investing his capital in the wholesale preparation of it he enriched

both himself and his friend's family. In 1828 he abandoned medicine, and became a writer in the Quotidienne and other newspapers. The following year he established the Revue de Paris, which rose into great repute. After the revolution of July he became director of the opera, at his own risk, in March, 1831. Resigning this position in 1836, he offered himself as a candidate for the chamber of deputies, and was defeated. He returned to the press, and became proprietor of the Constitutionnel. After the revolution of 1848 he strongly opposed the socialists, and supported Louis Napoleon both as president and as emperor. He was rewarded with a seat in the corps legislatif. But he quarreled with the government, and in 1856 sold his paper, the Constitutionnel. He wrote a novel and memoirs of himself, under the title of "Memoires d'un bourgeois de Paris," 6 vols., 1854. Veron died in 1867.—R. H. VERONESE, Alessandro, the name by which Alessandro Turchi is commonly known, from his birthplace Verona. He is called also L'Orbetto, from his having when a boy led about an old blind beggar, said to be his own father. He was colour-grinder to F. Brusasorci, and learned painting in his service. Alessandro was a good painter, and acquired a reputation in Verona, Venice, and Rome, where he died about 1650, aged about seventy.—R. N. W. VERONESE, Paul, the name by which the magnificent Paolo Cágliari is commonly known. He was born at Verona in 1528, and learned the first rudiments of his art from his father, Gabriele Cagliari, who was a sculptor; and an uncle, Antonio Badile, taught him painting. He established himself when still young at Venice, in spite of the rivalry of such great names as those of Titian and Tintoretto. Paul Veronese was really more magnificent in his works than either. He was less brilliant, and altogether less profound than Titian, and he had not the prodigious facility of Tintoretto; but he was a far better colourist, and more correct than that master: he was, however, inferior to both as a portrait painter. Still, the great picture of the "Pisani Family" in the National gallery may be pronounced a stupendous piece of portrait painting. This picture, called the "Family of Darius before Alexander"—the young Pisani being represented as Alexander, and his wife as the Persian queen—is one of the most finished and most magnificent of all his works; being inferior in scenic effect alone to the vast "Marriage at Cana" in the Louvre, which is three times the size of the London picture, and contains altogether about one hundred and twenty figures or parts of figures comprising portraits of many distinguished Venetians of that time, not omitting the painter himself and his brother Benedetto, who is supposed to have painted most of the grand architectural schemes which often constitute the backgrounds of the pictures of Paul Veronese. All subjects were treated by him with the like aim at magnificence. He had but one costume, that of his own time or country; and but one mode of treatment, the ornamental. Among his most brilliant works may be mentioned also the "Rape of Europa" in the ducal palace at Venice—a beautiful sketch of this subject, very similar in composition, is in the National gallery. Paul Veronese visited Rome in 1563, in the suite of the Venetian ambassador of that time, Girolamo Grimani; and Philip II. of Spain invited him to Madrid to aid in the decorations of the Escurial: but he was too well appreciated and too well occupied at Venice to be induced to accept the invitation. Paolo died at Venice on the 20th of April, 1588, and was buried in the church of San Sebastiano, for which he had painted some of his best pictures, and where his brother and his two sons. Carlo and Gabriele, erected a monument to his memory. The large altarpiece of the "Adoration of the Magi," now in the National gallery, was long one of the great attractions of the church of San Silvestro in Venice. The "Consecration of St. Nicholas," also in the national collection, and one of the most transparent in colouring of the painter's works, was formerly in the church of San Nicolo de' Frari. The most eminent of the painter's scholars were Battista Zelotti—his fellow-pupil with his uncle Badile—his brother Benedetto, and his two sons already mentioned. The three last are the painters known as "The heirs of Paul Veronese," who completed his unfinished works after his death. Benedetto Cagliari died in 1598, aged sixty; Carlo died young, about thirty, in 1596; and Gabriele in 1631, aged sixty-three.—R. N. W. VERONESE. See Guarino. VERPLANCK, Gulian Crommalin, an American author, was born at New York about the year 1785. He studied at Columbia college, was called to the bar, and after a visit of some years' duration to Europe, was elected a member of the legislature of his native state. In 1818 he delivered lectures on history and literature. About this time he also began to write pamphlets, both in prose and verse, on the political questions of the day. He was subsequently appointed professor in an episcopalian college, whence he went to congress as one of the representatives of New York. Verplanck is a voluminous author. He has written "Essays on the nature and uses of the various Evidences of Revealed Religion," New York, 1824; "An Essay on the doctrine of Contracts," ib. 1825; "Miscellanies, first published under the name of the Talisman," ib. 1833, a publication on which he was assisted by Sands and the poet Bryant; "Discourses and addresses on subjects of American History, Arts, and Literature," ib. 1833, &c. Verplanck has also edited an edition of the works of Shakspeare, with notes and commentaries.—R. M., A. VERRES, C. Cornelius, one of the most rapacious and tyrannical of the Roman provincial governors, was born about the year 112 b.c. He was quæstor to Cneius Papirius Carbo during his third consulship (82 b.c.), then (having betrayed Carbo) an adherent of the faction headed by Sulla, and next proquæstor to Cneius Cornelius Dolabella, prætor of Cilicia (80 b.c.). The wealth which he had gotten by plunder and extortion he now employed in securing a prætorship. He was assigned the urbana jurisdictio in 74 b.c., and soon became notorious for those monstrous villanies which ultimately brought him to trial. On the expiration of his prætorship he succeeded Sacerdos in the government of Sicily, the wealthiest and most important province of the empire. He was accompanied thither by a crowd of rapacious followers, and commenced his extortions even before he landed in the island. The Sicilians immediately began to groan under his intolerable yoke. No class was exempted from his cruelty, avarice, and insolent brutality. It seemed to be his set purpose to reduce the island to utter beggary and wretchedness. An accusation, however, was at length brought against him before the Roman senate. Cicero, who had been Lilybæan quæstor in Sicily in 75 b.c., undertook the cause of the Sicilians, while Verres was defended by Hortensius. But the guilty prætor did not wait the conclusion of the trial—one of the most celebrated that ever occurred. Despairing of a successful issue, he withdrew from the capital before his condemnation was pronounced. He retired to Marseilles, where he lived in affluence and splendour till his proscription by Antonius in 43 b.c. His infamous memory has been preserved for the execration of all succeeding ages in the celebrated Verrine Orations of the great Roman orator.—R. M., A. VERRI, Alessandro, Count, author, was born at Milan in 1741; died 23rd September, 1816. He was one of the main contributors to Il Caffe, a Milanese periodical published by a literary society of the same name. Amongst his works may be noted—"Le Notti Romane," being a series of dialogues of the dead; a history of the French revolution from 1789 to the Consulate; and an essay on the general history of Italy.—C. G. R. VERRI, Pietro, political economist and author, was born at Milan of a noble house, 12th December, 1728; died of apoplexy, 29th June, 1797. Having studied at Rome and Parma, he then, to escape the legal career selected for him by his Hither, obtained a commission in the Austrian army, and served in Saxony against Prussia. The re-establishment of peace restored him to his native land, where under Maria Theresa he occupied honourable civil posts, and promoted financial reform: becoming councillor in 1764; member of the supreme council of economy, 1765; an influential member of the Patriotic Society, instituted in 1777; and enjoying other dignities until 1786, when he withdrew into privacy. After the French invasion of Lombardy he re-entered public life, and became a member of the municipal council of Milan. Besides his chief work, "Meditazioni sull' Economia Politica," he left a "Storia di Milano," certain "Osservazioni sulla Tortura," and other writings.—C. G. R. VERRIO, Antonio, a celebrated Neapolitan painter, was born at Lecce in the Terra di Otranto about 1639. He learned design in his native place, and painting at Venice. His first work of any consequence was a fresco of "Christ Healing the Sick," in the Jesuits' college, Naples, painted in 1660. He afterwards went to France, and painted the high altar in the church of the Carmelites at Toulouse. His facility of execution and florid colouring rendered his pictures attractive, and he was recom-