Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/285

V I K V I S 2(51 by the constitution of 1621, the king appointing the governor and council and the people electing the members of the house of burgesses. In 1698 the capital was transferred to Williams- burg, where, under royal patronage, William and Mary College had been established in 1693. The colony soon occupied most of Tidewater and its Midland border ; in 1716 Governor Spotswopd crossed the Blue Ridge, and was, so far as known, the first white man to enter the Great Valley, which was soon thereafter occu pied by large numbers of Scottish and some German and English settlers. Indian wars followed as settlers moved westward, but in 1744 Virginia purchased from the Indians the right to make settlements to the Ohio, and built a fort where Pittsburgh now stands ; the French captured this in 1754, and the long French and Indian war followed, until the 1763 treaty of Paris ended it and made the Mississippi the western boundary of Virginia. During that war, in 1755, Braddock was defeated ; and in 1758 Fort Duquesne, which under the French had taken the place of Pitts burgh, was captured and renamed Fort Pitt. In 1773 the general assembly of Virginia resolved for an "inter-colonial committee of correspondence, and was dissolved by Lord Dunmore, the royal governor. In May 1774 it again met and protested against the closing of the port of Boston ; Duumore again dissolved it, but the burgesses, the members elected by the people, reassembled and passed resolutions denouncing British taxation and recommending to the other colonies an annual congress of delegates, leading in this as it had in recommending committees of correspondence. Virginia took a leading part in the subsequent war of independence, but the various steps of her policy need not be detailed here (see UNITED STATES, and compare also JEFFERSON and WASHINGTON). The great territory of Virginia, reaching from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, and now divided into five large States, made the other States of the Union apprehensive of her future domination. In 1781, to promote harmony, she offered to cede to the general Government all her territory beyond the Ohio, and in 1784 she made the cession, only stipulating that the territory thus volun tarily given up should, when peopled, be divided into new States, in which slavery should be for ever prohibited, and that the remainder of her territory that from the Atlantic to the Ohio should remain inviolably hers. In 1787 the. convention of the States, at Philadelphia, presided over by Washington, adopted the present constitution of the United States, and this Virginia, in convention, ratified in 1788. In the war of 1812-14 with England Virginia bore a conspicuous part, as also in that of 1846-47 with Mexico. The civil war of 1861-65 was more disastrous in its consequences to Virginia than to any other State of the Union ; from first to last its territory was overrun, hundreds of battles and minor engagements took place within its borders, and all the destruction incident to gigantic military operations fell upon it ; tens of thousands of its best men were killed in battle ; its terri tory was dismembered, and a third part of it cut off, while more than three hundred million dollars worth of property was destroyed in what remained. For some time after 1865 Virginia was under Federal military control as "District No. 1 "; but on December 3, 1867, a conven tion, elected by the people, under an Act of the United States Congress, met and framed a new constitution, prohibiting slavery and accepting the re.sults of the war ; this was ratified by a popular vote, July 6, 1869, at which time members of a general assembly and State officers were also elected. The chosen governor was inaugurated September 21, 1869 ; the general assembly met October 5, 1869, and ratified the fourteenth and fifteenth amend ments to the constitution of the United States ; and on January 26, 1870, Virginia was readmitted to representation in Congress, and released from military control. (J. H*.) VIRGINIA CITY, the county seat of Storey county, Nevada, U.S., and the largest and most important city of the State, is situated upon the steep rugged eastern slope of Mount Davidson, about 6300 feet above sea-level. A branch line connects it with the Central Pacific Railroad at Reno. Virginia City is built over the great Comstock lode, the mineral vein which has yielded probably more of the precious metals than any other single deposit in the world (see vol. xxiii. p. 815). With the varying fortunes of this lode the prosperity of Virginia City is intimately connected. It Was founded in 1859, and in 1860 its inhabitants numbered 2345. In 1861 it received a city charter. It continued to increase until towards the end of that decade, when the falling off in the receipts from the mines caused a partial exodus from the town, and the census of 1870 showed only 7048 inhabitants. The dis covery of the "great bonanza" in 1875 produced a return of prosperity, but this was but transient, and before the next census the city was again on the wane. In 1880 the census showed 10,917 inhabitants, nearly half of foreign birth, and about 5 per cent. Chinese. Since the last census the population has, in all probability, not increased. The city is laid out rather irregularly, conforming to some extent to the surface of the mountain side. Some streets have been graded, at great expense, as it involved much rock cutting. VIRGIN ISLANDS, a group of small West India Islands (see WEST INDIES), about one hundred in number, for the most part uninhabited, extending eastward from Porto Rico, and lying between 17 and 18 50 N. lat, and 64 10 and 65 30 W. long. Their total area may be estimated at about 465 square miles, and their popu lation at 67,000. For the most part they are rocky or sandy and barren, but the cultivable portions yield sugar, maize, coffee, cotton, indigo, and tobacco. Guinea grass grows abundantly on the hillsides, and the rich natural grass affords excellent pasturage ; the forests include many useful trees, among which are mahogany and fustic. Fish are very plentiful on the coasts. The westerly portion of the group belongs to Spain, the central to Denmark, and the easterly to Great Britain. The chief of the Spanish islands are Culebra or Snake Island, and Bieques or Crab Island ; they have in all an area of about 150 square miles, with a population of 2600. The Danish Virgin Islands, which include ST THOMAS (q.v.), ST CKOIX (q.v.), and St John, have a total of about 240 square miles, with about 34,000 inhabitants. The principal of the British portion of the group are Tortola, Anegada, and Virgen Gorda or Spanish Town, and Jost van Dyke (total area 57 square miles, and population 5287 in 1881, of whom more than one- half are in Tortola). They are subject to a lieutenant- governor, under the governor-in-chief of the Leeward Islands, and are governed by an administrative council of six elective and three non-elective members, presided over by the governor for the time being. In 1886 the revenue and expenditure were respectively 1448 and 1676. The customs revenue was 823, and there was no public debt. In the same year 1710 vessels entered, of 10,764 tons burden (exclusive of coasting trade), and 1779 vessels cleared, of 8444 tons ; the total value of the imports was 3603, and of the exports 4103. The Virgin Islands were discovered by Columbus on his second voyage, in 1494, and named Las Virgenes, in honour of St Ursula and her companions. In 1666 the English established themselves on Tortola, which has ever since remained in their possession. In the 17th century the Virgin Islands were favourite resorts of the BUCCANEERS (q.v. ). The Danish islands of St Thomas and St John were taken by the British in 1801, but restored the following year. In 1807 they surrendered to the British, and continued in their hands till 1815, when they were again restored. The constitution of the British Virgin Islands was amended in 1854. VISCONTI. See MILAN, vol. xvi. p. 293. VISCOUNT (Latin vice-comes), a titled rank of nobility, the fourth in the order of the British peerage, and con sequently intervening between the dignities of earl and baron. The first English viscount, as that term now is used and understood, was John, Baron Beaumont, E.G., who, by letters patent dated 12th February 1440, by Henry VI. was created Viscount Beaumont. The title vice-comes, however, existed in England certainly as early as the Domesday survey ; and in those early times it was borne by a county officer, who was deputy to the comes or earl, in accordance with the feudal system, which knew no titles independent of offices. The vice-comes, whose title from the first may fairly be translated " viscount," and who acted in the absence of the earl, may be considered to have been identical with the functionary known by the English term " shire-reeve " or " sheriff," or, as we now should say, "high-sheriff." During the reigns of the

Anglo-Norman monarchs this office of vice-comes was