VBEESTCHAGIN
VERHAEGEN
of the nineteenth century " (International
Encyclopaedia). He wrote very little ecclesi
astical music (chiefly, for personal reasons,
The Manzoni Requiem, 1874), and he openly
sympathized with the anti-Papal movement.
For a short time he was a Deputy in the
now Italian Parliament, and in 1874 he
became a Senator. The clergy angrily
murmured against his Vepres Siciliennes,
.and he was well known to be a Rationalist.
He expressly stipulated in his will that his
funeral was to be without " any part of
the customary formulae " (F. T. Garibaldi s
Giuseppe Verdi, 1903, p. 235), and there
was no religious service. Yet the Catholic
Encyclopedia, with its usual insincerity,
claims him as a Catholic. Verdi was a
man of high and generous character. In
1898 he gave two million lire to the city of
Milan to erect a home for aged and ailing
musicians. D. Jan. 27, 1901.
YERESTCHAGIN,YassiliYassilieYich,
Russian painter. B. Oct. 26, 1842. Ed. St. Petersburg Naval School and Academy, and the Paris Ecole des Beaux Arts. Verestchagin, who came of a noble Russian family, completed his artistic education by two years study at Munich, and he then spent four years travelling in China and India. He settled in Paris, but in 1877 he went back to assist his country in the war against Turkey. His horrible military experiences gave him a loathing of war, and the large realistic pictures of battle scenes which he painted in subsequent years (" The Pyramid of Skulls," " The Road after Plevna," etc.), which shock many people, were deliberately intended to create a horror of war and promote the cause of peace. The material was always gathered at first hand (except for the pictures of Napoleon s campaign in Russia). He was equally free in dealing with religion. His " Holy Family " and " Resurrection " were sent to the Vienna Exhibition in 1885, but the Archbishop of Vienna compelled the authorities to withdraw them. In his Autobiography (Vassili Verestchagin, Eng. trans., 2 vols., 1887) he has a drastically 837
Rationalist chapterentitled " SomeThoughts
on Religion." Christianity he regards as
an outworn creed hypocritically professed.
He found this hypocrisy particularly painful
in England, though he was in all other
respects a warm admirer of English life
and character. Verestchagin went, as usual,
to the seat of the Russo-Japanese War in
search of material for his pacifist propa
ganda, and he was drowned on a Russian
battleship, sunk by the Japanese, on Apr. 13,
1904.
YERGNIAUD, Pierre Yicturnien,
French politician. B. May 31, 1759. Ed. Limoges, Paris (College Duplessis), and Bordeaux. Vergniaud was educated in law, and he practised for some years in the Bordeaux courts. In 1789 he was sent as Deputy of the Department of the Gironde to the General Convention. In 1791 he represented Bordeaux in the Legislative Assembly. Through his remarkable gift of oratory he became the leader of the Girondists and one of the most prominent figures of the Revolution. He was Presi dent of the National Assembly in 1792. In the following year he was arrested with the other Girondists, and was sent to the guillotine. His speeches were published with those of Barnave in four volumes in 1820 (Les orateurs franqais Barnave et Vergniaud}. He had adopted the principles of Voltaire before the Revolution broke out, and was an outspoken Rationalist and ardent humanitarian. D. Oct. 31, 1793.
YERHAEGEN, Pierre Theodore,
Belgian politician. B. 1800. Verhaegen w r as a lawyer, practising at Brussels, when the Revolution of 1830 occurred. He embraced it, and was sent as Deputy to the National Congress. In 1837 he was elected to the Chambre, where he at once entered upon an anti-clerical campaign. In 1847 he was Vice-President of the Chambre. He was a moderate Liberal in politics, and was much disliked by more advanced poli ticians ; but he did not waver in his Ration alism, and he worked zealously for reform
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