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 VAGA VALCKENAER 241 of studies there from 1837 to 1851, when he was suspended through ultramontane influ- ence. In 1852 he was dismissed for refusing to take the oath to Napoleon III. ; and for his treatise La democratic (1859) he underwent three months' imprisonment, and for this and his refusal to act as a member of the council of superior instruction was disfranchised till 1870. In 1871 he was elected a member of the national assembly. He succeeded Cousin in the academy. His works include Histoire critique de. Vecole d? Alexandrie, crowned by the academy (3 vols., 1846-'51) ; La metaphy- sique et la science (2 vols., 1858; 2d ed., 3 vols., 1863) ; Essais de philosophic critique (1864) ; and La religion (1868). VAGA, Perino del, or Pietro Bnonaccorsi, an Ital- ian painter, born in Florence in 1500, died in Rome in 1547. He adopted the names of his teachers Vaga and Perino, and was employed by Raphael on some of the principal designs in fresco for the Vatican. After the death of Raphael he rose into great reputation. In 1527, during the sack of Rome, he was impris- oned ; and on being ransomed he went to Ge- noa, where he embellished the palace of the Dorias. He returned to Rome during the pontificate of Paul III. He designed after the style of Michel Angelo, and excelled in mytho- logical, classical, and religious subjects. His best work is the " Creation of Eve " in Rome. VAGRANT (Lat. vagari, to wander), in law, sometimes denned as one who has no settled home, but more properly one who wanders about without any settled home, refuses to work, and has no means of subsistence. The law looks upon vagrancy as an offence, not for its moral wrong nor for the harm it does to the man himself, but for its injury to so- ciety, and the demand it makes upon the means of society for the subsistence of the vagrant. If one having a settled home, with- out means of subsistence, requires help, he is a pauper, and not a vagrant ; that is, he is en- titled to aid, but is not an offender. Neither is one a vagrant who, having means of his own, leads a life of idle wandering, but makes no call upon the public means, and inflicts no direct injury upon the public welfare. Va- grancy has been a statutory offence from a very early day, and it was probably an offence at the common law. VAILLAJTT, Francois Le. See LE VAILLANT. VALAIS (Ger. Wallis), a S. W. canton of Switzerland, bounded N. by Vaud and Bern, E. by Uri and Ticino, S. E. and S. by Pied- mont, and S. W. and S. by Savoy ; area, 2,026 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 96,887, nearly all Roman Catholics. Valais is one of the most pictu- resque of Swiss cantons, being surrounded on all sides by some of the loftiest moun- tains, such as the Monte Rosa group (high- est peak, 15,150 ft.) and the Matterhorn (14,- 835 ft.), both belonging to the Pennine Alps and separating Valais from Italy ; and besides other branches of these Alps S. and W., there are those of the Helvetian or Lepontine Alps on the east, and their divergent branch known as the Bernese Alps on the north. Among over 100 glaciers in this canton, which are best seen from the valleys descending into it from Monte Rosa, are several of great extent and magnificence, especially the Gorner ice stream and the Viescher glacier, forming an ice cata- ract, and the Aletsch, the largest of all the glaciers, separated by a ridge from the Eggisch- horn, one of the present headquarters of high Alpine explorations. The Sallenche waterfall adjoins Martigny, the starting point of the roads over the Great St. Bernard and Col de Balme passes. The new road over the Furca pass, completed in 1867, directly connects the St. Gothard group with the valley of the Rh6ne, the principal valley in this canton, and has greatly increased the traffic across the Alps from Upper Valais. Several other great and minor passes, such as the Grimsel near the Rh6ne glacier, the Gemmi near the mineral springs of Leuk, and others, are in part or wholly in this canton. The chief occupation is the rearing of cattle, in connection with dairies. Grapes and figs ripen at the foot of ice-clad mountains, and wine is produced in the central and lower parts of the canton. The crops of maize have lately increased, as well as the mineral productions. Emigration to the United States has much increased since 1868. The country is generally divided into Upper and Lower Valais. French, in a cor- rupt form, is spoken by a majority of the in- habitants. Valais was long ruled by Bern ; it became a separate canton under the Helvetic constitution of 1798, was subsequently annexed to France, and after the fall of Napoleon was again admitted as a canton. It joined in the movement which led to the formation of the Sonderbund in 1843, and after its overthrow in 1847 adopted a liberal constitution, which was modified in 1852 through the ultramontane in- fluence of Upper Valais. The grand council consists of 85, and the council of state of 7 members, the former initiating laws and the latter carrying them out. The Roman Catholic bishop resides at Sion or Sitten, the capital. VALCKENAER. I. Lodewjjk Casper, a Dutch scholar, born in Leeuwarden in 1715, died in Leyden, March 14, 1785. He became pro- fessor of Greek at Franeker in 1741, and also of Grecian antiquity in 1755, and from 1766 held those two chairs together with .that of Dutch history at Leyden. He edited the works of several of the classical authors, and wrote a number of critical and other treatises, a col- lection of which was published by Erfurdt un- der the title Opuscula Philologica, Critica et Oratorio, (2 vols. 8vo, Leipsic, 1809). II. Jan, a Dutch statesman, son of the preceding, born in Leyden about 1759, died in Haarlem, Jan. 25, 1821. He was professor of jurisprudence successively at Franeker and Utrecht, but, be- ing an active leader of the anti-Orange party, was compelled to leave Holland in 1787. After