Part 454 (1/2)
WIGAN (55), a town in Lancas.h.i.+re, 18 m. NW. of Manchester, in the centre of a large coal-field; cottons are the staple manufactures; is a place of ancient date, and has some fine buildings.
WIGHT, ISLE OF, an island in the S. of England, included in Hamps.h.i.+re, from which it is separated by the channel of the SOLENT (q. v.); it is of triangular shape, is 23 m. of utmost length, and about 14 m. of utmost breadth; it is traversed by a range of chalk downs from E. to W.; the soil is fertile, especially in the E.; the scenery rich and varied, and the climate charming; Newport is the capital in the centre; near Cowes is...o...b..rne House, the summer residence of Queen Victoria.
WIGTOWNs.h.i.+RE (36), the most southerly county in Scotland, in the SW.
of which the largest town is Stranraer, and the county town Wigtown; it is an agricultural county, and largely pastoral.
WILBERFORCE, SAMUEL, English prelate, born at Clapham, third son of the succeeding; entered Oriel College, Oxford, at 18, where he distinguished himself by his powers of debate; took holy orders, and rose to eminence in the Church; was made Bishop of Oxford in 1845, and of Winchester in 1869; was a High Churchman of the pure Anglican type, and equally opposed to Romanism and Nonconformity; shone in society by his wit and powers of conversation; Carlyle often ”exchanged pleasant dialogues with him, found him dexterous, stout and clever, far from being a bad man”; ”I do not hate him,” he said to Froude one day, ”near so much as I fear I ought to do”; he found him ”really of a religious nature,”
and secretly in sympathy with himself on religious matters; was killed by a fall from his horse; he was popularly known by the sobriquet of ”Soapy Sam” (1805-1873).
WILBERFORCE, WILLIAM, eminent philanthropist, born at Hull, son of a wealthy merchant; attended St. John's College, Cambridge, at 17; represented his native town in Parliament as soon as he was of age; he was early and deeply impressed with the inhumanity of the slave-trade, and to achieve its abolition became the ruling pa.s.sion of his life; with that object he introduced a bill for its suppression in 1789, but it was not till 1801 he carried the Commons with him, and he had to wait six years longer before the House of Lords supported his measure and the Emanc.i.p.ation Act was pa.s.sed; he retired into private life in 1825, and died three days after the vote of 20 millions to purchase the freedom of the West Indian slaves; he was an eminently religious man of the Evangelical school; wrote ”Practical View of Christianity” (1759-1833).
WILD, JONATHAN, an English villain, who for housebreaking was executed in 1725, and the hero of Fielding's novel of the name; he had been a detective; was hanged amid execration on the part of the mob at his execution.
WILDERNESS, a district covered with brushwood in Virginia, U.S., the scene of a two days' terrible conflict between the Federals and the Confederates on the 5th and 6th May 1864.
WILDFIRE, MADGE, a character in the ”Heart of Midlothian,” who, being seduced, had, in her misery under a sense of her crime, gone crazy.
WILFRID, ST., a Saxon bishop of York, born in Northumbria; brought up at Lindisfarne; had a checkered life of it; is celebrated in legend for his success in converting pagans, and is usually represented in the act; _d_. 709.
WILHELMINA I., queen of the Netherlands, daughter of William III., and who ascended the throne on his decease in November 1890; her mother, a sister of the d.u.c.h.ess of Albany, acted as regent during her minority, and she became of age on the 11th August 1898, when she was installed as sovereign amid the enthusiasm of her people; _b_. 1880.
WILHELMSHAVEN (13), the chief naval port of Germany, on Jahde Bay, 43 m. NW. of Bremen.
WILKES, CHARLES, American naval officer; made explorations in the Southern Ocean in 1861; boarded on the high seas the British mail-steamer _Trent_, and carried off two Confederate commissioners accredited to France, who were afterwards released on the demand of the British Government (1798-1877).
WILKES, JOHN, a notable figure in the English political world of the 18th century, born in Clerkenwell, son of a distiller; was elected M.P.
for Aylesbury in 1761; started a periodical called the _North Briton_, in No. 45 of which he published an offensive libel, which led to his arrest and imprisonment in the Tower, from which he was released--on the ground that the general warrant on which he was apprehended was illegal--amid general rejoicing among the people; he was afterwards prosecuted for an obscene production, an ”Essay on Women,” and outlawed for non-appearance; he sought an asylum in France, and on his return was elected for Middles.e.x, but instead of being allowed to sit was committed to prison; this treatment made him the object of popular favour; he was elected Lord Mayor of London, re-elected for Middles.e.x, and at length allowed to take his seat in the House; he was for years the cause of popular tumults, the watchword of which was ”Wilkes and Liberty”; the cause of civil liberty certainly owes something to him and to the popular agitations which an interest in him stirred up (1727-1797).
WILKIE, SIR DAVID, painter, born at Cults, Fife; executed a great many pictures depicting homely subjects, which were very popular, and are generally well known by the engravings of them, such as the ”Rent Day,”
”The Penny Wedding,” ”Reading the Will,” &c., which were followed by others in a more ambitious style, and less appreciated, as well as portraits (1785-1841).
WILKINS, JOHN, bishop of Chester, born in Northamptons.h.i.+re; married Oliver Cromwell's sister; wrote mathematical treatises, a curious one in particular, ”Discovery of a New World,” and was one of the founders of the Royal Society (1614-1672).