DECKER, PIERRE DE (1812-1891), Belgian statesman and author, was educated at a Jesuit school, studied law at Paris, and became a journalist on the staff of the _Revue de Bruxelles_. In 1839 he was elected to the Belgian lower chamber, where he gained a great reputation for oratory. In 1855 he became minister of the interior and prime minister, and attempted, by a combination of the moderate elements of the Catholic and Liberal parties, the impossible task of effecting a settlement of the educational and other questions by which Belgium was distracted. In 1866 he retired from politics and went into business, with disastrous results. He became involved in financial speculations which lost him his good name as well as the greater part of his fortune; and, though he was never proved to have been more than the victim of clever operators, when in 1871 he was appointed by the Catholic cabinet governor of Limburg, the outcry was so great that he resigned the appointment and retired definitively into private life. He died on the 4th of January 1891. Decker, who was a member of the Belgian academy, wrote several historical and other works of value, of which the most notable are _Études historiques et critiques sur les monts-de-piété en Belgique_ (Brussels, 1844); _De l'influence du libre arbitre de l'homme sur les faits sociaux_ (1848); _L'Esprit de parti et l'esprit national_ (1852); _Étude politique sur le vicomte Ch. Vilain XIIII_ (1879); _Épisodes de l'hist. de l'art en Belgique_ (1883); _Biographie de H. Conscience_ (1885).
DECLARATION (from Lat. _declarare_, to make fully clear, _clarus_), formerly, in an action at English law, the first step in pleading--the precise statement of the matter in respect of which the plaintiff sued. It was divided into counts, in each of which a specific cause of action was alleged, in wide and general terms, and the same acts or omissions might be stated in several counts as different causes of actions. Under the system of pleading established by the Judicature Act 1875, the declaration has been superseded by a statement of claim setting forth the facts on which the plaintiff relies. Declarations are now in use only in the mayor's court of London and certain local courts of record, and in those of the United States and the British colonies in which the Common Law system of pleading survives. In the United States a declaration is termed a "complaint," which is the first pleading in an action. It is divided into parts,--the _title_ of the court and term; the _venue_ or county in which the facts are alleged to have occurred; the _commencement_, which contains a statement of the names of the parties and the character in which they appear; the _statement_ of the cause of action; and the _conclusion_ or claim for relief. (See PLEADING.)