[1] Voltaire met the chevalier Rohan-Chabot at the house of the
Marquis of Sully. The chevalier, offended by Voltaire's free speech,
insolently asked the marquis, "Who is that young man?" "One," replied
Voltaire, "who if he does not parade a great name, honours that he
bears." The chevalier said nothing at the time, but, seizing his
opportunity, inveigled Voltaire into his coach, and had him beaten by
six of his footmen. Voltaire set to work to learn fencing, and then
sought the chevalier in the theatre, and publicly challenged him. A
_bon-mot_ at the chevalier's expense was the only satisfaction that
the philosopher could obtain. "Monsieur, si quelque affaire d'interet
ne vous a point fait oublier l'outrage dont j'ai a me plaindre,
j'espere que vous m'en rendrez raison." The chevalier was said to
employ his capital in petty usury.
DUENNA (Span. _duena_, a married lady or mistress, Lat. _domina_),
specifically the chief lady-in-waiting upon the queen of Spain. The word
is more widely applied, however, to an elderly lady in Spanish and
Portuguese households (holding a position midway between a governess and
companion) appointed to take charge of the young girls of the family;
and "duenna" is thus used in English as a synonym for chaperon (q.v.).
DUET (an adaptation of the Ital. _duetto_, from Lat. _duo_, two), a term
in music for a composition for two performers, both either vocal or
instrumental. The term is not properly applied to a composition for one
voice and one instrument, the latter being regarded as an accompaniment,
though in the modern evolution of this latter form of composition it
often has the same character. Both parts must be of equal importance; if
one is subordinated to the other it becomes an accompaniment and the
work ceases to be a duet. Instrumental duets are written either for two
different instruments, such as Mozart's duets for violin and piano, or
for two similar instruments. Duets written for the pianoforte are either
for two performers on two separate instruments or for two performers on
the same instrument, when they are termed "_duets a quatre mains_."
DUFAURE, JULES ARMAND STANISLAS (1798-1881), French statesman, was born
at Saujon (Charente-Inferieure) on the 4th of December 1798. He became
an advocate at Bordeaux, where he won a great reputation by his
oratorical gifts, but soon abandoned law for politics, and in 1834 was
elected deputy. In 1839 he became minister of public works in the Soult
ministry, and succeeded in freeing railway construction in France from
the obstacles which till then had hampered it. Losing office in 1840,
Dufaure became one of the leaders of the Opposition, and on the outbreak
of the revolution of 1848 he frankly accepted the Republic, and joined
the party of moderate republicans. On October 13th he became minister of
the interior under G. Cavaignac, but retired on the latter's defeat in
the presidential election. During the Second Empire Dufaure abstained
from public life, and practised at the Paris bar with such success that
he was elected _batonnier_ in 1862. In 1863 he succeeded to Pasquier's
seat in the French Academy. In 1871 he became a member of the Assembly,
and it was on his motion that Thiers was elected President of the
Republic. Dufaure became the minister of justice as chief of the party
of the "left-centre," and his tenure of office was distinguished by the
passage of the jury-law. In 1873 he fell with Thiers, but in 1875
resumed his former post under L.J. Buffet, whom he succeeded on the 9th
of March 1876 as president of the council. In the same year he was
elected a life senator. On December the 12th he withdrew from the
ministry owing to the attacks of the republicans of the left in the
chamber and of the conservatives in the senate. After the check which
the conservatives received on the 16th of May he returned to power on
the 24th of December 1877. Early in 1879 Dufaure took part in compelling
the resignation of Marshal MacMahon, but immediately afterwards (1st
February), worn out by opposition, he himself retired. He died in Paris
on the 28th of June 1881.
See G. Picot, _M. Dufaure, sa vie et ses discours_ (Paris, 1883).
DUFF, ALEXANDER (1806-1878), Scottish missionary in India, was born on
the 26th of April 1806, at Auchnahyle in the parish of Moulin,
Perthshire. At St Andrews University he came under the influence of Dr
Chalmers. He then accepted an offer made by the foreign mission
committee of the general assembly to become their first missionary to
India. He was ordained in August 1829, and started at once for India,
but was twice shipwrecked before he reached Calcutta in May 1830, and
lost all his books and other property. Making Calcutta the base of his
operations, he at once identified himself with a policy which had
far-reaching results. Up to this time Protestant missions in India had
been successful only in reaching low-caste and outcaste peoples,
particularly in Tinevelly and south Travancore. The Hindu and Mahommedan
communities had been practically untouched. Duff saw that, to reach
these communities, educational must take the place of evangelizing
methods, and he devised the policy of an educational mission. The
success of his work had the effect (1) of altering the policy of the
government of India in matters of education, (2) of securing the
recognition of education as a missionary agency by Christian churches at
home, and (3) of securing entrance for Christian ideas into the minds of
high-caste Hindus. He first opened an English school in which the Bible
was the centre of the school work, and along with it all kinds of
secular knowledge were taught from the rudiments upwards to a university
standard. The English language was used on the ground that it was
destined to be the great instrument of higher education in India, and
also as giving the Hindu the key of Western knowledge. The school soon
began to expand into a missionary college, and a government minute was
adopted on the 7th of March 1835, to the effect that in higher education
the object of the British government should be the promotion of European
science and literature among the natives of India, and that all funds
appropriated for purposes of education would be best employed on English
education alone. Duff wrote a pamphlet on the question, entitled "A New
Era of the English Language and Literature in India." He returned home
in 1834 broken in health, but succeeded in securing the approval of his
church for his educational plans, and also in arousing much interest in
the work of foreign missions.
In 1840 he returned to India. In the previous year the earl of Auckland,
governor-general, had yielded to the "Orientalists" who opposed Duff,
and adopted a policy which was a compromise between the two. At the
Disruption of 1843 Duff sided with the Free Church, gave up the college
buildings, with all their effects, and with unabated courage set to work
to provide a new institution. He had the support of Sir James Outram and
Sir Henry Lawrence, and the encouragement of seeing a new band of
converts, including several young men of high caste. In 1844 Viscount
Hardinge opened government appointments to all who had studied in
institutions similar to Duff's foundation. In the same year Duff took
part in founding the _Calcutta Review_, of which from 1845 to 1849 he
was editor. In 1849 he returned home. He was moderator of the Free
Church assembly in 1851. He gave evidence before various Indian
committees of parliament on matters of education. This led to an
important despatch by Viscount Halifax, president of the board of
control, to the marquess of Dalhousie, the governor-general, authorizing
an educational advance in primary and secondary schools, the provision
of technical and scientific teaching, and the establishment of schools
for girls.
In 1854 Duff visited the United States, where what is now New York
University gave him the degree of LL.D.; he was already D.D. of
Aberdeen. In 1856 he returned to India, where the mutiny soon broke out;
his descriptive letters were collected in a volume entitled _The Indian
Mutiny, its Causes and Results_ (1858). Duff gave much thought and time
to the university of Calcutta, which owes its examination system and the
prominence given to physical sciences to his influence. In 1863 Sir
Charles Trevelyan offered him the post of vice-chancellor of the
University, but his health compelled him to leave India. As a memorial
of his work the Duff Hall was erected in the centre of the educational
buildings of Calcutta; and a fund of L11,000 was raised for his
disposal, the capital of which was afterwards to be used for invalided
missionaries of his own church. In 1864 Duff visited South Africa, and
on his return became convener of the foreign missions committee of the
Free Church. He raised L10,000 to endow a missionary chair at New
College, Edinburgh, and himself became first professor. Among other
missionary labours of his later years, he helped the Free Church mission
on Lake Nyassa, travelled to Syria to inspect a mission at Lebanon, and
assisted Lady Aberdeen and Lord Polwarth to establish the Gordon
Memorial Mission in Natal. In 1873 the Free Church was threatened with a
schism owing to negotiations for union with the United Presbyterian
Church. Duff was called to the chair, and guided the church happily
through this crisis. He also took part in forming the alliance of
Reformed Churches holding the Presbyterian system. He died on the 12th
of February 1878. By his will he devoted his personal property to found
a lectureship on foreign missions on the model of the Bampton Lectures.