he expired. By his marriage at Dresden, two or three years

previous to his decease, he left one child, a son. The work on which the fame of Vattel is chiefly grounded is his "Droit des Gens." It ranks along with the treatises of the three great writers on international law—the De Jure Belli ac Pacis of Grotius, the De Jure Naturæ et Gentium of Puffendorf, and the Jus Gentium of Christian Wolff. It passed through many editions, and became a university text-book. It is remarkable for systematic arrangement and clearness of expression; and to these characteristics must doubtless be attributed much of its success. It has, nevertheless, the defect of superficiality, so far as doctrinal principles are concerned. Vattel also published in 1762 critical "Observations" on the Jus Gentium of Wolff.—J. J. VATTIER, Pierre, an orientalist of the seventeenth century, was born at Montreuil-l'argile, near Lisieux, Normandy, in 1623. He became the physician of Gaston, duke of Orleans, and in 1658 was appointed professor of Arabic at the college of France, where he distinguished himself by his literary labours as much as by his teaching. Although he died in 1667, at the premature age of forty-four, he had published several translations from Arabic writers, including the History of Tamerlane, the Logic of Avicenna, and other works. He was also the author of "Pensees sur la nature des Passions," 4to, 1659.—R. H. VAUBAN, Sébsastien le Prestre de, Marshal of France, the great military engineer, was born in 1633 at Saint Léger de Foucheret in Burgundy, and died on the 13th of March, 1707. Being left an orphan in his childhood, he was protected and educated by a kind-hearted ecclesiastic, De Fontaines. At the age of seventeen he joined the regiment of Condé in the Spanish service as a volunteer, and very soon became noted for his extraordinary daring, and for his native talent for military engineering. Having been taken prisoner by the French royal troops, he was induced by Mazarin, to whom he became known by reputation, to accept a command in the regiment of Burgundy. He continued to distinguish himself highly by bravery and skill, and in 1655 obtained a commission as an engineer, after which he rose rapidly in rank, and was intrusted at the age of twenty-five with the conduct of several important sieges. He gained to a remarkable degree the esteem and trust of Louis XIV.; and this, it is said, he owed in a great measure to the honest frankness of his character, which led him, when his sovereign consulted him on military affairs, to state on every occasion the plain truth, although it might be unpleasant. His life was passed sometimes in making and defending fortresses, and sometimes in besieging them; and it often fell to his lot to attack the very places of which he had constructed the fortifications, and so to test two departments of his own skill against each other. As he never was satisfied with any system of fortification which he could himself take, nor with any system of attack which his own fortifications could resist, he went on improving the arts of attack and defence alternately as long as he lived, and perhaps did more to improve them than any other military engineer. He was occasionally employed by Louis XIV. to direct or report on operations of civil engineering, especially those connected with harbours and with inland navigation. After rising from grade to grade, he was at length, in 1703, created a marshal of France. He was the author of many memoirs and treatises on engineering, both military and civil. As to his character, he is called by Voltaire "the first of engineers and the best of citizens," and by St. Simon "the most honest man of his age."—W. J. M. R. VAUCHER, Jean Pierre Etienne, a distinguished botanist, and also an eloquent preacher, was born at Geneva on 17th April, 1763, and died in the same city on the 5th of January, 1841. His father, who had grown rich as an architect, gave him a good education. He studied for the ministry, and was ordained in 1787. He opened an educational establishment at Geneva, which was attended by many pupils of rank and eminence; at the same time he continued his duties as minister of the Reformed church. He was rector of the academy from 1818 to 1820, and also professor of ecclesiastical history. Meanwhile he prosecuted botany with ardour, devoting his attention specially to cryptogamic plants. In 1803 he gave to the world his "Histoire des conferves d'eau douce," a valuable work, illustrated with excellent engravings. His researches into the reproduction and growth of confervæ are still reckoned of great importance. He contributed various memoirs on the subject of cryptogamic botany to the Society of Natural History and Physics of Geneva; and in 1826 appeared a monograph of orobanchaceæ, or broom-rapes, accompanied with coloured plates executed by his wife. Subsequently he published his "Histoire Physiologique des Plantes d'Europe,"—a laborious production, containing full details of the structure and physiology of species, or groups of species, which are studied separately. Along with Saussure and others, Vaucher founded the Natural History Society of Geneva. He was beloved and respected by all who knew him. A genus of algæ was named Vaucheria after him by De Candolle.—J. H. B. VAUGELAS, Claude Favre de, a French writer, born at Chambery about 1585. He was gentleman in ordinary, and afterwards chamberlain, to the duke of Orleans. The academy selected him to form a dictionary of the French language. His most important works are, "Remarques sur la langue Française," and a translation of Quintus Curtius. Vaugelas spent thirty years in translating this author, so fastidious was he in regard to style. He died in 1655.—W. J. P. VAUGHAN, Henry, an English poet, who was named "the Silurist," from his having been born among the Silures, or people of South Wales, was a native of Newton-by-Usk, about five miles from Brecon, and was born in 1621. He and his twin brother Thomas were entered at Jesus college, Oxford, in 1638. In the civil troubles which ensued they showed themselves stanch royalists, and Henry suffered imprisonment on account of his opinions. His first volume of poems was published in 1646, and in the following year he wrote "Olor Iscanus" (the swan of the Usk), which was published by Thomas Vaughan in 1651. After studying medicine in London, and attaining the rank of M.D., Henry repaired to Brecon, where he practised as a physician. About 1650, during the seclusion resulting from a severe illness, the poet's meditations were deeply affected by the influence of religion. The tone of his verses became much more devout, and he gave public expression to his feelings in a work entitled "Silex Scintillans" (sparks from the flintstone), which was printed in London in 1650. His book of devotions, chiefly in prose, entitled "The Mount of Olives," appeared in 1652. Another prose volume, "Flores Solitudinis," followed at no long interval, after the publication of which Vaughan seems to have abandoned literature, and for the remaining thirty years to have confined himself to the exercise of his profession. He died April 23, 1695. His works, which abound in happy descriptions of nature and indications of refined feeling, were long neglected. In 1847 an edition of his sacred poems was published by Pickering, which served greatly to revive a just admiration for Vaughan.—R. H. VAUGHAN, Sir John, an eminent jurist, was born in Cardiganshire on the 14th September, 1608, and was educated at Worcester school and at Christ church, Oxford. He subsequently entered himself as a student of the Inner temple, but he does not appear at first to have given himself very diligently to the study of the law, for he is described by Wood as fonder of poetry and philosophy, until Selden induced him to apply himself more diligently to his profession. In 1640 he was returned to parliament for the town of Cardigan, but took no prominent part in political life. He retired to his native county on the breaking out of the Revolution, and did not reappear prominently till after the Restoration. He was then again returned for Cardigan. In 1668 Charles II. knighted him, and he became lord chief-justice of the common pleas. His "Reports and Arguments in the Common Pleas" first appeared in 1677. He died December 10, 1674.—F. * VAUGHAN, Robert, D.D., nonconformist divine, historian, biographer, essayist, and editor of the British Quarterly Review, was born about the beginning of the present century. Educated at Bristol, he became a minister among the Congregationalists or Independents, and was settled at a charge in Worcester in 1823. In 1825 he became Independent minister at Kensington, near London, where and at Netting Hill he remained until 1843. In the interval he was for several years professor of history in University college, London. In 1828 appeared his "Life and Opinions of John de Wycliffe, illustrated principally from his unpublished manuscripts," reproduced in 1853 with many changes, as "John de Wycliffe, a monograph." In 1843, on the establishment of the Lancashire Independent college, near Manchester, Dr. Vaughan became its principal, and retained that post until 1857, when ill health led him to resign it. In 1844 he founded the British Quarterly Review, which he has edited since it was established. Among Dr.