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 VILLENEUVE-BARCEMENT

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VILLERS

the impressions produced on them by the magnificence of Byzantine civiHzation. The description of the arrival of the Crusaders before Constantinople (ed. Natalis de Wailly, p. 73) is justly celebrated for the depth of the impression which it reveals. Unhappily, its testimony is not sufficient to afford an exact idea of the Crusade of Constantinople. He tolls posterity only wliat he wishes, and refrains from making known the secret details of the negotiations in which he took part, and which are necessary to understand the reason for diverting the Crusade towards Constanti- nople. His sincerity is not therefore complete; more- over, his point of view is that of the great barons, for whose conduct he makes an incessant apology. Hence it is necessary to supplement his testimony by that of Robert de Clari, who represents the knights. His book has had many editions, including those of: Ducange. "Hist, de I'empire de Constantinople sous les empereurs frangois" (Paris, 1657), the text of which is defective; in the edition of the Societe de I'hist. de France (Paris, 183S); de Wailly, "Le conquete do Constantinople avec la continuation de Henri de Valenciennes (Paris, 1872); Bouchet (Paris, 1891, with notes), English translation by Sir F. T. Marzial (Everyman's Library, 1908).

Gerlaxd, Gesch. des latein. Kaiserreiches von Konsiantinopel, I (Hamburg, 1905) ; Re.nnell Rodd, The Princes of Achaia, I (London, 1907).

Louis Br^hier.

Villeneuve-Barcement, Je.\n-P.\ul-Alban, Vi- comte do, b. at Saint-Auban, Var, 8 Aug., 1784; d. at Paris, 8 .Juno, 1850. After having taken part in the prefect orial administration of the Empire and the Restoration he became councillor of State in 1828, but in 1830 refused to take the oath to the Government of Louis-Philippe. He was a deputy from 18.30 to 1831 and from 1840 to 1848 held a seat among the Legit imi.sts. In 18.32 when the Duchess of Berri was planning to land in Provence, he accepted from her the commission of royal commissary in the Var, but he soon returned to Paris and devoted himself chiefly to studies in political economy, and in 1848 was appointed a member of the Academic des Sciences Morales. He realized the importance of the social question when he visited Lille, where there wore 32,0(X) paupers, that is nearly half the population. The idea of combating pauperism was thenceforth in his mind. As a deputy he was one of the foremost authors of the law of 1841 hmiting child labour, a law which for the first time in France embodied the princi- ple of legal protection for labourers; he caused to be inserted in the fiscal law of 1847 an amendment dis- pensing from stamp tax and registration the acts necessary to the marriage of the poor and the legiti- mation of their children. As an economist he stood apart from the school of Adam Smith and Jean- Baptiste Say, whom he regarded as Materialists. He considered that political economy should concern itself less with production of wealth than with its distribution and the general diffusion of well-being; and believed that the State ought to interfere in the regulation of labour to protect the weak against the "new feudalism of patrons". In his "Li\Te dos affli- g6s" he depicts a bishop complaining with equal bitteme-ss of the industrial proprietors who think only of increasing their gains and of the legislators who arc concerned solely with enacting penal prohibitions against labour organizations. His idea of a salary was the "vital and family salarj'", sufficient to sus- tain both the workman and his family, and he held that the employer ought to receive a profit only after the payment of this .salarj'. The chief writings in which his ideas are set forth are the "Economic poU- tique chretionne, ou recherches sur la nature et les causes du pauperisme en France ei en Europe, et sur les moyens de le soulager ct de le pr^venir" (Paris, 1834); "Histoire de reconomie pohtique, ou dtudes

historiques, philosophiques et rehgieuses sur I'^cono- mie pohtique des peuples anciens et modemes" (Paris, 1841); "Le livre des afflig^s" (Paris, 1841).

LippERT in CoNB.^D AND Lexi9. Haiidworterbuch der Staats- wissrnschafttn, VH (Jena, 1901); Theby, Vn pricurseur du catho- licisme social, le vicomle de ViUeneuve-Bargemonl (Lille, 1911).

Georges Gotad.

Villerme, Louis-Ren£, French economist, b. at Paris, 10 March, 1782; d. there, 16 Nov., 1803. He was devoted to medical studies, and later to social questions. He wrote two important memoirs on the mortaUty among prisoners and promiscuity in gaols (1820, 1829) and established the "Annales d'hygiene" (1829). His works on vital statistics were regarded as a refutation, on many points successful, of Double- day's "True Law of Population". His chief title to renown is his "Tableau de l'(5tat physique et moral des ou\Tiers employes dans les manufactures de coton, de laine et de soie" (1840), which was the re- sult of lengthy investigation. It showed how the hand combing of cotton engenders pneumonia, and contained a protest against excessive child-labour in manufacturing; Villcrmo's cry of warning was thus the origin of the law of 1841 on child labour. The period of 1848 was marked by three works of Vil- lerm6: "Les associations ouvTieres" (1849); "Les cites ou\Tieres" (1850); "Les accidents produits dans les ateliers par les appareils mecaniques"(1858). To Villerme belongs the credit of having given an accu- rate diagnosis of the industrial evils which social Catholicism later sought to remedy. A Liberal in political economy, he was timid when it came to or- ganizing remedies, but he brought to the observation and exposition of the social evil the exactitude em- ployed by a physician in the diagnosis of a patient's malady. He was a member of the Acadcmie des Sci- ences I^Iorales et Politiques from about 1833.

B^cLARD, Eloge de Villerme (Paris, 1866): Lippert in Conrad AND Lexis, Ilandworlerb. d. Staalswissenschaften (Jena, 1901),

Georges Govau.

Villers, Cistercian Abbey of, situated on the confines of Villers and Tilly, Duchy of Brabant, pres- ent Diocese of Namur (Belgium), and first monastery of the order in this territory. In April, 1146 (most probably), St. Bernard sent twelve monks and five lay-brothers from Clairvaux, under the direction of Abbot Lawrence, to establish themselves at Boverie, from whence, after over a year of struggle against dis- couragement and failure, they transferred their mon- asterj- to a more suitable location, about three miles distant, where a modest oratorj- and dwelling were soon erected. The early years were replete with Bufferings for the new community, but little by little, as it became known, tlie nobles of the vicinity came to its aid with material assistance. Abbot Charles (1197-1209) laid the foundations for the magni- ficent church, the niins of which oven to-day pro- foundly impress the beholder, but it was not com- pleted until about the year 1300; he also began the construction of the new monastery. With the in- crease of temporal prosperity, and their minds free from such anxieties, the spiritual growth of the mem- bers of the community became the more remarkable; vocations were multiplied and the abbey attained great renown as an abode of sanctity. In 1231 and 1238 it founded the monasteries of Grand Pro and Lieu St. Bernard. Towards the middle of the thir- teenth centur>' Villers was at the height of its glorj'; it.^ revenues were very large, both spiritual and tem- poral powers regarded it with the greatest favour, and it numbered amongst its members over 100 monks and 300 lay-brothors. More than 50 monks and lay- brothers, who lived during this period, are honoured as saints and Blessed in the Order of Citeaux. Prom- inent amongst these wore its first thirteen abbots, especially G<;rard I, who died Bishop of Toumai