Dred Scott Case.
A case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1855. Dred Scott, a negro, claimed that having lived with his owner in a free labour state, he could not be sold back into slavery on his master’s death. The Supreme Court decided against him, and further laid it down that he had no locus standi before the Court, as the rights of citizenship could not be claimed by any person who had been a slave or was the descendant of a slave.
Dreikaiserbund.
An alliance, more or less formal, between the three Emperors of Austria, Germany, and Russia, dating from a personal meeting in 1872. It had ceased to exist in any form prior to 1879, when the foundation of the existing Triple Alliance was laid.
Dreyfus Case.
In December, 1894, Captain Dreyfus, a Jewish artillery officer, employed at the General Staff in Paris, was found guilty of supplying confidential documents to foreign Powers, and sentenced to degradation and transportation for life. His friends were convinced of his innocence, and began an agitation which by degrees attracted the attention of many eminent Frenchmen, among others Emile Zola, who took up his cause with great warmth. Eventually the Government were forced to submit the case to the Cour de Cassation, which quashed the conviction and ordered a new trial. Dreyfus was brought back to France in 1899, and tried by court-martial at Rennes. Though his innocence was generally believed in outside France, he was again found guilty, but was almost immediately pardoned by the President. The Case was the occasion of a wild outburst of anti-semitism in France. In February, 1903, it was rumoured that the case was to be re-opened by the Dreyfusites, evidence having come to light of the methods adopted by the General Staff to secure the second conviction.
Drifts, Closing the.
In 1895 the Transvaal Government raised the rates on merchandise on the railway between the Vaal and Johannesburg, in order to force importers to use the newly-opened Delagoa Bay Railway. The Cape importers thereupon unloaded their merchandise at the frontier, and sent it on to Johannesburg by waggon. President Kruger then closed the drifts, or fords, on the Vaal on October 1. He was reminded that this action was a breach of the London Convention, but he remained obdurate, and it was found necessary to resort to a display of force, before which he gave way.
Drogheda, Statute of.
Generally known as Poyning’s Act.