Page:A cyclopaedia of female biography.djvu/779

 virtues. When God, by whom "kings reign," exalts a woman to the government of a great kingdom, we are led to believe it is for the purpose of promoting the best interests of virtue, religion, and social happiness. There was never a time when moral power might "be so effectually and gloriously employed as at the present. The empire of physical force is crumbling into ruins. It is fitting that the reign of feeling and intellect, of industry and peace, should be ushered in by a woman.

One of the last and certainly the greatest pageant in which Queen Victoria has performed her part so admirably, was the opening of the "World's Fair," at the Crystal Palace, London, May 1st., 1851. Leaning on the arm of her beloved and revered husband, Prince Albert, who had originated this wonderful and most successful enterprise of bringing together into London the world's work and "wealth, the Queen, leading their princely son while the husband led their royal daughter, appeared before the vast assemblage of men from all nations as one who had the "monarch power," yet sweetly modified by the character of wife and mother. She came to give publicly her sympathy and her approval to a great movement whose influence on the happiness of the world, will, probably, be more important than any which has taken place since the Reformation. The opening of the great Industrial Exhibition was an act worthy of a Queen; worthy of Victoria; and no less so was her openly-expressed sympathy with the friends of those who fell in that fearful Crimean struggle of 1855-6. Her frequent visits to the wounded at Fort Pitt, Chatham, and other military hospitals, her manifest emotion on these sad occasions, and tender regard and care for the poor victims of the horrid wars, have given her a deeper and warmer place in the hearts of her subjects than she before occupied, much as she has always been respected and beloved with us. "Long Life to Victoria!" is no parrot cry; it is not vox et præterea nihil, but the expression of a nation's most earnest wish and prayer—the utterance of a people's devoted love.

VIGNE, ANNE DE LA, born in 1634, at Vernon, in Normandy. She was the daughter of one of the king's physicians, and was one of the most beautiful and intellectual persons of her time. Her extreme devotion to study brought on a disease of which she died, at Paris, in 1684. She belonged to the academy of the Ricovrati at Padua; and was the intimate friend of Mademoiselle de Scuderi and Marie Dapré. She was distinguished for her poetical talents, and her scientific attainments. Her ode, entitled "Monseigneur le Dauphin au Roi," obtained great reputation.

VIOT, MARIE ANNE HENRIETTE, of Dresden, Prussia, was distinguished for her wit, learning, and the versatility of her genius. Her father, M. de l'Estrang, removed to France when she was a child. At the age of twelve she married d'Antremont, who left her a widow in four I years. She then married de Bourdic, of Nismes. After his decease she again married; her third husband was M. Viot, commissary of the Intêrieures at Barcelona, Madame Viot was honoured with a seat in the academy of Nismes, and read, on her admission, an