their private seigneuries. Thus the vidame de Picquigny was the representative of the bishop of Amiens, the vidame de Gerberoy of the bishop of Beauvais. In many sees there were no vidames, their function being exercised by viscounts or châtelaines. With the growth of the central power and of that of the municipalities the vidames gradually lost all importance, and the title became merely honorary.
See A. Luchaire, Manuel des institutions françaises (Paris, 1892); Du Cange, Glossarium (ed. Niort, 1887), s. “Vice-dominus”; A. Mallet, “Étude hist. sur les avoués et les vidames,” in Position des theses de l'École des chartes (an. 1870-72).
VIDIN (formerly written Widin or Widdin), a fortified river-port and the capital of a department in the extreme N.E. of Bulgaria; on the right bank of the river Danube, near the Servian frontier and 151 m. W.N.W. of Sofia. Pop. (1906) 16,168, including about 3000 Turks and 1500 Spanish Jews—descendants of the refugees who fled hither from the Inquisition in the 16th century. Vidin is an episcopal see and the headquarters of a brigade; it was formerly a stronghold of some importance, and was rendered difficult to besiege by the surrounding marshes, formed where the Topolovitza and other streams join the Danube. A steam ferry connects it with Calafat, on the Rumanian bank of the Danube, and there is a branch railway to Mezdra, on the main line Sofia-Plevna. The city consists of three divisions—the modern suburbs extending beside the Danube, the citadel and the old town, still surrounded by walls, though only four of its nine towers remain standing. The old town, containing several mosques and synagogues and a bazaar, preserves its oriental appearance; the citadel is used as a military magazine. There are a modern cathedral, a school of viticulture and a high school, besides an ancient clock-tower and the palace (Konak) formerly occupied by the Turkish pashas. Vidin exports cereals and fruit, and is locally celebrated for its gold and silver filigree. It has important fisheries and manufactures of spirits, beer and tobacco.
Vidin stands on the site of the Roman town of Bononia in Moesia Superior, not to be confounded with the Pannonian Bononia, which stood higher up the Danube to the north of Sirmium. Its name figures conspicuously in the military annals of medieval and recent times; and it is specially memorable for the overthrow of the Turks by the imperial forces in 1689 and for the crushing defeat of the hospodar Michael Sustos by Pasvan Oglu in 1801. It was again the scene of stirring events during the Russo-Turkish Wars of 1854-55 and 1877-78, and successfully resisted the assaults of the Servians in the Servo-Bulgarian War of 1886-87 .
VIDOCQ, FRANCOIS EUGÈNE (1775-1857), French detective, was born at Arras in 1775 (or possibly 1773). After an adventurous youth he joined the French army, where he rose to be lieutenant. At Lille he was imprisoned as the result of a quarrel with a brother officer, and while in gaol became involved, possibly innocently, in the forgery of an order for the release of another prisoner. He was sentenced to eight years' hard labour, and sent to the galleys at Brest, whence he escaped twice but was recaptured. For the third time he succeeded in getting free, and lived for some time in the company of thieves and other criminals in Paris and elsewhere, making a careful study of their methods. He then offered his services as a spy to the Paris police (1809). The offer was accepted, on condition that he should extend his knowledge of the criminal classes by himself serving a further term in prison in Paris, and subsequently Vidocq was made chief of the reorganized detective department of the Paris police, with a body of ex-convicts under his immediate command. In this capacity Vidocq was extremely successful, for he possessed unbounded energy and a real genius for hunting down criminals. In 1827, having saved a considerable sum of money, he retired from his post and started a paper-mill, the work-people in which were drawn entirely from ex-convicts. The venture, however, was a failure, and in 1832 Vidocq re-entered the police service and was employed mainly in political work, though given no special office. Anxious to get back to his old detective post he himself foolishly organized a daring theft. The authorities were unable to trace the thieves, who at the proper moment were “discovered” by Vidocq. His real part in the matter became known, however, and he was dismissed from service. He subsequently started a private inquiry agency, which was indifferently successful, and was finally suppressed. Vidocq died in great poverty in 1857. Several volumes have been published under his name, the best known of which is Mémoires de Vidocq (1828). It is, however, extremely doubtful whether he wrote any of them.
See Charles Ledru, La Vie, la mort et les derniers moments de Vidocq (Paris, 1857).
VIDYASAGAR, ISWAR CHANDRA (1820-1891), writer and social reformer of Bengal, was born at Birsinha in the Midnapur district in 1820, of a Kulin Brahman family. He was removed to Calcutta at the age of nine, was admitted into the Sanskrit College, and carried on his studies in the midst of privations and extreme poverty. In 1839 he obtained the title of Vidyasagar ( = “Ocean of learning”) after passing a brilliant examination, and in 1850 was appointed head pandit of Fort William College. In 1846 appeared his first work in Bengali prose, The Twenty-Five Tales of a Betal. This was succeeded by his Sakuntala in 1855, and by his greatest work, The Exile of Sita, in 1862. These are marked by a grace and beauty which Bengali prose had never known before. The literature of Bengal, previous to the 19th century, was entirely in verse. Ram Mohan Roy, the religious reformer of Bengal, created the literary prose of Bengal early in the 19th century by his numerous translations and religious tracts; and Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar and his fellow-worker, Akhay Kumar Datta, added to its power and beauty about the middle of that century. These three writers are generally recognized as the fathers of Bengali prose literature. As a social reformer and educationist, too, Iswar Chandra made his mark. He associated himself with Drinkwater Bethune in the cause of female education; and the management of the girls' school, called after Bethune, was entrusted to him in 1851. And when Rosomoy Datta resigned the post of secretary to the Sanskrit College of Calcutta, a new post of principal was created, and Iswar Chandra was appointed to it. Iswar Chandra's influence in the education department was now unbounded. He simplified the method of learning Sanskrit, and thus spread a knowledge of that ancient tongue among his countrymen. He was consulted in all educational matters by Sir Frederick Halliday, the first lieutenant-governor of Bengal. And when the great scheme of education under Sir Charles Wood's despatch of 1854 was inaugurated in India, Iswar Chandra established numerous aided schools under that scheme in the most advanced districts of Bengal. In 1858 he resigned his appointment under government, and shortly afterwards became manager of the Metropolitan Institution, a private college at Calcutta. But a greater task than literary work or educational reforms claimed his attention. He had discovered that the ancient Hindu scriptures did not enjoin perpetual widowhood, and in 1855 he startled the Hindu world by his work on the Remarriage of Hindu Widows. Such a work, from a learned and presumably orthodox Brahman, caused the greatest excitement, but Iswar Chandra remained unmoved amidst a storm of indignation. Associating himself with the most influential men of the day, like Prosonno Kumar Tagore and Ram Gopal Ghosh, he appealed to the British government to declare that the sons of remarried Hindu widows should be considered legitimate heirs. The British government responded; the act was passed in 1856, and some years after Iswar Chandra's own son was married to a widow. In the last years of his life Iswar Chandra wrote works against Hindu polygamy. He was as well known for his charity and wide philanthropy as for his educational and social reforms. His large income, derived from the sale of school-books, was devoted almost entirely to the succour of the needy; hundreds of young men owed their education to him; hundreds of widows depended on him for their daily bread. The Indian government made him a Companion of the Indian Empire in 1880. He died on the 29th of July 1891. (R. C. D.)
