VILLIERS VINCENT. 



821 



force under the prince of Conde. On the failure 

 of the hopes of the party to which he had attached 

 himself, he went to Liibeck, and devoted himself 

 to literary pursuits. Villers, who was a man of 

 considerable talent, and some reading, soon acquired 

 a rising reputation in the republic of letters, which 

 was much increased by his obtaining the prize given 

 by the institute, for an Essay on the Influence of 

 the Reformation, and was at length invited to fill 

 the professor's chair of philosophy at the university 

 of Gottingen. This situation, when the French 

 influence predominated, he was compelled to resign, 

 but received a pension in lieu of it. During the 

 occupation of Hanover by the troops of France, 

 under Davoust, the excesses committed by the sol- 

 diery induced him to address a letter to Fanny 

 Beauharnais, with the hope of procuring, through 

 her interest, some mitigation of the evils under 

 which the unhappy country of his adoption then 

 laboured. The work was printed; but the only 

 effect it produced was to draw on its author the 

 personal hatred of the French commander. He 

 also addressed to the institute two reports on the 

 state of ancient literature, and on the history of 

 Germany. The honours which his own country 

 denied him were accorded by the Swedish govern- 

 ment, which made him a chevalier of the order of 

 the polar star. M. de Villers died in the spring of 

 1815. 



VILLIERS. See Buckingham. 



VILLOISON, JEAN BAPTISTE D'ANSSE DE, a 

 distinguished Hellenist, born at Corbeil-sur-Seine, 

 in 1750, early acquired reputation for his talents 

 and attainments. In the nineteenth year of his 

 age, he had read all the ancient Latin and many 

 Greek authors; and, in a short time, he acquired 

 the Arabic, Syriac and Hebrew without any assis- 

 tance from others. In the twenty-third year of his 

 age, he was admitted into the academy of inscrip- 

 tions. In 1778, the government sent him to Ven- 

 ice to examine the manuscripts in the library of St 

 Mark ; and, while there, he enjoyed the society of 

 the learned Morelli, to which intercourse we are 

 indebted for Villoison's Anecdota Grteca e regia 

 Parisiensi et e Veneta S. Marci Bibliothecis de- 

 prompta (Venice, 1781, 2 vols., 4to.). In the li- 

 brary of St Mark, Villoison discovered an important 

 codex, which contained the Iliad of Homer, with 

 numerous scholia, and which was esteemed of great 

 value by Wolf. This he published under the title 

 Homeri Ilias ad veteris Codicis Veneti Fidem recen- 

 sita (Venice, 1788, fol.). After his return from 

 Italy, Villoison visited Germany, and, in 1785, ac- 

 companied the French ambassador Choiseul-Gouffier 

 to Constantinople, and spent three years in travel- 

 ling in Greece and the Grecian islands. This ex- 

 cursion, during which he became familiar with the 

 Romaic, or modern Greek, led him to undertake 

 the preparation of a complete description of Greece. 

 For this purpose, he made excerpts from the Gre- 

 cian authors, the church fathers, and the Byzantine 

 writers; but the revolutionary agitations which 

 ensued interrupted the execution of his plan, and 

 he died in 1805, without having accomplished it. 

 Besides the works already mentioned, Villoison 

 published an excellent edition of Longus's Pastoralia 

 de Daphnide et Chine (2 vols., Paris, 1778), and 

 contributed numerous valuable papers to the Me- 

 moires de I'Academie dcs Inscriptions. 



VIMEIR A ; a town of Portuguese Estremadura, 

 three miles from Torres Vedras, and twenty-eight 

 north-west of Lisbon. It is remarkable for the 



battle between the British and the French (on the 

 21st of August, 1808), in which the French, under 

 general Junot, were defeated by the British forces, 

 under the command of Sir Arthur Wellesley, now 

 duke of Wellington. This battle was followed by 

 the famous convention of Cintra (Aug. 30), by the 

 articles of which the French forces were to be 

 transported to their own country, with their arms 

 and property. 



VINALIA (from the Latin) ; wine feasts among 

 the Romans. The Etruscans, it is said, after a 

 victory gained over the Latins, had made the sur- 

 render of all their wine by the latter a condition of 

 peace. The Latins, enraged at this demand, once 

 more determined to try the chance of war ; but 

 they promised their wine to Jupiter, if they should 

 be victorious. They conquered; and, to fulfil 

 their vow, they offered him the first cup from every 

 cask. This custom was continued, and the feast 

 was celebrated annually on the 23d of April, on 

 which day the wine-casks were opened. A second 

 wine feast was celebrated on the 21st of August, 

 to pray for Jupiter's favour on the approaching 

 vintage. Till after this festival, the wine of the 

 previous year could not be sold, that of the coming 

 season being consecrated by these festivities, and 

 committed to the protection of Jupiter. At this 

 second festival, the flamen Dialis commenced the 

 vintage by gathering the first grape. 



VINCENNES ; a town of France, department 

 of the Seine, about three miles east of Paris. It 

 is remarkable for its castle, built in a remote age. 

 It continued a palace during three centuries, but 

 has since been used as a state prison. It is still of 

 considerable strength. It was here that the unfor- 

 tunate duke d'Enghien was shot on the 21st of 

 March, 1804. Adjoining to the castle is a fine 

 park and forest. Population, 2600. 



VINCENT, ST; an island in the West Indies, 

 about forty miles in length and ten in breadth. 

 This island was only inhabited by native Caribs, 

 till, in the latter part of the seventeenth century, a 

 ship from Guinea, with a cargo of slaves, was either 

 wrecked or run ashore upon the island of St Vin- 

 cent, into the woods and mountains of which great 

 numbers of the negroes escaped, whom the Indians 

 suffered to remain. Partly by the accession of 

 runaway slaves from Barbadoes, and partly by the 

 children they had by the Indian women, the Afri- 

 cans were so much strengthened, that, about the 

 beginning of the eighteenth century, they constrain- 

 ed the Indians to retire into the north-west part of 

 the island. The Indians applied to the, French for 

 assistance, and the consequence was a long war 

 between them and the negroes. In 1763, the island 

 being ceded to the British, the first measure of the 

 British government was to dispose of the lands, 

 without any regard to the claims of either race. A 

 war took place, which ended in a compromise, by 

 which the natives, after surrendering part of their 

 lands, were permitted to enjoy the remainder un- 

 molested. On the 19th of June, 1779, St Vincent 

 was captured by a French force from Martirsico. 

 It was restored to Britain at the peace of 1783. 

 St Vincent contains about 84,000 acres, which are 

 well watered ; but the country is generally moun- 

 tainous and rugged. The valleys, however, are 

 fertile in a high degree, the soil consisting chiefly 

 of a fine mould, composed of sand and clay, well 

 adapted for sugar. Its towns are Kingston, the 

 capital, and Richmond : the others are villages or 

 hamlets, at the several bays and landing-places. 



