and had supported him in his quarrel with the ministry, was sworn in as president of the council (12 Dec. 1843), and was virtually prime minister up to 2 Sept. 1844. The French Canadians, however, failed to understand his motives; a cry arose that he had become English, and owing to the general dissatisfaction, and especially to the opposition of the clergy, he was forced to resign in June 1846. On his withdrawal from the ministry he was called to the upper house; in 1855 he retired altogether from public life, and on 13 Feb. 1861 died at Montreal.
On 21 Nov. 1808 Viger married Marie Amable, daughter of Pierre Foretier. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from the jesuit university of St. Jean at Fordham, New York, in 1855. There is a portrait of Viger in Sulte's ‘Histoire des Canadiens Français’ (iv. 104). Viger Square and Viger Garden in Montreal are named after him.
Besides the pamphlet already mentioned, Viger was the author of:
- ‘Analyse d'un Entretien sur la Conservation des Etablissements du Bas-Canada,’ Montreal, 1826.
- ‘Considérations relatives à la dernière Révolution de la Belgique,’ Montreal, 1831.
- ‘La Crise Ministérielle et M. D. B. Viger,’ Kingston, 1844.
[Quebec Mercury, 14 Feb. 1861; Bibaud's Panthéon Canadien, 1891; Tanguay's Dictionnaire Généalogique des Familles Canadiennes, vii. 466; Sulte's Histoire des Canadiens Français, 1884, vol. viii. passim; Morgan's Sketches of Celebrated Canadians, p. 373; Reminiscences of the Public Life of Sir Francis Hincks, pp. 123 and 133–7, 152 sqq.; Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography.]
VIGER, JACQUES (1787–1858), Canadian antiquary, only surviving child of Jacques Viger by his wife, Amaranthe Prevost, was born in Montreal on 7 May 1787, and educated at the college of St. Raphael. Denis Benjamin Viger [q. v.] was his cousin. Throughout the war (1812–15) he served as captain under Charles Michel de Salaberry [q. v.], and afterwards became lieutenant-colonel in the Canadian militia. For some time he was inspector of roads and bridges in Montreal, and did much to improve the sanitary condition of the city. He was chosen first mayor in 1833.
Forty years of his life were spent in collecting, co-ordinating, verifying, and annotating materials for the history of Canada, including rare pamphlets, manuscripts, maps, plans, medals, coins, portraits, and heraldic arms. His collection is of two divisions: ‘Ma Sabretache,’ of twenty-eight volumes, contains literary matter; the ‘Album’ contains paintings and engravings of French Canadian celebrities. His manuscripts were much consulted by Bibaud, Garneau, L'Abbé Faillon, Martin, La Roche-Heron, Parkman, and other historians. A part of his collection was printed in the ‘Proceedings’ of the Société Historique under the care of L'Abbé Verreau; another part was published by Michel Bibaud in the ‘Bibliothèque Canadienne’ and ‘Enclopédie Canadienne,’ but the great bulk of it still remains in manuscript in the possession of his family at Montreal.
Viger was founder and first president of the Société Historique of Montreal, was recommended for a seat in the special council by Lord Gosford, and enjoyed the honorary title of commander of the Roman order of St. Gregory. He died on 12 Dec. 1858.
On 17 Nov. 1808 he married Marie Marguerite de Chapt Lacorne de St. Luc, daughter of Chevalier de St. Luc.
The chief publications of Viger are:
- ‘Relation de la Mort de Louis XVI’ (notes), 1812.
- ‘Observations en amélioration des Lois des Chemins telles qu'en force dans le Bas-Canada en 1835.’
- ‘Rapports sur les Chemins, Rues, Ruelles et Ponts de la cité et paroisse de Montréal, avec notes,’ 1841.
- ‘Archéologie Religieuse du Diocèse de Montréal,’ 1850.
- ‘Souvenirs Historiques sur la Seigneurie de la Prairie,’ 1857.
[Tanguay's Dictionnaire Généalogique des Familles Canadiennes, vii. 465, 466; Sulte's Histoire des Canadiens Français, viii. 101–3; Bibaud's Panthéon Canadien, p. 308; Lareau's Littérature Canadienne, pp. 150, 240; Morgan's Bibliotheca Canadensis, p. 383; Parkman's Pioneers of France in the New World, ii. 5, 61.]
VĺGFÚSSON, GÚDBRANDR (1828–1889), Icelandic scholar, born in 1828 in Broadfirth, Iceland, was son of Vigfús Gislason, of an old and respected Icelandic family, by his wife, Halldora Gisladottir. He was brought up by his foster-mother and kinswoman Kristín Vigfúsdottir, to whom, as he thankfully recorded in his last days, he owed not only that he became a man of letters, but almost everything. After his first childhood he was taken by his aunt to the house of a clergyman, to be prepared for the high school of Bessastad, and thither he duly went and studied, accompanying the school when it flitted to Reykjavík. In 1849 he left the school and Iceland for Copenhagen University, which he entered in 1850, holding a bursary at Regentsen College. He was appointed stipendiarius under the Arna-Maguxan trustees, and worked in the Arna-Maguxan library. It was this work that
