A scandal of the Court of Louis XVI, in 1785, to which the unpopularity of Marie Antoinette was largely due. Mme. Lamothe, the mistress of the Cardinal de Rohan, gave the Cardinal an order, purporting to be signed by the Queen, for a diamond necklace, which the Cardinal ordered from the Court jeweller, giving bills for payment by instalments. Madame Lamothe, by means of another forged document, obtained possession of the necklace, and turned it to her own uses. The Cardinal being unable to meet the first bill when it became due, the jeweller applied to the Queen. The matter came to the ears of the King, who ordered an inquiry, and Mme. Lamothe was arrested and convicted, and the Cardinal disgraced. Nothing was proved against the Queen, but the public remained convinced that she was in some way mixed up in the affair. Diamond State. The State of Delaware, U.S.A., is so called. Diamond Trade Act. An Act passed by the Cape Parliament in 1882, to suppress illicit diamond buying, or I.D.B. This Act made it criminal to possess an uncut diamond without being able to account for its lawful possession. It also gave the police large powers of search, including the right to open suspicious parcels in the post. The administration of this Act was the cause of the Kimberley Riots. Dictator of a Day. Pavia, Captain-General of Madrid, who by a _pronunciamiento_ in 1869, obtained the supreme power, which he at once handed over to Marshal Serrano. Dingaan’s Day. December 16, 1838, on which day the Transvaal Commandos completely routed the Zulu chief Dingaan, thus avenging the massacre of the Boer farmers in the early part of the same year. Directoire. The Government established in France after the fall of Robespierre, in July, 1794. The power was vested in five directors, assisted by a Council of five hundred, and a Council of two hundred and fifty members known as the Council of Ancients. It lasted until 1799, when the Consulate was established by the _Coup d’Etat_ of November 9 (18th Brumaire). Disarming Act. One of the Irish Penal Laws, passed in 1695, under which all Papists were ordered to surrender their arms, under penalty of a heavy fine for the first offence, and of imprisonment for life for the second. Disarming the Highlands, Act for. An Act passed in 1825, forbidding the carrying of arms by the Highland clansmen. Disastrous Peace. The Treaty of Câteau Cambrésis in 1559, whereby Henri renounced his Italian claims, was so called by the French. Discipline, Books of. The two publications embodying the constitution and procedure of the Church of Scotland. The first was drawn up by John Knox, and four other ministers, in 1560. The second, a revised version of the first, was drawn up by Andrew Melville, and sanctioned by the General Assembly in 1578. Discoverers.