the
gigantic conflict which ensued, cannot here be related in detail. (See
CONFEDERATE STATES; and AMERICAN CIVIL WAR.) In the shortest time he
organized and put into the field one of the finest bodies of soldiers of
which history has record. Factories sprang up in the South in a few
months, supplying the army with arms and munitions of war, and the
energy of the president was everywhere apparent. That he committed
serious errors, his warmest admirers will hardly deny. Unfortunately his
firmness developed into obstinacy, and exhibited itself in continued
confidence in officers who had proved to be failures, and in dislike of
some of his ablest generals. He committed the great mistake, too, of
directing the movements of distant armies from the seat of government,
though those armies were under able generals. This naturally caused
great dissatisfaction, and more than once resulted in irreparable
disaster. Moreover, he was not, like Lincoln, a great manager of men; he
often acted without tact; he was charged with being domineering and
autocratic, and at various times he was seriously hampered by the
meddling of the Confederate Congress and the opposition of such men as
the vice-president, A. H. Stephens, Governor Joseph E. Brown of Georgia,
and Governor Zebulon Vance of North Carolina.
During the winter of 1864-1865 the resources of the government showed
such exhaustion that it was apparent that the end would come with the
opening of the spring campaign. This was clearly stated in the reports
of the heads of departments and of General Lee. President Davis,
however, acted as if he was assured of ultimate success. He sent Duncan
F. Kenner as special commissioner to the courts of England and France to
obtain recognition of the Confederacy on condition of the abolition of
slavery. When a conference was held in Hampton Roads on the 3rd of
February 1865 between President Lincoln and Secretary Seward on the one
side, and A. H. Stephens, R. M. T. Hunter, and Judge James A. Campbell,
representing President Davis, on the other, he instructed his
representatives to insist on the recognition of the Confederacy as a
condition to any arrangement for the termination of the war. This
defeated the object of the conference, and deprived the South of terms
which would have been more beneficial than those imposed by the
conqueror when the end came a few weeks later. The last days of the
Confederate Congress were spent in recriminations between that body and
President Davis, and the popularity with which he commenced his
administration had almost entirely vanished. In January 1865 the
Congress proposed to supersede the president and make General Lee
dictator,--a suggestion, however, to which the Confederate commander
refused to listen.
After the surrender of the armies of Lee and Johnston in April 1865,
President Davis attempted to make his way, through Georgia, across the
Mississippi, in the vain hope of continuing the war with the forces of
Generals Smith and Magruder. He was taken prisoner on the 10th of May by
Federal troops near Irwinville, Irwin county, Georgia, and was brought
back to Old Point, Virginia, in order to be confined in prison at
Fortress Monroe. In prison he was chained and treated with great
severity. He was indicted for treason by a Virginia grand jury,
persistent efforts were made to connect him with the assassination of
President Lincoln, he was unjustly charged with having deliberately and
wilfully caused the sufferings and deaths of Union prisoners at
Andersonville and for two years he was denied trial or bail. Such
treatment aroused the sympathy of the Southern people, who regarded him
as a martyr to their cause, and in a great measure restored him to that
place in their esteem which by the close of the war he had lost. It also
aroused a general feeling in the North, and when finally he was admitted
to bail (in May 1867), Horace Greeley, Gerrit Smith, and others in that
section who had been his political opponents, became his sureties.
Charles O'Conor, a leader of the New York bar, volunteered to act as his
counsel. With him was associated Robert Ould of Richmond, a lawyer of
great ability. They moved to quash the indictment on which he was
brought to trial. Chief Justice Chase and Judge John C. Underwood
constituted the United States circuit court sitting for Virginia before
which the case was brought in December 1868; the court was divided, the
chief justice voting to sustain the motion and Underwood to overrule it.
The matter was thereupon certified to the Supreme Court of the United
States, but as the general amnesty of the 25th of December 1868 included
Davis, an order of _nolle prosequi_ was entered in February 1869, and
Davis and his bondsmen were thereupon released. After his release he
visited Europe, and spent the last years of his life in retirement,
during which he wrote his _Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government_
(2 vols., 1881). In these volumes he attempted to vindicate his
administration, and in so doing he attacked the records of those
generals he disliked. He also wrote a _Short History of the Confederate
States of America_ (1890). He died on the 6th of December 1889, at New
Orleans, leaving a widow and two daughters--Margaret, who married J. A.
Hayes in 1877, and Varina Anne (1864-1898), better known as "Winnie"
Davis, the "daughter of the Confederacy," who was the author of several
books, including _A Sketch of the Life of Robert Emmet_ (1888), a novel,
_The Veiled Doctor_ (1895), and _A Romance of Summer Seas_ (1898). A
monument to her, designed by George J. Zolnay, and erected by the
Daughters of the Confederacy, was unveiled in Hollywood cemetery,
Richmond, Va., on the 9th of November 1899. Mrs Davis, who exerted a
marked influence over her husband, survived him many years, passed the
last years of her life in New York City, and died there on the 16th of
October 1906.
AUTHORITIES.--Several biographies and memoirs of Davis have been
published, of which the best are: _Jefferson Davis, Ex-President of
the Confederate States_ (2 vols., New York, 1890), by his widow; F. H.
Alfriend's _Life of Jefferson Davis_ (Cincinnati, 1868), which
defended him from the charges of incompetence and despotism brought
against him; E. A. Pollard's _Life of Jefferson Davis, with a Secret
History of the Southern Confederacy_ (Philadelphia, 1869), a somewhat
partisan arraignment by a prominent Southern journalist; and W. E.
Dodd's _Jefferson Davis_ (Philadelphia, 1907), which embodies the
results of recent historical research. _The Prison Life of Jefferson
Davis_ (New York, 1866) by John J. Craven (d. 1893), a Federal army
surgeon who was Davis's physician at Fortress Monroe, was long
popular; it gives a vivid and sympathetic picture of Mr Davis as a
prisoner, but its authenticity and accuracy have been questioned.
(W. W. H.*; N. D. M.)
DAVIS (or DAVYS), JOHN (1550?-1605), one of the chief English navigators
and explorers under Elizabeth, especially in Polar regions, was born at
Sandridge near Dartmouth about 1550. From a boy he was a sailor, and
early made several voyages with Adrian Gilbert; both the Gilbert and
Raleigh families were Devonians of his own neighbourhood, and through
life he seems to have profited by their friendship. In January 1583 he
appears to have broached his design of a north-west passage to
Walsingham and John Dee; various consultations followed; and in 1585 he
started on his first north-western expedition. On this he began by
striking the ice-bound east shore of Greenland, which he followed south
to Cape Farewell; thence he turned north once more and coasted the west
Greenland littoral some way, till, finding the sea free from ice, he
shaped a "course for China" by the north-west. In 66 deg. N., however,
he fell in with Baffin Land, and though he pushed some way up Cumberland
Sound, and professed to recognize in this the "hoped strait," he now
turned back (end of August). He tried again in 1586 and 1587; in the
last voyage he pushed through the straits still named after him into
Baffin's Bay, coasting west Greenland to 73 deg. N., almost to
Upernavik, and thence making a last effort to find a passage westward
along the north of America. Many points in Arctic latitudes (Cumberland
Sound, Cape Walsingham, Exeter Sound, &c.) retain names given them by
Davis, who ranks with Baffin and Hudson as the greatest of early Arctic
explorers and, like Frobisher, narrowly missed the discovery of Hudson's
Bay via Hudson's Straits (the "Furious Overfall" of Davis). In 1588 he
seems to have commanded the "Black Dog" against the Spanish Armada; in
1589 he joined the earl of Cumberland off the Azores; and in 1591 he
accompanied Thomas Cavendish on his last voyage, with the special
purpose, as he tells us, of searching "that north-west discovery upon
the back parts of America." After the rest of Cavendish's expedition
returned unsuccessful, he continued to attempt on his own account the
passage of the Strait of Magellan; though defeated here by foul weather,
he discovered the Falkland Islands. The passage home was extremely
disastrous, and he brought back only fourteen of his seventy-six men.
After his return in 1593 he published a valuable treatise on practical
navigation in _The Seaman's Secrets_ (1594), and a more theoretical work
in _The World's Hydrographical Description_ (1595). His invention of
back-staff and double quadrant (called a "Davis Quadrant" after him)
held the field among English seamen till long after Hadley's reflecting
quadrant had been introduced. In 1596-1597 Davis seems to have sailed
with Raleigh (as master of Sir Walter's own ship) to Cadiz and the
Azores; and in 1598-1600 he accompanied a Dutch expedition to the East
Indies as pilot, sailing from Flushing, returning to Middleburg, and
narrowly escaping destruction from treachery at Achin in Sumatra. In
1601-1603 he accompanied Sir James Lancaster as first pilot on his
voyage in the service of the East India Company; and in December 1604 he
sailed again for the same destination as pilot to Sir Edward Michelborne
(or Michelbourn). On this journey he was killed by Japanese pirates off
Bintang near Sumatra.
_A Traverse Book made by John Davis in 1587_, an _Account of his
Second Voyage in 1586_, and a _Report of Master John Davis of his
three voyages made for the Discovery of the North West Passage_ were
printed in Hakluyt's collection. Davis himself published _The Seaman's
Secrets, divided into two Parts_ (London, 1594), _The World's
Hydrographical Description ... whereby appears that there is a short
and speedy Passage into the South Seas, to China, Molucca, Philippina,
and India, by Northerly Navigation_ (London, 1595). Various references
to Davis are in the _Calendars of State Papers, Domestic_ (1591-1594),
and _East Indies_ (1513-1616). See also _Voyages and Works of John
Davis_, edited by A. H. Markham (London, Hakluyt Society, 1880), and
the article "John Davys" by Sir J. K. Laughton in the _Dictionary of
National Biography_. (C. R. B.)
DAVIS, THOMAS OSBORNE (1814-1845), Irish poet and journalist, was born
at Mallow, Co. Cork, on the 14th of October 1814. His father, James
Thomas Davis, a surgeon in the royal artillery, who died in the month of
his son's birth, belonged to an English family of Welsh extraction, and
his mother, Mary Atkins, belonged to a Protestant Anglo-Irish family.
Davis graduated B.A. at Trinity College, Dublin, in 1836, and was called
to the bar two years later. Brought up in an English and Tory circle, he
was led to adopt nationalist views by the study of Irish history, a
complicated subject in which text-books and the ordinary guides to
knowledge were then lacking. In 1840 he made a speech appealing to Irish
sentiment before the college historical society, which had been
reorganized in 1839. With a view to indoctrinating the Irish people with
the idea of nationality he joined John Blake Dillon in editing the
_Dublin Morning Register_. The proprietor very soon dismissed him, and
Davis saw that his propaganda would be ineffective if he continued to
stand outside the national organization. He therefore announced himself
a follower of Daniel O'Connell, and became an energetic worker (1841) on
the committee of the repeal association. He helped Dillon and Charles
Gavan Duffy to found the weekly newspaper, _The Nation_, the first
number of which appeared on the 15th of October 1842. The paper was
chiefly written by these three promoters, and its concentrated purpose
and vigorous writing soon attracted attention. Davis, who had never
written verse, was induced to attempt it for the new undertaking. The
"Lament of Owen Roe O'Neill" was printed in the sixth number, and was
followed by a series of lyrics that take a high place in Irish national
poetry--"The Battle of Fontenoy," "The Geraldines," "Maire Bhan a Stoir"
and many others. Davis contemplated a history of Ireland, an edition of
the speeches of Irish orators, one volume of which appeared, and a life
of Wolfe Tone. These projects remained incomplete, but Davis's
determination and continuous zeal made their mark on his party.
Differences arose between O'Connell and the young writers of _The
Nation_, and as time went on became more pronounced. Davis was accused
of being anti-Catholic, and was systematically attacked by O'Connell's
followers. But he differed, said Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, from earlier
and later Irish tribunes, "by a perfectly genuine desire to remain
unknown, and reap neither recognition nor reward for his work." His
early death from scarlet fever (September 15th, 1845) deprived "Young
Ireland" of its most striking personality.
His _Poems_ and his _Literary and Historical Essays_ were collected in
1846. There is an edition of his prose writings (1889) in the _Camelot
Classics_. See the monograph on _Thomas Davis_ by Sir Charles Gavan
Duffy (1890, abridged ed. 1896), and the same writer's _Young Ireland_
(revised edition, 1896).
DAVISON, WILLIAM (c. 1541-1608), secretary to Queen Elizabeth, was of
Scottish descent, and in 1566 acted as secretary to Henry Killigrew (d.
1603), when he was sent into Scotland by Elizabeth on a mission to Mary,
queen of Scots. Remaining in that country for about ten years, Davison
then went twice to the Netherlands on diplomatic business, returning to
England in 1586 to defend the hasty conduct of his friend, Robert
Dudley, earl of Leicester. In the same year he became member of
parliament for Knaresborough, a privy councillor, and assistant to
Elizabeth's secretary, Thomas Walsingham; but he soon appears to have
acted rather as the colleague than the subordinate of Walsingham. He was
a member of the commission appointed to try Mary, queen of Scots,
although he took no part in its proceedings. When sentence was passed
upon Mary the warrant for her execution was entrusted to Davison, who,
after some delay, obtained the queen's signature. On this occasion, and
also in subsequent interviews with her secretary, Elizabeth suggested
that Mary should be executed in some more secret fashion, and her
conversation afforded ample proof that she disliked to take upon herself
any responsibility for the death of her rival. Meanwhile, the privy
council having been summoned by Lord Burghley, it was decided to carry
out the sentence at once, and Mary was beheaded on the 8th of February
1587. When the news of the execution reached Elizabeth she was extremely
indignant, and her wrath was chiefly directed against Davison, who, she
asserted, had disobeyed her instructions not to part with the warrant.
The secretary was arrested and thrown into prison, but, although he
defended himself vigorously, he did not say anything about the queen's
wish to get rid of Mary by assassination. Charged before the Star
Chamber with misprision and contempt, he was acquitted of evil
intention, but was sentenced to pay a fine of 10,000 marks, and to
imprisonment during the queen's pleasure; but owing to the exertions of
several influential men he was released in 1589. The queen, however,
refused to employ him again in her service, and he retired to Stepney,
where he died in December 1608. Davison appears to have been an
industrious and outspoken man, and was undoubtedly made the scapegoat
for the queen's pusillanimous conduct. By his wife, Catherine Spelman,
he had a family of four sons and two daughters. Two of his sons, Francis
and Walter, obtained some celebrity as poets.
Many state papers written by him, and many of his letters, are extant
in various collections of manuscripts. See Sir N. H. Nicolas, _Life of
W. Davison_ (London, 1823); J. A. Froude, _History of England_
(London, 1881 fol.); _Calendar of State Papers 1580-1609_; and
_Correspondence of Leicester during his Government of the Low
Countries_, edited by J. Bruce (London, 1844).
DAVIS STRAIT, the broad strait which separates Greenland from North
America, and connects Baffin Bay with the open Atlantic. At its
narrowest point, which occurs just where the Arctic Circle crosses it,
it is nearly 200 m. wide. This part is also the shallowest, a sounding
of 112 fathoms being found in the centre, whereas the depth increases
rapidly both to north and to south. Along the western shore (Baffin
Land) a cold current passes southward; but along the east there is a
warm northward stream, and there are a few Danish settlements on the
Greenland coast. The strait takes its name from the explorer John Davis.
DAVITT, MICHAEL (1846-1906), Irish Nationalist politician, son of a
peasant farmer in Co. Mayo, was born on the 25th of March 1846. His
father was evicted for non-payment of rent in 1851, and migrated to
Lancashire, where at the age of ten the boy began work in a cotton mill
at Haslingden. In 1857 he lost his right arm by a machinery accident,
and he had to get employment as a newsboy and printer's "devil." He
drifted into the ranks of the Fenian brotherhood in 1865, and in 1870 he
was arrested for treason-felony in arranging for sending fire-arms into
Ireland, and was sentenced to fifteen years' penal servitude. After
seven years he was released on ticket of leave. He at once rejoined the
"Irish Republican Brotherhood," and went to the United States, where his
mother, herself of American birth, had settled with the rest of the
family, in order to concert plans with the Fenian leaders there.
Returning to Ireland he helped C. S. Parnell to start the Land League in
1879, and his violent speeches resulted in his re-arrest and consignment
to Portland by Sir William Harcourt, then home secretary. He was
released in 1882, but was again prosecuted for seditious speeches in
1883, and suffered three months' imprisonment. He had been elected to
parliament for Meath as a Nationalist in 1882, but being a convict was
disqualified to sit. He was included as one of the respondents before
the Parnell Commission (1888-1890) and spoke for five days in his own
defence, but his prominent association with the revolutionary Irish
schemes was fully established. (See PARNELL.) He took the
anti-Parnellite side in 1890, and in 1892 was elected to parliament for
North Meath, but was unseated on petition. He was then returned for
North-East Cork, but had to vacate his seat through bankruptcy, caused
by the costs in the North Meath petition. In 1895 he was elected for
West Mayo, but retired before the dissolution in 1900. He died on the
31st of May 1906, in Dublin. A sincere but embittered Nationalist,
anti-English to the backbone, anti-clerical, and sceptical as to the
value of the purely parliamentary agitation for Home Rule, Davitt was a
notable representative of the survival of the Irish "physical force"
party, and a strong link with the extremists in America. In later years
his Socialistic Radicalism connected him closely with the Labour party.
He wrote constantly in American and colonial journals, and published
some books, always with the strongest bias against English methods; but
his force of character earned him at least the respect of those who
could make calm allowance for an open enemy of the established order,
and a higher meed of admiration from those who sympathized with his
objects or were not in a position to be threatened by them.
DAVOS (Romonsch _Tavau_, a name variously explained as meaning a sheep
pasture or simply "behind"), a mountain valley in the Swiss canton of
the Grisons, lying east of Coire (whence it is 40 m. distant by rail),
and north-west of the Lower Engadine (accessible at Sus in 18 m. by
road). It contains two main villages, 2 m. from each other, Dorfli and
Platz (the chief hamlet), which are 5015 ft. above the sea-level, and
had a population in 1900 of 8089, a figure exceeded in the Grisons only
by the capital Coire. Of the population 5391 were Protestants, 2564
Romanists, and 81 Jews; while 6048 were German-speaking and 486
Romonsch-speaking. In 1860 the population was only 1705, rising to 2002
in 1870, to 2865 in 1880, to 3891 in 1888, and to 8089 in 1890. This
steady increase is due to the fact that the valley is now much
frequented in winter by consumptive patients, as its position, sheltered
from cold winds and exposed to brilliant sunshine in the daytime, has a
most beneficial effect on invalids in the first stages of that terrible
disease. A local doctor, by name Spengler, first noticed this fact about
1865, and the valley soon became famous. It is now provided with
excellent hotels, sanatoria, &c., but as lately as 1860 there was only
one inn there, housed in the 16th-century _Rathhaus_ (town hall), which
is still adorned by the heads of wolves shot in the neighbourhood. At
the north end of the valley is the fine lake of Davos, used for skating
in the winter, while from Platz the splendidly engineered
_Landwasserstrasse_ leads (20 m.) down to the Alvaneubad station on the
Albula railway from Coire to the Engadine.
We first hear of Tavaus or Tavauns in 1160 and 1213, as a mountain
pasture or "alp." It was then in the hands of a Romonsch-speaking
population, as is shown by many surviving field names. But, some time
between 1260 and 1282, a colony of German-speaking persons from the
Upper Valais (first mentioned in 1289) was planted there by its lord,
Walter von Vaz, so that it has long been a Teutonic island in the midst
of a Romonsch-speaking population. Historically it is associated with
the Prattigau or Landquart valley to the north, as it was the most
important village of the region, and in 1436 became the capital of the
League of the Ten Jurisdictions. (See GRISONS.) It formerly contained
many iron mines, and belonged from 1477 to 1649 to the Austrian
Habsburgs. In 1779 Davos was visited and described by Archdeacon W.
Coxe. (W. A. B. C.)
DAVOUT, LOUIS NICOLAS, duke of Auerstadt and prince of Eckmuhl
(1770-1823), marshal of France, was born at Annoux (Yonne) on the 10th
of May 1770. His name is also, less correctly, spelt Davout and Davoust.
He entered the French army as a sub-lieutenant in 1788, and on the
outbreak of the Revolution he embraced its principles. He was _chef de
bataillon_ in a volunteer corps in the campaign of 1792, and
distinguished himself at Neerwinden in the following spring. He had just
been promoted general of brigade when he was removed from the active
list as being of noble birth. He served, however, in the campaigns of
1794-1797 on the Rhine, and accompanied Desaix in the Egyptian
expedition of Bonaparte. On his return he took part in the campaign of
Marengo under Napoleon, who placed the greatest confidence in his
abilities, made him a general of division soon after Marengo, and in
1801 gave him a command in the consular guard. At the accession of
Napoleon as emperor, Davout was one of the generals who were created
marshals of France. As commander of the III. corps of the _Grande Armee_
Davout rendered the greatest services. At Austerlitz, after a forced
march of forty-eight hours, the III. corps bore the brunt of the allies'
attack. In the Jena campaign Davout with a single corps fought and won
the brilliant victory of Auerstadt against the main Prussian army. (See
NAPOLEONIC CAMPAIGNS.) He took part, and added to his renown, in the
campaign of Eylau and Friedland. Napoleon left him as governor-general
in the grand-duchy of Warsaw when the treaty of Tilsit put an end to the
war (1807), and in 1808 created him duke of Auerstadt. In the war of
1809 Davout took a brilliant part in the actions which culminated in the
victory of Eckmuhl, and had an important share in the battle of Wagram
(q.v.). He was created prince of Eckmuhl about this time. It was Davout
who was entrusted by Napoleon with the task of organizing the "corps of
observation of the Elbe," which was in reality the gigantic army with
which the emperor invaded Russia in 1812. In this Davout commanded the
I. corps, over 70,000 strong, and defeated the Russians at Mohilev
before he joined the main army, with which he continued throughout the
campaign and the retreat from Moscow. In 1813 he commanded the Hamburg
military district, and defended Hamburg, a city ill fortified and
provisioned, and full of disaffection, through a long siege, only
surrendering the place on the direct order of Louis XVIII. after the
fall of Napoleon in 1814.
Davout's military character was on this, as on many other occasions,
interpreted as cruel and rapacious, and he had to defend himself against
many attacks upon his conduct at Hamburg. He was a stern disciplinarian,
almost the only one of the marshals who exacted rigid and precise
obedience from his troops, and consequently his corps was more
trustworthy and exact in the performance of its duty than any other.
Thus, in the earlier days of the _Grande Armee_, it was always the III.
corps which was entrusted with the most difficult part of the work in
hand. The same criterion is to be applied to his conduct of civil
affairs. His rapacity was in reality Napoleon's, for he gave the same
undeviating obedience to superior orders which he enforced in his own
subordinates. As for his military talents, he was admitted by his
contemporaries and by later judgment to be one of the ablest, perhaps
the ablest, of all Napoleon's marshals. On the first restoration he
retired into private life, openly displaying his hostility to the
Bourbons, and when Napoleon returned from Elba; Davout at once joined
him. Appointed minister of war, he reorganized the French army as far as
the limited time available permitted, and he was so far indispensable to
the war department that Napoleon kept him at Paris during the Waterloo
campaign. To what degree his skill and bravery would have altered the
fortunes of the campaign of 1815 can only be surmised, but it has been
made a ground of criticism against Napoleon that he did not avail
himself in the field of the services of the best general he then
possessed. Davout directed the gallant, but hopeless, defence of Paris
after Waterloo, and was deprived of his marshalate and his titles at the
second restoration. When some of his subordinate generals were
proscribed, he demanded to be held responsible for their acts, as
executed under his orders, and he endeavoured to prevent the
condemnation of Ney. After a time the hostility of the Bourbons towards
Davout died away, and he was reconciled to the monarchy. In 1817 his
rank and titles were restored, and in 1819 he became a member of the
chamber of peers. He died at Paris on the 1st of June 1823.
See the marquise de Blocqueville, _Le Marechal Davout raconte par les
siens et lui-meme_ (Paris, 1870-1880, 1887); Chenier, _Davout, duc
d'Auerstadt_ (Paris, 1866).
DAVY, SIR HUMPHRY, Bart. (1778-1829), English chemist, was born on the
17th of December 1778 at or near Penzance in Cornwall. During his school
days at the grammar schools of Penzance and Truro he showed few signs of
a taste for scientific pursuits or indeed of any special zeal for
knowledge or of ability beyond a certain skill in making verse
translations from the classics and in story-telling. But when in 1794
his father, Robert Davy, died, leaving a widow and five children in
embarrassed circumstances, he awoke to his responsibilities as the
eldest son, and becoming apprentice to a surgeon-apothecary at Penzance
set to work on a systematic and remarkably wide course of
self-instruction which he mapped out for himself in preparation for a
career in medicine. Beginning with metaphysics and ethics and passing on
to mathematics, he turned to chemistry at the end of 1797, and within a
few months of reading Nicholson's and Lavoisier's treatises on that
science had produced a new theory of light and heat. About the same time
he made the acquaintance of two men of scientific attainments--Gregory
Watt (1777-1804), a son of James Watt, and Davies Giddy, afterwards
Gilbert (1767-1839), who was president of the Royal Society from 1827 to
1831. By the latter he was recommended to Dr Thomas Beddoes, who was in
1798 establishing his Medical Pneumatic Institution at Bristol for
investigating the medicinal properties of various gases. Here Davy,
released from his indentures, was installed as superintendent towards
the end of 1798. Early next year two papers from his pen were published
in Beddoes' _West Country Contributions_--one "On Heat, Light and the
Combinations of Light, with a new Theory of Respiration and Observations
on the Chemistry of Life," and the other "On the Generation of
Phosoxygen (Oxygen gas) and the Causes of the Colours of Organic
Beings." These contain an account of the well-known experiment in which
he sought to establish the immateriality of heat by showing its
generation through the friction of two pieces of ice in an exhausted
vessel, and further attempt to prove that light is "matter of a peculiar
kind," and that oxygen gas, being a compound of this matter with a
simple substance, would more properly be termed phosoxygen. Founded on
faulty experiments and reasoning, the views he expressed were either
ignored or ridiculed; and it was long before he bitterly regretted the
temerity with which he had published his hasty generalizations.
One of his first discoveries at the Pneumatic Institution on the 9th of
April 1799 was that pure nitrous oxide (laughing gas) is perfectly
respirable, and he narrates that on the next day he became "absolutely
intoxicated" through breathing sixteen quarts of it for "near seven
minutes." This discovery brought both him and the Pneumatic Institution
into prominence. The gas itself was inhaled by Southey and Coleridge
among other distinguished people, and promised to become fashionable,
while further research yielded Davy material for his _Researches,
Chemical and Philosophical, chiefly concerning Nitrous Oxide_, published
in 1800, which secured his reputation as a chemist. Soon afterwards,
Count Rumford, requiring a lecturer on chemistry for the recently
established Royal Institution in London, opened negotiations with him,
and on the 16th of February 1801 he was engaged as assistant lecturer in
chemistry and director of the laboratory. Ten weeks later, having "given
satisfactory proofs of his talents" in a course of lectures on
galvanism, he was appointed lecturer, and his promotion to be professor
followed on the 31st of May 1802. One of the first tasks imposed on him
by the managers was the delivery of a course of lectures on the chemical
principles of tanning, and he was given leave of absence for July,
August and September 1801 in order to acquaint himself practically with
the subject. The main facts he discovered from his experiments in this
connexion were described before the Royal Society in 1803. In 1802 the
board of agriculture requested him to direct his attention to
agricultural subjects; and in 1803, with the acquiescence of the Royal
Institution, he gave his first course of lectures on agricultural
chemistry and continued them for ten successive years, ultimately
publishing their substance as _Elements of Agricultural Chemistry_ in
1813. But his chief interest at the Royal Institution was with
electro-chemistry. Galvanic phenomena had already engaged his attention
before he left Bristol, but in London he had at his disposal a large
battery which gave him much greater opportunities. His first
communication to the Royal Society, read in June 1801, related to
galvanic combinations formed with single metallic plates and fluids, and
showed that an electric cell might be constructed with a single metal
and two fluids, provided one of the fluids was capable of oxidizing one
surface of the metal; previous piles had consisted of two different
metals, or of one plate of metal and the other of charcoal, with an
interposed fluid. Five years later he delivered before the Royal Society
his first Bakerian lecture, "On some Chemical Agencies of Electricity,"
which J. J. Berzelius described as one of the most remarkable memoirs in
the history of chemical theory. He summed up his results in the general
statement that "hydrogen, the alkaline substances, the metals and
certain metallic oxides are attracted by negatively electrified metallic
surfaces, and repelled by positively electrified metallic surfaces; and
contrariwise, that oxygen and acid substances are attracted by
positively electrified metallic surfaces and repelled by negatively
electrified metallic surfaces; and these attractive and repulsive forces
are sufficiently energetic to destroy or suspend the usual operation of
elective affinity." He also sketched a theory of chemical affinity on
the facts he had discovered, and concluded by suggesting that the
electric decomposition of neutral salts might in some cases admit of
economical applications and lead to the isolation of the true elements
of bodies. A year after this paper, which gained him from the French
Institute the medal offered by Napoleon for the best experiment made
each year on galvanism, he described in his second Bakerian lecture the
electrolytic preparation of potassium and sodium, effected in October
1807 by the aid of his battery. According to his cousin, Edmund Davy,[1]
then his laboratory assistant, he was so delighted with this achievement
that he danced about the room in ecstasy. Four days after reading his
lecture his health broke down, and severe illness kept him from his
professional duties until March 1808. As soon as he was able to work
again he attempted to obtain the metals of the alkaline earths by the
same methods as he had used for those of the fixed alkalis, but they
eluded his efforts and he only succeeded in preparing them as amalgams
with mercury, by a process due to Berzelius. His attempts to decompose
"alumine, silica, zircone and glucine" were still less fortunate. At the
end of 1808 he read his third Bakerian lecture, one of the longest of
his papers but not one of the best. In it he disproved the idea advanced
by Gay Lussac that potassium was a compound of hydrogen, not an element;
but on the other hand he cast doubts on the elementary character of
phosphorus, sulphur and carbon, though on this point he afterwards
corrected himself. He also described the preparation of boron, for which
at first he proposed the name boracium, on the impression that it was a
metal. About this time a voluntary subscription among the members of the
Royal Institution put him in possession of a new galvanic battery of
2000 double plates, with a surface equal to 128,000 sq. in., to replace
the old one, which had become unserviceable. His fourth Bakerian
lecture, in November 1809, gave further proofs of the elementary nature
of potassium, and described the properties of telluretted hydrogen. Next
year, in a paper read in July and in his fifth Bakerian lecture in
November, he argued that oxymuriatic acid, contrary to his previous
belief, was a simple body, and proposed for it the name "chlorine."
Davy's reputation was now at its zenith. As a lecturer he could command
an audience of little less than 1000 in the theatre of the Royal
Institution, and his fame had spread far outside London. In 1810, at the
invitation of the Dublin Society, he gave a course of lectures on
electro-chemical science, and in the following year he again lectured in
Dublin, on chemistry and geology, receiving large fees at both visits.
During his second visit Trinity College conferred upon him the honorary
degree of LL.D., the only university distinction he ever received. On
the 8th of April 1812 he was knighted by the prince regent; on the 9th
he gave his farewell lecture as professor of chemistry at the Royal
Institution; and on the 11th he was married to Mrs Apreece, daughter and
heiress of Charles Kerr of Kelso, and a distant connexion of Sir Walter
Scott. A few months after his marriage he published the first and only
volume of his _Elements of Chemical Philosophy_, with a dedication to
his wife, and was also re-elected professor of chemistry at the Royal
Institution, though he would not pledge himself to deliver lectures,
explaining that he wished to be free from the routine of lecturing in
order to have more time for original work. Towards the end of the year
he began to investigate chloride of nitrogen, which had just been
discovered by P. L. Dulong, but was obliged to suspend his inquiries
during the winter on account of injury to his eye caused by an explosion
of that substance. In the spring of 1813 he was engaged on the chemistry
of fluorine, and though he failed to isolate the element, he reached
accurate conclusions regarding its nature and properties. In October he
started with his wife for a continental tour, and with them, as
"assistant in experiments and writing," went Michael Faraday, who in the
previous March had been engaged as assistant in the Royal Institution
laboratory. Having obtained permission from the French emperor to travel
in France, he went first to Paris, where during his two months' stay
every honour was accorded him, including election as a corresponding
member of the first class of the Institute. He does not, however, seem
to have reciprocated the courtesy of his French hosts, but gave offence
by the brusqueness of his manner, though his supercilious bearing,
according to his biographer, Dr Paris, was to be ascribed less to any
conscious superiority than to an "ungraceful timidity which he could
never conquer." Nor was his action in regard to iodine calculated to
conciliate. That substance, recently discovered in Paris, was attracting
the attention of French chemists when he stepped in and, after a short
examination with his portable chemical laboratory, detected its
resemblance to chlorine and pronounced it an "undecompounded body."
Towards the end of December he left for Italy. At Genoa he investigated
the electricity of the torpedo-fish, and at Florence, by the aid of the
great burning-glass in the Accademia del Cimento, he effected the
combustion of the diamond in oxygen and decided that, beyond containing
a little hydrogen, it consisted of pure carbon. Then he went to Rome and
Naples and visited Vesuvius and Pompeii, called on Volta at Milan, spent
the summer in Geneva, and returning to Rome occupied the winter with an
inquiry into the composition of ancient colours.
A few months after his return, through Germany, to London in 1815, he
was induced to take up the question of constructing a miner's safety
lamp. Experiments with samples of fire-damp sent from Newcastle soon
taught him that "explosive mixtures of mine-damp will not pass through
small apertures or tubes"; and in a paper read before the Royal Society
on the 9th of November he showed that metallic tubes, being better
conductors of heat, were superior to glass ones, and explained that the
heat lost by contact with a large cooling surface brought the
temperature of the first portions of gas exploded below that required
for the firing of the other portions. Two further papers read in January
1816 explained the employment of wire gauze instead of narrow tubes, and
later in the year the safety lamps were brought into use in the mines. A
large collection of the different models made by Davy in the course of
his inquiries is in the possession of the Royal Institution. He took out
no patent for his invention, and in recognition of his disinterestedness
the Newcastle coal-owners in September 1817 presented him with a
dinner-service of silver plate.[2]
In 1818, when he was created a baronet, he was commissioned by the
British government to examine the papyri of Herculaneum in the
Neapolitan museum, and he did not arrive back in England till June 1820.
In November of that year the Royal Society, of which he had become a
fellow in 1803, and acted as secretary from 1807 to 1812, chose him as
their president, but his personal qualities were not such as to make him
very successful in that office, especially in comparison with the tact
and firmness of his predecessor, Sir Joseph Banks. In 1821 he was busy
with electrical experiments and in 1822 with investigations of the
fluids contained in the cavities of crystals in rocks. In 1823, when
Faraday liquefied chlorine, he read a paper which suggested the
application of liquids formed by the condensation of gases as mechanical
agents. In the same year the admiralty consulted the Royal Society as to
a means of preserving the copper sheathing of ships from corrosion and
keeping it smooth, and he suggested that the copper would be preserved
if it were rendered negatively electrical, as would be done by fixing
"protectors" of zinc to the sheeting. This method was tried on several
ships, but it was found that the bottoms became extremely foul from
accumulations of seaweed and shellfish. For this reason the admiralty
decided against the plan, much to the inventor's annoyance, especially
as orders to remove the protectors already fitted were issued in June
1825, immediately after he had announced to the Royal Society the full
success of his remedy.
In 1826 Davy's health, which showed signs of failure in 1823, had so
declined that he could with difficulty indulge in his favourite sports
of fishing and shooting, and early in 1827, after a slight attack of
paralysis, he was ordered abroad. After a short stay at Ravenna he
removed to Salzburg, whence, his illness continuing, he sent in his
resignation as president of the Royal Society. In the autumn he returned
to England and spent his time in writing his _Salmonia or Days of
Flyfishing_, an imitation of _The Compleat Angler_. In the spring of
1828 he again left England for Illyria, and in the winter fixed his
residence at Rome, whence he sent to the Royal Society his "Remarks on
the Electricity of the Torpedo," written at Trieste in October. This,
with the exception of a posthumous work, _Consolations in Travel, or the
Last Days of a Philosopher_ (1830), was the final production of his pen.
On the 20th of February 1829 he suffered a second attack of paralysis
which rendered his right side quite powerless, but under the care of his
brother, Dr John Davy (1791-1868), he rallied sufficiently to be removed
to Geneva, where he died on the 29th of May.
Of a sanguine, somewhat irritable temperament, Davy displayed
characteristic enthusiasm and energy in all his pursuits. As is shown by
his verses and sometimes by his prose, his mind was highly imaginative;
the poet Coleridge declared that if he "had not been the first chemist,
he would have been the first poet of his age," and Southey said that "he
had all the elements of a poet; he only wanted the art." In spite of his
ungainly exterior and peculiar manner, his happy gifts of exposition and
illustration won him extraordinary popularity as a lecturer, his
experiments were ingenious and rapidly performed, and Coleridge went to
hear him "to increase his stock of metaphors." The dominating ambition
of his life was to achieve fame, but though that sometimes betrayed him
into petty jealousy, it did not leave him insensible to the claims on
his knowledge of the "cause of humanity," to use a phrase often employed
by him in connexion with his invention of the miners' lamp. Of the
smaller observances of etiquette he was careless, and his frankness of
disposition sometimes exposed him to annoyances which he might have
avoided by the exercise of ordinary tact.
See Dr J. A. Paris, _The Life of Sir Humphry Davy_ (1831), vol. ii. of
which on pp. 450-456 gives a list of his publications. Dr John Davy,
_Memoirs of Sir Humphry Davy_ (1836); Collected Works (with shorter
memoir, 1839); _Fragmentary Remains, Literary and Scientific_ (1858).
T. E. Thorpe, _Humphry Davy, Poet and Philosopher_ (1896).