in 1859-60; was correspondent of the New York Herald in 1861 and of the New York Tribune (with the Army of the Potomac) in 1862-63, and in 1864 was at the front as the representative of a news agency established by him in that year at Washington. In 1865 he became Washington correspondent of the Chicago Tribune, and in 1866 was the correspondent of that paper in the Prusso-Austrian War. He began to take an interest in railway financiering in 1871, was elected president of the Oregon & California railroad and of the Oregon Steamship Company in 1876, was receiver of the Kansas Pacific railway in 1876-78, organized the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company in 1879, the Oregon Improvement Company in 1880, and the Oregon & Transcontinental Company in 1881, becoming in that year president of the Northern Pacific railway, which was completed under his management, and of which he remained president until 1883. In 1887 he again became connected with the Northern Pacific, and in 1889 was chosen chairman of its finance committee. He was actively identified with the financing of other Western railway projects until 1893. In 1881 he acquired the New York Evening Post and the Nation. In 1883 he paid the debt of the state university of Oregon, and gave to the institution $50,000, and he also gave to the town of Zweibrücken, the home of his boyhood, an orphan asylum (1891). He died on the 12th of November 1900.
See Memoirs of Henry Villard, Journalist and Financier, 1835-1900 (2 vols., Boston, 1904).
VILLA REAL, the capital of the district of Villa Real, Portugal; 10 m. N. of the river Douro and 47 m. by road E.N.E. of Oporto. Pop. (1900) 6716. The town has a large transit trade in wine, mineral waters and live stock, especially pigs. The administrative district of Villa Real corresponds with the western part of the ancient province of Traz os Montes (q.v.). Pop. (1900) 242,196; area, 1650 sq. m. There are alkaline waters and baths at Vidago (near Chaves) and at Pedras Salgadas (near Villa Pouca d'Aguiar). The district adjacent to the Douro is known as the Paiz do vinho, or “wine country”; here are the vineyards from which “port” wine is manufactured.
VILLARET DE JOYEUSE, LOUIS THOMAS (1750–1812), French admiral, was born at Auch, of a noble family of Languedoc. He was originally destined for the church, but served for some time in the royal guard, which he had to leave at the age of sixteen after killing one of his comrades in a duel. He then entered the navy, and in 1773 was lieutenant on the “Atalante” in Indian waters. In 1778 he distinguished himself at the siege of Pondicherry and was promoted captain. He afterwards served under Suffren, took part in the battle of Cuddalore, and in 1781 was taken prisoner after a fierce encounter with an English vessel. He was released in 1783, and, unlike the majority of naval officers, did not emigrate during the Revolution. In 1791 he was in command of the “Prudente” in the waters of San Domingo, and in 1794 was appointed rear-admiral and assisted the Conventional, St André, in the reorganization of the fleet. Villaret was in command of the French fleet at the battle of the First of June. He was appointed a member of the Council of the Ancients in 1796, and was sentenced to deportation in the following year on account of his royalist sympathies. He escaped arrest, however, and until the Consulate lived in obscurity at Oléron. In 1801 he commanded the squadron which transported the French army to San Domingo, and the following year was made captain-general of Martinique, which he surrendered to the English in 1809 after a brave defence. In 1811, after some hesitation on the part of Napoleon, Villaret was rewarded for his services with the command of a military division and the post of governor-general of Venice. He died at Venice.
VILLARI, PASQUALE (1827– ), Italian historian and statesman, was born at Naples on the 3rd of October 1827. He studied together with Luigi la Vista under Francesco de Sanctis. He was implicated in the riots of the 15th of May 1848 at Naples, against the Bourbon government, and had to take refuge in Florence. There he devoted himself to teaching and historical research in the public libraries, and in 1859 he published the first volume of his Storia di Girolamo Savonarola e de' suoi tempi, in consequence of which he was appointed professor of history at Pisa. A second volume appeared in 1861, and the work, which soon came to be recognized as an Italian classic, was translated into various foreign languages. It was followed by a work of even greater critical value, Niccolò Machiavelli e i suoi tempi (1877–82). In the meanwhile Villari had left Pisa and was transferred to the chair of philosophy of history at the Institute of Studii Superiori in Florence, and he was also appointed a member of the council of education (1862). He served as a juror at the international exhibition of that year in London, and contributed an important monograph on education in England and Scotland. In 1869 he was appointed under-secretary of state for education, and shortly afterwards was elected member of parliament, a position which he held for several years. In 1884 he was nominated senator, and in 1891–92 he was minister of education in the Marchese di Rudini's first cabinet. In 1893–94 he collected a number of essays on Florentine history, originally published in the Nuova Antologia, under the title of I primi due secoli della storia di Firenze, and in 1901 he produced Le Invasioni barbariche in Italia, a popular account in one volume of the events following the dissolution of the Roman empire. All these works have been translated into English by the historian's wife, Linda White Villari. Another side of Villari's activity was his interest in the political and social problems of the day; and although never identified with any political party, his speeches and writings have always commanded considerable public attention.
Among his other literary works may be mentioned: Saggi Critici (1868); Arte, Storia, e Filosofia (Florence, 1884); Scritti varii (Bologna, 1894); another volume of Saggi Critici (Bologna, 1896); and a volume of Discussioni critiche e discorsi (Bologna, 1905), containing his speeches as president of the Dante Alighieri Society. His most important political and social essays are collected in his Lettere Meridionali ed altri scritti sulla questione sociale in Italia (Turin, 1885), and Scritti sulla questione sociale in Italia (Florence, 1902). The Lettere Meridionali (originally published in the newspaper L'Opinione in 1875) produced a deep impression, as they were the first exposure of the real conditions of southern Italy. A selection of Villari's essays, translated by his wife, has been published in England (1907).
See also Francesco Baldasseroni, Pasquale Villari (Florence, 1907).
VILLA RICA, the largest city in the interior of Paraguay, on the railway from Asuncion (70 m. N.W.) to Encarnacion. Pop. (1910) about 25,000. Situated in a rich agricultural region watered by the upper Tepicuary, with finely timbered mountains extending to the E. and W., Villa Rica has an important trade in tobacco and yerba maté. It is to a great extent modern, and contains some fine buildings, including a national college, a church, many schools, and a branch of the Agricultural Bank.
VILLARREAL, a town of eastern Spain, in the province of Castellón de la Plana; 4 m. from the Mediterranean Sea, near the right bank of the river Mijares, and on the Barcelona-Valencia railway. Pop. (1900) 16,068. Villarreal has a station on the light railway between Onda and the seaports of Castellón de la Plana and Burriana. Under Moorish rule, and up to the expulsion of the Moriscoes in 1609, it was the headquarters of a flourishing trade, and in modern times its industries have revived. Palm-groves, churches with blue-tiled cupolas, and houses with flat roofs and view-turrets (miradores) to some extent preserve the Moorish character of the town. There are extensive orange-groves, watered by the irrigation canal of Castellón, which is a good example of Moorish engineering skill. The local industries include manufactures of paper, woollen goods and spirits.
VILLARS, CLAUDE LOUIS HECTOR DE, Prince de Martignes, Marqius and Duc de Villars and Vicomte de Melun (1653–1734), marshal of France, one of the greatest generals of French history, was born at Moulins on the 8th of May 1653, and entered the army through the corps of pages in 1671. He
