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tantinopoli" (6th edit. 2 vols. Milan, 1877-8); "Marocco" (Milan, 1879); "Ricordi di Parigi" (3rd edit. Milan, 1879). Of these the following have appeared at London in English versions by Caroline Tilton:—"Constantinople," 1878; "Morocco, its people and places," 1879; and "Holland," 1880. Signor De Amicis has also published "Ritratti letterari " (Milan, 1881), and "Poesie" (2nd edit. Milan, 1881).

DECAZES, Louis Charles Élie Amanieu, Duc, eldest son of Élie, Duc Decazes, a well-known French statesman (who died in 1860), was born May 19, 1819. Entering the diplomatic service of his country, he was sent as Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary to Madrid and Lisbon, but when the revolution of 1848 occurred, the Marquis Decazes, as he was then styled, retired from public life. Subsequently he was elected a member of the Conseil Général of the Gironde, and in 1869, at the elections for the Corps Législatif, he contested the fourth circonscription of that department, but was defeated by the Government candidate, M. Chaix d'Est-Ange, jun. After the fall of the empire he was more successful, for, renewing his candidature at the general election of Feb. 1871, he was returned to the National Assembly by the department of the Gironde, polling upwards of 100,000 votes. As one of the leading members of the Right Centre he has since taken a prominent part in the deliberations of the Assembly. He resisted all the attacks made by the monarchists on the Government of M. Thiers, and after the triumph of his friends he was sent as Ambassador to the Court of St. James's in Sept. 1873. Two months afterwards he was recalled from London, and entrusted with the portfolio of Foreign Affairs, which he held in several cabinets, in spite of the modifications which the policy of the Government from time to time underwent. At the elections of Feb.-March, 1876, his candidature at Villefranche (Aveyron) was unsuccessful, but he gained a seat in the Assembly, though not without difficulty, for the 8th arrondissement of Paris. On the opening of the session in April that year, the Duc Decazes took occasion to declare his profound respect for the laws which had organised the Government of the Republic and the powers of its illustrious President. He and all his colleagues in the Jules-Simon Cabinet sent in their resignations, May 16, 1877, but Marshal MacMahon declined to accept that of the Duc Decazes, who consequently continued to be Foreign Minister in the Broglie-Fourtou Cabinet. At the elections of Oct. 14, 1877, he was returned to the Assembly by the circonscription of Puget-Théniers (Alpes-Maritimes). He resigned the portfolio of Foreign Affairs, Oct. 30, 1877. The Duc Decazes is a Commander of the Legion of Honour, has been decorated with the Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic, and is honorary chamberlain to the King of Denmark.

DECHAMPS, His Eminence Victor Auguste Isidore, Cardinal of the Roman Church, Archbishop of Mechlin, and Primate of Belgium, was born at Melle, in the diocese of Ghent, Dec. 6, 1810. In 1831 he entered the seminary of Tournai, and there commenced those theological studies which he completed in the Catholic University of Louvain. He was afterwards admitted at the convent of Saint Trond into the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. After having taught theology for two years at Wittem, near Aix-la-Chapelle, he devoted himself exclusively to preaching. He acquired great renown as a pulpit orator, and attracted large crowds of auditors at Liége, Brussels, Louvain, and Tournai. The constant fatigue of