Page:A biographical dictionary of modern rationalists.djvu/478

 WESTON

WHEELER

Trinity College. In 1854 he was called to the Bar (Lincoln s Inn), and he became a Queen s Counsel in 1874. It is, however, as a teacher and writer that Professor Westlake reached his very high position in the legal world. From 1888 to 1908 he was professor of international law at Cambridge, and his Treatise on Private International Law (1898) and International Law (2 vols., 1904-1907) made him one of the highest authorities on the subject in Europe. From 1900 to 1906 he was one of the members for the United Kingdom of the International Court of Arbitration set up by the Hague Conference, and he was Honorary President of the Institute of International Law. Edinburgh, Oxford, and Brussels Universities conferred honorary degrees on him ; and he was a member of the Brussels Academie Eoyale, and had the Italian Order of the Iron Crown and the Japanese Order of the Eising Sun. There is no biography, and he never wrote on religion ; but a series of chapters on him by legal colleagues (Memories of John Westlake, 1914) contain one or two slight references to his Rationalism. He was an intimate friend of Colenso, and had &quot; no higher opinion than the Bishop of the historical character of the Pentateuch &quot; (he says). Colenso for a time kept him in a state of very liberal Church-of-Englandism, but he is quoted as saying: &quot;I at that time desired to see a wider comprehension in the Church of England than I now believe to be possible in any religious com munion, established or voluntary&quot; (p. 11). The writer adds that he had &quot; a reverent faith in reason.&quot; Westlake was always severe and &quot;reverent,&quot; but he took a keen interest in the work of the London Sunday Lecture Society at a time when its lectures were often drastically Rationalistic, and was in entire agreement with Mr. Domville, who inspired the Society (personal know ledge). D. Apr. 14, 1913.

WESTON, Samuel Burns, A.B., Ameri can editor and publisher. B. Mar. 10, 1855. Ed. Antioch College (Ohio) and

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Harvard, Berlin, Leipzig, and Geneva Universities. Mr. Weston became a minister in the Unitarian body, and from 1879 to 1881 he served at Leicester (Mass.). He abandoned the Church, and took a course of political science at Columbia University (1883-85). From 1885 to 1890 he lectured for the Philadelphia Society for Ethical Culture. From 1888 to 1890 he published and edited the Ethical Record (the organ of the American Ethical Move ment), and from 1890 to 1914 the Inter national Journal of Ethics. Since 1897 he has been Director of the Philadelphia Society for Ethical Culture.

WETTSTEIN, Otto, German-American writer. B. Apr. 7, 1838. In 1848 the father emigrated from Prussia to America, and two years later Wettstein was sent to- Chicago to learn the jewellery business. In 1858 he set up a business of his own at Rochelle, where he prospered. A great reader in his leisure, Wettstein became a. Rationalist, and took a very active part in propagating his new creed. He was treasurer of the American Secular Union, and contributed frequently to the Free thinkers Magazine, the Ironclad Age, and other Rationalist periodicals.

WHALE, George, solicitor and writer. B. Nov. 25, 1849. Ed. Huntingdon and Woolwich. He became a solicitor in 1872, and has held various professional and Local Government appointments. Mr. Whale was Mayor of Woolwich in 1908- 1909, and is Chairman of the Woolwich Polytechnic. He was one of the founders- of the Omar Khayyam and Pepys Clubs ; and he has written Greater London and its Government (1888) and Essays in Johnson s Club Papers (1897). Mr. Whale is a life- member and a Director of the Rationalist Press Association.

WHEELER, Joseph Mazzini, writer, B. Jan. 24, 1850. Wheeler was the Secu larist author 9f a small Biographical Dic tionary of Freethinkers (1889), which has 884