Joseph François Dupleix

“ His indignation was excusable, and some of his grievances were well grounded; but the germs of suspicion thus sown by the unfortunate prisoner released from the Bastille were destined before long to consign to perdition not only his enemy, but also, together with him, that French dominion in India to which M. de La Bourdonnais had dedicated his life.
Meanwhile Dupleix grew greater and greater, every day more powerful and more daring. The English had not forgotten the affair of Madras. On the 30th of August, 1748, Admiral Boscawen went and laid siege to Pondicherry ”

“ In India England had at last found a man still young and unknown, but worthy of being opposed to Dupleix. Clive, who had almost in boyhood entered the Company’s offices, turned out, after the turbulence of his early years, a heaven-born general; he was destined to continue Dupleix’s work, when abandoned by France, and to found to the advantage of the English that European dominion in India which had been the Governor of Pondicherry’s dream. The war still continued in the Carnatic: Mahomet Ali, Tchunda Sahib’s rival, had for the last six months been besieged in Trichinopoli ”

“ Already the vessels of La Bourdonnais, laden with these precious spoils, had made sail for Pondicherry; the governor of Bourbon was in a hurry to get back to his islands; autumn was coming on, tempests were threatening his squadron, but Dupleix was still disputing the terms of the treaty concluded with the English for the rendition of Madras; he had instructions, he said, to raze the city and place it thus dismantled in the hands of the Nabob of the Carnatic; the Hindoo prince had set himself in motion to seize his prey; the English burst out into insults and threats. ”

“ A throne awaited the soudhabar, surrounded by the Affghan chiefs, who were already claiming the reward of their services. The Hindoo prince needed the aid of France; he knew it. He proclaimed Dupleix nabob of all the provinces to the south of the River Krischna. Tebunda Sahib, but lately his ally, became his vassal—“the vassal of France,” murmured Madame Dupleix, when she heard of this splendid recompense for so many public and private services. The ability and indomitable bravery of M. de Bussy soon extended the French conquests in the Deccan. ”

“ Whatever else may be said, this much is certain, that the protégé of the French was a better puppet than the protégé of the English. Furthermore, he drew into the French net no less a person than Muzaffar-Jung, a grandson of old Asaf-Jâh, who was a claimant for the Dekkan. Truly, therefore, with a Nizam of the Dekkan, and a Nawâb of the Carnatic, both owing their thrones to French interference, Dupleix had a right to expect much for his country. ”

“ Beyond this division, and to the north of it, was a suburb, where the Indian natives of all ranks had their habitations promiscuously. Besides these three divisions, which composed the town of Madras, there were two large and populous villages, about a mile to the southward of it, within the Company's territory; and these were likewise inhabited by Indian natives."
[11] The representations of Dupleix received more attention in France than those of La Bourdonnais; and that great man, instead of the high rewards to which he was entitled, was imprisoned four years in the Bastille. ”

“ Dupleix was evidently unwilling that this secret work of his should be interrupted by any outbreak of hostilities in the East, and some little time previous to the open declaration of war, both the French and English Companies had taken steps to provide for peace at any price. But a new factor had arisen on the French side in the person of Admiral Labourdonnais, the Governor of the Isle of France and the Isle of Bourbon.
His had been an adventurous life, and he had often been in and out of favour with those who had employed him. ”

“ The English were now masters of the Carnatic, and the French influence was broken. Steadily the English power was extended over the Deccan and all Southern India. Dupleix struggled against his fate in vain, no French armament came to his assistance. His company condemned his policy and furnished him with no aid. But still he persisted, bribed, intrigued, promised, lavished his private fortune, and everywhere tried to raise new enemies to the government at Madras, but all to no purpose. ”

“ To see the resources of this country lost by false measures and a feeble administration, and to send thither my best blood, is impossible. The provinces have plenty of money, when the soldier is not paid he will pillage, and I know not what to do with him."
It was in the midst of his joy and his easy triumph in Andalusia that the severe protests of Napoleon arrived to surprise King Joseph. A few liberalities he had permitted himself with regard to his servants had succeeded in exasperating the emperor. ”

“ Eight days after the arrival of King Joseph at Bayonne, the new constitution was adopted by the improvised Junta. "It is all that we can offer you, sire," said imprudently the Duke de l'Infantado, formerly the most eager accomplice of the Prince of Asturias in his intrigues against his father; "we are waiting till the nation speaks, and authorizes us to give freer course to our sentiments." They stopped the duke from saying any more; the Spanish nation had not been consulted. ”

“ He had bent all his hopes on Law of Lauriston, nephew of the famous Scotch financier, and who commanded the French troops before Trichinopoli. He leant, however, on a reed, on which, when a man leaneth, it pierces his hand. As a soldier under command Law was excellent. As a Commander-in-chief he was pitiable, dreading responsibility, timid, nervous, wanting in every quality of a general. At the moment Dupleix did not know this. He had seen Law fight well and gallantly at the siege of Pondicherry: he had known him full of self-confidence, and he had believed him capable of great things. ”

“ Many questioned the skill of the gallant officer by whom it was conducted: his fame as a naval commander was justly high; but he had little, if any, experience of land service. It is, however, due to his reputation to remark, that he received no aid from the engineer, whose want of knowledge was apparent in every stage of this siege. Dupleix transmitted an account of it to all the princes of Coromandel, and to the Emperor of Delhi; and the result considerably increased his fame in every part of India. ”

“ The bold and extensive, though, perhaps, premature, schemes of Dupleix had, at first, excited great expectations in France; but when, instead of those successes which his sanguine mind had led his government to anticipate, every despatch brought accounts of some failure or disaster, national vanity, combined with prejudice and ignorance, induced the ministers of that country to throw the whole blame on the Company and on the individuals whom they had employed to manage their affairs abroad. Their political and military conduct underwent equal condemnation ”

“ Dupleix, greatly enraged at his failure, and knowing to a nicety how to deal with natives, now commenced to make the Nawâb of Arcot's life a burden to him by reason of petty raids, until, wearied out, he once more threw the weight of his support into the French scale.
It cannot have been a clean business; it certainly was not an edifying spectacle to see two civilised European communities vieing with one another in their efforts to secure an Oriental potentate, but this much may be said in English extenuation--the French began it. ”

“ He studied law as a profession, and in January, 1880, was called to the bar of Lower Canada, and is now practising in Three Rivers, in partnership with J. M. Deselets, Q.C. Mr. Duplessis did not take an active part in politics until the general election of 1886, when he was returned to the Legislative Assembly of Quebec for the county of St. Maurice. In religion he is an adherent of the Roman Catholic church, and in politics a Conservative. He is a rising man, and not many years hence will make his mark in the legislature of his native province. ”

“ The successions of all these were disputed, especially that of the Carnatic, which was held by that very Nawâb of Arcot who had bandied about his allegiance between the French and English. A most immoral proceeding, no doubt, but at a time when civilised and Christian men were palpably only playing for their own hand, it is not to be wondered at if less cultivated, more pagan peoples followed suit. There seems, anyhow, no reason--except the advantage to be gained from having a real creature--why Dupleix should have thrown him over and supported the claims of Chanda-Sâhib. ”

“ The mayor of La Logerie unfastened his pony, picked up a handful of straw, and cleaned off the saddle, which Joseph, maliciously and out of hatred,--a hatred which he inculcated to his children against the "curs,"--had smeared with cows' dung from pommel to crupper. Then, without complaining or retaliating, as if the accident he had just remedied was a perfectly natural one, he mounted his steed with an indifferent air, and even stopped on his way through the orchard to see if the apples were properly setting, with the eye of a connoisseur. ”

“ He allowed the English inhabitants of Madras to remain prisoners of war on parole, and stipulated that the town should remain in his hands until the payment of a ransom of some nine millions of francs.
The triumph of La Bourdonnais aroused, however, not the admiration but the jealousy of Dupleix. Out of La Bourdonnais's very victory the cunning of Dupleix discovered a means to humiliate his rival. The vague schemes which he had formed for the authority of France, and for his influence in India, did not at all jump with the restoration of Madras, once conquered, to the English. ”

“ Morse led him to believe that the English would use their advantage to the utmost, Dupleix appealed to the common suzerain of the two settlements, to the Nawáb Anwar-ud-dín. He reminded him of the long-standing friendship between the rulers of the French settlement and his predecessors; how the French, in times of danger and difficulty, had ever extended their hospitality to the Nawábs and their friends ”

“ DUVEEN, Sir JOSEPH JOEL (1843–1908) , art dealer and benefactor, born at Meppel in Holland on 8 May 1843, was elder son in a family of two sons and two daughters of Joseph Duveen of that place by his wife Eva, daughter of Henry van Minden of Zwolle. His grandfather, Henry Duveen, who had first settled at Meppel during the Napoleonic wars, was youngest son of Joseph Duveen of Giessen, army contractor to the King of Saxony ; Napoleon's repudiation of the debts of the Saxon forces ruined this Duveen, whose twelve sons were then driven to seek their fortunes in different countries. ”

“ It is touching that in extreme old age the first work that occupied his youth should still find so clear an echo in his vigorous old age.
Mr Huxley records (ii., p. 480) that though Sir Joseph “kept at work till but a little before the end,” his physical strength began to fail in the late summer; but his mental powers were undimmed. He died in his sleep on 10th December 1911, and was buried (as he had desired) near his father’s grave at Kew. ”

“ Joseph himself had learned by a dream that he should one day govern his brethren. Abimelech, a long time before, had been warned in a dream, that Sarah was the wife of Abraham.
To return to Joseph: after explaining the dream of Pharaoh, he was made first minister on the spot. We doubt if at present a king could be found, even in Asia, who would bestow such an office in return for an interpreted dream. Pharaoh espoused Joseph to a daughter of Potiphar. It is said that this Potiphar was high-priest of Heliopolis; he was not therefore the eunuch, his first master ”

“ I hastened to reply. “M. Duplay believes that you knew your foil to be unbuttoned, but I have told him ‘no!’ Come; shake hands, and be friends.”
I held out my hand.
Félicién took it with rather a bad grace.
“There,” said M. Duplay; “you have said adieu! We go our way—you can go yours.”
And he dismissed him with a wave of his hand.
We went our way.
“You see, I was right in coming out with you,” said M. Duplay. “The little scoundrel was waiting there to pick a quarrel with you. He would not be a bad carpenter if he would work, but he thinks the trade beneath him. ”

“ A few hours after his departure, an armed band, sent by the influence of the Allies, arrived at the chateau to arrest him. Joseph upon his arrival in France, immediately, with characteristic devotion, placed himself entirely at the disposition of the brother he loved so well.
As Joseph traversed France, he was everywhere met with great enthusiasm, the people shouting, "Napoleon the Emperor of our choice;" "The nation desires him alone;" "No aristocracy;" "Away with the old régime." ”

“ Late in life he changed his style and gained appreciably in largeness of handling and arrived at greater simplicity in his colour harmonies. Among his chief works are the “Morning” and “Evening” at the Louvre, and the early “Crossing the Bridge” in the Wallace Collection.
DUPUIS, CHARLES FRANÇOIS (1742-1809) , French scientific writer and politician, was born of poor parents at Trye-Château, between Gisors and Chaumont, on the 26th of October 1742. His father, who was a teacher, instructed him in mathematics and land-surveying. ”