Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 10.djvu/247

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VICEROY
209
VICTOR EMANUEL II.

or incapability of the President, the Vice-President assumes the duties of the office and continues to discharge them (in case of the President's death) till the end of the term for which the two were elected, or (in case of temporary disability) till the disability of the President shall have passed away. Several times in the history of the country has the Vice-President been called to the presidential chair — the first case being that of John Tyler, who succeeded William H. Harrison; then came Millard Fillmore, who succeeded Zachary Taylor; Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Abraham Lincoln; Chester A. Arthur, who succeeded James A. Garfield; and Theodore Roosevelt, who succeeded William McKinley. (See United States.)

VICEROY, the governor of a kingdom or country, who rules in the name of the king or queen with regal authority as the king's or queen's substitute.

VICHY, a town of France, in the department of the Allier; in a valley of the river of that name, about 70 miles S. E. of Paris. It was once a place of strength, and is celebrated for its thermal alkaline springs. The Vichy waters are in much request for disorders of the stomach and bowels, and of the urinary organs, in gout, rheumatism, etc. Much of the water is sent out in bottles. Pop. about 17,500.

VICKSBURG, a city and county-seat of Warren co., Miss.; on the Mississippi river, about 1 mile S. of the mouth of the Yazoo, and on the Yazoo and Mississippi, the Alabama and Vicksburg, and the Vicksburg, Shreveport, and Pacific railroads; 45 miles W. of Jackson. The site is elevated and uneven, but in the midst of beautiful scenery. Here are St. Francis Xavier's Academy, St. Aloysius' Commercial College, Charity Hospital, waterworks, electric lights, a National cemetery (in the suburbs) where 17,000 Union dead are buried, court house, a United States government building. National and State banks, and a number of daily and weekly newspapers. Vicksburg is a port of entry, and has an extensive trade in cotton, of which it ships about 90,000 bales annually. It has railroad car shops, foundries, cotton-seed oil and lumber mills, and many smaller industries. During the Civil War Vicksburg was strongly fortified by the Confederates, who several times repulsed land and naval attacks, but were forced to surrender to General Grant, July 4, 1863, after a long siege. In 1876 the river cut through a neck of land, making the city an island. Since then the National Government has been restoring the harbor at a cost of about $1,250,000. Pop. (1910) 20,814; (1920) 18,072.

VICTOR AMADEUS I., Duke of Savoy; born in 1587, son of Charles Emmanuel I., and crowned 1630. He married the sister of Louis XIII. of France, and in his later years commanded the forces of that sovereign in his Italian wars. He died in 1637.

VICTOR AMADEUS II., Duke of Savoy, and first King of Sardinia; born in 1666; succeeded his father in the duchy, in 1675. He married Maria d'Orleans, niece of Louis XIV., but entered, nevertheless, on a tortuous policy, which involved him in a war with that monarch. Having acquired Sicily, he exchanged that kingdom in 1718, for Sardinia, by treaty with the emperor. He died in 1732, two years after his abdication in favor of his son.

VICTOR AMADEUS III., son and successor of Charles Emmanuel III.; born in 1726, ascended the throne in 1773. He founded the Academy of Sciences at Turin, and exhibited the utmost anxiety for the welfare of his subjects. His hostility to the revolution in France provoked a contest with that country, in which his throne fell by the arms of Bonaparte. He died in 1796.

VICTOR EMMANUEL I., King of Sardinia, son of Victor Amadeus III.; born in 1759, succeeded his brother, Charles Emmanuel IV., 1802, abdicated during a revolt, 1821, and died in 1824.

VICTOR EMMANUEL II., King of Italy, son of Charles Albert, King of Sardinia; born in Turin, Italy, March 14, 1820. While heir apparent, he fought in the campaign against the Austrians, which, terminating in the disastrous battle of Novara, caused his father to abdicate. He became king in 1849, under the most unfavorable circumstances, for he had to avert the consequences of a most disastrous war, to allay faction, and to preserve the constitution; to annul which, it is said, Austria endeavored to bribe him with the offer of Parma. On securing the services of eminent statesmen, and chiefly of the illustrious Cavour, he obtained a treaty of peace with Austria on comparatively easy terms, and undertook the complete reorganization of finances, the army, and the system of public education. After forming a close alliance with France, Victor Emmanuel, in 1859, again engaged in a war with Austria, which power, after being totally defeated in a short campaign, abandoned Lombardy to the Italians. In 1861,