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Rh ria, travelled extensively in the East and Egypt, and on his return settled in Southfield, Staten island, N. Y. He wrote for the Methodist press, and was professor of Hebrew in the Chautauqua school of languages. Genesee college, Lima, N. Y ., gave him the degree of D. D. in 1856. Dr. Vail was an active member of the Republican party, and an early Abolitionist. Previous to the civil war he sustained a long and able controversy with Bishop John H. Hopkins on the subject of human slavery, the bishop being an earnest advocate of that institution. Dr. Vail published essays on slavery and church polity, "Outlines of Hebrew Grammar," and other educational hand-books, and " Memoir and Remains of Rev. Zenas Caldwell " (Boston, 1824) ; " Education in the Methodist Epis- copal Church " (1853) ; and " The Bible against Slavery " (Concord, N. H., 1864).

VAIL, Thomas Hubbard, P. E. bishop, b. in Richmond, Va., 21 Oct., 1812. His parents were from New England, and on the death of his father in 1817 his mother returned to the north. The son was graduated at Washington (now Trinity) college in 1831, and at the General theological seminary in New York in 1835, was ordered dea- con by Bishop Brownell in St. Mark's church, New Canaan, Conn., 29 June, 1835, and priest in Grace church, Boston, by Bishop Griswold, 6 Jan., 1837. During his diaconate he served for a short time as assistant minister in St. James's church, Phila- delphia, and he was afterward assistant to Dr. Jonathan M. Wainwright in St. Paul's church, Boston. He organized the parish of All Saints, Worcester, Mass., became rector of Christ church, Cambridge,in 1837,and in 1839 of St. John's church, Essex. In 1844 he removed to Rhode Island and was made rector of Christ church, Westerly, where he remained fourteen years, serving as deputy to the General convention during part of that time. In 1857 he returned to Massachusetts as rector of St. John's, Taunton. In 1863 he went to Iowa, taking the rectorship of Trinity church, Musca- tine. The degree of S. T. D. was given him by Brown in 1858, and that of LL. D. by the Uni- versity of Kansas in 1875. He was consecrated first bishop of Kansas, 15 Dec, 1864, in Trinity church, Muscatine, Iowa. Bishop Vail is the au- thor of " Hannah," a sacred drama, published anonvmously (Boston, 1839) ; " The Comprehensive Church " (1841 ; 3d ed., New York, 1883) ; and numerous reports of school committees, charges, addresses, and pastoral letters. He has edited, with a memoir of the author, Rev. Augustus P. Lyte's " Buds of Spring," poems (Boston, 1838).

VAIL, William Berrian, Canadian member of parliament, b. in Sussex, New Brunswick, 19 Dec, 1823. He is a grandson of Robert Vail, a loyalist, who removed from the United States to New Brunswick at the close of the Revolution. He is a lieutenant-colonel of militia, was a member of the executive council and provincial secretary of Nova Scotia in 1867-74, and on 30 Sept., 1874, became a member of the privy council of Canada, and was appointed minister of militia and defence. This portfolio he resigned in January, 1878. He represented Digby in the Nova Scotia assembly from 1867 till his appointment to office in the Do- minion government, when he was returned for the same constituency in the Canadian parliament. He was not a candidate at the election in 1878, but was elected in February, 1887. He is a Liberal, favors free-trade relations with all countries, and the maintenance of the integrity of the British empire. Mr. Vail's father, John C. Vail, was a representative in the New Brunswick house of assembly for twenty-five years; and his brother, Arnold Vail, M. D., was a member of the house for fifteen years, for eight years speaker, and at his death, in July, 1886, was a member of the executive and legislative councils of New Brunswick.

VAILL, Joseph, clergyman, b. in Litchfield, Conn., 3 July, 1750 ; d. in Killingworth, Conn., 21 Nov., 1838. His father, of the same name, removed to Litchfield from Southold, Long Island, about 1730. In 1772 the son went to Hanover, N. H., travelling most of the way on foot, with the inten- tion of preparing for Dartmouth, and defraying his expenses by working in a saw-mill. He was graduated in 1778, studied divinity in Northbury (now Plymouth), Conn., and was licensed to preach in May, 1779. From 9 Feb., 1780, till his death he was pastor of the church at Hadlyme, Conn., where he also gave some time to teaching. He made two missionary tours, one in 1792 to Ver- mont, and another in 1807 to the "Black river country" in New York. After 1832 he was given a colleague. Mr. Vaill contributed to the " Con- necticut Evangelical Magazine," under the pen- names of "Senex" and " Jethro," wrote for other periodicals, and, besides sermons, published a nar- rative poem entitled " Noah's Flood," with some minor poetical pieces (1796). See " Memoir of the Life and Character of the Rev. Joseph Vaill," by Rev. Isaac Parsons (New York, 1839). — His son, Joseph, clergyman, b. in Hadlyme, Conn., in 1790 ; d. in Palmer, Mass., 22 Feb., 1869, was graduated at Yale in 1811, taught in Litchfield and Salisbury, Conn., and studied theology with his father. He was pastor of the Congregational church in Brim- field in 1814-34, and again in 1837-41, in Port- land, Me., in 1834-'7, and at Palmer, Mass., from 1854 until 1868. In 1841-'5 he was financial agent for Amherst college, and during that period of financial embarrassment he raised for its endow- ment the sum of $100,000. Amherst gave him the degree of D. D. in 1851. In the autumn before his death he was elected to the legislature of Massachu- setts. He published " Sermons " (Springfield, 1861).

VAILLANT, Auguste Nicolas (val-yong), French naval officer, b. in Paris, France, 2 July, 1793 ; d. in France, 1 Nov., 1858. He entered the navy and rose rapidly in the service, but was retired in 1816 on suspicion of being a Bonapartist. He was restored in 1818, and sent to French Guiana to study the best method of colonizing that country. He made a thorough exploration of the banks of Maroni river, and produced a memoir with a map of that river, the course of which had been till then almost unknown. After serving in various parts of Europe and Africa, he was made in February, 1836, commander of the " Bonite," in which vessel he sailed round the globe, returning to France in November, 1837. In 1838 he was made captain, took part in the expedition to Mexico, and, after the capture of San Juan de Ulua, was appointed commander of this fortress and the station of Vera Cruz. After the conclusion of peace with Mexico he was engaged in the La Plata expedition, and occupied Montevideo. He was minister of marine during the early part of 1851, and gave a vigorous impulse to the colonial policy of France. The same year he was appointed governor-general of the French Antilles and commander of the stations in these quarters and on the Gulf of Mexico. He was then transferred to the government of Martinique, but was forced by ill health to return to France in 1853, to the regret of the colony, which his administration had greatly benefited. ' An account of his voyage of circumnavigation was published under the title