t to her election between it and dower. By the ingenuity of the old
conveyancers, devices, known as "uses to bar dower" (the effect of which
was that the purchaser never had at any time an estate of inheritance in
possession), were found to prevent dower attaching to newly purchased
lands, and so to enable the owner to give a clear title, without the
need of the wife's concurrence, in the event of his wishing, in his
turn, to convey the land. All this was, however, swept away by the Dower
Act 1834, and a purchaser of land no longer need trouble himself to
inquire whether the dower of the wife of the vendor has been barred, or
to insist on her concurrence in a fine. (H. S. S.)

DOWIE, JOHN ALEXANDER (1848-1907), founder of "Zionism," was born in
Edinburgh, and went as a boy to South Australia with his parents. He
returned in 1868 to study for the Congregationalist ministry at
Edinburgh University, and subsequently became pastor of a church near
Sydney, Australia. He was a powerful preacher, and later, having become
imbued with belief in his powers as a healer of disease by prayer, he
obtained sufficient following to move to Melbourne, build a tabernacle,
and found "The Divine Healing Association of Australia and New Zealand."
In 1888 he went to America, preaching and "healing," and in spite of
opposition and ridicule attracted a number of adherents. In 1896 he
established "The Christian Catholic Apostolic Church in Zion," with
himself as "First Apostle"; and in 1901, with money liberally
contributed by his followers, he founded Zion City, on a site covering
about 10 sq. m. on the west shore of Lake Michigan, with a central
temple for the Zionist church. In 1903 and 1904, in the course of a
visit to the branches of the Zionist movement throughout the world, he
appeared in London, but was mobbed. In April 1906 a revolt against his
domination took place in Zion City. He was charged with peculation and
with practising polygamy, and was deposed, with the assent of his own
wife and son. A suit brought by him in the United States district court
to recover possession of the Zion City property, valued at two millions
sterling, was unsuccessful, and his defalcations were fully proved.
Dowie was now broken in health and unmistakably insane; he was struck
with paralysis and gradually becoming weaker died in Zion City in March
1907.

DOWLAS, the name given to a plain cloth, similar to sheeting, but
usually coarser. I