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Rh WALKER, WILLIAM (1824-1860), American adventurer, was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on the 8th of May 1824. After graduating from the university of Nashville in 1838, he studied law, was admitted to the bar, and subsequently spent a year in the study of medicine at Edinburgh and Heidelberg. He practised medicine for a few months in Philadelphia and then removed to New Orleans, where he engaged in journalism. In 1850 he migrated to California and engaged in newspaper work at San Francisco and later at Marysville, where he also practised law. On the 15th of October 1853 he sailed from San Francisco with a filibustering force for the conquest of Mexican territory. He landed in Lower California, and on the 18th of January 1854 he proclaimed this and the neighbouring State of Sonora an independent republic. Starvation and Mexican attacks led to the abandonment of this enterprise, and Walker resumed his journalistic work in California. On the 4th of May 1855, with fifty-six followers, Walker again sailed from San Francisco, this time for Nicaragua, where he had been invited by one of the belligerent factions to come to its aid. In October Walker seized a steamer on Lake Nicaragua belonging to the Accessory Transit Company, a corporation of Americans engaged in transporting freight and passengers across the isthmus, and was thus enabled to surprise and capture Granada, the capital and the stronghold of his opponents, and to make himself master of Nicaragua. Peace was then made; Patricio Rivas, who had been neutral, was made provisional president, and Walker secured the real power as commander of the troops. At this time two officials of the Transit Company determined to use Walker as their tool to get control of that corporation, then dominated by Cornelius Vanderbilt, and they advanced him funds and transported his recruits from the United States free of charge. In return for these favours, Walker seized the property of the company, on the pretext of a violation of its charter, and turned over its equipment to the men who had befriended him. On the 20th of May 1856 the new government was formally recognized at Washington by President Pierce, and on the 3rd of June the Democratic national convention expressed its sympathy with the efforts being made to “regenerate” Nicaragua. In June Walker was chosen president of Nicaragua, and on the 22nd of September, from alleged economic necessity, and also to gain the sympathy and support of the slave states in America, he repealed the laws prohibiting slavery.

Walker managed to maintain himself against a coalition of Central American states, led by Costa Rica, which was aided and abetted by agents of Cornelius Vanderbilt, until the 1st of May 1857, when, to avoid capture by the natives, he surrendered to Commander Charles Henry Davis, of the United States navy, and returned to the United States. In November 1857 he sailed from Mobile with another expedition, but soon after landing at Punta Arenas he was arrested by Commodore Hiram Paulding of the American navy, and was compelled to return to the United States as a paroled prisoner. On his arrival he was released by order of President Buchanan. After several unsuccessful attempts to return to Central America, Walker finally sailed from Mobile in August 1860 and landed in Honduras. Here he was taken prisoner by Captain Salmon, of the British navy, and was surrendered to the Honduran authorities, by whom he was tried and condemned to be shot. He was executed on the 12th of September 1860.

See Walker's own narrative, accurate as to details, The War in Nicaragua (Mobile, 1860); William V. Wells, Walker's Expedition to Nicaragua (New York, 1856); Charles William Doubleday, Reminiscences of the “Filibuster” War in Nicaragua (New York, 1886), and James Jeffrey Roche, The Story of the Filibusters (London, 1891), revised and reprinted as Byways of War (Boston, 1901).

 WALKING RACES, a form of athletic sports, either on road or track. Road walking is the older form of the sport. The records for the chief walking distances were as follows in 1910:—

The record distance walked in 1 hour was 8 m. 339 yds. by the English amateur G. E. Larner in 1905; in 8 hours, 50 m. 1190 yds. by another English amateur, J. Butler, in 1905; in 24 hours, 131 m. 580¾ yds. by T. E. Hammond in 1908.

About the year 1875 there was a revival of interest in professional walking, which took the form of “go-as-you-please” competitions, extending over several days, usually six. These may be classed as walking contests, for, although running was allowed, it was seldom practised, excepting for a few moments at a time, for the purpose of relief from cramped muscles. The great difficulty in competitive walking is to keep within the rules. A “fair gait” is one in which one foot touches the ground before the other leaves it, only one leg being bent in stepping, namely, that which is being put forward.  WALL, RICHARD (1694-1778), diplomatist and minister in the Spanish service, belonged to a family settled in Waterford. As he was a Roman Catholic he was debarred from public service at home, and like many of his countrymen he sought his fortune in Spain. He served, probably as a soldier in one of the Irish regiments of the Spanish army, during the expedition to Sicily in 1718, and was present at the sea fight off Cape Passaro. During the following years he continued to be employed as an officer, but in 1727 he was appointed secretary to the duke of Liria, son of the duke of Berwick, and Spanish ambassador at St Petersburg. Wall's knowledge of languages, his adaptability, his quick Irish wit and ready self-confidence made him a great favourite, not only with the duke of Liria, but with other Spanish authorities. Spain was at that time much dependent on the ability of foreigners, and for a man of Wall's parts and character there were ample openings for an important and interesting career. The climate of St Petersburg seems to have been too much for him, and he soon returned to military service in Italy. It is said that when he was presented to the duke of Montemar, the Spanish general, and was asked who he was, he replied, “The most important person in the army after your excellency, for you are the head of the serpent, and I am the tail.” He became known to Don José Patiño, the most capable minister of King Philip V., and was sent by him on a mission to Spanish America—a very rare proof of confidence towards a man of foreign origin. He is also said to have laid a plan for retaking Jamaica from the English. In 1747 he was employed in the negotiations for the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, and in 1748 was named minister in London. In England he made himself very popular. Though an exile through the operation of the Penal Laws, and though be proved loyal to his adopted country, he was a constant partisan of an English alliance. His views recommended him to the favour of King Ferdinand VI. (1746-1759), whose policy was resolutely peaceful. In 1752 Wall was recalled from London to assist in completing a treaty of commerce with England, which was then being negotiated in Madrid. Wall now became the candidate of the English party in the Spanish court for the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs, in opposition to the leader of the French party, the marquis de la Ensenada. He obtained the place in 1752, and in 1754 he had a large share in driving Ensenada from office. He retained his position till 1764. The despatches of the English minister, Sir Benjamin Keene, and of his 