successfully for the grand prize of the Academy of Fine Arts. Subsequently he was drafted into the army, and after two years' service was married, and commenced his artistic career. He had previously followed the classical manner of David, but finding it entirely inadequate to portray modern subjects with truthfulness or effect, he broke away from the conventionalisms of the predominant school and determined to make nature alone his guide. His experience of a soldier's life now proved of considerable service to him, and with happy tact he prepared to minister to the national love of military glory by painting the battles in which France had been victorious and the striking incidents or episodes of the wars of the republic and the empire. The first piece which brought him into notice was his "Capture of a Redoubt," followed within a few years by "The Dog of the Regiment," "The Trumpeters," "Ilalt of French Soldiers," "Battle of Tolo""Massacre of the Mamelukes,' sa," "Barrier of Clichy,' ," "Battle of Jemmapes," "Battle of Valmy, "Soldier of Waterloo,' ," "The last Cartridge," ," "Death of Poniatowski," &c., which for dramatic vigor and life-like detail soon gained a high position among contemporary works of their class, although the sticklers for the old style found much to condemn in them. In 1822 his works were denied admission into the annual exhibition of the Louvre on account of their "seditious" tendency; whereupon he transformed his studio into an exhibition room, and presented to the public a numerous collection of his own works. In spite of this petty persecution he fared well under the Bourbons, and was made an officer of the Legion of Honor, 1825, and a member of the Institute, 1826. In 1828 he was appointed director of the French academy in Rome, where he remained 10 years, executing in that interval a number of works somewhat different in subject and treatment from his previous efforts, and of which his "Judith and Holofernes,' "School of Raphael,' ""Confession of the Dying Brigand," and "Pope Pius VIII. carried into St. Peter's," may be taken as examples. Louis Philippe, who proved a warm friend of Vernet, commissioned him to paint for the Constantine Hall of the palace at Versailles a series of large pictures, illustrating the triumphs of the French arms in Algeria, conspicuous among which are several episodes in the siege of Constantine, "The Capture of the Smala," "The Battle of Isly," and "The Capture of Bougiah," which are perhaps the largest and finest pictures of their class ever painted. While engaged upon these works he made several visits to Algeria and the Holy Land, for the purpose of studying costumes, physiognomy and scenery, and was thus led to attempt numerous subsequent works illustrating oriental life and history. Prominent among these were a series of biblical subjects in which the characters are habited in the Arabian costume of the present day, as "Rebecca at the Well,"

"Hagar driven out by Abraham," and "The Good Samaritan." Other well known eastern subjects were his "Lion Hunt," "Council of Arabs," and "Arab Mother Rescuing her Child from a Lion." To the series of French battle pieces already mentioned must be added his battles of Jena, Friedland, Wagram, Arcola and Fontenoy, "The Bombardment of San Juan d'Ulloa,' "The Attack on the Citadel of Antwerp," "The Fleet forcing the Entrance of the Tagus," and "The Capture of Rome by Gen. Oudinot." During the latter part of his life he was said to be engaged upon works illustrating the recent campaigns in Italy and the Crimea. He also painted many excellent portraits, including those of Napoleon I. and III., and Louis Philippe.

He declined a peerage from Louis Philippe, and it is honorable to his artistic self-respect that he refused, at the request of that monarch, to falsify history by representing Louis XIV. leading the assault at Valenciennes. In consequence their friendly relations were for a time suspended, and Vernet repaired to St. Petersburg, where he received flattering attentions from the Czar. Subsequently he became reconciled with the king. He was decorated with the chief orders of continental Europe, and at his death stood at the head of his profession in France.

VIRGINIA. That portion of the State which recognizes the Confederate Government, has been so completely occupied by the armies and by that Government, that the details of the army operations and of the Confederate States engross nearly all subjects of interest. The entire military force of the State was absorbed by the Confederate conscription. The State bank circulation entirely disappeared, and the State treasury notes were funded. The debt of the State is $34,399,680. This sum includes interest on the debt which has been uncalled for, and is due to the United States and her citizens, viz., $2,730,921; also the sum borrowed to aid in the war, and which is by agreement to be returned by the Confederate Government, viz., $8,500,000. Deducting the debt due to the literary fund, and the balance is $20,506,097. To offset this, the State holds bank and other stocks, from which can be realized sufficient to provide for all excepting $943,947. An election for governor took place during the year. William Smith was chosen.

VIRGINIA, EAST. A loyal State gov ernment for East Virginia was organized during the year by the election of a legislature and the following State officers: governor, Francis H. Pierpont; lieut.-governor, L. P. C. Cowper; secretary of State, L. A. Hagars; treasurer, G. T. Smith: auditor, L. W. Webb; adjutant-general, F. E. Foster; attorneygeneral, T. R. Bowden. The loyal eastern counties of the State participated in the election. Alexandria was selected as the temporary capital. In his message to the Legislature, Gov. Pierpont spoke of slavery as doomed, and rec

ommended the calling of a convention to alter the State constitution so as to abolish slavery forever. In December the Legislature passed an act directing that a convention should be held at Alexandria on the 13th of February, 1864, to amend the constitution and prohibit slavery in the counties of Accomac, Northampton, Princess Ann, Elizabeth City, and York, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth. None but loyal citizens who had not assisted the rebels since January 1st, 1863, were allowed to vote, and any one whose vote might be challenged was required to take an oath to support the constitution, and to declare that he had not in any way given aid and comfort to the enemy. In December, J. C. McLeod (a native Virginian) was elected to Congress from the 37th district.

VIRGINIA, WEST. The constitutional convention of West Virginia met during the month of February, and, among other important acts, adopted a resolution asking Congress to make an appropriation to aid West Virginia in emancipating her slaves.

On the 26th of March an election was held at which the "Willey amendment" was almost unanimously ratified. The effect of this amendment was to strike out from the constitution the clause excluding free negroes from the State, and to insert in place thereof certain provisions relative to freeing the slaves.

On the 20th of April the President issued a proclamation declaring that the State had

complied with the required conditions. An election of State officers was held in May, and the following unconditional Union candidates were chosen by a vote of 30,000, without opposition: governor, Arthur I. Boreman; secretary of State, J. E. Boyers; treasurer, Campbell Tarr; auditor, Samuel Crane; attorney-general, A. B. Caldwell; judges of court of appeals, Ralph L. Berkshire, William A. Harrison, James H. Brown.

The inauguration of the new State took place at Wheeling (the capital), on the 20th of June, with imposing ceremonies. The retiring governor (Pierpont) briefly addressed the citizens, urging them not to forsake the national flag, and introduced the governor elect, whom he pronounced "true as steel." Gov. Boreman made a short speech, in which he said that the only terms of peace were that the rebels should lay down their arms and submit to the regularly constituted authority of the United States. The General Assembly organized on the same day. In his inaugural message to the Legislature Gov. Boreman recommended the immediate passage of laws to effectually extirpate slavery from the State, and that no man should be permitted to vote or hold office until he had taken the oath of allegiance. The Legislature elected W. T. Willey, of Morgantown, and P. G. Van Winkle, of Parkersburg, U. S. senators.

West Virginia was called upon for 10,000 militia during the war. She had already put 20,000 troops into the field.

WASIUM.-Supposed New Metal. Bahr claims to have discovered in a mineral from Ronsholm, an island near Stockholm, a new metal which, in honor of the royal family of Wasa, he proposes to name Wasium. The mineral itself has been termed Wasite; the supposed new metal was also found in Norwegian orthite, and in gadolinite from Ytterby. From the first named of these, about 1 per cent. of the supposed oxide of wasium was obtained, in form of a brownish sandy powder, of density 3.726. Bahr regards as especially characteristic of the new oxide that, upon being treated with strong nitric acid and evaporated, it assumes a gelatinous consistency.

Prof. J. Nicklès, however, declares (Comptes Rendus, lvii. 1740), that the supposed wasium of Bahr is nothing more than yttrium blended with a little of its congener didymium, or perhaps terbium. He cites the fact that Klaproth's nitrate of yttria furnishes, on evaporation of its watery solution, the same gelatinous precipitate which Bahr insists on as characteristic of the new metallic oxide.

WHATELY, RICHARD, D. D., Lord Archbishop of London, born in Cavendish Square, London, February 1st, 1787, died in Dublin, Ireland, October 8th, 1863. He was the fourth son of the Rev. Dr. Joseph Whately, preben

dary of Bristol. He was educated at Oriel College, Oxford, then the great school of speculative philosophy, and ranked among the most eminent scholars in that celebrated college. He received the degree of B. A. in 1808, and of M. A. in 1812. In 1810, he obtained the prize for his English essay, "What are the Arts in the Cultivation of which the Ancients were less successful than the Moderns?" In 1811, he was elected Fellow of Oriel, then considered the highest honor in Oxford, except the provostship of the same college. The Fellows of Oriel were, at this period, and for many years later, men of the highest intellectual rank in Great Britain. J. H. Newman, E. B. Pusey, Bishops Miant, Copleston, Wilberforce, Hampden, and others, beside Whately, were among the number. In 1822, Mr. Whately was Bampton Lecturer, taking for his subject "The Use and Abuse of Party Feeling in Matters of Religion," and the same year he was presented to the rectory of Halesworth, Suffolk. In 1825, Lord Grenville, chancellor of Oxford, recalled him to the university as Principal of St. Alban's Hall, on which occasion he took the degree of B. D. and D. D. In 1830, he was elected Professor of Political Economy in the University. In 1831, on the death_of Archbishop Magee, Earl Grey appointed Dr.

Whately to the Archiepiscopal See of Dublin, and in 1846, on the death of Dr. Charles Lindsay, he succeeded to the bishopric of Kildare also, that see having been united with Dublin, by the Church Temporalities Act. He was also Visitor of Trinity College, Dublin; Prebendary ex officio of Cullen in St. Patrick's Cathedral; Vice-President of the Royal Irish Academy, and Chancellor of the Order of St. Patrick. For more than twenty years he was one of the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland, and during that period he bent all his energies to its advancement and defence. He endowed the Professorship of Political Economy in the Dublin University; not from his abundant wealth, but by the exercise of a strict economy in his personal and family expenditure. The archbishop was a voluminous writer. The published productions of his pen, many of them pamphlets, and local or occasional in character, are more than a hundred in number; but he has also written many books which will live. The following list comprises the most important of his published works: "The Christian's Duty with respect to the Established Government and the Laws," London, 1821; "Historic Doubts relative to Napoleon Bonaparte," Oxford, 1821; "The Bampton Lectures for 1822, on the Use and Abuse of Party Feeling in Religion," 1822; "Essay on some of the Peculiarities of the Christian Religion," 1825; "Elements of Logic," 1826; "Elements of Rhetoric," 1828; "Essays on some of the Difficulties in the Writings of St. Paul," &c., 1828; "Errors of Romanism," 1830; "Introductory Lectures to Political Economy," 1831; "Essay on the Omission of Creeds, Liturgies, &c., in the New Testament," 1831; "Thoughts on Secondary Punishment," Dublin, 1832; "Sermons on Various Subjects," Oxford, 1835; "Essays on some of the Dangers of Christian Faith which may arise from the Teaching or Conduct of its Professors," 1839; “The Kingdom of Christ Delineated," 1841; "Thoughts on the proposed Evangelical Alliance," 1846; "Introductory Lectures on the Study of St. Paul's Epistles," 1849; "English Synonymes," 1851; manuals for the national schools on "Money Matters," on "Reasoning," on the "Evidences of Christianity," and on the "British Constitution," published between 1840 and 1852; "Thoughts on the New Dogma of the Church of Rome,"

YANCEY, WILLIAM LOWNDES, an American politician, born in Columbia, S. C., in 1815, died near Montgomery, Ala., July 28th, 1863. Early in life he removed to Alabama, and represented that State in the 28th and 29th Congresses. He subsequently became known as a prominent leader of the extreme Southern States' Rights party. In 1858 he advocated the organization of "Committees of Safety" in the South, and in 1859 urged the calling of a convention by

1855; "Scripture Revelations as to Good and Evil Angels," 1855; “Scripture Revelations as to a Future State," 1856; "Bacon's Essays, with Notes," 1856.

WISCONSIN. In June a correspondence took place between Governor Salomon, of Wisconsin, and Gen. Pope, commanding the Department of the Northwest, in reference to the exercise of military authority in enforcing the conscription. The governor, learning that re quests had been made to supply State arms to the assistant provost-marshal, expressed the belief that the people were willing to obey the law, and the civil authorities to execute it. In his reply Gen. Pope says that he will employ military force only after every resource of the civil authority has been used without success. He uses the following language:

I have been satisfied from the beginning that in nearly every case the conscription law can be executed by the civil authorities alone, through the people acting the discretion intrusted to me by the Government, as under their direction in the legal and usual forms. In to the employment of military force for the execution of this law within this military department, I have steadily declined to permit the use of any troops under my command, unless I could be convinced that all Already, in one or two cases, I have found that appliother legitimate means had been tried without success. cation for military aid had been made without necessity, the enrolment under the law having been completed thoroughly by the willing aid of the civil authorities.

fling case of opposition or resistance to the laws, is The habit of resorting to military force in every tribecoming so common as to excite in the minds of judicious men very serious alarm. Such a practice entirely supplants the civil authorities, sets aside timehonored means for the enforcement of the laws in this country, destroys in the citizen that feeling of personal interest in their execution, through which alone we have maintained popular government, and epares the public mind for complete abdication of civil rule. It is impossible to believe that citizens of this country, except under the immediate influence of excitement, can be willing to trust the enforcement of civil law to military force, and thus to surrender the very highest privilege and duty of American citizens.

The Legislature gave an earnest support to the war, and appropriated $350,000 to organize and bring into active service the militia, "to repel invasion, suppress insurrection and defend the State in time of war."

The vote for governor at the fall election stood as follows: Lewis (Republican), 79,959; Palmer (Democrat), 55,218; majority for Lewis, 24,711. The number of troops sent to the army by Wisconsin up to Nov. 1st, 1863, was 42,585.

the State of Alabama, in the event of the elec tion of the Republican candidate for President in 1860. In Jan., 1861, he reported the secession ordinance in the Alabama Convention, and in the succeeding March went to Europe to urge upon foreign powers the recognition of the Confederate States. Early in 1862 he took his seat in the rebel Congress as one of the senators from Alabama, and until near the close of his life was actively engaged with legislative duties.